This knife features polished hardware and paper micarta handles lined with a gold steel. Paper micarta differs from regular micarta in a few key ways, but here are the things you need to know: it's extra durable, lightweight, gives a good grip, and it also patinas beautifully. Because paper micarta is made from composites of different organic material, each handle is going to have a unique look. This isn't a manufacturing error, this is paper micarta living its best life.
While this knife is taking you into the past on Grandpa's ranch, this is still the same great Lander 3 that we used to shoot for the moon. The TL;DR version: it's the same 2.75" blade length as the Lander 1 with two major upgrades:
S35VN Steel - that delicious, corrosion resistant workhorse steel
Clutch Lock - the Kizer version of a crossbar with adjustable spring tension
The Lander 3 builds on the open source nature of the Lander 1 and 2, but it brings this beautiful combo of size, materials, and mechanisms-- all the things we love. We see this knife as our Apollo 14-- a Moon mission that was a fascinating case study in perseverance. It came a year after Apollo 13 became a near-disaster. The commander of 14 was Alan Shepherd-- a guy who hadn't been able to launch because of his health. But they did it!
Those bosses landed on the Moon, and Shepherd hit golf balls off the lunar surface. When he stepped off the Lunar Lander, he said, "It's been a long way, but we're here." Overcome challenge. Crush it. The Lander 3 is launching after loads of challenges with Knafs: moving the business out of our garage, hiring, building, growing pains, and a whole lotta' grit. Long way. But we're here.