After four years of development Grayman Knives’ third folder, the Tiga, is ready for release. “We wanted to take our time and get it just right,” says Mike Grayman, Founder of Grayman Knives. The company targeted large and small classes with the Satu and Dua respectively, and the Tiga hits a mid-size sweet spot with its 3.125 CTS-XHP blade.

The Satu had a recurve and the Dua a significant stretch of flat edge, but the Tiga’s drop point blade is a continuous, curving shape. “[It] has an extended belly to enhance its performance for certain primitive skills tasks,” Grayman explains. “The Tiga also has a working choil for finer tasks, as well as being flat at the top of the tip so the owner can place their index finger near it for tasks like scoring and caping.”

Grayman takes pride in its reputation for work-ready tools and previous releases had simple slab-style scales to fit that identity. But the Tiga comes with 3D-contoured, textured scales that undulate in a bamboo tree-like pattern. However, Grayman notes that his company isn’t transitioning into making eye candy, and the upgraded handles make a real-world performance difference. “It stands out in that it has a 3D contoured, sculpted titanium grip, giving it greater comfort when in use. The target customer for the Tiga, like all of our knives, is the Military and First Responder.”

The eye-catching yet functional scales may change in future iterations. Grayman has produced G-10 models of its previous folders, and other versions of the Tiga may follow some day. “It’s very likely that there will be some variations on the Tiga eventually, but that will be quite a bit further in the future, if at all.”

As a proudly small-scale US shop, Grayman Knives expects to have its hands full keeping up with demand for the Tiga as well as its other models. “We’ll be re-introducing some of our popular fixed blades that we took off of the website in the last few months,” Grayman tells us but it’s likely there will be no more new releases for 2018.

As for the general direction of the company, he says that Grayman will continue to focus on high-end knives even as others continue to diversify into budget-friendly offerings. “We want to keep our focus on quality, made in USA knives, with lots of work by hand. I always want to keep that connection with the end-user.”

Knife featured in image: Grayman Knives Tiga