Interesting construction from Hungary,

The Shapeshifter from Scorpiodesign is a somewhat more refined knife of this design.

The Shapeshifter is from 2006 - chances are, that the Hungarian knife is a copy of/leans heavily on the Löbach designed ScorpioDesign knife.

In German.

 
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That Shapeshifter looks like a nice knife, but I am not paying $730 for VG-10...
 
That’s pretty damn cool. I wonder if it would stand up to typical fixed blade things such as battoning, chopping, etc.??
 
A bit of Shapeshifter blurb:

The ScorpioDesign Shapeshifter knives look and function like nothing else out there. They utilize a patented toggle lever lock that runs across a channel cut into the blade itself, allowing the handle to come apart in separate pieces and realign over the cutting edge.


Because these knives don’t close like traditional folders, a Shapeshifter can house a very long blade relative to the handle. The blades come in a variety of beautiful Damascus steels, a reflection of ScorpioDesign founder and designer Gunther Löbach’s scholastic background. Löbach studied Metal Design at a university level, and wrote a book about damascus. Steel aside, all the Shapeshifters are, in Löbach’s words, “Totally mesmerizing to play with.”

The toggle lever lock is resistant to grit and dirt, totally ambidexterous, and still falls within the strict German knife law allowances. He classifies the EDC and Talisman models as capable gentleman’s folders, and the BYOCK is designed to be used in the kitchen (BYOCK stands for Bring Your Own Chef’s Knife).

For all its intricacy, it only took Löbach 3 months to come up with the mechanism. In fact, the first Shapeshifter was part of his university studies. “It was a large and somewhat unwieldy model, which also had a different locking mechanism,” says Löbach. That was in 2006. By 2008 he had refined the design into the Shapeshifter E.D.C., the first of the Shapeshifter line. It was followed by the Talisman, a neck knife variant, and eventually the BYOCK. Löbach has customers who have used the knives as tools for years.

Löbach has another experimental knife design in the works. Called the Maglock, it is a new style of automatic knife that uses magnets instead of springs. “It had a few minor flaws which I want to improve on,” Löbach told us, “so I plan to do a second version of that in the near future.”

EDIT: Removed embedded links to non-supporting vendor.
 
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anthonycastorena2014 said:
That’s pretty damn cool. I wonder if it would stand up to typical fixed blade things such as battoning, chopping, etc.??
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In regards to the Günther Löbach designed Shapeshifter knife from 2006, the above linked to video (in German) stresses, that the Shapeshifter EDC is for relatively light slicing and cutting jobs.

The construction almost dictates this.

In the vid, a piece of paper is sliced and a stick whittled.
 
Several have been 'inspired' by the design?

Here a video (not German but accented English);


This person (known here for his slingshots and other contraptions) even made a folding Kuk inspired by the Shapeshifter design!

 
NJBillK said:
That Shapeshifter looks like a nice knife, but I am not paying $730 for VG-10...
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I remember looking at the Löbach design years ago (when it came out or a few years after) and being very interested.

Got turned off by the price.

Its nifty but not that nifty.

That kinda dough can buy several great knives.
 
Just ordered a Sanjia Leech off the big river site for <$15 shipped... that'll satisfy my need for an example to add to the "weird/unusual mechanism" section of the collection :).

~Chip
 
WValtakis said:
Just ordered a Sanjia Leech off the big river site for <$15 shipped... that'll satisfy my need for an example to add to the "weird/unusual mechanism" section of the collection :).

~Chip
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Thats a ways from the Shapeshifter EDC price:D

Let us know, how it works, pls:thumbsup:
 
The Sanjia Leech showed up today, initial impression is actually quite good (especially for the dirt cheap price).

First, the good...action is smooth on Teflon washers and lockup is actually rock solid. Once you get the hang of it one hand opening is easy and has a high fidget factor ;). They kept the thin blade stock of the original, with a hollow grind so it should actually cut quite well. And blade to handle ratio is almost exactly 1:1 (3.1":3.25")

The bad...who knows what its made of, I anticipate frequent resharpening if I actually use it. And its heavy, probably due to the pot metal scales. I'll likely make some g-10 replacements that should lighten it up quite a bit.

~Chip
 
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