Work Sharp’s Madrone got a second act this morning. A Reserve Series run built with Big Idea Design swaps the folder’s Cerakote aluminum handle for solid Grade 5 titanium, keeps the M390 clip point blade and the convertible manual-to-automatic mechanism, and stops at 750 pieces. It went on sale today. The price is $299.95, sold direct from Work Sharp’s own store.
The original launched in June at $179.95, its handle machined from a single billet of aluminum and finished in Black, Blue Titanium, or Copper Suede Cerakote. We covered the base Madrone at its June launch, and the pitch was easy to follow: an integral handle with no scales to loosen, a premium blade steel, and a pivot you can reconfigure on your own bench.
Same blade. Same size. New metal, hard cap.
Work Sharp Madrone Titanium Clip Point x Big Idea Design Reserve Series
Grade 5 titanium integral handle machined from one solid piece · Böhler M390 clip point blade, 60-62 HRC · Limited Reserve Series run of 750
Price: $299.95
Where to buy: Buy at Work Sharp
Titanium, machined from one solid piece
Big Idea Design built its name on Grade 5 titanium EDC gear. This is its material, and it shows. The handle is integral, precision-machined from a single solid piece of titanium, so there are no scales, no liners, and no handle screws to work loose over time. Work Sharp credits the swap with the strength and corrosion resistance titanium is known for. The Cerakote colors are gone. Bare titanium, same angular shape.
Titanium also adds weight. The spec sheet doesn’t hide it: 4.4 ounces against the aluminum original’s 3.3. A full ounce heavier. On a knife this size, an ounce is what you feel at the end of a long day: the drag on a waistband, the weight against a leg, every time you sit down. That’s the trade. Aluminum carries lighter. Titanium shrugs off the scratches, sweat, and salt air that eat a coating alive, with no Cerakote left to chip.
The blade carries over untouched
Up front, nothing changed. Nothing needed to. The blade is a 3.25-inch clip point in Böhler M390, satin bead-blasted, run at 60 to 62 HRC, with a 20-degree factory edge ground into 0.09-inch stock. M390 is the steel makers reach for when edge retention leads the brief. It was the strongest part of the June knife. So Work Sharp kept it. Exactly as it was.
Work Sharp spent decades building sharpeners before it sold a knife of its own, and the blade shows that background. A clip point’s fine tip handles detail work. The belly handles the daily slice. M390 holds its edge through both.
Manual in the box, automatic on your bench
The mechanism is the Madrone’s signature. The titanium run keeps it. Work Sharp calls it a convertible: the knife ships as a manual folder, and the owner can switch it to automatic deployment at home, following the maker’s step-by-step video guide. Instructions ride along via a QR code in the user guide. And the lock holds the blade open and closed alike, per the maker’s spec table.
Work Sharp’s own FAQ lays out the legal shape of it. Automatic knives can’t ship to civilians across state lines under federal rules, which is why the knife ships as a manual. Work Sharp won’t convert and return one either, for the same reason, and it tells buyers to check their state laws before making the swap. Know your local rules first. The hardware gives you the choice; the law decides whether you can take it.
Carry is the base knife’s deep-carry clip, tip-up and reversible, and it rides low.
750 pieces, one store
Reserve Series is Work Sharp’s label for small-batch runs, and the pattern so far is that they end. The RMX Reverse Tanto Blackout, the last Reserve knife on the same store shelf, sits sold out. Gone.
This run is 750 pieces at $299.95, sold only through Work Sharp’s store, and Big Idea Design’s own shop carries no listing for it. A lifetime warranty backs the knife. Each box also includes a discount card toward a Work Sharp sharpener.
Nothing about the run is discounted. Nothing pretends to be. It’s a full-price limited edition of a knife that already had a following at $180, aimed squarely at the people who saw the June launch, handled the aluminum one, and wanted the same knife built from the premium material instead. The bet underneath it is simple: that audience exists, and 750 knives is a small number to offer it.
| Blade length | 3.25 in |
|---|---|
| Blade steel | Böhler M390 |
| Blade finish | Satin (bead blast) |
| Hardness | 60-62 HRC |
| Blade thickness | 0.09 in |
| Edge angle | 20° |
| Handle | Grade 5 titanium, integral |
| Mechanism | Manual-to-auto convertible |
| Open length | 7.65 in |
| Closed length | 4.4 in |
| Weight | 4.4 oz |
| Clip | Deep-carry, tip-up, reversible |
| Warranty | Lifetime |
| Edition | 750 pieces, Reserve Series |
Work Sharp Madrone Titanium Clip Point x Big Idea Design Reserve Series
Manual-to-automatic convertible mechanism, converts at home · 7.65 in open, 4.4 oz · Lifetime warranty
Price: $299.95
Where to buy: Buy at Work Sharp
The $120 step over the aluminum Madrone buys two things. Titanium, and scarcity. If you carry a knife hard every day and liked the June original, the standard knife still does the same work for less money, a full ounce lighter. If you wanted the Madrone the day it launched and wished it came in the material Big Idea Design is known for, this is that knife, and 750 is not a big number.
Either way, the conversion trick remains the best reason to look at the platform. Plenty of folders open two ways. Very few let the owner decide which one it is. This one does, at home, with the maker’s blessing.
