"I planned to name this one the 'Dark Wing.' The inspiration for this design was all of the interesting blade shapes with aggressive recurves that are available today. I wanted something like them but with my sort of flair to it. The Dark Wing is the product of that." That is designer Dustin Rhodes explaining the newest release Artisan Cutlery is pushing this week, the 1887G-GDBU, and the model lives up to both halves of that sentence: a recurved clip point in CPM S90V and handles that charge under light and glow after dark.
The specification sheet reads like a flagship. The blade is 3.63 inches (92 mm) of CPM S90V at 60-62 HRC, coated in black PVD over a flat grind, with 0.15 inches (3.7 mm) of stock. Overall length is 7.99 inches (203 mm), closed length 4.38 inches (111 mm), and the whole knife comes to 3.8 ounces (108 g).
| Spec | Dark Wing 1887G-GDBU |
|---|---|
| Blade length | 3.63 in (92 mm) |
| Blade steel | CPM S90V, 60-62 HRC |
| Blade finish | Black PVD, flat grind |
| Handle | Carbon fiber, glow in the dark |
| Lock | Top liner lock |
| Pivot | Ceramic ball bearing |
| Clip | Titanium |
| Weight | 3.8 oz (108 g) |
| Overall / closed | 7.99 in / 4.38 in |
| Price | $199.99 (marked down from $266.65) |
Two ways in, one lock holding
Artisan Cutlery gives the Dark Wing both a thumb hole and a front flipper, a pairing the brand has used on its larger thumb-stud-and-flipper hybrids before. The dual opening suits the design brief Rhodes described: a recurve blade needs clearance at the spine, and the front flipper keeps the profile clean when the knife rides closed. The top liner lock engages above the scales rather than inside the frame, a layout Artisan favors on its thinner liner-lock models because it leaves the handle slabs uninterrupted.
The ceramic ball bearing pivot should deliver the expected detent snap, though Artisan does not publish action measurements. The titanium pocket clip is an upgrade over the steel clips on the brand's sub-$100 lines.
The glow handle question
Glow-in-the-dark carbon fiber is the calling card here, and it is more than a gimmick in one practical sense: a knife dropped on forest floor at dusk becomes findable. The layup embeds a luminescent resin between carbon layers, which Artisan has used on a handful of prior models including earlier Dark Wing variants. The current listing prices the GDBU at $199.99, down from $266.65, and Gear Patrol included the model in its October 31 roundup at $200.
S90V at this price is the real argument. American brands rarely put CPM's top-shelf vanadium steel under $250, and the black PVD coating adds edge retention against corrosion for a steel that is not stainless. What remains untested is how the glow layup wears over years of pocket time, since luminescent resins can fade with UV exposure, and no one has carried this exact variant long enough to say.