Time for another review of Pine Survey Contributor KodiakDerBaer. He is taking a closer look at the Civivi Elementum Utility pocket knife. Enjoy!
Review: Civivi – Elementum Utility
Introduction
With utility knives being used for various hobby or work related tasks, having one that isn’t your run of the mill plastic doohickey makes sense. As someone who uses utility knives for heavy-duty hobbies, I was fortunate to get the chance to look into Civivi’s addition to this niche.
One wouldn’t necessarily think of a utility knife to be a great EDC knife outside certain professions. I decided to go that route anyway and carry it daily for 3 months to see what it brings to the table and if it can shine outside of its intended field.
Overview
The Civivi Elementum Utility is a utility knife that uses standard trapezoid cutter blades, which are affixed in a stainless steel bladeholder. The bladeholder features a stonewashed finish with the handle made from two halves of black aluminium. The shorter overall design lends itself to a 3 finger grip. The knife is remarkably compact weighing in at around 65g. The flip tab opening mechanism lends for fast one handed opening. The push button lock operates smoothly and is placed ergonomically to also allow single handed operation. For carrying, a reversible stainless steel deep carry pocket clip is featured.
Specs
- Overall Length: 150,2 mm
- Width: 30,3 mm
- Blade Length: 57,5 mm
- Closed Length: 92,7 mm
- Blade Holder Thickness: 3 mm
- Blade Thickness 0,6 mm
- Handle Thickness: 12 mm
- Knife Weight: 65,2 g
- Blade Steel: 6Cr13
- Bearing: Caged Ceramic Ball Bearing
- Handle Material: Aluminium
The Civivi Elementum Utility
The Civivi Elementum Utility is a small knife with a flip tab push button lock design, using caged ceramic ball bearing as a pivot.
The blade holder is made from stainless steel and comes with a standard utility blade made from 6cr13 steel mounted. A single torx screw, that’s secured with loctite blue from the factory, holds the blade in place. The knife features both a flip tab and as a thumb stud for opening as well as jimping on the flip tab and back of the blade holder.
The handle is made from smooth aluminium with a finger groove at the front. With the handle being on the shorter side it has only room for 3 fingers. The solid aluminium halves are held together by two screws at the bottom and the pivot screw, with no back spacer in between. The usage of caged ceramic ball bearings in the pivot result in the smoothest possible action.
The deep carry pocket clip can be mounted either on the left or right side, allowing you to adapt the knife to your carrying preferences. A lanyard hole allows you to attach a cord to give your pinky a place to hold on to.
Level of Manufacture
As usual the quality of Civivi knives leaves little to be desired, and is amongst the best in this price range. The Elementum Utility is no exception. It is built solidly with a tight lockup and smooth opening. If anything at all one could criticize the small flaws in the grooves on the button lock, which are only noticeable when looking for them specifically.
The Civivi Elementum Utility in use
After carrying the Civivi Elementum Utility for several months on a daily basis I got a pretty good picture of what it is and what it is not suited for.
On the one hand it excels at cutting cardboard, opening letters and removing miniature parts from their casting frames, so typical utility knife tasks. The exchangeable blade is perfect for these high attrition tasks, as you can just throw on a replacement. In addition you can always use one of the other types of trapezoidal utility blades to expand on your toolset.
On the other hand, when i had to use it as an impromptu steak knife during my holidays i was reminded why i usually carry a regular drop point bladed pocket knife. It is just not fun to clean accumulated food remains from under the blade.
In addition to those typical knife tasks, the Civivi Elementum Utility is an excellent fidget tool with the flip tab, the smooth bearings and the easily actuated button lock.
Conclusion
This knife brings exactly what it claims to be to the table. The Civivi Elementum Utility is an excellent utility knife which hasn’t quite made it into my EDC rotation but sits on my desk at home always ready for some tinkering or opening the occasional letter. Furthermore I find myself fidgeting with the smooth action regularly.
So if you have a hobby or job involving utility knives, the Civivi Elementum Utility is definitely worth considering, be it for its fidgedability alone.
Thanks to Civivi for making this review possible!
Thank you for your attention.
