This is the narrow counterpart to the wide clam knife — the same 3-inch length and stiff high-carbon stainless construction, but a slimmer blade that enters a tighter hinge. Narrow does not mean flexible here; the blade still has to take a twist without giving.
Smaller hard-shell clams and tighter-hinged shellfish are where the narrow blade wins, because a wide one simply will not start. Anyone shucking through a mixed haul tends to keep both widths on the bench and switch as the size changes.
Dexter-Russell has been making cutlery in Southbridge, Massachusetts since 1818, close to the New England fisheries its shellfish knives were designed around.
