Chance and ebay united and i now own both of these puppies.
I got the Smidgen first, i was expecting a long slim blade that was the size of my becker necker.
Ha! Was i suprised. I hadn't really read the length properly in the description and since it was in metric (which is correct) i totally missed the fact that its more of a 'micro neck knife'. I really loved the sheath and it may not be Kydex it is a great design with a molded plastic tab that holds the blade in place. The edge wasn't exciting but was definately a uniform shape. I clipped it on my keychain.
I have used it to scrape paint, slice fruit, clean tools and cut up a can so i could have a pot for some thinners. It gets messy and then cleans up with no effort.
Since the smidgen was not the stainless steel full sized necker that i thought it was i forked out the $$$ for a Becker remora. Its originally what i wanted anyways. Double Ha! I have always seen heaps of photos of the remora and thought 'Stainless bk11 slightly different handle' shape. It is in fact half the size of my bk11. It is though a little larger and thicker then the smidgen. Its sheath is pretty spartan but i like its simplicity and if kabar bought it out as a Bk11 accesory i'd go for it (but i would suggest maybe an extra rivet hole at the other end along with a locking tab like the smidgen) Its blade edge was a little wobbly and not uniform. Definately not that clean precise grind of my Bk11 or Bk11CSM. I clean it a little with my sharpening stone.
I kept the smidgen on my keychain for a few days more as it looks a lot like a keyfob or a security tag. The becker looks like a mini knife with sheath. For this reason i think the smidgen is a better buy if you don't want to rouse people attention, its also a lot less likely to fall out of its sheath as it gets knocked around.
Eventually i added the remora to the keychain and found myself over the two days still going for the smidgen. It wasn't till i decided to ditch the smidgen for a day as it is kind of ridiculous having that much stuff on my keys did i truly appreciate the remora.
its feels so much sturdier and as a result i do the careless misc. tasks with more confidence.
Either blade is definately a different feel to a swiss sak or a mini lockback. The smidgen has a tactical black ss30v cousin the hartsook. I wouldn't mind having one for the 'steel factor' but at the same time i don't think its necessary to go the dearer path and the black coating might be a pain to clean gunky things like plaster , glue etc.
Its the sort of blade most likely to be on me when i just ducked down to the shops in my cargopants 'n' thongs and the apocalypse rudely interupts.
Same goes for the Remora. Its 440a steel. So what? sure you could have the forum afficionados of the blade community talk about it to death but it just hikes up the price of the blade for so little gain in this size knife.
On a similar note i would still like to see a run of Bk11 in a stainless steel. If it was a limited run then the S30v or 154cm but an everyday 440c or aus8 knife would be great for the fishing box, car tool kit etc etc where the moisture issue outweighs everything else. the San mai bk11 definately does a worst job than a plain black coated bk11
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