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Spyderco UK Penknife C94 Lightweight has a 3 inch long, GIN-1 stainless steel, hollow ground, leaf shaped blade and FRN handle. Available with maroon, grey or blue FRN and plain edge, part serrated of fully serrated edge blade.

Manufactured by Hitachi Foundry, GIN-1 steel has improved edge retention compared to 440C steel, with better corrosion resistance than ATS-34 or AUS-10 steel.

Also released, UK Penknife C94-3 Lightweight, drop point blade version with the same handle colour and blade type options. C94OR-2 is the rescue blade version of the UK Penknife now also released with low cost FRN handle and GIN-1 steel blade, orange handle and serrated blade only.

Spyderco UK Penknife C94 Lightweight, C94OR-2, C94-3, price: £45.99 plus postage

Spyderco Bob Terzuola Knife C131 Slipit Knife

Spyderco Terzuola Slipit Knife C131 has a 3 inch long, 2.5 mm thick, S30V, stainless modified sheep-foot blade. The nested dual stainless handle liners include ball-bearing detents which control the blade position. Blade is held fully open, fully closed or in the halfway position with additional force required to move from these positions.

Spyderco Terzuola Slipit Knife C131 price: £95.99 including UK delivery.

Eickhorn Knives Pocket Rescue Tool 5 PRT V 102142 made in Germany, part-serrated, locking blade with button lock release on the handle. The handle has non-slip rubber inlay, a secondary seat belt cutter blade and emergency tempered glass-breaker.

Each knife is individually serial numbered and supplied in a gift-tin with pivot-pin adjustment tool

Eickhorn Knives Pocket Rescue Tool 5 PRT V 102142 price: £46.49 including UK delivery.

Tool Logic SLPlier (SLPLY) now in stock. The SL Plier has a 3 inch, part serrated locking blade with folding pliers and bit holder in the handle.

One of Tool Logic's 2009 product range, the SLPLY has a stainless handle with zytel overlay on one side. The Tool Logic SL Plier SLPLY includes a mini bit holder in the end of the handle with small and large Philips / flat head bits included.

ToolLogic SL Plier price: £29.99 including UK delivery.

ToolLogic Rescue Knife SL6 now in stock. The SL6 rescue knife has a 3 inch, liner-lock, blunt-ended rescue hook blade with sharpened inner surface.

The newest addition to the ToolLogic SL range has the same synthetic black outer handle with waterproof accessory sleeve, built in whistle and pocket clip. The Tool Logic SL6 Rescue Knife includes a removable hardened glass breaker / LED torch combo. This is for emergency use on tempered vehicle glass and is meant to be operated separately from the knife.

ToolLogic SL-6 price: £28.99 including UK delivery

Case Sodbuster Jr. Yellow Handle Knife now in stock. The Sod Buster Junior measures 16.5 cm (6.5 inches) open, with a 7 cm (2.75 inch) hollow ground, stainless blade.

The simple design has a very secure back-spring which literally snaps the blade open and requires considerable force to close the blade.

The handle liners and rivets are made of brass and the handle scales are synthetic composition with smoothed-off edges. Case Sodbuster Jr. Black Handle Knife is also available for the same price.

Spyderco Centofante 4 Wharncliffe Blade Lock Knife C66PBK4

Spyderco Centofante 4 C66PBK4 now in stock. One of Spyderco's 2009 range of lock knives, 76 mm long, hollow ground VG-10 blade made in Japan, designed by U.S. custom knifemaker, Frank Centofante

Named after the sixteenth century Earl of Wharncliffe, the traditional Wharncliffe blade has a perfectly straight edge with the blade back forming a convex arc towards the tip. In this Spyderco version, the blade back curves downwards from half-way along the blade. The curved portion of the blade back has an unsharpened swedge, producing a thinner blade tip. The blade is 2mm thick, hollow ground VG-10 steel with a jimped thumb ramp above the 12 mm diameter thumb hole.

Spyderco Centofante 4 Knife has matte textured, fibreglass reinforced nylon handle scales with with grip-enhancing furrows on one side. There is a single sided, nested steel handle liner into which the pocket clip screws are anchored. The pocket clip may be positioned for right handed tip up or tip down carry. Compared to the Spyderco Delica 4, the Centofante-4 weighs less due to the single sided nested handle liner, and thinner blade profile.

Spyderco Urban Wharncliffe Blade now in stock. One of Spyderco's 2009 range of non-locking knives. The Urban Wharncliffe Blade knife has a 65mm long, plain edge VG-10 flat ground blade and is made in Japan. The design is non-locking with a blade length below 3 inches, and is by definition a pen knife under UK law.

Named after the sixteenth century Earl of Wharncliffe, the traditional Wharncliffe blade has a perfectly straight edge with the blade back forming a convex arc towards the tip. In the Spyderco version, the curve of the blade is accentuated by the thumb hole. The result is a blade back which gradually curves from spine cusp to blade point, producing a less sharp blade tip. The handle of the Urban Wharncliffe Blade Knife is safety-orange coloured G-10. Composed of layers of glass cloth laminated with epoxy resin, G-10 is a resilient and practically indestructable material. Due to the lightweight nature of the handle material, the Urban knife weighs just 57g. The side-changeable, deep pocket clip allows the knife to be clipped flat inside a pocket, with the clip on the outside.

Chris Reeve Damascus Blade Knives now in stock. Each knife is a unique, one-off creation.The Damascus Mnandi knife has a 2.75 inch blade with thumbnail recess on both sides, which allows one-handed opening. The handle is titanium with jigged Madagascar rosewood inlay. The blade is Devin Thomas stainless, ladder pattern damascus steel.

Devin Thomas stainless damascus steel is a combination of approximately 90 % AEB-L steel and 10 % 304 steel. Swedish-made AEB-L contains 12.8 % chromium and has excellent toughness, edge retention, workability, ease of sharpening and ease of polishing. The AEB-L steel is mechanically forged to the softer 304 steel to produce the raw material for the blade. The final blade has been finished, heat-treated and tempered before being etched with ferric chloride to bring out the pattern.

The Spyderco Mariner Salt Knife has a serrated edge H1 Steel Blade and is priced at £155.00. H1 steel is a precipitation hardened alloy with 0.1 % nitrogen instead of carbon. This produces a 100% rust free blade with hardness and edge retention comparable to premium carbon based steels.

Spyderco Salt Series knives also include rust free internal components with titanium pocket clips.

The Mariner Salt Knife measures 121 mm closed with a 95 mm (3.75 inch) locking blade. The non-rust steel handle features a drying vent and a 2-position titanium pocket clip.

The Spyderco Atlantic Salt Knife has a blunt tipped, non-rust, H1 steel blade and lightweight FRN handle and is used by UK lifeboat crews.

The Surefire E1B Backup is an ultra compact, dual output LED flashlight. High output gives 80 lumens of 'tactical level lighting'. This is defined as sufficient brightness to destroy night adapted vision and temporarily blind another person. Low output gives 5 lumens of useful light.

Runtime is an impressive 37 hours at low level, using a single 123A lithium battery which is included with the flashlight. The E1B Backup measures 4 inches long with a bezel diameter of 1 inch and weighs only 79 g. The tailcap switch acts as momentary on / off using light pressure or constant on / off by clicking. A second press or click within 2 seconds activates the low output setting. UK Price: £149.99 (includes battery)

News has emerged of 2 new Spyderco Slipit production prototypes, although it is not known when these will become available in the UK. These are The Bob Terzuola Slipit and UK Penknife Rescue. The Terzuola knife has a ball-bearing slip-joint and 3 inch, flat ground, S-30V blade while the UKPK Rescue may be produced with a hollow ground blade.

Spyderco first introduced folding knives with pocket clips - 'clipits', blades with thumb-holes and serrated edge blades. These have all been copied by other manufacturers and are now industry standard features. The on-going legal changes in the UK and worldwide are now influencing knife design. Increasingly negative media publicity surrounding knives has affected consumer demand for knives.

Spyderco have stated their intention to produce 'legal, socially friendly, politically correct knives that we enjoy carrying' The 'Slipit' knife has a non locking blade held open by a notched-joint / slip-joint. This is a safety feature which requires additional force to close the blade, preventing possible injury to the user by accidental closure. There is also an additional half-way closing stop. The range of 'Slipits' knives is now expanding to become the next generation of folding knives.

The owner of Spyderco Knives has revealed that lower cost versions of Spyderco's Urban and UK Penknife are in the pipeline. The Company has commented that sales volume for the recently launched Urban models remains low. Many would-be buyers have been put off by the hefty UK price tag of £105

However, as the Spyderco Urban Knife retails for $149.95 in the USA, the UK price is not so unreasonable after all. The UK buying public is still coming to terms with the recent devaluation of the Pound Sterling agains the US dollar. The days of snapping up bargains imported from the USA are over. A situation was reached in 2007 when one Pound would buy two 2 US dollars. This was an historic aberration compared to the usual exchange rate of one pound to approx 1.8 US dollars. Currently the pound has undershot this value, although the situation is slowly improving.

The Urban knife has a 3 mm thick, flat-ground VG-10 steel blade, lightweight G-10 handle with wire pocket clip. These are obviously premium grade components, with the notch-joint spring and torx-screw assembly also adding to the cost.

The notch-joint design requires quite complex engineering for to work properly. In a conventional slip-joint, non locking folding knife the spring is composed of a softer material than the blade steel. The contact point of the spring with the blade tang gradually wears down over time. This is not possible in a notch-joint which would stop working after continual opening and closing. In the manufacture of the UK Penknife, which has a CPM-S30V blade, a blade steel is also used for the spring and special heat treatment is applied to prevent wearing down of the spring and notch joint.

The lower cost models will have thinner blades and injection molded FRN handles instead of costly, machined G-10.

Spyderco is ahead of the curve by monitoring customer demand and tailoring the end products accordingly. The Urban knife is designed to appear less threatening for carrying in public and is slightly smaller than the UK Penknife. This was partly in response to feedback from UK Penknife owners. The black handle colour was also dropped in favour of foliage green or safety orange . The global trend towards smaller, non-locking knives is due to increasing legislation and negative media publicity about knives in general.

The Independent Newspaper reported that London police have stepped up stop and search activities in the past year. In addition, Operation Blunt 2 involved setting up 'knife arches' at tube and train stations. During this time the police have managed to build up intelligence on knife crime. This shows that cases of robberies or assault involving knives occur most often immediately after school closing hours. These crimes are also associated with disturbances which have occurred during school time.

Police stated that 287,898 people have been stopped and searched in London in the past year. This has led to 10,266 arrests with 90% of those caught in posession of a knife being charged. In all, 5,480 knives have been seized by police. Stop and search activities in relation to non-terrorist related incidents increased by 40%. Compared to the previous year, fewer knives are being discovered by police. This may be due to the deterrent effect the police activities are having on knife carrying.

Police figures for the past year show that serious stab injuries in London have fallen by 30%, and knife crime in general has fallen by 11.5%. The number of youths killed or injured in knife related crimes has also fallen compared to the previous year

The report also highlighted that knife crime has been falling in London every year since 2004. The accuracy of knife crime statistics is also questionable since many cases of stabbing are not reported to the police. What the report does not mention is the wider problem of gang culture and violence. And what are the motivating factors which cause school age youths to form gangs and carry weapons.