FOX Saturn folding knive: the 2021 Knife of the Year!
Italian knife-makers score big at the first Blade Show held after the COVID-19 pandemic: the FOX Saturn prototype wins the coveted Blade Awards as the Overall Knife of the Year and Imported Knife of the year!
The prototype FOX Saturn folding knife hits the jackpot at the 2021 Blade Show, winning the Blade Award as both the Overall Knife of the Year and Imported Knife of the Year
The return of the Blade Show in Atlanta in early June 2021 after a one-year hiatus caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic brought good fortune to Italy's biggest and most famous knife-makers: not only did the Maserin Cutleries win the Blade Awards as the Best Collaboration of the Year and as the Most Innovative Imported Design with the Solar and D-DUT knives respectively, but FOX Knives ended the day at the top step of the podium, with their new Fox Saturn prototype being awarded as both the Overall Knife of the Year and Imported Knife of the Year.
Designed for FOX Knives by Denis Simonutti, the FOX Saturn prototype is a short-bladed folding knife featuring a 6,5 cm / 2.55" flat-grind, spear-type knife available in three versions: a Be.Di.Ma damascus steel blade manufactured out of an alloy composed of three layers of C70 HRC 58 steel and two layers of copper; a satin-finished 59-61 HRC M390 version; and a black PVD version manufactured out of the same M390 59-61 HRC steel.
The grip, belt clip, screws and other small parts on the FOX Saturn are instead manufactured out of titanium, with different versions and outer finish obtained through physical vapour deposition (PVD) depending from the variant of the knife.
The blade on the FOX Saturn folds down with the same system used by Simonutti's own FOX Radius folding knife: a proprietary semi-circle lock based on a sliding stud that runs through a channel in the knife's pivot and can be pushed inwards to lock the knife in position. The design had already won the Blade Award as the Overall Knife of the Year in 2019.
The 2021 edition of the Blade Award is the third in a row where FOX Knives won both the Overall Knife and Best Knife of the Year awards: in 2018, the FOX Suru design created for the Italian company by Jesper Voxnæs had brought home both titles once again.
The FOX Saturn is 10,3 cm / 4.05" long overall when folded and 16,8 cm / 10.62" long when open, and can be easily and quickly disassembled to convert it from left-hand to right-hand opening for both left-handed and right-handed users.
The FOX Knives company wishes to stress out that the models shown at the 2021 Blade Show are just prototypes. Manufacturing and distribution should start in late Fall 2021 – just in time for Christmas – and it's not yet known whether or not the production models will be exactly as the ones showcased in Atlanta or if any change will be made, and whether all versions will be launched at the same time or if the distribution of different variants will be spread out over time.
This said, we can't help but shout out a loud "Bravo!" to FOX Knives in particular and to the Italian knife-making industry in general for achieving the best possible results at the world's most important trade show of the year. Regardless of what version will be ultimately be made available to the general public and what kind of changes will be made to the prototypes, the FOX Saturn folding pocket knife is undoubtedly an extremely fascinating, captivating, elegant, and practical design: will it become one of the most sought-after presents for the 2021 holiday season?