Review: Civivi – Sendy

Introduction

Some time ago, I received the Civivi Sendy for an article and was curious what to expect. The straight design, clean lines and drop point blade made it look like an ideal EDC or gentleman knife. With various variations to choose from, including another variant with a spey-point blade, it was hard to decide which one to look at.

In the end, I decided on the drop point version with green canvas micarta. So let’s have a quick overview for those in a hurry, before going into more detail.

Overview

The Sendy is a small EDC knife designed by Ben Petersen for Civivi knives. It has an overall length of 16,55cm, with a blade length of 7,2cm. The flat ground Nitro-V blade is gray stonewashed and can be opened by a flipper that is supported by ceramic ball bearings. The locking mechanism is a liner lock and the clip can be attached for both right and left hand carrying. The Sendy comes with a toothpick and steel tweezers, both of which are nicely hidden in the canvas micarta scales and actually usable.

Specs

Overall length: 16,55cm
Blade length: 7,2cm
Blade thickness: 2,3mm
Weight (incl. tweezers, toothpick): 67,8g

Blade steel: Nitro-V (59-61HRC)
Handle Material: Canvas Micarta

The Civivi Sendy

The Civivi Sendy is a small EDC knife with an overall length of 16,55cm when open and 9,35cm when closed. It flicks open forcefully as a result of the specially placed flipper that points to the top rather than to the side. Additional assistance of ceramic ball bearings provide a smooth action. It locks with a satisfying click and the liner lock holds the blade nice and secure.

This version of the Civivi Sendy features a drop-point blade (other variants are available with a spey-point) made of Nitro-V steel, hardened to 59-61HRC. The top of the spine has a subtle jimping that is enough to keep a decent grip for your thumb. The blade is flat ground and comes razor sharp out of the box.

Both the blade as well as the liner material (which is made of stainless steel) feature a gray stonewash finish. This is much nicer than the glossy finish of other knives, or the polished steel. It gives the knife a high quality look and feel. The liner is skeletonized to save weight.

Looking at the Micarta scales, one can say that these are nicely finished, warm to the touch and a welcoming combination to the stonewashed finish of the steel. The micarta material provides a firm grip and is nicely finished. The scales are attached via the pivot screw as well as with two smaller screws to the back. These feature the same stonewashed finish.

A deep carry pocket clip with a tight and strong tension, keeps the knife securely in your pockets. It is reversible, so if you are a lefty and prefer to carry your knife in your left pocket, it is easy to change that clip.

Looking at the back of the knife, one can see a micarta spacer as well as a lanyard tunnel. On the two backsides, under the Micarta scales one will also find two nice and very useful gimmicks: a toothpick and a set of tweezers, which are both nicely hidden as one might know from Swiss Army knives.

Level of Manufacture

Civivi knives feature an impressive bang for the buck ratio. Using high quality materials, and features like ceramic ball bearings, one cannot ask for more, when looking at the Sendy. The tolerances are quite tight, the fit and finish of all the parts is excellent and the level of detail has to be appreciated (e.g. the stonewashed screws). There are no rough traces of the manufacturing.

All this gives the knife a valuable feel and makes it a pleasure to carry.

The Civivi Sendy in use

Some might remember that I had some doubts about the Civivi Baklash and its finish, while at the same time having it as one of my main EDC knives. The Civivi Sendy leaves no such feelings – it was a pleasure from the get go. The stonewash finish gives the knife a different value in perception. But these are just the looks. It also performs perfectly in everyday life situations.

The small profile of the knife and the deep carry clip make it literally disappear in your pocket. One cannot feel it, because of its size and profile. At the same time it is quickly deployed and cuts like a little demon through almost everything one throws at it. Of course the size also limits its use, but for EDC and the often occurring cutting tasks, this is a very useful blade, which is also not intimidating, thus being user friendly for social settings.

Both additional gimmicks are quite nice as well. While the toothpick might be a bit too hard as it is steel, caution is advised. The tweezers however are actually working. Personally I did not expect them to, as I am used to the poor performance of the Swiss Army knife tweezers. These however, have enough tension to grab, hold and pull a single hair.

Other than that the flipper and the ceramic ball bearings make it fun to play with the knife. It is just as quickly deployed as it is stowed away, creating surprised looks, what just happened, and why the cutting deed is already done.

Conclusion

The Civivi Sendy is a perfect gentleman knife for EDC tasks, and cannot be recommended enough. Is this the shortest conclusion ever? Maybe.

All in all, the overall level of manufacture, the clean design and the comfort in both carrying and using the knife speak for themself. It is a nice little cutter that is user and socially friendly and the tweezers and toothpick are not only gimmicks, they are actually useful.

The bang for the buck factor is impressive in this knife and with that being said, I want to thank Civivi for making this review possible.

Many thanks for reading!

Take care!