DPx Gear Limited HEST/F Urban Ti Titanium Folder Knife Review

DPx Gear recognizes that its life enthusiasts like you that need some help with your gear to let you push all of your boundaries. When talking about their company, they have said, “You work out there, hundreds of miles from help, pushing the limits of sanity, stamina and luck. Whether your world is combat, humanitarian, rescue, survival or hunting, it is where you will find DPx Gear. DPx Gear is designed for brutal use, where there is no room for failure. Our knives are not just edged tools, they are designed and built to be hostile environment survival tools. The gear that you see revealed on this site will be the result of decades of “why don’t they”…. and we did. DPx Gear is designed, tested and used in places like Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Burma, and many other hard, unforgiving places.
The people who advise, design, test and use DPx Gear products are equally unforgiving. Adventurer, Robert Young Pelton has applied his 30 years in conflict, wilderness and hard-use environments to bring the cumulative experience to DPx Gear products. DPx Gear has made a commitment to its customers to always listen and respect hard-won experiences and to continually integrate new thinking, new features, new processes and new products to create the world’s finest adventure and survival tools and gear.
Welcome to our world!”
Today we will be talking about one of their new knives: the DPx HEST/F Urban Titanium first run. This knife features a stainless steel blade that has been stonewashed finished as well as a titanium handle. Get ready for your world to be rocked as we dive into what makes this knife so special.

The Blade:
The blade on this knife is made out of CPM S35VN stainless steel. Before talking about how great S35VN steel is, we need to understand how good the original S30V steel was. Both of these steels were made by US based Crucible. S30V steel had phenomenal edge retention and resisted rust effortlessly. This steel was designed in the US and is/was typically used for the high-end premium pocket knives along with expensive kitchen cutlery. They introduced vanadium carbides which worked to bring extreme hardness into the steel matrix and is also where the V comes from in the name. Overall, this steel was regarded as one of the finest knife blade steels with the optimal balance of edge retention, hardness, and toughness. It really only had one disadvantage and that was that it was hard to work with and hard to sharpen. So Crucible listened to what everyone was saying and in 2009 they worked with Chris Reeve to design and introduce an ever so slightly superior version of their excellent first steel. It would be named S35VN steel. They used a much finer grain structure and added small quantities of niobium, which is where the N in the name comes from. By using this new structure and adding the niobium, they were able to make the already fantastic S30V easier to machine while also improving toughness and ability to sharpen. While the two steels are already pretty similar, just imagine how fantastic S35Vn steel is based off of S30V steel.
The blade on this knife has been stonewashed finished. A stonewashed finish refers to tumbling the blade in an abrasive material, which is usually small pebbles. This finish easily hides scratches, while also providing a less reflective nature than a brushed or satin finished blade. One of the best benefits of a stonewashed blade is that they are low maintenance and preserve their original look over time. The stonewashed finish hides the scratches that can occur with use over time.
The blade on this knife has been carved into a drop point blade style. The drop point blade shape is the most used blade shape in today’s knife industry. There are plenty of reasons why manufacturers, designers, and users alike adore this blade shape. For starters, this blade shape is an all-purpose knife that is tough, versatile, and can stand up to almost anything. One of the most common places that you are going to find this blade style is on hunting knives, but you will also find it on plenty of other knife styles as well. To form the shape of this, knife the unsharpened edge of the knife runs straight from the handle to the tip of the knife in a slow curved manner, which creates a lowered point. Lowered points on knives help provide more control to knives, which is why it is such a popular blade shape on hunting knives. It is this lowered and controllable points that make it easier to avoid accidentally nicking internal organs and ruining the meat. And it is the lowered, broad tip on drop point blade shapes that add so much strength to this blade style. Because of the tip strength and the ability to hold up to heavy use, drop point blades are very popular on tactical and survival knives. Drop point and clip point knives are sometimes confused with each other, because they are the two most popular blade shapes in use today and they are both very versatile. It is their tips that set them apart. While they do both sport a lowered tip, the clip point has a much finer and thinner tip that has been designed for piercing. While clip point knives are more capable of piercing than the thick drop point style, the clip point is more prone to breaking and snapping. The broad tip on the drop point blade shape is one of its biggest advantages as well as being its biggest disadvantage. The broad tip gives you the strength to stand up to the tougher tasks, but it also takes away your piercing capabilities. Drop point blade shapes are very versatile because they feature such a large belly area that is perfect for slicing.
The blade also features a patented blade notch—which works as a bottle opener, a pot lifter, and can even be sued as a quick-opening wave opening feature.

The Handle:
The handle on this DPx knife is made out of 6A14V titanium. Titanium is a lightwegiht metal alloy and it offers the best rust resistance out of any metal. Titanium is similar to aluminum, except that it is superior in almost any way. It is a little bit heavier than aluminum, but it is still considered a lightweight metal and is so much stronger than aluminum. But, because it is so much stronger, that also means that it is more expensive to machine. Titanium has a unique quality where it has a rare warm feel to it, which means if you are planning on using it in the winter, it won’t make you suffer as much as aluminum would. Unfortunately, titanium is prone to scratches.
While the handle does look like a typical knife handle, it is anything but. There is a slight finger groove and a small finger guard. The spine of the handle has a slight curve to it. But, it does sport a glass breaker and a hex driver. This patented DPx Gear design feature also provides an exact, comfortable grip with or without gloves.

The Pocket Clip:
The pocket clip is a deep carry pocket clip. A deep carry pocket clip means that your pocket knife will ride as low and unobtrusively s possible in your pocket. The angle of the clip over the frame lock adds additional support the lock. The clip is also made out of titanium and stonewashed to match the rest of the handle.

The Extras:
This knife features the patented DPx Gear blade notch in the blade. This notch doubles as bottle opener and a quick open feature. This notch has been designed to allow the knife to open faster than an automatic and to deploy the blade to the rear of the holder.
The Urban Ti also boasts the Integral Hex drive. DPx Gear believes if you are going to carry around a quality knife, it better earn its keep. Because of this, they have added a ¼” standard hex driver in the knife’s frame, which can be easily paired with a commonly available hex tool. This also turns your DPx HEST/F Urban into a multi tool.
The DPx knife sports a glass breaker or skull crusher in a Ti frame designed to be ergonomically held in the hand as a non-lethal deterrent. The Urban has a longer, stronger screw with a smaller Tungsten Carbide insert striking tip.
To add to all of the fantastic additions to this knife, DPx has also added a Tri-gauge wire stripper jimping. It is their patented jimping that features three notches in the exact gauges need to quickly strip household, auto, and timer wire for blasting or electronics.

The Mechanism:
This is a folding knife that uses the notch as the opening mechanism. This knife’s opening is always smooth because of the American bearing pivot hardware. The stainless steel caged bearing pivot hardware allows for rapid deployment and effortless operation.
This knife boasts a frame lock locking mechanism. The frame lock is essentially a liner lock on steroids. They are very similar to the liner lock mechanisms, except instead of internal spring bar moving into place, it is part of the handle itself. Frame lock knives tend to be stronger than liner locks, as the piece of metal that slips into place is more substantial than that in a liner lock. Because of their similarity to liner locks, closing a frame lock is basically the same—you push down on the spring bar so it no longer blocks the butt of the blade, remove your thumb from the path, then fold the knife closed. This type of locking system puts a large portion of metal against the blade, which ensures a strong lockup perfect for piercing, cutting, slicing, and other heavy-duty tasks. Frame locks are seen in a lot of upper range knives and typically in knives with a titanium handle, such as this knife. The frame lock adds a unique look to the knife, and they are also easily operated with one hand.

The Specs:
The blade on this DPx knife measures in at 2.9 inches with the handle measuring in at 3.8 inches long. The overall length of this knife is 6.7 inches long. The Urban weighs in at 3.35 ounces. This DPx knife was made in the United States of America.

Conclusion:
The Urban Ti folder, part of the HEST/F series, is one of several new models released by DPx Gear this year. Designed by American knife maker and DPx Gear founder Robert Young Pelton, each frame lock designed model has redefined the definition of what a feature-packed knife is capable of. This inaugural 100% USA folder is comprised of a premium stainless steel blade that features a patented blade notch–tripling as a bottle opener, a pot lifter and can even be used as a quick-opening wave opening feature. The smooth action is achieved with the stainless steel caged bearing pivot and the thumb jimping incorporates a patented tri-gauge wire stripping pattern so your basic wire stripping jobs are covered. Furthermore, the inclusion of the hex driver in addition to the glass breaker make this a one-of-a kind powerhouse built for every situation imaginable. This model sports titanium handle scales, a drop point style blade in a stonewash finish and the reversible deep carry pocket clip is four way reversible, meaning you can wear it tip up or down and on either the left or right side of the handle.  This is a limited run with only 300 units, so act quick if you want this knife. This knife is labeled as a knife; when it should be labeled as an all-purpose multi tool. With this knife you will be prepared for almost anything that happens to pop up in your life. Come pick up yours today at BladeOps.