MERINO MM
The knife you'll actually carry.
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MERINO MM
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- 202011-WDU
Merino MM · The Story
You've seen the look.
You took your knife out to open a box at work, and someone across the room went quiet for half a second. Nobody said anything. Nobody had to. The next morning the knife stayed home — not because it didn't fit your pocket, but because of what it said when it came out of one.
People sort a knife into tool or weapon before they've thought about it at all — by colour and shape, not by what it does. Most blades are black or silver, and black reads tactical.
The MM's blade is dark blue: Titanium Nitride, heat-shifted inside a window of temperature and time so narrow the factory at first wouldn't attempt it. Six to eight months of development made it repeatable at production scale. Safety yellow comes from the outdoor gear in your pack; white from the appliances in your kitchen. Nothing in it reads tactical, so the room sorts it as a tool.
It doesn't default to tactical.
It defaults to intentional.
The MERINO Line
Carry first.
Everything else follows.
Every MERINO starts from one question: will you actually have it with you?
The MERINO convictionThe MERINO MM
Three years.
Not because it was hard.
Because “good enough” never was.
At every step, the faster option existed. A dimension that was close enough. A mechanism that was smooth enough. A material that would do. Three years of refusing each one until the answer was yes.
On November 11, 2024, the first production boxes arrived. Beren opened the first one with his beta MM.
The result is a knife that won't impress you with its feature count. It is slim enough to disappear into a front pocket without touching the side of your hand. Light enough that you genuinely stop noticing it's there. The mechanism is smooth in the way that only comes from caring about the mechanism as an end in itself.
It will impress you on a Thursday afternoon when you reach into your pocket without thinking and it's there.
Open it one-handed. Close it the same way. You'll do both more than you need to.
Closing a knife usually takes a second hand. This one doesn't — so putting it away never interrupts whatever the other hand is already doing.
Decisions, Not Features
Every spec is a choice made for a reason. The reason is always about the person carrying it.
Select a part of the knife — or a tab below it — to read the decisions behind that part.
Open profile
Closed · clip side
Spine · 0.35"
Pepperwool · MERINO MM
Decisions, not features
Blade Steel
CPM S35VN · US-melted · Cryo heat treated
A stainless steel that holds an edge through real use without becoming brittle. Cryo heat treated for consistent hardness and improved toughness throughout the blade.
HRC Hardness
60–62
Where S35VN performs at its best. Hard enough to hold an edge through real work, soft enough to sharpen on the equipment most people already own.
Blade Length
2.125"
Long enough for every daily task. Short enough to carry legally in most jurisdictions and fit in the narrowest pocket.
Blade Type
Tanto
Two angles, one purpose. The reinforced point handles work that would chip a thinner profile. The straight edge cuts cleanly without rolling into the work.
Blade Grind
Flat
A clean grind from spine to edge. Slices through material with less resistance than hollow or sabre alternatives, and re-sharpens to the same geometry every time.
Edge Angle
20–25° inclusive · 10–12.5° per side
Honed to the same angle on every Pepperwool — keen enough to bite on the first pass, obtuse enough to hold up to daily cutting without the edge rolling. Learn to sharpen one and you can maintain them all.
Finish
Titanium Nitride
Hard, low-friction coating that reduces drag on the draw.
Blade Stock
3/32"
Thin stock is a carry decision. Less material through the blade means less weight and less bulk in the pocket, and a finer geometry that slices with less resistance.
Handle
Machined G10
Chosen for grip in wet or dry conditions without bulk. Machines to tight tolerances. Doesn't flex, doesn't corrode, doesn't demand maintenance.
Lock
Ambidextrous Bar Lock
Locks open with the authority of a full-size knife. Releases cleanly with one thumb — left or right. No grip compromise required.
Lock Strength
700–1,000 lbf
Lab-tested to failure. The factory’s own specification for a knife this size asks for a fraction of that.
Deploy
Kip Deploy™ · One-hand open/close
A kick deploy on a bar lock — two mechanisms that rarely share a knife, and are harder still to make work together. Smooth and repeatable in both directions. One hand opens it and closes it — the other never has to leave what it's holding.
Pivot Bearing
Steel Thrust Bearing
Hardened steel races with a captive bearing cage at the pivot. Smooth from the first deploy, smooth after a thousand cycles. Cleans with compressed air, lubes with a single drop of oil.
Weight
1.6 oz
Below the threshold of perception after the first hour. You stop accounting for it. That's when it starts doing its job.
Thickness
0.35"
Thinner than a stack of three house keys. Sits flat against whatever else is in the pocket. Doesn't fight for space.
Pocket Clip
Keeper Clip™ · Deep Carry · Fully Reversible
Hard to lose and easy to draw usually trade against each other. It catches the hem so it can’t leave without you. It lets go the moment you mean it. Deep carry, configures left or right. Patent pending.
From the Inside
Just under
900 pounds.
The factory's new head engineer looked at the MERINO's proportions and concluded that a knife this thin couldn't survive daily carry. So the samples went to the factory's accredited test lab: edge retention, flexure, torsion, and a lock test run until failure. Thirty people turned up to watch.
The lock broke at just under 900 pounds of force. The factory's own specification for a knife this size asks for a fraction of that. The room went quiet. The head engineer shook Beren's hand and said he hadn't believed it was possible to build something that strong in a knife that carried like this.
That handshake is built into every knife we ship.
Choose your carry
MM or DM?
Same steel, same lock, the same Kip deploy and Keeper clip. The difference is how much knife you carry.
MERINO MM
MERINO DM
Choose the MM if you want to disappear into your routine.
Choose the DM if you want real capability — and refuse to earn it with inconvenience.
Questions
Asked before carrying one.
Is 2.125 inches enough knife?
For the cutting a day actually asks for — boxes, tape, cord, packaging — yes. If your work regularly needs more reach or a full-hand grip, that’s the job the DM was built for: 2.9 inches, 2.0 ounces, the same carry.
Will it fit my hand?
Closed, the MM is about 78 mm — roughly 3.1 inches — sized to disappear into a pocket first. If you have larger hands or want your whole hand on the handle, the DM closes at about 98 mm and gives your grip that room.
How hard is it to open?
It takes a firm, deliberate press on the kick tab — 1 to 2 pounds of force — to move the blade past its detent. From there a flick of the wrist carries it open and locked. Closing is its own motion: release the bar lock with your thumb and flick it shut. One hand does both.
Could it open in my pocket?
With no press on the kick tab, a flick won’t open it. Through the first 25 degrees or so of travel the blade is biased back toward closed, so a blade nudged slightly open closes itself. Once the tab has been pressed past the detent, a wrist flick carries it the rest of the way. Accidental opening was part of factory testing, and it passed.
Is it legal to carry where I live?
Most knife restrictions begin at three inches. At 2.125 inches the MM sits well under that — legal to carry in most jurisdictions. Laws vary by city, state and country, so check yours before you carry.
I’m left-handed. Does it work for me?
Yes. The kick deploy works from either hand, the bar lock releases with either thumb, and the Keeper clip configures for left or right carry.
How do I look after it?
Keep it clean and dry. The pivot bearing cleans with compressed air and takes a single drop of oil. Every Pepperwool edge is honed to the same 20–25° inclusive angle, and S35VN at 60–62 HRC sharpens on the equipment most people already own. More on knife care.
Where is it made?
Holding the standard makes the map a little complicated. Design and prototyping happen in Washington State. The blade is US-melted CPM S35VN, and almost all raw materials come from the US. A manufacturer Beren has worked with for years, based in Singapore, coordinates production, and final assembly happens in southern China — so the label has to say China.
What if something goes wrong?
Every Pepperwool carries a Limited Lifetime Warranty against defects in materials and workmanship, for the original purchaser. Warranty details.
In the Field
What Owners Say
Real owners, unedited.
The Founder
Beren McKay
Founder & CEO, Pepperwool
Nearly two decades building products
Twelve years at SOG Knives. Built their product development team from one person to twelve. Learned how mass production works — and where it fails. Then walked away to build one knife that solved the problem the industry had decided wasn't a problem.
Read the full storyMore from Pepperwool
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MERINO LINE
MERINO DM
The largest blade carriable in virtually every jurisdiction — in a carry-first knife with a full hand grip. The refusal to pick between capability and carry
Shop MERINO DMThat knife on your dresser?
It deserves to stay there.
You deserve something better
Free shipping | 30-day returns | Made to carry every day
1,000 lbf | S35VN | The MM