Not just for mall ninjas.

Mall ninja. It’s not some awful Chris Farley movie. It’s not a cheesy name for a mobility scooter. It’s not a cutesy job description for a personal shopper. (Well, it probably is, somewhere, but we prefer not to know for sure.)

For those of you who’ve ever wondered “wassup with that knife store at the mall?”, the term “mall ninja” is what serious knife dudes call guys who go for the gimmicky, pseudo-Asian, crazy-curved and/or crazy-serrated knives peddled in such establishments. The first post in this knife forum discussion hits all the high points of the stereotype: trench-coated Internet warriors whose favorite knives are “ridiculously large folder(s) that cost about $10.”

Uh, so yeah, here we have a chunky folding knife (red flag #1). It’s got a tanto blade (red flag #2), a blade type based on a traditional Japanese samurai sword (red flag #3). The blade is optimized for puncturing - in other words, stabbing (red flag #4) - without breaking the tip. How much stabbing do you really need to do? If you have to stab something, or someone, even once, your life has probably gone very, very wrong.

But wait, mall ninjaphobes… With a 3" blade, it’s not “ridiculously large”. The tanto blade is a standard blade type among tactical knives these days: it’s not just for wannabe samurais. Schrade’s 9Cr17MoV blade is good enough, and sharp enough, to cut and chop. Besides, who hasn’t needed to poke a hole in packaging, a tin can or, I don’t know, a coconut once or twice?

Clearly, this is meant more for the reasonable, mature tactical knife user. But if you want to buy it just because it’ll look badass in your knife forum avatar photo, or to arm yourself against the imminent zombie uprising, or just because the color coordinates nicely with your tactical pants, we’ll still take your money. Mall ninjas need love too.