REVIEW – I’m murdering onions tonight with the TACRAY Folding Kitchen Chef Knife! Designed for the kitchen and the campground, this beastie folds up for stowing like a pocket knife but boasts full-sized performance for your food prep needs. Don’t feel bad for the onions (they know what they did). To the review!
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $59.90
Where to buy: Amazon
What is it?
The TACRAY is a full-sized chef’s knife that folds up like a pocket knife for outdoor cooking adventures.
Tech specs
12.2″ total length (opened)
6.62″ length folded
5.5″ blade length
7.8 ounces
C VG-10 Blade Steel (HRC59) (see note below)
G10 handle
Button lock mechanism
Design and features
The TACRAY Folding Kitchen Knife comes in a 10″ and a 12″ model. The model I’m testing here is the bigger one, which actually comes in at a bit over 12″ when fully opened.
I’m amused that the box is labeled “Folding Pocket Knife.” Just for size comparison purposes, I laid out two pocket knives. You’ll need deep pockets for this bad boy.
Jokes aside, it actually does carry over a bunch of design elements you’d find in its smaller cousins that are very well executed. We’ve got a lovely G10 handle with a textured pattern to improve grip and resist slippage in wet conditions.
There’s both a sturdy belt clip and a ring if you want to attach a cord or lanyard to the knife for carrying.
The blade uses a patented button lock system. While it opens freely and locks in the fully opened position, you’ll push that stud button to release and close the blade.
The blade itself boasts an interesting shape that’s kind of a drop-point style. I’m a little confused about the steel type, which is alternately labeled as 10Cr15CoMoV and VG10 in the product description. The stamp on the base says VG10, so we’re going with that.
The handle sports an unusual curve and drop at the end that offsets the blade relative to the handle position. As you can see from the pic below, the handle is very long relative to the blade size.
In the closed position, the bottom third of the blade is nested within the handle.
The overall build is very well done. Machining is tight throughout with no burrs or sharp edges to be found where they shouldn’t be. The G10 handle sandwiches two layers of steel for reinforcement of the channel. Blade operation is smooth with some tension on opening to prevent accidentally releasing the blade.
Performance
I’ve used the TACRAY Folding Kitchen Chef Knife over the past month as my primary kitchen weapon. Its hybrid pocket/kitchen knife design is definitely unusual, but it performs surprisingly well despite a couple of odd quirks.
The obvious place to start is the overall knife form. Here I have it compared to my trusty 20+ year veteran (8″ Victorinox Fibrox) and my favorite paring knife from Artisan Revere. When you line them up, you immediately see the strange blade-to-handle ratio and that dramatic drop in the blade position relative to the handle. It almost looks like a hatchet/chopping design.
Here’s the interesting bit, though: looking at an overhead view, you can see that the blade is actually thinner than the Victorinox. Coupled with the shorter blade length, it makes for a knife that is surprisingly nimble to handle. It feels good to swing around while working through detailed slicing operations.
The natural grip for this blade is more like a pistol grip in my hands, given the ridiculous size of the handle. It feels nicely balanced and nimble from this position.
You can use a pinch grip as seen in the second pic below, but you can see that almost half of the huge handle is behind my hand in this position. That takes some getting used to. It’s a side effect of the foldable design, which requires that extra handle length to work.
While that takes some getting used to, the blade shape works very well for a variety of applications. Breaking down pork loins, trimming chicken breasts, mincing herbs & garlic, slicing cucumbers & other vegetables, even tackling harder produce like potatoes are all smooth and easy. I’m slicing onions here. The blade control is great and plenty sharp out of the box.
Here I’m cutting some VERY ripe tomatoes from my garden without pummeling them. That’s impressive.
The foldable design is a nice safety option (and space saver) if you’re looking for a traveling knife for camping, fishing, or other outdoor cooking use. I’ve had no issues with discoloration, rusting, or staining in either the handle or blade in my tests. It’s also plenty tough and durable, so it can take some rough use and drops in the dirt/rocks.
Final thoughts
Will the TACRAY Folding Kitchen Knife replace my current kitchen arsenal? No. I find that the ergonomics don’t match up when compared to my traditional kitchen knives for daily indoor use. That said, I believe it has an excellent use case for outdoor (and remote) cooking applications. The foldable blade is very portable, it’s comfortable to handle for extended periods, and the blade design is versatile enough to use as a single solution for slicing, mincing, chopping and trimming the proteins & produce by the campfire. It’s also very reasonably priced given the quality of the build.
What I like about the TACRAY Folding Kitchen Knife
- Very comfortable grip and handling
- Versatile blade design
- Durable
- Works well for intended outdoor use
What needs to be improved?
- Handle is very long relative to blade size; not ideal for pinch-style grips
Price: $59.90
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by TACRAY. TACRAY did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
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