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Sharp By Design
Sharp By Design is Brian Nadeau, a New Jersey precision machinist who spent over fifteen years holding fine tolerances in the printing industry before turning that discipline loose on knives. His debut was the stuff of legend: at his first show, Blade Show 2014, Nadeau won both Best New Maker and Best Tactical Folder for his Typhoon design, then took Best Tactical Folder again in 2015 and 2017. His stated philosophy is three words long, simple, strong, memorable, executed almost entirely in his two favorite materials: titanium for durability and carbon fiber for lightweight modern character.
The Apex in S90V
Our selection centers on the Apex, offered in drop point and tanto blade shapes with a choice that shows Nadeau's flipper obsession: each is available as a traditional flipper or a front flipper, so deployment style is part of the order. Blades run CPM S90V, the high-vanadium powder steel whose edge retention our knife steel guide ranks near the top of anything made, over milled titanium frames in black and red or grey and blue anodized treatments with Nadeau's signature machining texture.
From Custom Bench to Production Runs
Nadeau still designs, programs, machines, and finishes his customs personally, and for production he partners openly with Reate, whose tolerances he has praised as the only ones tight enough to carry his designs, a lineage running from the Micro Typhoon through the Evo series to today's Apex. True to his custom roots, SBD production runs in limited batches rather than perpetual catalogs, which is why an available Apex is a buy-it-now situation among high-end folding knives: when the batch sells through, the next thing Nadeau makes is usually something new.