This beauty is a beast.

The James Brand believes in sweating details and pushing quality forward by stripping things to their essentials. That’s why when they set out to create a new pinnacle standard for the premium pocket knife, they knew the design process needed to start with a deep dive into the latest manufacturing capabilities. Sometimes, when a design begins with thinking about how it’s made, the design process unlocks new opportunities for innovation. We teamed up with James and some of their premier knife making partners to explore the potential of working with the latest six-axis CNC cutting equipment to carve a fully integral mechanism from a single block of Titanium. A difficult challenge but well worth the effort to get to a solution that uses fewer parts, requires less maintenance, and can achieve stunning new forms impossible in traditional knife construction. The result is The Barnes. It’s James’ first ever fully integral framelock featuring an M390 stainless steel blade, and a stainless pivot with ceramic bearings for a buttery glide, precision action, and a nearly indestructible build-quality. The specs add up to awesome, but what really took the design over the top is the perfect balance and hand-in-glove grip from the 360º milled handle. Long story short, this may be the best knife of its kind, and at a price that’s actually in reach. This beauty truly is a beast.