EDC Review: Damned Designs Cerberus

1.5K

Simply put, the Damned Designs Cerberus is a budget-friendly mid-sized clip point folder. Adrian at Damned Designs is breaking into the knife market with good design and quality knives that won’t break the bank. The Cerberus is no exception with its D2 blade steel, caged bearings, and grippy G10 scales. Before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s about damn time we get started on the Damned Designs Cerberus review.

Damned Designs Cerberus Blade

D2 Blade Steel

D2 steel is very commonly used in budget knives. I’m a fan of D2 as it has relatively high wear resistance along with good hardness and toughness. This just means that it holds an edge fairly well and sharpens easily. In my opinion, D2 is one of the best budget blade steels.

High Saber Flat Grind

The design of the Cerberus blade is very similar to the Giant Mouse ACE Grand. They are both clip points and what I would consider having high saber flat grinds. This means the blade has the slicing qualities of a full flat grind while retaining the strength of a saber grind. It’s the best of both worlds. This, along with a pronounced belly gives it great slicing capabilities. Great in theory, but let’s do some testing.

Damned Designs Cerberus Testing

Testing as an EDC

Although I’m quite familiar with D2 steel, I’ve never put it through the paces. I’m not a fan of senselessly cutting cardboard for days on end, so I made a full-size ram skull mask. For those of you interested, you can get these mask templates from Wintercroft. I will note that I had to combine two different templates to create this particular mask. I’ve made many masks, but this is only the second using a pocket knife. The task of cutting cardboard is normally reserved for an X-Acto knife with many blade changes throughout the process.

All in all, the Cerberus cut the equivalent height of a 5-story building in cardboard. The blade climbed about four stories of the proverbial building before needing to take multiple passes to a single cut. Nevertheless, I decided not to sharpen the blade to see if it could complete the cutting tasks. Although it took a little longer, the Cerberus was able to make the cut — pun intended. I’m confident that the Damned Designs Cerberus will meet the demands of basic everyday carry for all walks of life.

Testing for Outdoor Use

Admittedly, I didn’t spend too much time testing the Cerberus’ outdoor capabilities. I chose to do the ubiquitous feather stick test. For those of you who don’t know, a feather stick is a length of wood that has been shaved to produce a bundle of thin wooden curls. These curls are easier to ignite when one wants to make a fire. This technique is especially useful with damp wood when dry tinder is hard to come by.

Not surprisingly, the Cerberus handles hardwood oak like a champ. It made curls that would make any employee of a party supply store jealous. Shaving the oak branch really felt like I was curling the nylon ribbon of a balloon. Feather sticking is a good test for outdoor capabilities because it involves control and finesse. If the Cerberus can make a feather stick this well, it will be able to handle any cutting, carving, whittling, and shaving I throw at it. Even though it is a good outdoor performer, the D2 will need to be sharpened more often than say Elmax or M390 steel.

Damned Designs Cerberus Deployment and Lockup

Thanks to the caged ball bearings, the Cerberus has smooth deployment from the get-go. I’m not entirely positive, but the bearings appear to be ceramic. Whatever they are, the Cerberus has buttery action. While it was never in danger of being dropped, it did catch me off guard with its smoothness. The Cerberus almost feels like an assisted knife. However, unlike an assisted knife, the Cerberus drop shuts with the best of them.

In the absence of a thumb stud, thumb hole, or thumb disc, the Cerberus uses a flipper tab for deployment. No complaints in this area. Jimping is present where you’d engage the flipper tab and it’s not overly aggressive — which is a good thing. A single detent resides in the lock bar that helps keep the blade shut. The combination between the bearings, flipper tab, and detent makes for very solid deployment and lockup.

Damned Designs Cerberus Fit and Finish

One of the first things I noticed when handling the Cerberus is how solid and well constructed it felt. At 5.5 ounces, it’s not a light knife by any stretch of the imagination. That being said, the weight contributes to the aura of being a solid knife. Don’t get me wrong, I love my ultralight knives like the Benchmade Mini Bugout or the Spyderco Para 3 Lightweight. They have their place in the EDC lineup, but having some heft provides a sense of confidence that I have to gain in lighter knives.

G10 Scales

Let’s start with the G10 scales. Other than my Spyderco Shaman, I can’t give a better example of G10 that is as well machined as the Cerberus scales. The edges are smooth and they didn’t cause any hot spots during testing. I really like the design decisions made in the contours and the addition of texture where it matters. The Cerberus is subtly contoured with a slight “swell” in the mid-section. As a result, I found that the handle fit my hand quite naturally. This “swell” also has a rougher grid-like texture that provides excellent grip.

Did I mention that the G10 scales were well machined? So much so that I had a bit of trouble disassembling the knife. More on that later. The liners are perfectly inset into the G10 which makes it look so fresh and so clean, clean. Speaking of insetting, the deep carry pocket clip and signature hexagonal pivot are inset as well. If colleges offered a class called “ G10 Insets 101, ” the Cerberus would certainly be the main case study.

Deep Carry Pocket Clip

I have no complaints with the deep carry pocket clip. Since it is inset into the G10, it makes for a very low-profile clip. It’s sturdy and has good tension. Although the Cerberus only offers tip-up carry, it is left-hand friendly with a reversible pocket clip. I exclusively carry tip-up, but I thought I’d mention it for those who prefer to carry tip-down.

Stonewashed Blade

The blade itself is lightly acid washed and stonewashed. I was able to wear through the blade finish relatively quick in some areas. Namely the tip and part of the blade closest to the bolsters. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t consider this a detriment. Any blade finish will wear with use. I call it building character.

Damned Designs Cerberus Disassembly

Another aspect to the clean appearance of the Cerberus is the minimal amount of screws holding the knife together — The pivot screw, one screw that doubles as hardware for the pocket clip, and one on the opposite side of the clip. I’m pretty good at math and that comes out to three screws holding it all together. There is a fourth screw, but it’s only for securing the pocket clip. The screws are easy to remove, but separating the two halves proved to be troublesome.

For disassembly, you’ll need two different Torx sizes. T8 for the pivot screw, T6 for the clip screws, and T6 for the single screw on the opposite side of the clip. Once you remove the screws, you’ll have to gently pry the scales to separate the two halves. The tolerances on the Cerberus are so tight, there is no other way to disassemble other than to pry it apart. If you’re able to pry the two halves apart, the rest should disassemble easily.

Other Disassembly Notes: There is a threaded insert that runs through the butt of the handle, through the G10 backspacer, and into the liners. This threaded insert is where you secure the pocket clip as well as the clip spacer on the opposite side. Note that there is also a steel pin that runs through the G10 backspacer and into each of the steel liners. Finally, removal of the stop pin is effortless and hassle free.

Final Thoughts

There isn’t much I don’t like about the Damned Designs Cerberus. It’s hard to complain about a knife that costs sub $50 with features of more costly knives. You get a lot of value for the money in terms of the design, decent blade steel, caged bearings, and grippy G10 scales. Sure, the acid wash on the blade is wearing away quickly but that’s just aesthetics. If you use your blades on the regular, any coating will eventually come off.

If Damned Designs were to release knives in a higher-end steel, I would not hesitate on pulling that lever. The Cerberus is the one knife that makes me question the quality and value of other knives. While I don’t like comparing knives, Damned Designs certainly makes that endeavor hard. Thanks for ruining all other budget knives Adrian. Needless to say but I highly recommend the Damned Designs Cerberus, especially those on a tight budget. If someone can point me to a $50 mid-sized knife with similar features to the Cerberus, leave it in the comments below.

Technical Specifications

Shameless Plug

Thanks for reading! If you found this article interesting and helpful, please consider signing up for my newsletter! That way you won’t miss out on any new content coming out. I cross my heart and promise that I won’t spam your inbox. Also, please consider using any of the affiliate links within the article to support my work. I’d like to keep Toil + Recoil ad-free to give you the best experience possible. Thanks and have a great week!