5 Underrated Knife Brands Worth Your Attention in 2026

Introduction

Some knife brands get all the attention, while others quietly do the most interesting work in the industry. This roundup looks at five brands that are either underrated, misunderstood, or simply doing something different enough that they deserve a spot on your radar: JHO Knives, McNees, Sandrin Knives, ANV (Acta Non Verba), and Arcane Design.

JHO Knives: Bold Ideas, Minimal Design

JHO Knives operates on a simple philosophy: think boldly, design minimally. The brand first stood out for taking the humble utility craft knife and rebuilding it as a high-end folder with a premium M390 blade instead of disposable trapezoid blades. Beyond that, the catalog includes swappable-blade designs, desk art, and pocket art, with a consistently different take on everyday folders.

JHO Knives Number 22

The Number 22 is designed after a number 22 scalpel blade, and it leans into that heritage completely. It is a front flipper with a titanium frame lock, running on bearings, with an M390 blade. The knurling on the handle is exceptional, the choil is perfectly placed, and the fit and finish have no complaints: action, lockup, and centering are all spot on. In hand it feels like a genuine tool, something you would grab out of a toolbox rather than a delicate showpiece. The main trade-off is the short cutting edge relative to the overall size of the knife, which is simply the nature of a scalpel-inspired design. At $230, though, a titanium front-flipper frame lock on bearings with M390 undercuts plenty of comparable knives that run $300 and beyond.

JHO Knives Lynx

The Lynx is a credit card knife finished in black oxide, with an M390 blade and a simple paper sheath included. It slides into the back of a wallet, which makes it a genuinely functional last-resort blade. It will not get you through security, but as a slicer it performs well: push cuts, pull cuts, and general slicing all work nicely. More than anything, it is a cool piece of functional design, arguably the highest quality card knife you will come across.

McNees: USA-Made Mid-Tech Muscle

McNees builds everything in the USA, sitting in the mid-tech space between full custom and full production. The performance machined line is built like a tank and fits the hand like a glove, and the brand also designs the Spyderco MCB while offering aftermarket scales for it.

McNees PM Mac 2 3.5

The PM Mac 2 3.5 is one of those knives that earns a permanent spot in a collection almost immediately. The action is about as good as any knife gets, deploying fast enough to rival an automatic, and it runs on bearings. There is a 3-inch version, but the 3.5 is arguably the sweet spot. The only real nitpicks are a preference for a phosphor bronze washer option and a fairly plain bent titanium pocket clip that could be more interesting. At $495 it sits at the higher end, but the build quality justifies it.

McNees Auto Mac

The Auto Mac is basically the same knife in a slightly smaller, slightly narrower package, and it is one of the few automatics that genuinely impresses, sitting comfortably alongside classics like the Pro-Tech ATCF. It costs $458, a bit less than the PM Mac 2 3.5, and shares the same superb fit, finish, and action. Anyone who writes off autos should handle this one before deciding.

Sandrin Knives: Tungsten Carbide Done Right

Sandrin’s signature is tungsten carbide blades rated at 71 HRC, which stay sharp for an extremely long time. Early designs did not always connect with a wide audience, but the lineup is finally pairing that technology with better designs and better locking mechanisms, including the fidget-friendly recoil lock that works like a shark-style backspacer lock.

Sandrin Monza Titanium

The Monza Titanium is the best-looking knife Sandrin has made. It pairs a 3.38-inch tungsten carbide blade with a titanium handle, an overall length of 7.67 inches, and a weight of 3.45 ounces. It feels more substantial and better balanced than the carbon fiber Torino, with no choil and a stronger in-hand feel. It is super sharp, very slicey, and extremely fidgety thanks to the recoil lock. The trade-offs are real, though: sharpening tungsten carbide means a chisel grind, learning to sharpen it yourself, or sending it in for service, and a full reblade is always an option if the edge ever fails. At $400 it is not cheap, but if you want something different that holds an edge for a very long time and looks good doing it, this is the one to watch.

ANV: Understated Design from the Czech Republic

ANV, short for Acta Non Verba, makes simple, sleek, elegant knives at genuinely good prices, with glow accents on every folder so a dropped knife can be found at night. The catalog goes well beyond EDC, including fixed blades designed for the Czech armed forces.

ANV Z300

The Z300 is a titanium frame lock flipper running on nylon washers, in Sleipner steel, and it was bought at a show price of $200, with a floor price of $240. The blade shape and proportions are excellent, and the design is where ANV truly excels. The one caveat is a fairly weak detent that can occasionally cause a slightly sloppy or failed deployment, possibly a QC quirk. Even so, at $200 it is an exceptional value.

Arcane Design: Futuristic Knives with Real Substance

Arcane Design builds angular, futuristic folders paired with original lore and art, and the newest release finally combines that distinct styling with a more universally appealing blade shape. The Abyss trades the ultra-angular Warncliff style for a proper upswept bowie tip with a compound grind, flat up top and hollow down low.

It offers multiple deployment methods, including a recessed finger groove and a flipper tab, a titanium frame lock on bearings with a lock bar insert, M390 blade steel, and swappable pivot collars for changing the look. It is very snappy and clearly an Arcane Design the moment you see it. At $375 it is the first Arcane knife that makes an easy personal buy, and the newer Praytheon prototype line, launching in G10, titanium with 20CV, and Damasteel configurations at $190, $350, and $640 respectively, continues the same forward momentum with a reversible clip for ambidextrous carry.

Buying Advice

If you want a conversation-starting tool-like folder, the JHO Number 22 and the McNees PM Mac 2 3.5 are the standouts, with the Auto Mac covering the automatic crowd. If edge retention above all else matters, Sandrin’s tungsten carbide Monza is unlike anything else, provided you accept the sharpening trade-offs. For pure value and clean design, ANV’s Z300 is hard to beat at $200, and for something genuinely different with futuristic styling, Arcane Design’s Abyss delivers. Note that McNees knives sell in drops, so buying directly requires speed, though dealers are starting to stock them.

Conclusion

These five brands prove that the most interesting knives are not always the most famous ones. Whether it is a scalpel-inspired titanium flipper, a wallet card knife, a tank-built USA mid-tech, a 71 HRC tungsten carbide blade, or an angular futuristic bowie, each of these companies is doing something worth paying attention to the next time you are shopping for a knife.