Carrying gear well is as much about the small stuff as it is the tool itself: how it rides in a pocket, how it stays put, how easy it is to find in the dark. These three updates all tackle that problem from a different angle. A refined sheath for a compact plier, a grip upgrade for one of the smallest revolvers made, and expanded material options for a modular fixed-blade knife.

Cobra Carrier Rev.2: A Better Fit for the KNIPEX Cobra XS

The KNIPEX Cobra XS is one of the most capable compact pliers available, but carrying it usually meant dropping it loose in a pocket or hunting down an aftermarket sheath. The Cobra Carrier solves that: a slim, five-sided sheath with a pocket clip that lets the Cobra ride like a knife or multitool. It keeps sweat off the tool and keeps the tool's 60 Rockwell hardened jaws off everything else in the pocket. These jaws can, and will, eat a set of keys.

There's a case for carrying a separate knife and plier rather than combining the two into one multitool where both get compromised. Pliers are one of the most used tools on any multitool, so a dedicated, full-capability pair is worth the extra pocket space. That's the logic behind pairing a pocket knife with a Cobra XS rather than reaching for an all-in-one.

Rev.2 refines the Cobra Carrier in two ways. The pocket clip is shortened slightly, clearing the water pump pliers for faster insertion and removal, a small but noticeable improvement over the original design. The second change is a new pocket at the top of the sheath sized for the 6.3x11.5mm Lume Insert. It sits where it can pick up ambient light during the day and give it back at night, useful for finding the pliers in a dark pocket or bag the same way a Lume Insert helps locate a knife. More on how the glow technology works.

NAA Revolver Grips: Comfort and Grip for a Last-Ditch Carry Gun

North American Arms revolvers are tiny five-shot revolvers chambered in .22 Magnum, small enough to disappear in a coin pocket, a sock, or the palm of a hand. Their appeal isn't stopping power, it's reliability. A revolver this simple has no slide to rack, no magazine to seat, no feed ramp to choke on: pull the trigger and it fires. That combination of mechanical simplicity and genuine concealability is why these revolvers have a long history as a backup carry option when a full-size gun isn't practical.

Factory NAA grips are rosewood, and while the material looks good, it isn't built for the same abuse the rest of the revolver shrugs off. The glossy finish gets slippery under sweat, and the extra thickness pushes the grip out past the cylinder, working against the compact concealability that's the reason to carry one of these in the first place.

The new grips address both issues. A slim profile stays within the cylinder's footprint so no bulk is added for nothing. A matte texture stays grippy wet or dry. The radial pattern is engineered around the specific way NAA revolvers rotate in the hand under recoil, with extra material where the thumb presses hardest for faster, more controlled follow-up shots. They're available in four colors, including a chameleon finish that shifts color with the light, and custom colors and materials can be arranged on request.

Mule Team Scales: New Colors and an Ultralight Option

The Spyderco Mule Team scale lineup now includes new materials in two directions: color-matched composites for aesthetics, and ultralight options for weight.

The color-matched scales use the same glass-epoxy colors and composites as the NAA grips, so the two product lines can be matched. They're not quite as high-performing as PPS scales from a temperature and chemical resistance standpoint, but they bring a more premium visual finish and a grippy blasted texture. Four colors are currently available:

Clear Sky: a rich blue under normal light that lights up with glowing stars in the dark
Orange Crush: vibrant, high-visibility orange in daylight, glowing bright green at night
Night Sky: a riff on Clear Sky, more evocative of the Milky Way, with some stars brighter than others
Chameleon Glow: shifts from green to yellow to gold to orange to red to purple depending on ambient light, and glows in the dark as well

On the performance side, two ultralight handle options are also available: one rigid, one rubberized, weighing 11 and 16 grams respectively. Using the ultralight scales, a complete Mule Team knife including sheath comes in under 120 grams (4.25oz), lighter than just the sheath on some popular knife brands. A side-by-side comparison, sent in by a customer, illustrates the gap:

Building something that's both strong and light is a harder problem than building something strong or something light individually, and it's the kind of engineering challenge worth chasing for its own sake. It's also worth noting the sheath itself hasn't been optimized for weight yet, which points toward a possible ultralight sheath as a future product.