Tier 2 Sakura

With a name suggesting delicacy, the Sakura is the smallest pikal knife we ever made, but is no less effective as a defensive tool than its bigger brothers!

The Sakura was originally designed as a small, super discreet and lightweight defensive knife, and best suited to people with smaller hands. Although it has found favour even among those with a bigger frame for its small and discreet footprint, for those times when you simply can’t carry anything too big or overt. It also has the added benefit of being a charming little knife when dressed up well.

The blade here is a single edge variant, around 55mm / 2″ in length, and a total length of just 135mm / 5.30″. Although diminutive, the blade is flat ground and sharp, with an acute point that remains robust due to being single edge. The Sakura is ready to punch well above its weight, and is a great little knife for cut and run tactics.

Tier 2  Knives offers our customers the opportunity to personalise our standard model offerings, and create a unique version of our designs from preset options. Using these options you can define your Tier 2 Sakura.

New to the 2023 Tier 2 Sakura options is the chance to choose the Blade Steel. Each steel type has its pro’s and con’s. If you’re looking for a more utilitarian blade, 80Crv2 is the steel for you, it’s tough and takes a fine edge and can be finished in both utilitarian Cerakote or slightly more aesthetic blued finishes. Our High Carbon 10xx series steel choice is paired with a new aesthetic treatment we are offering with the introduction of Hamons. A Hamon is a Japanese influenced differential heat treated blade using clay, which results in beautiful temper lines in the blade which are revealed with a painstaking amount of polishing. We offer two finishes with Hamon, namely a Blued Hamon which results in a darker blade with very subtle Hamon, and a more traditional Hadori Polished blade, which is a highly polished blade akin to a Japanese Sword, which reveals the Hamon. Lastly, we offer the opportunity to create a Damascus steel blade. The patterns of Damascus steel we can get cary greatly, and the precise details of your Damascus blade will be discussed with you once the order is processed.

The Custom Sakura has a variety of Handle Styles and material options available. From Symthetics like G10 and Carbon Fiber, to high quality Wood Burls. Some new options have been added as well, most notably the option for Mammoth Ivory handle scales.

After you have built up your knife handle, the options continue on to Sheaths and Mounts. Most of these choices will be familiar to Tier 2 Custom Knives veterans, but in short you can select the sheath type and mount option you prefer best for your carry style. In future we will be adding new options to this area.

One of the new options available to you is a choice of sharpening. Our standard, and perfectly function machine sharpening is standard across both Tier 1 and Tier 2 Custom Knives, but we now also offer Japanese Water Stone Sharpening. This is a hand honing process across various grades of water stone which results in an extremely fine, highly mirror polished 6000 grit cutting edge, which not only should last longer, but slice cleaner too. Lastly, you have the option of adding a matching Blunt Trainer to your order at a slight discount.

We are extremely limited to how many Custom Knives we accept and take on at any given time, so Tier 2 Custom Knives are limited to 1 per order, unless previously arranged with one of our Knifemakers.

How to Order:

The first step is to select from the various options in the menu’s for your blade steel, finish, handle materials, etc. Once you’ve selected all the options, add it to your cart and submit the order as you normally would. We will confirm all the details and costs with you via an official Quote by email.

Once you are happy with the cost and want to proceed we will assign your build to a knife maker if they are available. If there are no available slots with either of our makers your order will be placed in the Waitlist until an availability opens up.

There is no payment required to be on the Waitlist. Only once your order is assigned to a knifemaker payment will be required before work begins. The Waitlist is first come, first served. Payment does not push you up the list.

If your Order is up on the Waitlist and you cannot make payment, for whatever reason, you can elect to stay on the Waitlist or cancel your order. When your order is nearing the top of the Waiting List we will notify you to let you know payment will be required soon to get your knife made.