Snarf: The Utility Knife Reinvented for Knife Nuts

Hey everyone, thanks so much for helping us hit our stretch goals, giving feedback for what new Snarfs you wanted to see, and for being patient while we worked to get them on the site!

You can now officially add or swap to these new Snarfs:
Miamiburst Aluminum
Noirburst Aluminum
Purplewashed Titanium

And if you've already backed the project at the early bird price, you should see some backer-exclusive info on this post regarding how to make that swap. If you don't see it, make sure you're logged in!

We've also added a totally new option: The Mystery Snarf. We're not announcing any other details on this one other than it's a great price on a premium Snarf. Think of it as a trust fall, but with knives. 🤘😜 

As always, thank you all so much for making Snarf happen! Let us know if you hit any snags swapping or adding items!

-Michael and Melody, AKT

November has flown by at Warp 9 and my head is spinning trying to keep up!

There's too much to update you on in a single update, so we're sending you this meta update to tell you the things we're going to be updating you on in the days ahead!

For now, here's the thumbnail sketch in no particular order:

Project Progress Report
We've blown past all our stretch goals and are now the most-backed (and second-most-funded) knife project of all time on BackerKit! More on why we chose BackerKit instead of Kickstarter for this project later. 

ColorWay Polls/New Items Unlocked
Because we hit all our stretch goals, we're going to add anodized titanium accents, timascus accents, and three new colorways: Noirburst, Miamiburst, and Purplewash. You'll be able to update your order and add/swap out whatever you like! We'll send another update when the items are added and give the full results of the colorway polls.

Aluminum Snarf Scratch Test Results
I went live on 11/18 to scratch up several aluminum and titanium knives in my collection to see how the finish on the aluminum Snarf compares. I used a coin, key, and T6 Wiha bit to scratch the surfaces on several knives taped to a scale to ensure the same amount of pressure was used on each item. I'll send more thoughts on this later, but if you don't want to watch the 1 hour live or the 20 minute summary I'll just say I think the aluminum finish performed as well as I'd expect any knife to perform. It's not unscratchable, but it definitely takes an effort to make a mark. More on that later. 

Upcoming Whatnot Show/Spooky Truffles Drawing
We're going to pull the winners live on a Whatnot show coming soon, plus we have a few Spooky Truffles and Colin's Crazy Customs Truffles we'll auction off. Only the backers that backed during the opening weekend will be eligible to win (and won't have to be present to win), but everyone who watches the Whatnot show can take a stab at getting a super unique knife! More on that later!

Knife Reviews Incoming
I cut my teeth in the knife review world watching baddies like Melissa Backwoods, Everyday City Carry, Tristate EDC, Metal Complex, Neeves Knives, LeftyEDC, and the like, so I'm stoked that the first three in this list have already reviewed Snarf and reviews from the rest of the list (and more) are coming soon! More on that later!

Final Stretch Goals...Only Nine Days Left!
This campaign will be over before we know it, but we're all out of ideas for stretch goals since you've blown away every expectation we had! So if you want to throw in some ideas for how you'd like to see us wrap this campaign up in style, we're all ears! 

What else am I missing?
There's probably things I've missed that you want to be updated on, so let me know if you have any questions or things we can clarify!

I'll never get tired of telling you folks thanks for making Snarf happen, so I hope you never tire of hearing it! Thanks again for making another AKT dream come true!

Hey everyone - I’m going to be doing some scratch tests on our aluminum finish to compare and contrast against other knives I own. It’ll be on live YouTube today at 5:30pm CST (30 minutes from this post), so if you’re not following me there go ahead and subscribe so you’ll be notified when I go live! 

-Michael

Hey everyone - we've gotten some info from our OEM on the aluminum Snarfs that we wanted to be sure everyone was aware of. After carrying the Sunburst and Moonburst Snarfs around, we started to notice we were losing some of the anodization, especially along the high contact areas like the spine...
...and near the edge of the butt of a handle


This is our first knife in aluminum to offer, so we reached out to Laura, our contact at Scikio to try to better understand the aluminum anodization process.

It turns out that when you're anodizing a solid color on aluminum, you're able to create a more resilient finish, but to be able to achieve one color fading into another you're not able to get as resilient of a finish. So the tradeoff for the wicked cool colorways we're doing is that they will show more wear over time as compared to a solid anodized finish.

The sunburst finish is off to see some reviewers, so we've asked them to do some scratch tests to see what it takes to remove the finish. We're also in talks with Laura to see if there are any additional finishes or processes we can do to increase the resiliency, but for now I think it's best to assume the finish will wear more quickly than a standard single color aluminum finish.

If you'd prefer to switch your order to a G10 option or to a titanium option you certainly can, or if you're comfortable knowing your aluminum Snarf will pick up a unique wear pattern early on then that's fine too. And of course if you'd rather not back the project due to this issue we totally understand. We just want to make sure folks get better from AKT than they expect, not worse!

Speaking of better than we expected, we're happy to announce that we are going to be able to serialize Snarf! So each Snarf will have a serial number on the blade in a place that can only be seen when half-open and hidden when open or closed. Serial numbers will be awarded based on how early a backer pledged but will not necessarily correspond to their order number. This is because invariably some knives don't pass QC, but it does mean your serial number will likely be lower than your order number.

Let us know if you've got any questions or concerns about the serializing process or the anodizing issue. We're continuing behind the scenes to make sure you get the best Snarf possible!

-Michael and Melody, AKT

G'mornin' everyone - we had a request to see the new colorways closer up since the poll photos are so tiny. Keep in mind these were edited by yours truly (and now that they're bigger it's even more obvious! 🤘😅) so these would not be the exact colors, but hopefully pretty close. The polls end at midnight CST tonight, so get your votes in before too late!

-Michael, AKT