These are the prototype pocket slips Badger Claw Outfitters made before the production run. Same pattern, same leather, sewn in Adkins, Texas, and they hold a slip joint folder the way the final ones do. What changed after these were made was the thumb opening.
Specifications
- Maker: Badger Claw Outfitters, est. 2011
- Type: Pocket slip
- Version: Prototype, tighter thumb opening than the production slip
- Leather: Brown, or Black with crocodile inspired pattern
- Carry: In pocket only. No clip, no belt loop.
- Fits: Slip joint folders, including the American Blade Works Slip Joint
- Country of Origin: Made in USA (Adkins, Texas)
What Makes These Prototypes
After handling these we asked Badger Claw for slightly more thumb space so the knife pulls out easier. The production slips have that extra room. These do not. Everything else is the same leather, the same stitching, and the same fit around the knife.
In practice the pull on these is a little tighter than on the final version. Some people will prefer that, since a tighter slip holds the knife more securely. If you want the easier draw, buy the production slip instead.
What a Slip Actually Does
The flat profile is the point. A slip joint loose in a pocket shifts every time you move, turns sideways, and works its way underneath whatever else is in there. In a slip it stays flat and it stays put, so the knife ends up in the same place and the same orientation every time you reach for it. The knife has a home.
And What It Does Not Do
The top of the knife sits proud of the leather so you can get a thumb and finger on it, which means the slip is not sealing the knife away from anything. Your phone can still find that exposed end. It also makes a slow knife slower, since a slip joint already takes two hands and a moment to open.
Anybody who owns a slip joint already knew both of those things. A slip joint was never the knife you grab in a hurry. There is just something that feels right about one living in a leather slip, and that is the honest reason to buy this.
Pocket Slip, Nothing Else
No clip and no belt loop. It drops in your pocket with the knife inside it, and that is the whole design. If you are looking for something that rides on a belt or clips to a pocket edge, this is not it.
Two Leathers
Brown leather is the traditional one, plain and smooth. Black leather with the crocodile inspired pattern is embossed rather than exotic hide, so you get the texture and the look without the price or the paperwork that comes with real crocodile.
Made in Texas
Badger Claw Outfitters has been working leather in Adkins, Texas since 2011, about four hours south of our shop. Their stamp is pressed into the face of every slip. These are what the testing looked like before the pattern was settled.
Why You'll Want It
Prototypes do not get made twice. Nine of these exist here and there will not be more, because the pattern moved on.
Proudly carrying American
