A2 Badger: The Complete Guide to TEKTO's Smallest OTF

The Short Version

The A2 Badger is TEKTO's smallest automatic: a double-action out-the-front knife with a 1.85-inch titanium-coated D2 blade, a 3.25-inch 6061-T6 aluminum handle and a weight of 2.18 ounces, about that of a tennis ball. The blade length puts it under California's 2-inch limit for automatics and under the blade limits of every other state that sets one, so it is the TEKTO you can carry in more places than any other. It comes in Tanto or Double Edge, in Black, Desert, OD Green or the Carbon Fiber edition, with a glass breaker, an oversized lanyard hole and an ambidextrous pocket clip on every version. This guide covers what it is made of, how it carries, where it is legal, how to look after it, and who should buy something else.

What an OTF Does, in One Paragraph

An out-the-front automatic keeps its blade inside the handle and fires it straight out of the top on a spring when you push the slide forward. Pull the slide back and the same spring pulls the blade home. That is double action, and it is what the Badger has: one control, both directions, no fingers near the edge at any point. The slide sits on the centerline of the handle face, so the knife works the same in either hand, and the clip is centered on the back, so it rides the same in either pocket. Everything else about an OTF follows from the straight-line travel: a slim, flat handle, a blade that locks open and closed, and a mechanism that wants to be kept clean, which is the one maintenance job the knife asks of you.

The Blade: D2, Titanium-Coated, Tanto or Double Edge

The Badger's blade is D2 tool steel hardened to 58 to 60 HRC under a titanium coating. D2 is a high-carbon, high-chromium steel that has been the working-knife standard for decades because it holds an edge well, takes a keen edge on an ordinary stone and is tough enough to shrug off the prying and twisting a small blade gets. Its chromium content stops just short of stainless, which is why the coating is there: it keeps the flats from staining, and a wipe and a drop of oil keep the edge, which is bare steel, the same way. Our D2 guide has the long version.

Two shapes. The Tanto grinds the blade with a second straight edge meeting the main edge at an angle, which puts a thick, reinforced point on the knife. It is the shape for prying a staple, opening a can lid, scoring and piercing, and the one to pick if the point will do any work at all. The Double Edge grinds both sides to a symmetrical spear point for a fine, centered tip. It is the sharper-looking of the two and the better piercer, and it is also the one to check your state on, because a few states treat a double-edged blade differently. Our 50-state guide covers which.

The Handle, the Button and Everything Bolted to It

The handle is 6061-T6 aluminum, the aircraft alloy that is light, stiff and anodizes well, machined to 3.25 inches with a contoured slide. That contour is the detail you notice first: the slide is shaped to the thumb rather than flat, so it finds your thumb in the dark and in gloves and does not slip when your hands are wet. A button lock holds the blade at both ends of its travel. At the base of the handle sits a glass breaker, a hardened point for breaking a side window from inside a car, and beside it an oversized lanyard hole that takes full 550 paracord rather than a thin cord, which is what the TEKTO paracord lanyard is made for. The pocket clip is ambidextrous and centered on the back face. Four finishes: Black, Desert and OD Green on anodized aluminum, and the Carbon Fiber edition with carbon fiber inlays on the same frame.

In the Pocket and in the Hand

At 3.25 inches closed and 2.18 ounces, the Badger disappears. It sits beside a phone without a bulge, rides in a jeans coin pocket, and clips to a waistband without pulling on it. Fired, it is 5.28 inches overall, which is enough handle for three fingers and a thumb on the slide. The 1.85-inch blade does what a pocket knife does most of the day: boxes, tape, cord, zip ties, packaging, tags, a loose thread, a splinter, an apple. What it does not do is slice a loaf or dress a deer. For a long cutting stroke you want the full-size A5 Spry or a folder like the F2 Bravo, and for camp work the X1 Atlas. The Badger is the knife you carry every day so that you have a knife every day.

Where It Is Legal

The Badger's blade length is the reason it exists. California bans carrying or selling any automatic with a blade of 2 inches or more. At 1.85 inches the Badger is not a switchblade under California law and carries like any pocket knife, which our California-legal OTF guide explains in full. Most states now allow automatics outright, and the Badger is legal in all of them. The exceptions are the handful that still ban automatics altogether, Washington among them, where no OTF of any length can be possessed. The states that regulate double-edged blades, where the Tanto is the safer choice. The usual places no knife goes, schools, courthouses and airport checkpoints. Our 50-state OTF law guide and the state pages linked from it have the statutes.

Looking After It

An OTF lives or dies on a clean track. Lint, grit and dried oil in the handle are what make a blade fire short or retract slowly, so once a month, or whenever it feels lazy, blow the handle out with compressed air, work the slide a dozen times, and put a single drop of light oil on the blade where it enters the handle, then fire it a few times to spread it. Wipe the blade dry after wet work. D2 under a coating is forgiving but the edge is bare steel. Sharpen at about 20 degrees per side on a fine stone or a ceramic rod, and strop. The tanto's two edges are sharpened as two flats. Our OTF care guide and sharpening guide walk through both. Never oil the mechanism heavily: oil attracts the lint that causes the problem. The Badger is covered by the TEKTO warranty. Read the page for what it covers.

A2 Badger or A5 Spry Mini?

The A5 Spry Mini is the same size of knife, 1.85-inch blade and 3.20-inch handle, with S35VN steel instead of D2, a Drop Point option the Badger does not have, a tungsten glass breaker and a higher price. The Spry Mini holds an edge longer and shrugs off a damp pocket. The Badger sharpens faster, costs less and offers the Carbon Fiber and Desert finishes. If you want a drop point or the best steel, the Spry Mini. If you want the smallest, simplest, best-value OTF, the Badger. Our Mini Matchup puts them side by side with live prices.

Who It Is For, and Who Should Buy Something Else

Buy the Badger if you want an automatic you can carry in California and almost everywhere else, a knife that vanishes in a pocket, a first OTF, or a backup to a bigger blade. Buy something else if you need to slice: the A5 Spry gives you the same action with a 3.5-inch blade where the law allows it, the F2 Bravo gives you a 3.3-inch manual folder that is legal everywhere a pocket knife is, and the X1 Atlas is the fixed blade for camp and field. And if you are left-handed, the Badger is the easy answer. An OTF has no handedness, as our left-handed guide explains.