MISTUBOSHI Outdoors is an outdoor brand developed by a long-established cutlery company founded in 1873. Based in Seki City, Gifu Prefecture, which is known as a famous town for the making of cutlery, released a semi-custom knife the “Northern Land” in 2021. And this time, they have announced the second new knife via “Makuake”. It is a high-end model that shines with a different style to the previous release.

A high end bushcraft knife.

Northern Land Rocky ￥25245 (*)

Like the previous work “Northern Land”, Koji Hara, a world-famous knife maker, designed it. Of course, it is a high-quality knife, and the blade is made of a tough stainless steel “VG10” used for high-end cutlery, with excellent durability and cutting ability.

*Price is the Makuake early bird price. The earlier you support and buy, the cheaper it is.

The blade is 2cm shorter than its predecessor, making it easier to handle. And the grind is a convex (clam blade) that achieves both sharpness and durability. Surprisingly, Mr. Tadao Terada, a famous custom knife builder from Seki City, manually sharpens and polishes each knife himself.

The handle design features a wave shape reminiscent of the North American Rocky Mountains which is the origin of the name.

The material used is American-born “Richlight”, which is a water-resistant and durable material used for guitar fingerboards such as Gibson’s Les Paul and custom, skateboards and BMX lamps. This is the first time that it has been used for knives.

Two colors are available: Natural and Black Diamond.

Northern Land’s two-step grip is alive and well.

The two-step grip, which became a hot topic of conversation with their previous work the Northern Land, is still alive and well. User-friendliness is improved by changing the gripping position depending on the application. If you want to put a lot of force on the knife, such as when batoning, the way you hold it as shown in the left side photo is most effective.

A semi-custom knife that can be said to be quite reasonable priced considering the materials, structure, and people involved. They are currently accepting purchases via crowdfunding via the site “Makuake”.

MITSUBOSHI Outdoors　mitsuboshi-cutlery.com/mitsuboshi_outdoors/