Jens Anso is one of the few eponymous knife designers in the world —and for good reason. Anso designs are immediately recognizable, often quirky, and incredibly well designed.

　　His texture pattern on G10 handles, often copied and rarely attributed, appear everywhere in the knife world. From his first production knife collaboration — the weird and wonderful Spyderco Rock Lobster — to the EDC-friendly Zulu, Anso has shown he is not afraid to push the design language of knives.

　　But until now, I have always thought that Anso knives were more interesting as designs than they were useful as knives. They were certainly above average, but they weren’t objectively great knives.

　　But the Aros is. Its Anso making good on a promise from nearly 20 years ago when his designs first appeared on the production market. It is a pricey blade, but nothing comes close to it in the EDC folder realm (as of spring 2025). 

　　Anso releases them in batches; some models are in stock on his site, and a few select retailers like Lamnia, a European knife website, also have them in stock. It may take some effort, but they are unquestionably worth the hunt.

　　In short: This knife is a masterful design that pushes the envelope on what knives can look and feel like in 2025. It takes advantage of an asymmetric design to cram in a host of features on a compact frame. The build quality rounds out an exceptionally polished package that makes an ideal everyday carry pocket knife. The trade-off is that they are priced to match their quality, and can be difficult to find in stock.

　　Anso of Denmark Aros Buy on Anso of Denmark

　　10 How we rate products Specifications Steel: RWL34 Grind: Flat grind Lock: Button lock Blade length: 2.5” OAL: 6” Weight: 1.91 oz. in carbon fiber Price: $565 in carbon fiber Country of origin: Made in Demark Pros Excellent size Versatile blade shape Unique asymmetric design gives rise to useful features Elegant, sculpted clip Solid materials with a wide range of prices Cons Even cheap models are expensive Absurd packaging Anthony Sculimbrene Anso of Denmark Aros Review First Impressions: Unboxing a Bear

　　The Aros is definitely worth the hunt; (photo/Anthony Sculimbrene) The knife, of course, is wonderful, but the packaging bears mention. I normally don’t comment on packaging (and my favorite packaging was the old-school Strider packages — ziplock bags), but this was insane.

　　It was a series of Matryoshka dolls all with Anso branding. There was the big package of cardboard, and then some paper, and a smaller one, and then a zippered pouch. 

　　I understand the need to give the item a luxe presentation, but this was silly and wasteful. You pay for all that. I’d rather my money go into the knife, hence my preference for the Strider packaging.

　　Use and Carry The Aros knife was my only blade for about a month, around the house, out and about, and at work. In the normal utility chores, food prep and working in the woodworking shop, it handled everything well. I didn’t thrash on it, but I didn’t baby it either. It was treated like any other knife despite its price. 

　　The Aros knife was my only blade for about a month, around the house, out and about, and at work. In the normal utility chores, food prep and working in the woodworking shop, it handled everything well. I didn’t thrash on it, but I didn’t baby it either. It was treated like any other knife despite its price. 

　　Cardboard Test During recycling processing, including breaking down all the ridiculous packing that this knife came in, it worked well. It allowed me to work out a bit of my frustration that I paid money to send 15 boxes and stickers and doodads around the globe, just to be thrown away.

　　I used the knife as my only blade for about a month; (photo/Anthony Sculimbrene) In thick cardboard, the slender blade was like the pull tab on a zipper — it separated the material cleanly and evenly with no resistance. The blade stock is not quite as thin as something like a Victorinox blade or the TRM Nerd, but still quite thin. 

　　In corrugated cardboard, it still pierced and sliced with ease.

　　The blade is a bit short for some uses; (photo/Anthony Sculimbrene) Food Prep During food prep, I did run into some limitations. One of my favorite food prep knives is the Small Sebenza, but its blade is almost a full half-inch longer than the Aros. In cured meats, the Sebenzas blade spans the entire distance, but here with the 2.5-inch blade, I occasionally had to make adjustments. 

　　It was also not as good at spanning the full diameter of an apple, but you know this before you buy the blade.You aren’t expecting a big blade, so calling this a drawback is like being upset your Miata doesn’t carry a full sheet of plywood in the trunk.

　　Workshop In the workshop, I like to see how knives do with marking tasks and occasionally some slicing and carving. I was finishing up a walnut box for my son. (It took ages; I want it to be light, but the thin walls made finding hinges a challenge.) I was chiseling out the hinge mortise on the box — a pencil was too wide and a bigger knife too unwieldy. This made the Aros a perfect choice. 

　　I scribed the line against a square’s edge and not only was it super precise, but it also pre-cut all of the fibers. The result was surprisingly clean mortises. I have only done this a few times before, and it is a very finicky task, but the Aros made it significantly easier. 

　　The blade feels intuitive to operate; (photo/Anthony Sculimbrene) Interestingly enough, the blade shape and size are very similar to the blade on my son’s carving knife. Its also about the same thickness. In short, this precision work that required a little muscle was something the Aros did quite well.

　　Blade, Hardware The steel, a less common steel called RWL34 (a powder steel named for Robert W Loveless, aka Bob Loveless), stayed sharp for a good long time. It was also quite balanced, displaying no corrosion whatsoever, but also being nice to strop.

　　Loveless designed the steel for use in cutlery, and it shows. The steel is in the 154CM family, and with the use of powder metallurgy, it is really quite nice. CPM 154 is one of my all-time favorites, and this is basically the same thing from a different maker. Anso’s choice here was very smart. 

　　The button lock was also a smart idea. It gives the Aros a very smooth action and makes it easy and intuitive to operate. Button locks aren’t the hardest-to-use lock in the world, but given the size of the knife, that weakness is irrelevant. 

　　(Photo/Anthony Sculimbrene) The clip and lanyard setup are ingenious.The clip attaches to the handle right where the lanyard hole is, but instead of passing through both scales, the lanyard goes out the back end of the knife. By embracing a bit of asymmetry, Anso solved the “clip or lanyard dilemma” with elegance, preserving both but taking up no additional space.

　　The flipper tab and action are equally excellent. With a bearing pivot and the low-drag button lock, even the small tab here gives plenty of leverage to pop the blade out quickly and reliably.

　　The handle works well too, providing plenty of grip with a small milling pattern and enough bulk to hold onto during cutting tasks.

　　Lastly, I really appreciated both the crowned (rounded-over) spine and the sharpening choil. I didn’t need to sharpen the knife, but I did strop it. It was nice and wide, allowing me to get all the way to the end of the edge easily.

　　Conclusion: Whos It For? You won’t find a knife much nicer than this short of an art knife. Anso seems to be producing them in real numbers, and the design is beautiful — technical, but still pleasing to the eye. 

　　The symmetric design packs a lot of features on a compact frame; (photo/Anthony Sculimbrene) The blade itself is a good size and thickness, the steel works well, and the lock works for the knife’s size. Aside from the high price, which is to be expected as this is an in-house design, and the silly amount of packaging, there is nothing I would change about the Aros purchase. Even the ship time was nice, just under a week.

　　If you want the best EDC knife out there right now, this has to be in the conversation.In an era with lots of high-end, semi-production knives like the Grimsmo Rask, the Oz Machine Co Roosevelt, and the SPK Lamia, the Aros sits atop the throne for its superior design and pocketable size.

　　It is also a little cheaper and more readily available than those other knives.This is the fulfillment of the promise young Anso showed all those years ago.Spyderco’s product literature described him as the young Michael Jordan of knife making.If that is the case, then that Aros is Anso’s 1997 playoff run — perfect and legendary.

　　10 out of 10.

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