Beads

The same titanium and bronze that make the handles have made lanyard beads since 2014, and the beads are collected the way the knives are: by edition, by year, by what came in which box. A bead is the cheapest Shirogorov object there is and the one most often faked. This page is the registry, one row per bead, with the class it belongs to, what it is made of, when and how many, and whether it was sold alone or shipped with a knife. Prices are not here; every band and dated figure is in the price record.

The six classes

Full custom beads replicate the duck foot pivot hardware of Sergey’s full customs and come only with those knives, usually on the leather wrap. Production beads are the pivot-style and utility designs dealers stock. Annual beads are the one design the factory issues each year. Limited edition beads are show exclusives, themed series and numbered runs. Collaboration beads carry a partner designer’s work, Sinkevich above all. Knife-included beads ship in the box with particular models and are rarely sold alone.

The annual bead is the one to know if you are starting. The factory has issued one each year since 2023, in a new design each time, in bronze and titanium through 2024 and in titanium for 2025 and 2026. It is the bead a first buyer can still get at issue price.

Two generations

V1 beads have basic stonewashed finishes and heavier construction: a 16 mm bronze V1 weighs 12 g at 8.1 mm thick, a 12 mm titanium V1 4–5 g. V2 beads add satin flats to the stonewash, a 14 mm intermediate size, and less weight; a 14 mm bronze V2 is 8–10 g.

The registry

The full registry, every bead with its class, material, size, edition and the market range where there is one, is the bead catalog. Beads are grouped by family, one design across its sizes, metals and years, and each bead has its own record.

Materials and finishes

Titanium carries the range, in natural, blue, bronze and silver anodization over stonewashed, satin, polished or bead-blasted surfaces. Bronze appears stonewashed and satin and patinates with handling. Copper appears once, engraved. The Helix is the one TechnoCarbo and titanium hybrid. Zirconium beads exist only as matching sets with custom knives. The two-tone pieces are single-material texture contrasts (stonewashed body, satin flats) or mixed anodization; no Shirogorov bead has a true contrasting front-and-back finish.

Checking a bead

A genuine bead has a deep, cleanly engraved bear logo, machining that matches the knives, and a weight in the range for its size: bronze 4–12 g, small titanium 3.6–5 g. Limited editions are serialized and come with a card or certificate and branded packaging; collaboration beads carry the designer’s mark. Shallow engraving, wrong dimensions, off weights and missing documentation are the usual signs of a copy. A knife-included bead offered alone is not a fake, but a knife of that model offered without its bead is missing part of its box set, and the authentication guide covers what else should be in the box.

Care

Store beads in their pouches, away from other metal. Handle anodized titanium as little as its finish deserves; the color is an oxide layer, not a coating, and it burnishes. Bronze will darken; that is the material, not damage.

The drivers are on Tools; the leather goods and the rest of what the factory makes that is neither knife nor bead are on Accessories.