This is a great knife. Designed by Kiku Matsuda, it has a black toni coated AUS8 blade. It opens with a thumb stud. The blade profile is gorgeous (in mho). It is made for piercing and so well thought out. My only problem, and it is a huge one, is that the slight concave curve in the (really pretty) handles makes the clip grab on to my pants so strongly it can't be deployed. It has a deep pocket clip and that is great for the area I live, but it says "SOG" on the clip, so any officer that saw it would know...I love th knife, I wish it would deploy faster.