Pro-Tech’s Godfather is the big Italian-style automatic the company built its name on, a 4-inch blade in a handle to match. The Godson is that knife cut down to a 3.15-inch blade, and the smaller knife is the one most pockets can actually carry. The base model, the 720, pairs a bead-blasted spear point with a black anodized aluminum handle, and it skips the ornament the custom end of the same line sells for thousands.
Pro-Tech sells through its dealers. That number has held while plenty of American automatics climbed past it, pushed up by steel prices and small-batch costs, which is a large part of why this knife keeps its following: the entry ticket to the line never moved.
Pro-Tech Godson 720
3.15-inch spear point in 154CM, bead-blast finish · Coil-spring automatic, made in the USA
Price: $165.00 $220.00 (save $55.00, 25% off)
Where to buy: Buy at Blade HQ
Italian lines, California machining
Pro-Tech is a family-owned company in Placentia, California, building knives since 1999.
It works in small batches and hand fits and finishes each knife, a slower way to run a factory that shows in how consistently these actions fire, knife after knife.
The outline comes from Italy. Long, slim, symmetrical, the spear point riding high and the handle tapering the way a stiletto’s should.
Pro-Tech describes the Godson as the small version of the Godfather, built on the same coil-spring action in a carryable size. The design took Blade Magazine’s Investor/Collector Knife of the Year award in 2014, an early sign the collectors were watching.
They still are. The engraved, hand-finished custom Godsons on the company’s own store run from $715 to over $6,000, damascus and mastodon ivory at the top. The $165 knife at dealers wears the exact same outline, and that shared bloodline is a fair slice of its appeal.
Nothing about the shape chases trends. It looked like this in 2014. It looks like this now.
A 3.15-inch spear point in 154CM
The blade is 154CM stainless with a bead-blast finish. The blast keeps reflections down and hides the fine scratches a working knife picks up in its first month. A polished blade shows every one of them by lunch.
Geometry is a flat grind on a spear point, the tip on the centerline. A piercing cut starts straight instead of skating off line, and the edge still slices like a normal knife because the grind never gets exotic. The profile also presents the edge the same way from either side, a small symmetry working knife buyers feel the first time they cut toward a thumb.
Steel choice stays practical. Crucible’s 154CM takes a fine edge, holds it through cardboard, cord and strap webbing, and shrugs off the moisture a pocket carries through a summer day. It sharpens on ordinary stones, no diamond plates required, and it tolerates neglect better than the high-carbide steels that charge more for the privilege. That suits a knife meant to be used rather than archived.
Firing runs on a coil spring, and Pro-Tech’s springs hit with a snap that has become the brand’s signature. Press the button and the blade locks open. Press it again and it releases. No wrist flick, no two-hand close, no drama in either direction. At this size it’s a cutter, not a pry tool.
Boxes, cord, packaging, campsite food prep: that’s the workload, and a 3.15-inch blade covers all of it without ever feeling like a sword in the pocket.
Four inches of handle, three ounces of knife
Closed, the 720 measures 4.41 inches. Open, 7.56. Weight is 3.2 ounces.
At three ounces it disappears. The clip, set for tip-up right-hand carry, mostly gets forgotten by the leg it rides against, and the slim handle never prints through a pocket the way wider automatics do.
Handle material is 6061 aluminum with a solid texture. No inlays, no milling patterns machined in for grip’s sake. Blasted hardware matches the blade, black over gray throughout.
Variants fill out the family on the same frame: the 721 blackens the blade, a blue handle version brightens the 720, and left-hand builds exist for the other pocket. Same action, same size, different dress.
Regulation runs state by state, sometimes city by city, so the local rule is worth a check before an auto rides along.
| Overall length | 7.56 inches |
| Blade | 3.15 inches, spear point (stiletto) |
| Steel | 154CM stainless, bead-blast finish |
| Handle | 4.41 inches, black anodized 6061 aluminum |
| Lock | Button (plunge) lock, coil-spring automatic |
| Clip | Standard 3-hole, tip-up, right-hand |
| Weight | 3.2 ounces |
| Origin | Made in the USA |
The other American automatic in this money
Amazon doesn’t sell the Godson.
Kershaw Launch 15
3.5-inch blade · Push-button automatic
Price: $189.99
Where to buy: Buy on Amazon
It runs bigger in the pocket and costs $25 more, with a wider blade profile built for utility cuts. The Godson stays slimmer, keeps the stiletto lines, and undercuts it. Which one belongs in a pocket depends on whether the knife is a tool first or a profile first.
Pro-Tech Godson 720
4.41-inch black anodized 6061 aluminum handle · 3.2 ounces, tip-up right-hand clip · Family-owned in Placentia, California since 1999 · Button (plunge) lock
Price: $165.00 $220.00 (save $55.00, 25% off)
Where to buy: Buy at Blade HQ
Plenty of automatics cost more and do less with the shape. This one keeps the Godfather’s lines, the California build, and the snap, at the price of a mid-range manual folder, and it’s kept all three for a decade without a redesign. The trade is blade length, and at 3.15 inches, most days never ask for more.
