Viper Knives is on the cusp of rereleasing the Fearless, a combat fixed blade designed by Tommaso Rumici. The Fearless first appeared on the scene more than ten years ago and kicked off Rumici’s entire career as a knife designer, but has been unavailable for a long time.
When Rumici partnered with Viper on the Fearless in 2006, it was the first tactical fixed blade to appear in Maniago manufacturer’s catalog. And this isn’t a design that can be mistaken for anything other than a tactical knife: its intended role is immediately apparent in the 6 inch spear point blade and its pronounced, albeit single-edge, dagger grind. Obviously, piercing and slashing were the two primary concerns for Rumici here. The blade steel is Sleipner, a semi-stainless from Bohler-Uddeholm that’s an upgraded version of D2 steel. Sleipner is a favorite amongst the big Italian manufacturers, and makes perfect sense on a knife spec’d for hard use.
While the Fearless’s blade shape falls in line with many combat-oriented fixed blades before it, but the handle design, while aiming towards the same end, takes a more unconventional approach. Its most notable feature is the extended spine side quillion, which functions not only as a guard but has a deep, knurled thumb ramp behind it. According to Rumici, this keeps the user’s hand in place during thrusting motions. There’s a deep finger groove on the bottom handle, but otherwise its shape is a neutral one, allowing users to hold the Fearless however they need to in the moment. The Fearless arrives with two different scale material options: burlap canvas Micarta, or carbon fiber.
The 2006 Fearless was actually the first knife design of Rumici’s to ever make it to production, albeit in a very limited run of just 330 pieces. Still, the fixed blade kicked off a long career in knife design for Rumici. In just the last couple of years, we’ve seen him really ramp up his output, with work from Viper, Summit Knife Co., Fox, and Steel Will all hitting the shelves.