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The Roper Deputy Knife is a 3.25 inch 8CR13MOV Steel folding knife with an assisted opening ball bearing mechanism that’s legal in most states despite being deployable one handed. It has a smooth opening and closing. This quality feel and rugged use EDC packs a lot of punch for less than $30.

Full In Depth Review

Choosing a knife is a very personal thing. Its like the thought that goes in to what car you want to drive. We all dream of hyper cars but most of us settle for something more pragmatic. My brother used to describe this as ‘Champagne taste and Beer Money’. The Roper EDC Deputy knife might just be the Champagne blade for Budweiser money. With an impressive build quality and look and decent easy to sharpen blade you get a smart and useful EDC for the cost 3 cases of Bud.

Get A Handle on It

The handle of the Roper Deputy Knife is a satin brushed finish that still grips well in your hand. The grain of the brushing is in a different direction to the blade brushing making it more visually striking in the light.

The Business End

The 3.25 inch drop point blade is made from a Chinese 8CR13MOV Steel. I’m going to avoid the huge rabbit hole and 27 page ‘armchair expert’ online threads debating the ‘right’ steel for a knife and slap down my own personal view here.

I’m well aware that there are a wide range of steels suitable for blades but one thing I know is there is no perfect steel for a blade. The choice of material depends on intended useage. Steel is a constant trade off between the ability to maintain sharpness and its resistance to corrosion and how brittle it is and likely to break. Tweaking other metals in the blend can get you an improvement in one of those areas but it usually comes at a cost to another.

My Dive knife I use in the sea is vastly different from a camp survival and skinning knife I use to cut food and split logs. They are both made from vastly different steel. When I see endless debates online about steel quality and the idea that one type of steel is vastly inferior I tend to ignore them. I also tend to not take seriously anyone that says there is a ‘perfect steel’ for knives. There isn’t.

What the Roper Deptuy  has is a steel that does a reasonable job in all three areas of sharpness retention, corrosion resistance and flexibility. It is priced very competitively you appreciate the difficult design task Roper have had to navigate to get a knife that’s less than 30 Bucks. Yes there are better blades out there on better knives but they cost 2 or 3 times the price and I’m not convinced they are 2 or 3 times better. On my ‘cut through paper’ test I got about 60 slices before it got blunt which really isn’t bad at all. I’ve tested much worse from other companies for way more money.

Flip Out

The flip out liner lock design of the blade does a good job of being quickly deployable but still legal in most USA states. It has a sturdy liner lock holding it in place and with practice you should be able to retract it one handed as well. I found compared to a wide range of other folders I have that this knife had by far the best, easiest and smoothest deployment which is a result of the ball bearing design.

This is also the first folding knife I’ve had that has an effortless closing when you press the liner lock button. With other liner lock folders I often find they bind slightly but this knife is effortless to close and open.

Hang Tough

The handle does have hole cut for you to thread a lanyard through which was a surprise. In testing though it occurred to me that although I look for this feature when testing blades I’ve never actually hung a knife and always stow in a pocket or on a belt.

Clip

The knife comes with an inobtrusive clip that’s sturdy and secure so you can attach the knife to a belt or inside a part of your pocket for security.

Gripes

I have one very small moan. The finger tip grip on top of the blade is a little bit too good and I find it rubs and pushes in to my finger a lot if I do precision work with it for more than 10 minutes.

Verdict

 The Roper Deputy Knife is a 3.25 inch 8CR13MOV Steel folding knife with an assisted opening ball bearing mechanism that’s legal in most states despite being deployable one handed. It has a smoothest opening and closing. This quality feel and rugged use EDC packs a lot of punch for less than $30.

BUY $29.99

Features and Specs

Closed Length: 4.25”
Blade Length: 3.25”

• Ball bearing pivot system
• 8CR13MOV satin finished blade
• Stainless steel frame lock
• Stainless steel pocket clip.

About Roper ABKT

American Buffalo Knife and Tool we offer a full line of cutlery and multi-tool products for our customers. We have spent many hours and a lot of effort to develop the best products at the best value for our customers.

Located in Sweetwater, TN, ABKT is a family owned company that values great customer service, as well as having a passion for our products, quality, and designs. We focused our attention on making the best quality and most unique designs for our dealers, distributors, and retailers.

ABKT offers several brands to cover a range of different markets as well as supplying OEM product with your logo.