A budget option, the D’souza Cerberus punches above its price point.

Adrian D’souza’s Damned Designs folders are very sturdy and exhibit smooth action. D2 tool steel for the blade and a G-10 handle highlight his Cerberus model. Adrian paid a lot of attention to the handle to make it feel very comfortable during use.

As for how well it performs, well, let’s see.

D’souza’s Damned Deigns Cerberus Initial Test

The Cerberus cruised through the initial test of slicing 20-pound bond paper. It was very aggressive slicing and I had to move my fingers out of the way quickly to keep from nipping them. I used the weight of the knife only for the pull stroke. Cutting the paper was kind of addictive—I just kept rotating it looking for a clean edge to slice.

Moving on to a piece of single-walled cardboard, the Cerberus didn’t slow down a bit—zip, zip, zip on every slice. Again, the hardest part was moving my fingers out of the way fast enough for the next cut. The Cerberus was very aggressive slicing cardboard. The handle was extremely comfy and caused nary a hotspot.

Cerberus Heavy Use Tests

Splitting Wood

I had some leftover fencing slats that work great for kindling. The Cerberus penetrated half to three-quarters of an inch on every chop. With a quick twist of my wrist, the half-inch wood split. The lock stayed 100 percent engaged throughout chopping. The softened handle edges kept my hand comfortable during the hacking as well.

Batoning

To add more pressure to the lock, I batonned the blade eight more times. It split the half-inch wood very fast, using only a light tap from the dead-blow hammer. No loosening of the lockup occurred. Grade: very stout design in the lock department with excellent workmanship.

Whittling Firesticks

I whittled firesticks from some of the split pieces. The Cerberus provided excellent control on the depth of cut. It powered through thicker pieces as well as thin, making some great curly-cues. There were still no hotspots and the edge was hair-popping sharp.

Skiving And Slicing Leather

Moving on to some 8-ounce leather for slicing and skiving, I skived a corner very quickly. I could hear the crunching cuts. It worked quite well, yielding very thin slices of leather. When I started cutting the material full thickness, the crunching sound became quite audible. The handle shape aided in controlling skiving and slicing depth. This puppy is really comfortable to use.

Sisal Rope

I looked for half-inch sisal rope for the final test medium and realized I had only a foot length of it left. Well, it was better than nothing! The challenge was to make short but full rope cuts. Any dullness on the edge would be very easy to detect, as a dull edge would just slide out and over the sisal. After 20 crunching cuts, I had two nicks in my thumbnail. It was time to don Kevlar® gloves. In record Spec Sheet time the Cerberus crunched out 141 cuts in the rope, and I still had my fingertips to boot—an excellent outcome! The blade was not even close to slowing down. (I apologize for the shortage of rope. I have more on order.)

Overall Evaluation Of The Cerberus

The Cerberus is an excellent folder. The D2 blade has outstanding heat treatment, the handle is very comfortable and lockup is 100 percent secure. I would use it as my EDC.

Potential Changes

I really couldn’t find anything to change. I would recommend that Damned Designs continues to not get too sharp on the handle edges and keep them soft like they are.

Damned Designs warrants its knives to be free of defects. No knife abuse is allowed! For more information contact Adrian D’souza at www.damneddesigns.com, info@damneddesigns.com, and Instagram @damneddesigns.

Cerberus Specs
Company: Damned Designs
Knife Type: Flipper folder
Blade Length: 3.5 inch
Blade Material: D2 tool steel
Blade Thickness At The Thickest: 1/8 inch
Blade Finish: Stonewashed
Handle: G-10
Pocket Clip: Blade tip up
Lock: Linerlock
Liners: Titanium
Weight: 6 ounces
Closed Length: 4.5 inch
MSRP: $49

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