The Complete Buying Guide to The James Brand

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We break down one of the most popular brands in the world of knives and EDC, from the Carter to the Mehlville.

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Should a tool be both beautiful and functional? It's a debate that can never truly be settled, although folks have been trying for millennia. The question of whether form should follow function, or if they should be treated as equals, is a matter of subjectivity — and in the realm of opinion, there are no true victors. If you're The James Brand, though, it's a non-negotiable. Where style and utility meet in the outdoors, The James Brand holds court.

Dissenters may reject TJB's hyper-focus on minimalism and elegance — some say the brand focuses on the look, rather than the durability and performance, of its knives. Perhaps that is the case, compared to other well-known brands including Benchmade, Spyderco and Microtech, to name a few — but at the end of the day, The James Brand didn't set out to make the toughest and most durable knives on the market. It set out to make the most functional and sophisticated tools that you actually want to pick up and use every day.

An industrial designer by trade, Ryan Coulter has carried a knife since childhood, and after years of searching for the ideal pocket knife, he decided to create his own. Coulter and a group of designers founded The James Brand in 2012 to address an unmet need: high-quality, expertly designed products that placed an emphasis on premium materials and a minimalist design aesthetic, and clear attention to the details.

The brand started with a single offering, The Chapter, and over the ensuing years has maintained a tight, yet impactful, product lineup that includes knives and EDC accessories.

Since introducing The Chapter, The James Brand has expanded its collection in a thoughtful and measured way. While many knife brands have hundreds of models, The James Brand has kept its selection to a streamlined 16 knives and nine EDC-ready tools and accessories. This minimalistic approach has allowed the brand to maintain its well-known aesthetic and approach new product launches in a measured, thoughtful way.

The foundation upon which the entire The James Brand is built, the knives that make it to the brand's stable are considered, premium, functional and above all, beautiful. With a design for every EDC enthusiast, this careful curation helps maintain TJB's dedication to minimalism and taste.

The Kline is built using Magnacut, a first for The James Brand. For the unfamiliar, Magnacut is a new, American-made, EDC-specific stainless steel designed to be highly corrosion resistant and extremely durable. The "supersteel" is a jack of all trades; its composition lends it to be useful in a variety of everyday tasks.

TJB partnered with Sitka on this limited-run, handmade in the USA collab chef's knife designed to bring the professional culinary experience to the outdoors. The elegant fixed blade, which features a MagnaCut blade, full-tang construction and a textured and contoured CNC-milled G10 handle, took two years of development to bring to fruition.

Billed as TJB’s “most advanced everyday carry knife,” the Carter comes with some notable traits, including machined handle scales available in materials like G10 and Micarta. Then there's the drop-point blade, which opens with a thumb disc and secures with a smooth sliding switch lock. It's made of VG-10, a high-end steel that's low maintenance — promising excellent corrosion resistance and edge retention — so you can use it freely without fear of messing up something you just spent a wad of cash on.

This is The James Brand's lightweight, compact and handy blade, made for anything and everything, and is easily one of its most popular knives. The Redstone is all about function, thanks to its island design hold, a Sandvik 12C27 stainless steel blade, one-piece die-stamped chassis and minimal bent-wire clip for easy EDC.

Designed in collaboration with World Tour surfer Conner Coffin, an avid fisherman and gardener as well as an athlete, the Folsom features a solid liner-lock construction, G10 scales and a rugged stainless-steel blade. It’s incredibly easy to care for and is slim enough to slip easily into your pocket. The Folsom is The James Brand's thinnest design.

The Barnes features a titanium framelock, and it's the brand's very first integral design. The Barnes is CNC-machined from one solid billet of 6AL4V titanium, which means fewer moving parts (and points of failure), and a unique construction you won't find in the typical pocket knife. The Barnes has one of the longest overall lengths of The James Brand's pocket knives, yet it carries a minimal weight thanks to its creative construction.

Slimmer than a pack of gum, one of the newest entries to The James Brand's lineup is the aptly named Ellis Slim. This little wonder is built off the foundation of the Ellis and Elko family, The James Brand's slip-joint pocket knives. The design language of the Ellis Slim mirrors that of its bulkier older brother, but with one major tweak: TJB said "See ya" to the scissors, which significantly streamlined its new knife.

The older brother of the aforementioned Ellis Slim, the original Ellis features multiple tools that up its efficiency, including scissors, TJB's All-Things scraper, flat-head screwdriver and pry tool. The James Brand set out to redesign the classic Swiss Army Knife with the Ellis, while bringing its unique aesthetic to the forefront.

The size of a USB stick, the Elko is a tiny package that packs a big punch. The Elko traces its inspiration to classic Swiss Army Knife keychain tools, and while it may not replace the other, larger knives in your daily rotation, it sure is a useful little thing to have on hand when you need something sharp and pointy.

Released in 2019, the Hell Gap is one of our staff's favorite fixed-blade knives — and a GP100 honoree. It’s neither tactical nor survival-oriented, but some combination of both (plus a dash of kitchen knife), and its Crucible S35VN steel offers better toughness (resistance to chipping) than the S30V steel of another knife we appreciate, the Gerber Terracraft.

The knife that started it all and put TJB on the map: this was The James Brand's first knife, and it features a deep pocket clip for easy carry, a titanium frame-lock construction and sealed ceramic bearings. The Chapter was created to bring design and strength together in one package, and continues to do so to this day.

The James Brand calls this "the little fixed blade for all occasions," which is about as accurate an assessment as you could make of the Abbey. While it was originally created with a niche intent — opening the shrink-wrap plastic covering vinyl records — its use cases go far beyond its single-minded origins.

Noting that Wharncliffe blades were common on old crafting knives, The James Brand added one to a contemporary design that it hopes will last long enough to become an heirloom. It's vintage inspired, with a minimal, modern twist. The warm materials and simple design are TJB's interpretation of the classic non-locking slip-joint. It's the type of knife Granddad would have carried around (if he could afford to).

Released in 2019, the Duval is The James Brand's addition to the gentleman’s knife category. It has a 2.6-inch sheepsfoot blade made of Crucible S35VN steel and a titanium frame available with rosewood or Micarta handles. There’s also an even flashier Damascus steel blade option.

The Barlow knife dates back to 17th century England. Focused on simplicity, utility and affordability, it's the working man's knife, if you will. The Wayland takes on that history, in TJB fashion. Rather than including a clip-point blade, seen on many Barlow knives, the Wayland features a sheepsfoot, which has less of a piercing point. The knife also brings premium material options including rosewood, G10 or Micarta handle scales and a top-notch CPM-S35VN stainless steel blade.

An upgrade to the utility knife, the Palmer takes a completely novel approach to traditional design — and it pays off. Featuring anodized aluminum handles, a lanyard for easy deployment, six unique colors and the brand's first-ever patent-pending mechanism design, The Palmer strikes a balance between a functional EDC item you won't want to leave the house without, and an everyday piece of art you'd be just as comfortable displaying on the wall as having in your pocket. No wonder it cracked the GP100 last year.

EDC lovers know that if you're going to carry a premium knife, you've got to have the tools and accessories to support it. No kit is complete without a few of The James Brand's elevated EDC-ready add-ons. Great knives come with great responsibility EDC.

The first carabiner from The James Brand set the bar in terms of usefulness and utility. Crafted with a dual compartment design, the carabiner-inspired key holder is machined out of a solid billet of aluminum for an incredible strength-to-weight ratio. And it holds up: we've carried ours for five years and it still looks as good as the day we got it.

One of The James Brand's newest carabiner designs, the Hardin is a drop-forged carabiner made out of 6063 aluminum, with a two-compartment design and spring-loaded gate. The Hardin comes in nine color options — one of the broadest palettes of any TJB product.

From a writer or designer's point of view, no one should ever leave the house without a pen. If you're looking for something compact that'll match the aesthetic of your existing EDC kit, the Stilwell was designed for you. The aluminum construction keeps it light, and the replaceable ink cartridge means you'll always be able to jot down that next inspired thought.

All this good-looking, useful EDC needs somewhere to live when it's not in your pocket, right? Right. That's where the Cambro comes in: released in March 2023, it's a two-piece place for your keys and lighter and pocket knife and change to hang out when not in use — and look damn good doing it.

Compared to the Mehlville, its predecessor, the Holcombe is smaller and lighter, but it still uses that dual-compartment construction to decrease the chance of losing the items it’s meant to hold onto. The Holcombe, which comes in titanium or coated stainless steel, is almost explicitly for the person who wants to carry keys on the waist.

There are minimalists, and then there are minimalists: ounce counters, obsessed with the simplest and most distilled design. The Rowan uses the same design language as the Holcombe, but eschews any moving parts. It also manages to pack in a tiny ruler and bottle opener, for good measure.

Made to carry, ahem, toothpicks or small valuables into the backcountry, the office or beyond, the Randolph is a small, slim cylindrical container with a wide variety of uses.

The second iteration of a key hook that TJB designed way back in 2015, the Midland is a solid yet minimal keychain solution. Keep keys out of your pocket with this titanium management system, which eschews moving parts in favor of simplicity and durability.

Leave it to The James Brand to deliver one of the world's most minimalist screwdrivers. The Halifax can be used as a flathead or Philips driver, fits into both the left and right hand and even manages to open a bottle or two after the task at hand is complete.