A Gateway slipjoint with a coffin look October in Hamburg. Fog is rolling in from the harbour, and in St. Pauli the first plastic skeleton is hanging in a shop window. Jack Wolf Knives has timed this well: the Coffin is a slipjoint whose handle looks like a little coffin. Macabre? Okay, a bit. In the hand, though, it feels surprisingly cosy. The coffin pattern is an old friend among traditionals. The handle tapers towards both ends and breaks into angular corners along the sides, and it’s exactly this silhouette that gave the pattern its name. Ben Belkin, founder and designer of Jack Wolf Knives in Scottsdale, Arizona, has carefully modernised the shape. A keystone shield in the handle scale shows where it all comes from. Gateway – your way into the Jack Wolf world The Coffin is part of the Gateway series, and the name is meant literally: Gateway is the front door to Jack Wolf and to traditional pocket knives in general. Price-wise, the series sits well below the premium models, yet it holds its own on fit and finish. To get there, Jack Wolf relies on modern manufacturing. Where old pocket knives are often built from thin stamped parts, Gateway parts are made from thicker steel on CNC mills and wire EDM machines, with integrally milled bolsters. Liners and backspring are joined without any gaps, and the handle scales are fitted with absolute precision. The nickel silver pins you see on the outside work as decoration and alignment aid at the same time. Assembly and final finishing, right down to the finished edge, are done by hand. Blade and dimensions The blade is flat ground from Sandvik 14C28N, hardened to 58–59 HRC. The steel is stainless, takes a fine edge and is back on track with a few passes on the stone after a week of parcel tape. A 72.4 mm blade with 63.3 mm of cutting edge at 2.5 mm thick – easily enough for your lunchtime sandwich and the post. Closed, the Coffin measures 90.2 mm and weighs around 58 g (with slight differences depending on the variant). You’ll barely notice it in your jeans pocket, even next to your keys. The handle scales come in several variants, including canvas Micarta and smooth black bone. Slipjoint action It opens the classic way, via the nail nick. The backspring holds the blade open, there’s a half stop on the way, and there is no lock. The Coffin is made for anyone who has been carrying flippers and liner locks so far and wants to find out what traditionals are all about. And if you already have a few Jack Wolfs in your setup, this is one that doesn’t need to be kept for best. Coffin open, blade out, apple sliced. October doesn’t get any spookier than that.
