I love the Giant Mouse Riv. It is an upscale version of the Spyderco Dragonfly—a compact cutter that just melts in the hand and rides well in the pocket. I bought one years ago when it was first released. It was a micarta framelock with Elmax steel and it was made by Reate. I loved the knife, but I wasn’t a fan of the steel or the framelock. I did, of course, love the micarta because it is micarta (micarta is basically cat nip for knife knuts). So over the years I watched for new versions of the Riv and recently Giant Mouse dropped a Riv with Magnacut and a linerlock. So I did that really stupid thing that only knife guys and car guys do—I purchased a second version of a knife I already owned. This version was made by an Italian company. I don’t know exactly who it is, but it feels a lot like Lionsteel. If I am wrong drop a note in the comments.
This exceptionally poor financial decision allowed me to do something I have always wanted to do—compare apples to apples the manufacturing abilities of two different companies. It is exceedingly rare to have one knife made by two differnt companies, so this comparison has been all but impossible until now. But with two different companies producing the Riv, I can now get into the details.
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