I gave Katie my old Milwaukee Fastback knife in 2019 when she was living and working in Colombia.

It’s an inexpensive workhorse, but as I discovered, this model, the 48-22-1990, seems to have been superseded by the 48-22-1520. I love this knife. It’s a great, dependable EDC option. You can open it with a flick of the wrist, and if you are careful, you can close it one-handed.

Reviews by people trying to buy the 48-22-1990 knife on Amazon say they were sent the wrong knife, and even the Milwaukee website has pictures of a different knife in their product listing (and still does three years later in 2025. See the screen capture below). Notice how the blade is a different shape. The description claims the wire pocket clip is reversible, which it is on the real 48-22-1990. A close examination of the product pictures they currently have shows the knife does not have a reversible clip, nor interestingly, does it have the model number stamped on it — which mine has.

I could have had a 48-22-1990 shipped to a store near me for $15, but I didn’t want to mess with being sent the wrong knife. Instead, I indulged in a bit of online research, which led me to a seller on e-bay who has a stock of real 48-22-1090s in their original packaging, so I snapped one up. With postage, it cost me a bit more than the $15-$18 it should have done, but I’ve now got an exact replacement for the one I gave away.

I didn’t put a lanyard on my original knife but given these are getting hard to find I think I might have to now.

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