The Back Bite has always been a strange knife on purpose. Colin Despins designed it around Russian martial arts movement, with a concave strike face, edges on both sides of the blade, and a shape built to work on the pull as hard as on the push. TOPS has sold that design since 2010, and the variant it was missing is here: the Back Bite Serrated, with full serrations ground into both edges, at $235 direct from TOPS.
This isn’t a cosmetic trim level. The serrated knife keeps the original’s frame and steel, swaps the handle scales to red and black G10, and leans on the one job serrations do better than a plain edge, tearing through fibrous material instead of skating across it. TOPS lists it at $235 against a $295 regular price, and the product page is throwing in the camo finish and handle tread options for free.
Price: $235.00
Regular Price: $295.00
You Save: $60.00
Where to buy: TOPS Knives
Teeth on the thrust and the reset
The geometry is the point of the design. The 4-inch blade carries a 3-inch cutting edge along the belly and a 1-inch secondary edge on top, both wrapped around the concave strike face Despins shaped for trapping and hooking. Serrating both edges changes what each pass does to the target. A plain edge slices, while a serrated edge bites in and tears, and on a knife built around the pull stroke, that bite is the whole argument. The teeth stay engaged with rope, webbing, seatbelt, and heavy clothing in a way a polished edge often doesn’t.
The trade is real. Serrations hold a working edge longer through rough, fibrous cutting, though they demand a ceramic or diamond rod and more patience when they finally dull, which is exactly the maintenance note TOPS prints on the product page. You’re choosing grip now and a slower sharpening session later.
TOPS sells the variant on coverage. Its own line for the knife is full-toothed coverage on every strike, and the logic follows the design: the thrust lands the main edge, the reset drags the top edge back across the target, and the concave face in between is shaped to trap and hook in close. Serrations make each of those contacts less dependent on a clean slicing angle, which is rarely available in the kind of use this knife is built for.
Same bones, new skin
Under the teeth, this is the Back Bite platform part for part. It runs 8.5 inches overall with a 0.190-inch-thick blade in 1095 carbon steel hardened to 56-58 RC under TOPS’ black traction coating, the same recipe the company puts under its Devil’s Claw 2. What changes is the handle and the scale: red and black G10, contoured for several grip positions, replaces the original’s black linen Micarta, and the serrated knife weighs 5.7 ounces against the original’s 5.5.
The blade shape itself is unchanged, including the flat chisel point and the Wharncliffe line of the top edge that TOPS built into the original. Nothing about the serrated version softens the concept, and that’s the point. It’s the same dedicated defensive tool, with tooth added where the original relied on edge polish.
The sheath carries over, black Kydex with a rotating spring steel clip, bringing the full carry package to 7.9 ounces. That rotating clip is what makes a fixed blade this size plausible as an everyday defensive carry, since the draw angle can be tuned to the belt instead of dictated by it.
The upkeep is part of the deal
1095 is tough, cheap to sharpen, and happy to rust if you give it the chance. TOPS’ own care guidance is plain about it: keep the blade clean and dry, keep a light coat of oil on the steel, and touch up the teeth with a rod instead of a flat stone. None of that’s unusual for carbon steel, though it does sort the buyer. This is a knife for people who maintain their tools.
The other check is legal rather than metallurgical. Two sharpened edges on a fixed blade are restricted in some places, and TOPS flags that on the page too. The knife is made in the USA and sold as available to order from TOPS, so give your local rules a minute before you check out.
Serrated or plain, both sit at $235 today
The launch extras are worth a line too. TOPS is currently offering its camo blade finish and the three handle tread patterns, Rocky Mountain, Diamond, and Coco-Drillo, as free add-ons on the serrated knife’s page, and a customized order can’t be cancelled once the work starts. If you want the tread, order it that way rather than planning to fix the grip later.
The deciding detail is the price. The plain-edge original lists at $235 with no discount, while the serrated version is marked down to $235 from $295, so the teeth currently cost nothing extra. If serrations are the point, and on a Despins pull-stroke design they usually are, the serrated knife is the buy while this pricing holds, because the original’s one real win, faster and simpler sharpening, pays out every day regardless of price. If your cutting is utility work rather than defensive carry, take the plain edge and the easier upkeep. For the buyer this family was designed for, the teeth settle it.
Price: $235.00
Regular Price: $295.00
You Save: $60.00
Where to buy: TOPS Knives
