Closed up, it looks like a weird keychain multi-tool. Or one of those folding scissors. It’s neither. Instead, the Horizon Lyra is a uniquely-designed pocket knife – one that opens into a knife that you can grip with four fingers, all while collapsing into a very compact size.
Billed as “a morphing EDC knife,” the bladed tool represents Horizon’s attempt at designing the smallest possible size for a closed knife while still maintaining a full four-finger grip. That means, it will provide the same utility as a regular folder, making it very convenient to use for various cutting tasks.
The Horizon Lyra manages the compact folded size by sporting a handle that actually extends from 2 inches long to 3.2 inches as soon as the blade is deployed, allowing it to be keychain-sized when closed and grip-friendly when opened. As you can imagine, this extending handle employs a more complex mechanism than your standard pocket folder, incorporating contoured and rotating linkages that fold in along with the blade when collapsing. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of intricate machining involved when crafting this thing into its final form.
While it unfolds to reveal a pretty generous 3.2-inch handle, it only gets a 1.2-inch blade. Sure, that sounds very small, but with its Wharncliffe shape and full-length edge, it should be good enough for a whole load of cutting jobs. A scoop at the top edge of the blade offers an extra place to rest thumbs and fingers whenever you need to push on the blade to give it added force. Construction, by the way, is hardened D2 steel for the blade, so this should slice through most anything that needs cutting, while DLC coating should give it a high level of scratch resistance.
The Horizon Lyra has a contoured handle that enables ergonomic finger and thumb placements when gripping the knife (complete with multiple grip options), with all handle parts and linkages done up in ultra-strong titanium. It uses a detent mechanism to keep the knife from accidentally opening or closing, ensuring your keys won’t accidentally come in contact with the blade edge while the whole thing sits in your pocket.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the Horizon Lyra. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $79.