TOPS dropped a new version of an enduring self-defense knife, the Back Bite. The new Serrated Back Bite sees the originally design’s dual edges enhanced with a full set of serrations.
Not only does TOPS have a hefty catalog, but many of their models have been in the line for years, in one form or another – and that’s the case for the Back Bite. Its vintage runs all the way back to 2010, in fact, when TOPS teamed up with martial arts expert Colin Despins for the piece; and even 16 years on, nothing else on the market really looks like the Back Bite. What to call this blade shape? A super-modified, dagger-ground chisel-tanto? At any rate, the unclassifiability of the Back Bite did not stop it from becoming a long-running TOPS favorite for anybody on the hunt for an explicitly martial, self-defense fixed blade.
The serrations make perfect sense for a design intended to grab, rip, and tear. The Back Bite brings about 4 total inches of live edge: 3 inches for the primary on the top, and an additional 1 inch on the heavily recurved bottom. The steel is TOPS’s long-term partner, 1095 carbon, which will be resilient to permanent damage and easier to repair than some of the stainless stuff out there. We often say that a tactical/self-defense knife can be flexed into a daily chore knife too, and while that’s certainly technically possible with the Back Bite, this is clearly a self-defense tool first and foremost.
Ergonomically the Back Bite is much less flamboyant, with a readable handle that will facilitate the several grips that are relevant to a martial knife like this. The scales on the serrated Back Bite, as on its plain edge predecessor, are made from a composite – G-10 in this case, compared to Micarta on the original. A simple but functional Kydex pancake sheath is included for carrying this bad boy, and the weight of the Serrated Back Bite is listed as 5.7 oz.
It is available now.
Knife in Featured Image: TOPS Knives Serrated Back Bite
Read the full article here