Fox Libar & Livri Knives

The origin of Fox knives of Italy goes back 40-years. Today they are one of the world leaders in the industry. They make a whole range of products but two of their latest are of particular interest to UK collector and indeed users. The Libar and Livri knives have exotic names for sure but they are non-locking UK legal carry knives. They are also two-handed opening making them very public friendly. They have very, very different blade shapes but the sort of same overall dimensions.

Libar

Let’s start with the Libar, it comes in three different scale formats: Carbon fibre, Olive wood or Green Micarta. Those good folks at Heinnie Haynes sent me Green Micarta for both knives. The Libar has a clip point blade with a pronounced false edge or swedge. The blade is made of ultra-modern powdered steel. M390 to be precise, it’s a stainless steel with a high hardness of 59-60 Rockwell. It means it can take a lot of use before it needs to be sharpened. It’s a slipjoint knife but it does not have a nail nick on the blade, to open it you simply grab onto the brushed finish of the blade and open. The Libar has 12.4mm of blade not covered by the Micarta scales so there is a lot to grab hold of with your finger and thumb. It also has a half stop on the blade when it’s been opened by 90-degrees, making much safer to open. Once open it has an 11mm section of jimping on the back of the blade as an ergonomic aid. It’s a very lightweight knife at only 40-grams, the black leather pouch it comes with has the Fox logo stamped on one side. Even better it has a lanyard hole. Micarta is one of the finest materials for knife scales and handles, hard wearing and very tactile.

Livri

The Livri, meanwhile, has a drop point blade also with a swedge, it looks a completely different knife to the Libar but actually shares the same overall dimensions. It also has the same 90-degree blade stop on opening and jimping on the spine. It has a 10.3mm section on the blade to get hold of to open it.

Both blades are flat ground and were sharp out of the box for sure. Giving you a leather pouch for your pocket is very useful as is the lanyard hole so you can fit a paracord lanyard to pull it out of your pocket. I really liked both knives and with other choices of scales there’s something for everyone. They are a very modern take on a classic pocketknife. Check them all out on the Heinnie Haynes website.

Thanks to Richard and Bruce at Heinnie Haynes for help in production of this article.