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Snarf: The Utility Knife Reinvented for Knife Nuts

Created by Aurora Knife and Tool

Most utility knives look like a tool you'd borrow, not a knife you’d be proud to carry. That's why with Snarf, we reinvented the classic utility knife with the knife nut in mind.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Super Snarf News!
3 months ago – Sun, Aug 09, 2026 at 09:58:26 PM


=THE SKINNY=
Today when I pulled up to my house after church I was blown away to see 21 boxes of Snarfs on my porch! This means we're able to start prepping them to ship out to you! This includes QCing each knife, labeling and marking the serial numbers on the boxes, then sorting all our orders and assigning serial numbers according to the order in which our backers purchased the knife. It's a time-intensive process and for the moment it's just me working on the knives (more on that below), but this is great news and brings us much closer to getting Snarf into your hands!

I've not had a chance yet to do inventory on what all has arrived vs. what else we're waiting on, but I know for sure we're still waiting on the Mystery Snarf and all the utility blades. After talking with Laura at Scikio it sounds like the blades will start arriving in batches next week, so I'm hoping by the time we have all the knives QC'd, labeled, and organized by serial number we'll have enough utility blades to actually start sending out knives! I'm still waiting on an ETA for the Mystery Snarf, but I'll give an update as soon as I have that.

So this is a great step forward and means the finish line is in sight, so thank you so much for your patience and support!

=THE DEETS= 
This past week has been absolutely brutal, starting with Melody becoming severely ill last Sunday night. You may remember that I made the decision to go full-time with AKT last October after Melody was diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome. That diagnosis told us that the significant setbacks we had been experiencing with Melody's health was not just a phase but the new normal. So going full-time with AKT would mean I could work from home as she does and be there to provide her better support.

The months since then have been ups and downs, and she's experienced some really great weeks when her new meds have been dialed in. Unfortunately this last week was a significant down week, with Melody losing complete mobility. Occasionally her condition will affect her hearing, but this time when she lost hearing in her left ear she developed severe vertigo-like symptoms. This of course meant she needed constant monitoring and care. After a week of this, she's starting to recover enough to be able to walk by herself, but I mention all of this to say that I'm hesitant to project too much on our Snarf shipping schedule because I don't know how her recovery will affect my schedule, not to mention that she's always a big part of shipping prep. 

I also just want to give another shoutout to you fine folks for making all this happen (my availability, not Melody's illness! 🤘😅). Your support has allowed me to go full-time which means I didn't have to take off a week from my previous job to care for Melody, and it means I'm able to work odd hours when she's been stable. So thank you all for being a part of making this dream come true and giving me the opportunity to serve my family! 

-Michael

PS - now that we have Snarf in house, expect more frequent updates since now the ball is in our court. It's always difficult to give progress reports during the production phase because we don't have a lot of photos or direct personal experience of how things are progressing, but now that everything is hands-on on our end, keep an eye out for more news coming at ya!

Snarf Production, Shipping, and T8 Update
3 months ago – Tue, Jul 21, 2026 at 12:02:24 PM

Hey everyone, we've got some great news on the production front!

We just got word that all Snarf variants except for the Mystery Snarf and Miamiburst have started moving from the manufacturing stage at DreamTech to the inspection/quality control stage with Scikio. That means Scikio is only a few days away from beginning to ship Snarfs to us!

Typically shipments take 1-2 weeks, which means we're still on track to start receiving Snarfs in late July/early August. We should be able to ship them out pretty quickly when they arrive to us, so be on the lookout for shipping notifications starting as early as mid-August!

On the T8 front, we've got especially great news! Dream Tech was able to source the T8 screws much faster than originally estimated, so we're not going to have to delay shipping for those who wanted to wait for the T8 screws!

I'm waiting for an updated timeline for the Mystery Snarf and Miamiburst Snarf, so as soon as I have that I'll give another update. 

As always, thank you all so much for being a part of brining Snarf to life! This is our largest project to date and we appreciate you making it happen!

-Michael

T8 Screws, Ho! (So you'll need to complete the survey if you haven't)
5 months ago – Wed, Jun 17, 2026 at 03:45:10 PM

Hey everyone thank you so much for your feedback on the recent T6/T8 survey! So far about half of our backers have filled out the survey which is just a tremendous response, so we really feel like we've heard loud and clear from you! Here are the results of the survey:



If you combine the information it tells us that 71% of you want to get the T6 version ASAP and almost half of that group plan to later order the T8 screws and pay the shipping. You could also combine the information to say that 60% of our backers want the T8 screws one way or another. That gives us ample justification to go ahead with the production of the screws.

We plan to use the results of the survey to help us organize the Snarf shipments, so if you have not filled out the survey or if you want to change your selection here is the link to the survey:

Link to Snarf T6/T8 Feedback Survey

I had a handful of black T8 screws from DarkWave HiveMind so I swapped the screws out and took a handful of pictures so you can see what the knives will look like with the T8 screws:


I do apologize that this was necessary but hopeful this will result in everyone being much happier with their Snarf in the long run. If you have any other questions or run into issues with the survey please let us know. Thanks again for everyone jumping on this so quickly so that we could let Scikio/Dream Tech know to go forward with the T8 production!

-Michael

T6 vs T8 Screws Survey
5 months ago – Sun, Jun 14, 2026 at 06:00:33 AM

Hey everyone - when I said I've been losing sleep over the T6/T8 issue, I meant it! I went to bed late worried about it, then woke up before my alarm concerned to see what the response would be! 🤘😅

So far I've had a few people email me privately and ask if there are any other options to get the T8 screws, and the honest answer is it depends on how serious of an issue this is for everyone.

So I've created a survey for everyone to fill out so that we can get some feedback to help guide what we do next. So please take a minute or two to consider the options and give us your feedback here:

Snarf T6 vs T8 Screws Feedback

Edit: In case you missed the last update, we asked for T6 screws for the Blade Grabbler and T8 screws for the body, but the manufacturer made only T6s and T8s will require another delivery delay

Production Samples Ho! (+Live on Sunday, 6/13)
5 months ago – Sat, Jun 13, 2026 at 09:40:28 PM

Hey everyone! We've almost recovered from the post-Blade Show bug that seems to always follow us home after each show. But we had a blast and appreciated getting to see familiar faces and meet new Snarf backers!

We also got a chance to reconnect with Laura Chen from Scikio and Frank She from Dream Tech who are collaborating to bring Snarf to life. They brought production samples of Snarf for us to check out, which also meant folks were able to come by the booth and see Snarf in person.

We loved getting feedback in person, and below is a combination of thoughts and observations we shared with Laura and Frank. But we also want to hear directly from you, so we'd love for you to join us tomorrow (Sunday 6/14) at 6pm CST on our YouTube channel for a live Q&A.


Overall Thoughts
Snarf definitely had a lot of "wow" factor at our booth, causing a lot of folks to step inside the booth for a closer look. The colorways, size, ease of blade replacement, and overall vibe really seemed to connect with folks. Knife nerds have always been our motivating drive, and seeing the instant smiles on attendees' faces when they picked up Snarf had us totally stoked.

Feel, Finish, and Fidget Factor
Speaking of picking up Snarf for the first time, what seemed to tickle folks' fancies the most was the feel in hand, the fit and finish, and the fidget factor. The action is just so smooth and just feels totally natural in hand, which makes us even more excited about getting Snarf out to our backers!

Slicin' and Dicin'
I stepped away from the booth for a while to cut up a bunch of cardboard with Snarf, and was really impressed by how quickly and smoothly it sliced through the cardboard. I did notice that the production sample's utility blade release button was slightly proud to the blade grabbler, and though pressing it flush to the grabbler wasn't enough to pop the blade out, I did find that I could force the blade to pop out if I dug the knife into the cardboard and made a curving cut against the button.

So in our meeting with Laura and Frank, I showed them the issue and Frank said that though the parts were already milled out, he could go back and file down the button so that it is below the level of the blade grabbler. The image on the left is the current state of the button and the one on the right is what I've asked them to do instead. I filed one down to this height and found it was still easy to get the blade out but should help avoid losing the blade when making deep curving cuts.


Colors & Textures
Overall we were really pleased with how the colorways came out. We did ask them to make the Purplewashed Titanium and Bluewashed Titanium a darker shade of each color and tumble them after anodizing to get more of the stonewashed look. We also asked them to try to make the Miamiburst fade from blue to pink without there being the silvery color in the center. That said, it's hard to guarantee an exact shade for any of the colorways, just know that if you don't wind up being happy with your colorway, we'll definitely work with you if you want to swap to another colorway. I also made a video showing the front and back of each model if you want to check that out: 














=AURORA= Blade
The utility blades that were custom-made for us are really nice and fit really snuggly in the blade grabbler. The only thing we've decided not to do is engrave =AURORA= on each blade. The company making the utility blades wasn't willing to engrave all 20,000 blades, and though Frank from Dream Tech was willing to do it, we'd much rather know he's out there making more amazing knives instead of putting a vanity stamp on our blades. So we'll put our logo on the box instead and move on!

Last but possibly the most important??? T6 vs T8 Screws
We were supposed to have T6 screws on the Blade Grabbler (what holds the utility blade) and T8 on Snarf's body, but there were some crossed wires in communications and Scikio/Dream Tech put T6 screws on Snarf's body as well.

We asked about whether we could swap to T8, but since all 7,000+ T6 screws have already been made, we'd have to postpone delivery another month to make 7,000+ T8s.

To be honest, I've lost more than a little sleep over this one. Depending on who you ask, T6 vs. T8 is either a non-issue or a major issue, and the last thing I want to do is let our backers down. The primary concern is that it's easier to strip T6 when disassembling, especially when not using a crisp new Wiha bit. Consider this chummy conversation on Reddit:


Some good news here is that we've disassembled several of the Snarf production samples and have not had any issues with the T6s. Also I had already asked them to include three extra screws in a lil' baggie for each Snarf (one for the body, one for the clip filler, one for the clip), so that should create some additional buffer.

So after considering all the options, we're making the call to go forward with production with the T6s. The upside is that will mean you'll only need one bit for the entire knife, plus we've asked them to not overtighten the screws and to either use very little or no Loctite at all.

As always, we welcome feedback on all of this and hope you can join us for the live on Sunday at 6pm CST. We're getting closer and closer each day and we're so excited about getting Snarf in your hands, but if anything changes and you need a refund, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected]. We'd hate to lose you this close to the finish line, but we also realize sometimes life happens and you need to take care of you and yours first! 

Thanks so much for your support and patience as we wrap this project up! All the best!

-Michael