While attending Davi's Tip of the Blade in NC this summer I got to spend some time with Knifemaker Alan Folts. At previous shows his Ti chopstix had caught my attention but I was always dragged away to something else. Well I got a set from Alan in NC.

I have to admit that although I love Chinese food they were less for eating and more about what I could drive them through. Being realistic I know I need a fork at a Chinese buffet to keep my swimsuit figure.

Even though most people here would realize that anything could be used as a weapon I want to say from the start that I will not accept any responsibility for Alan's stix being carried or used for anything other than an eating utensil.

When choosing your stix you have several color choices. Mine are kind of a green and light purple. They are just a hair under 9.5 inches long and really have no weight worth noting. They come in a nice nylon pouch with a velcro closure.

Taking them in my gloved hands I did the absolute best I could to bend them and I am not sure at the end as I was gritting my teeth, if it was the stix or my hands that were giving a bit. Common sense would say my hands. This test was really just because since no matter what they are used for chances are they will never see this kind of stress.

The next think I did was take one of the post office cartons I had in the office and stabbed it. Pictured are the results.

These cartons are made of a very heavy duty corrugated plastic. I stabbed it one time with about 25% power with using a hammer fist grip without my thumb on top of the stick. Only my hand prevented further penetration.

Admittedly the stix have sat on my desk for a few months until today I got around to putting this review together. Before I started writing this I walked out to my shop to measure the stix and figured one more test was in order.

I put gloves on and took a copy of the yellow pages and laid in on my desk in preparation of stabbing it with a one of the stix. The results surprised me and actually led to me immediately putting them into my Bag of Evil.

One hammer fist with my thumb on top of the stick penetrated a whopping 515 pages into the phone book and left an impression at least 25 more pages deep. That is approximately .75 inches of penetration with me using about 75% power.

This coupled with the fact that the stix do not have a sharpened point show the massive effect concentrated force can have on a surface area.

They're lightweight, flatness and lack of any sharp edges would lend them to concealing almost anywhere. I believe Alan also makes a kydex holder for them. They could also be taped or stuck just about anywhere.

Now all I have to do is try eating with them. I think I am better at stabbing stuff.

http://www.tistix.com/