You won’t be using the 37G to saw your way out of the cockpit of your F/A 18 after being shot down behind enemy lines. Also available is a limited edition (300 pieces) 37G in cooperation with climber Conrad Anker, the proceeds of which will go to support Anker’s Khumbu Climbing Center in Nepal, a school that trains local Sherpas in climbing techniques and safety. The G10 mini-scale is one of several options (including a scaleless version at 34 grams). Despite this, the Baladéo's blade lockup felt good, and the knife is user serviceable via tiny Torx fasteners. For comparison, my Chris Reeve Sebenza (below), with titanium scales and a blade the same 3.75" length, weighs 130 grams. That’s less than an ounce and a half, just hardly even there (and the company makes a smaller model called the 15G). The model I held is called the 37G, for its weight in grams. I expected it to be light, but I was unprepared for just how light. It was knife design reduced to, as the writer Thomas McGuane once described an elegant skiff, a “simple linear gesture.” The spine of the blade and the back of the handle comprised a single graceful curve. On a plexiglass display stand stood an impossibly slender folding knife, a mere wisp of stainless steel accented by an even fainter wisp of black G10 scale material. Last Saturday, on a tip from Mario Donovan of Adventure Trailers, I strolled past the Baladéo booth-and stopped in my tracks. Nevertheless, when I scan knifemakers’ booths at venues such as the Outdoor Retailer show, it takes something special to stop me in my tracks. And in the end, the steel is really what a knife is all about. Top-end modern blades now combine toughness, strength, and edge-holding in levels unimaginable just two decades ago. How much innovation is really possible? Also, to be fair, it’s beyond doubt that steel technology has progressed substantially the last couple of decades. I suppose one could ask just how much true original thinking we can expect in this oldest of all Mankind’s manufactured tools. (“TWEEEET! Somebody help! I can’t get reception on the Discovery Channel!”) Gerber’s Bear Grylls “Signature” knife includes a pocket survival guide and an emergency whistle on the lanyard cord. (Ever tried to sharpen the corner on a tanto point?) Sheath knives with Kraton handles, half-serrated edges, and saw teeth on the back? Pass. “Tactical” folders with assisted opening, black-oxidized blades, and tanto points? Yawn. It’s easy to become jaded viewing recent knife designs, 99 percent of which are chasing various black-ops/street-fighter/wilderness-survival fads.