Boos Blades Mini Smoke Review
Spec beasts are always hard for reviewers to ignore. There is something tantalizing about looking at a sheet of numbers and imagining what they are like in reality. It is part of why baseball fans love statstics. “How is it possible Barry Bonds had an OBP of .609?” And when you see the data on something like the micarta Ultralight Al Mars it sort of blows your mind. Spec beasts are rare gems, so the reviewer thinks, that push the envelop of what is possible. And often they do. When the Surefire Titan Plus dropped it was at least 150 lumens brigther than any other 1xAAA light. That was 200% brighter than its next closest competitor. When the Muyshondt Aeon came out it ran so much longer than other lights that the runtimes seemed like science fiction. LC 200N and its hardness and corrosion resistance claims verged on Bigfoot territory. No matter how jaded you get as a reviewer, spec beasts still get you excited. And the Mini Smoke from Boos Blades is one hell of a spec beast.
I am going to break with tradition and format and do ratios now because they are crazy.
B:H: .84
B:W: 1.88
The B:W is not a record, but still excellent. The record, 2.96, still resides with the Al Mar Ultralight Hawk. The B:H is a record (tied with the Hawk). Will Boos has absolutely smoked (get it) the design, tying the record that so far as I know has been held by the Hawk since its release, which is like 30 years. But like with Bonds’s .609 OBP, the number here really means something. This knife carries about the same as a Dragonfly in terms of its overall footprint (a bit longer but much less tall) but has a cutting edge length longer than the Paramilitary 2 (while the PM2 blade is 3.4 inches long the cutting edge is only 3.08 inches). Think about how amazing that is. This is one instance in which the performance ratios doing a very good job at signalling an elite design. The Boos Mini Smoke, as the number hint at, is an amazing knife. Let’s get to the review.
Here is the product page. There are two variants, one with a black stonewash and the other with a blasted stonewash. My knife is a black stonewash version. Here is a video review of the Mini Smoke prototype. There is no written review. Here is my review sample (purchased for me as a Christmas present and thus mine to keep):
Twitter Review Summary: Something extraordinary.
Design: 2
Everything about the Mini Smoke is focused on getting the knife as light as possible. The handle has a cut out, which, given the size of the knife, is pretty incredible. The blade is thin. And it has a cut out too. Over and over again, aspects of the Mini Smoke are designed to lighten its frame. But there is another interesting design choice here—the Mini Smoke is a very slim knife. While the trend in the knife world has been to go as tall as possible (see for example the Cold Steel Colossus), this knife returns the dimensions of yesteryear, when knives were really pocket knives. In many ways the silhouette of the Mini Smoke looks like the profile of a traditional knife. Originally we were told that tall knives would have better slicing power because thick stock could be reduced to a thin edge over a longer distance, but something happened—most companies didn’t bother to thin out the edge. The result is tall slabby blades that cut like bricks and trade paperbacks (::ahem::Reate::ahem). Boos rethought that approach and just used thin stock to start with and tapered to the edge over a comparatively short distance. The result is a knife with an extraordinarily compact feel. I still want to capture the volume of a knife with a number and if I could, this would be, by far, one of the smallest knives I have reviewed. But thanks to some brilliant design tricks, it handles like a full sized knife.
With a relentless focus on making the knife lighter and more compact, Boos has made something very very unusual in today’s knife market—a knife that cuts like a knife twice its size. If you are like me and are interested in designs that seemingly give you something for nothing, then this is a knife you should examine. I said it before, but it bears repeating—this knife carries as well or better than Dragonfly but has more cutting edge than a Paramilitary 2. The reason this feat is possible is because of an incredible design that rethinks many of the trends in modern knife design.
Fit and Finish: 2
A floating backspacer doesn’t lie. When a knife is as a small as this the margin for error is incredibly small. Fortunately for us, nothing about the Mini Smoke is off line, mismatched, or erroneously machined. The blade is centered, the edges are chamfered on the handle, even the sculpted clip is well-produced. This is a small blade with impeccable fit and finish.
Grip: 2
Small blades usually suck in the grip department. Your fingers feel like their in a crowd on Black Friday—jumbled and squashed. But here, thanks to a surprisingly thick handle, the Mini Smoke does quite well in the hand. Its not as great on this front as the Dragonfly is, but then again no small knife can match the insanely awesome in-hand feel of Spyderco’s best blade. The blade’s handle is almost a perfect square—it is as thick as it is tall and that makes for a great grip. The size and position of the clip also helps as it gives your fingers a place to rest when deploying the knife.
Carry: 2
No folder I have used carries better than the Mini Smoke. If you want a knife that carries so well you never feel tempted to leave it behind, this is it. At well less than two ounces and with a super slim profile, the Mini Smoke plays nice in main pockets, sleeps cozy in a coin pocket, and even does well in the breast pocket of a button down. The clip is springy enough to hang on jeans. Over and over again, I have been delighted to slide the Mini Smoke into my pocket and go. That is perhaps why it has received so much pocket time since I received it as a gift. Between this and the TRM Nerd, nothing else has been in my pocket this decade. Now the decade is only about 30 days old, but you get the point. This is a sublime carry and the better the carry the more often you will walk out the door prepared for the world by having a pocket knife on you.
Steel: 2
20CV is my jam. In the M390 family, 20CV is one of Crucibles better all around steels. Its absolutely great—it holds an edge for months, it sharpens with surprising ease, and it is as corrosion resistant as a normal person will ever need. If you are knife designer and want a good steel you don’t have to worry about, build around 20CV.
Blade Shape: 2
This is a very long clip point blade and the result is a knife that slices with aplomb and could pierce if need be. It has been regularly used since I got it and I am a bit smitten with the blade. The blade shape also happens to match the angular aesthetic of the knife, giving it an aggressive, accelerated look.
Grind: 2
The stock isn’t thick to start out with and here, Boos had it ground thin (yay!), which is awesome. I am slowly coming to believe what seems to be TRM’s mantra—folding knives are for slicing. This is a remarkably thin, remarkably slicey blade for its size. It opens packages with almost telekinetic ease and it passes through food quite well. There is a reason your paring knife in the kitchen is this size and carries a slim blade.
Deployment: 2
Oh man, this, like the carry, is an aspect of design that the Mini Smoke really excels. There is a certain PING, not dissimilar from the PING I have experienced when handling some RJ Martin customs, that accompanies the opening of this knife, giving it a visceral feel and auditory feedback. The flipper tab itself is perfect for a front flipper. It protrudes ever so slightly, but is almost impossible to miss. That balance between what Nick calls a pocket pecker and the terrible may-as-well-not-be-there designs is difficult to achieve, but Boos does it here.
Retention: 1
The clip holds the knife, has decent spring tension, and gives you a platform for fingertips during the deployment of the knife. But its still a boxy 3D titanium clip. If there is one issue with the Mini Smoke this is it. Its not a big deal. I still love the knife, but I am D-O-N-E with sculpted clips. A simple stamped clip may not inspire the IG portion of the IKC, but it would be less boxy in the hand and more effective in the pocket and that’s what makes you carry, use, and keep a knife. If you buy knives to take pictures of eventually you will have enough pictures and no reason to keep the knife because it stinks when being used or carried.
Other Considerations
Fidget Factor: Very High
With a fast and responsive flipper and that addictive PING, this is the epitome of a fidget friendly knife.
Fett Effect: Very High
The stonewashed version that I have has a blade that resists marking, but the handle has already gathered a degree of patina, smoothing out a bit in the month I have carried the knife.
Value: High
I don’t want to call a $220 knife a good value, but there is nothing that matches the specs and the materials here. Imagine a flipping Al Mar Hawk with 20CV steel. That’s basically what this is and that’s why its a high value.
Overall Score: 19 out of 20
The Mini Smoke is pretty extraordinary. In a market clogged with fat, wide knives and an overabundance of traditional flippers, the Mini Smoke stands out. I really like this knife. I really like carrying this knife. And while the clip is meh, its part of such a good package that its drawbacks are easy to ignore.
Competition
If there were a front flipping, ultralight Boker Mini Kwaiken with good steel it would be a competitor. If the Hawk had better steel and a flipper, it would be close. I think the high end versions of the AG Russel K12 is close in terms of spec beastiness, but it still lacks the steel and the flipper. And thus competition comes down to the other Smoke, the full sized version, but I like this flipper much, much better. The CRKT Executive is similarly slim but has significantly worse materials. In the end, this is a really great knife because there aren’t a lot of knives like it. I really enjoy the Mini Smoke.
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