The Aquila is our love letter to the traditional pocketknife — a form that has ridden in waistcoat and jacket pockets for two centuries, made with the care it always deserved.
Two ways to carry it
It is offered in two variations: a non-locking Slipjoint that is legal for everyday carry in the UK, and a secure Lockback for those whose use (and jurisdiction) calls for it. Same soul, two mechanisms. The Slipjoint in particular answers a question our customers ask constantly — what is the finest knife I can simply put in my pocket and carry? — with something worth carrying.
Built like a fixed blade
Construction is full hardened tool steel throughout — unusual at this scale, and the reason an Aquila feels like a working knife rather than a trinket. The spring is as hard as the blade; the action closes with an assured snap. Bolsters are available for a more formal dress, as are Damascus blades from our own pattern-welded steel for something quietly spectacular when opened.
The pocket heirloom
A traditional pocketknife is the most personal knife most people ever own — used daily, pocketed for decades, handed on. The Aquila is built for exactly that trajectory: hard steel, serviceable construction, and materials chosen to wear in rather than wear out. Engraved bolsters make it a natural presentation piece for occasions that deserve better than cufflinks.
The steel is yours to choose
Most Aquilas leave the bench in one of our working stainless steels: RWL-34, a high-chromium stainless with excellent edge retention and corrosion resistance; PMC27, a powder-metallurgy steel with a fine grain that takes a keen edge and asks very little maintenance; or AEB-L, the razor-blade stainless whose fine carbides give a very keen edge with good toughness. Traditionalists can have O1 tool steel — a carbon steel that sharpens to an exceptionally fine edge and rewards a little oil and attention.
For something quietly spectacular, we pattern-weld our own stainless Damascus in-house from RWL-34 and PMC27 — Vinland, Gysinge, Ladder, Odin’s Eye, Thor and a dozen other patterns, each combining high corrosion resistance with exceptional edge retention. On a Aquila, Damascus turns a working tool into an heirloom without costing it a day’s work.
A knife for life
A Aquila is built to outlast its first owner. Every knife carries a lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects, is numbered and recorded in the workshop ledger before it leaves the bench, and ships sharpened, papered, signed-for and insured. When one comes back years later for a fresh edge, we can look up exactly when it left and what it was made of.
If this is the pattern, the next step is a conversation — or set out the rest of it first in the design tool, and send us the draft.
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