TFB Review: Backup Tactical’s Fat Butcher OTF – A Beefy Follow-Up
The Out-The-Front (OTF) knife category continues to expand, and Backup Tactical is back for round two with the new Fat Butcher. After the success of the Stinger OTF, company owner and OG Florida-Man Jayson Bayne has once again teamed up with South African knifemaking legend Andre De Villiers (ADV Tactical) for an all-new design—the Fat Butcher OTF. This latest release brings a beefier, more aggressive take on their relatively new American-made automatic knife lineup while retaining all the precision machining, materials, and reliability that made the Stinger a standout, and also the addition of a few novel features that set it apart from every other OTF currently out there.
Backup Tactical @ TFB:
FB Review: Backup Tactical’s Fat Butcher OTF – A Beefy Follow-Up
As you guys know from reading TFB, Backup Tactical has put a majority of its work into the firearm accessory world for its precision pistol components—compensators, barrels, and threaded protectors—but the company’s more recent partnership with ADV represents an unexpected but now very welcome crossover into the premium knife market. The Fat Butcher OTF takes its name and profile from one of Andre’s most recognizable fixed and folding knives ( The Tac Butcher), now transformed into a double-action OTF.
While I find the previously released Stinger to be a sleek and EDC-friendly option, the Fat Butcher is every bit the name implies—it’s bigger, grippier, and designed to feel like a working tool rather than a dress knife. Everything about it, from its reinforced handle geometry to its modified blade profile, communicates that this is a blade meant for serious use, and over the last month, I’ve been slowly ramping up my “abuse” of this expensive knife to see if the Fat Butcher is living up to its claims on the butcher paper.
Design and Construction
Like its predecessor, the Fat Butcher is 100% American-made, and, based on the comments from my review of the Stinger, you guys love that and appreciate the quality that Jason has brought to the table with Andre. The handle is milled from T6 aluminum and hard anodized for durability in a variety of different colors. Jason was kind enough to send along an early black anodized version for me, and so far it’s holding up great to everyday use. The fat butcher, like the Stinger, is fitted with a reversible titanium roller pocket clip, a feature that’s become something of an ADV signature.
Where the Fat Butcher diverges is in its new removable D-ring—a clever addition that lets users attach a lanyard, retention cord, or any number of field accessories depending on the task at hand. The D-ring does make a little bit of noise when you’re walking around unless you have some paracord run through it, but I don’t mind it. However, I do think attaching some paracord to this particular knife and using it as an all-around camp-pocket knife would not put the Fat Butcher out of its comfort zone - it’s quite tough.
Moving onto some of the operational bits of the knife, the action button is also new—titanium, with a machined groove for an optional tritium insert that glows in low light. I haven't been able to get my hands on a tritium insert yet, but I think that’s a pretty unique feature and might even offer some real tangible (visible?) value to a knife that might be used in or around a low-light area, such as a campsite at night. The mechanism itself remains double-action, meaning deployment and retraction are both handled via the same button, with a strong but smooth spring tension that feels both deliberate and confidence-inspiring with virtually no wobble.
The overall blade measures 3.75 inches with 3.25 of useable blade on the non-serrated sheep's foot side, and 2.25 inches of useable blade on the serrated standard/back blade side, with the tip being completely unsharpened for legality reasons, although it is beveled enough to be used as a box or letter opener on its own. Other blade styles/combinations are also now available on the website for order.
The blade itself, like the Stinger before it, uses high-end stainless steel S35VN or S365VN, ground in the recognizable Butcher-style. Despite the wider blade, the entire knife remains well-balanced and pocketable, coming in just over 5 ounces and fitting perfectly in your jeans pocket. It sits very low in the pocket, leaving only the glass breaker and a tiny bit of the rear of the knife body above the pocket line.
Daily Carry and Use
One of the main highlights of the Stinger was its tight tolerances and zero rattle—a trait that carries over perfectly here. The Fat Butcher locks up solid, with no play in the blade or handle, and this feature has lasted through the better part of two months so far with daily use. The updated chassis geometry feels great in the hand, especially when using gloves or under wet conditions, and takes a lot of the physical effort out of everyday cutting tasks. Things like cutting up cardboard boxes, opening ammo boxes, prying open things you typically wouldn’t with any other slim-profile blade.
The roller clip makes re-pocketing simple and doesn’t have so much tension as to tear up un-reinforced pockets - at least not any more than they’re already torn up from years of pocketing and unpocketing knives. I feel like the slightly improved clip design allows for deeper and more secure carry, and this is something that I very much appreciate in a daily carry knife.
The S35VN blade has held up to a litany of tasks, including scraping, where the unsharpened portion of the blade comes in handy. I’ve used the unsharpened portion of the tip to remove scope turret caps and pry open containers without any snappage and very little damage to the anodizing. The sheep's foot profile is extremely handy for precision work, and having the backup option of the raw cutting power of the serrated side is a nice addition in a blade with this amount of thickness. Unlike the stinger, I feel like I can cut much thicker materials and do more physical work with the Fat Butcher - it's clearly more on the tool side of blades, despite it still being fairly compact.
However, despite all the benefits that the Fat Butcher’s size has, it does come at the cost of being exactly that - fat. The Fat Butcher is on the larger size of the EDC category of blades, which includes one of my favorite fixed blades - the Amtac Blades NorthmanX. Even though both of these blades are phenomenal EDC blades that cross into the tool category, you’ll need to accommodate for their extra bulk, which sometimes is more of an annoyance than a benefit. For days when lightweight is the game, I’m typically replacing the Fat Butcher with Worksharp’s new flagship compact knife, the RMX Compact.
Final Thoughts
Backup Tactical’s Fat Butcher OTF feels like a natural progression from the Stinger—more substance, more grip, and a thicker, more utilitarian aesthetic. The upgrades are thoughtful, and not too gimmicky: a new titanium button with optional tritium insert, a removable D-ring, and a sleek carry profile. One aspect that I think it also shares with its Stinger sibling is that it’s priced to compete with the big dogs in the OTF business, and I don’t necessarily think that’s Backup Tactical asking for too much. Knockoff and cheaper OTFs just aren’t worth it in a majority of cases.
The Fat Butcher ships with an MSRP of $399.99, which includes free U.S. shipping and no sales tax outside of Florida. In a world where Microtech and Benchmade dominate the OTF space, Backup Tactical continues to carve out its niche with an appealing balance of build quality, feature set, and price point. If you’re already into OTF blades and appreciate American machining, the Fat Butcher is a blade worthy of adding to your collection for both its novelty and its utility. The Fat Butcher proves that Backup Tactical and ADV Tactical are more than just one-hit collaborators and simply producing a “me too” blade. I think they’re steadily building a legitimate pedigree in premium automatic knives backed by Andre’s legendary knifemaking skills, Jason's precision machining, anodizing, and American Manufacturing.
Reloader SCSA Competitor Certified Pilot Currently able to pass himself off as the second cousin twice removed of Joe Flanigan. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ballisticaviation/
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Telegram @autlubhere read the story of where I Bought cannabis in Norway.
I lead a rather simple life. I live in Copenhague in a 4-room apartment with an indoor heated pool. My life isn't luxurious, even though I earn around 12,500,000 kr a year. Yes, not bad, I know, but soon my life will take a turn that will change it forever. My life is rather routine. I drink little, I never smoke, however, I had to smoke Marihuana at university. Continue reading on Telegram: @autlubhere and you'll find out how I bought fentanyl in Bergen.
$400 puts it in an elite category. I can afford one but won't buy one just because I'm afraid I'd lose it.