- Joined
- Feb 25, 2001
- Messages
- 6,675
Every once in a while you find that perfect thing. The one that sort of completes you and becomes your long time companion. It might be a trusted hunting dog. It might even be a wife, if you’re lucky. It could be a classic car that you never get tired of driving. I’ve had the privilege of running into this a few times in my life, the Spyderco Military being one of them.
I bought my first Military almost exactly 8 years ago. To be honest, I was not impressed at first. I had a love for natural handle materials, and G-10 was the antithesis of natural beauty. I was also more than a bit intimidated by the size of the Millie. After 30 years of small and medium sized slipjoints, a large tactical folder can be quite a shock to the senses. The Military had no full steel liners. No flipper. No “fun to play with” Axis lock. The 440V blade was hard for a tactical knife neophyte to sharpen. And the Military just didn’t have those elegant flowing lines that so many other knives possessed. On paper, Millie looked like a complete bust.
So I made Millie my beater, hoping to use it up and break it, and then get to buy something more to my preference. But the darned thing turned out to be impossible to break, and after using it so much, I finally took a shining to it. The lock always held. The grip was always excellent. And the blade always made the cut. I don’t know. Maybe that’s what a tactical folder really is, a collection of common sense features without aesthetic frills that might get in the way of function. If so, you can’t get much more tactical in a folder than a Spyderco Military. To be truthful, I still find it to be a hideous beast. I just see the beauty in its ugliness now. It’s kind of like admiring a hyena. It’s not cute and cuddly, but it is one of the most amazing predators in existence.
I used that first Military like it was going to go out of style, for about two or three years. It was also the knife that I learned my proper sharpening techniques on. I sharpened it over and over and over, trying to develop a good reproducible method. Because of this, the blade was worn down very prematurely, to the point where the flat ground blade had noticeably lost cutting efficiency. This was about the time that Spyderco first switched to S30V. So I gave that first Military to an LEO friend of mine, and made the upgrade to S30V.
The S30V Military has served me well for many years, and was used almost every day for the first couple of years. It hasn’t seen a whole lot of EDC use over the last two or three years, but has remained as my outdoor carry of choice. The only real reason for its displacement from EDC has been the less than thoroughly positive ball detent. I wear a lot of loose fitting shorts and khaki’s these days, and have had issue with the Military inadvertently opening in baggy pockets. The S30V steel is fine for me. I don’t love it like I love M2, D2 and BG-42, but it’s good enough for most occasions. The Millie is also maybe a little big for my EDC today. It was fine a few years ago, but with today’s public attitude towards knives, I’ve scaled down just a tad, to something less conspicuous. The Benchmade Griptilian and Spyderco Endura get the most carry in public now.
My prompting to write this review is my latest acquisition in the Spyderco Military lineage, the black blade digicam Military. I’ve never been much of a mall ninja or anything, but I like this Millie a lot. Camo is fashionable at this point in time, and I’ve grown to appreciate the rust resistance afforded by blade coatings. I’ve haven’t tried Spyderco’s blade coating until now, but am very impressed by my coated Benchmade blade. Hopefully, Spyderco will do as well.
This new Military sports quite a few small refinements over my admittedly old model. The most noticeable change is in the blade jimping. The old “tank tread” spine jimping is now gone, and a more traditional blade jimping appears on both the spine and finger choil. The newer style of jimping seems to be just as functional as the tank tread. I like the look of the tank tread much better, but I have to admit that the new style causes much less abrasion on my hand, when I dig into my pocket. The tank tread was a real cheese grater. The finger choil jimping is a very welcome addition.
It also seems that Sal and company have thought fit to add a second nested liner to the handle of the Military, as well as moving from plastic washers on the pivot to the more popular phosphor bronze washers. I don’t notice any functional difference in these changes. The blade opens with the same level of smoothness, and the handle feels to have the exact same rigidity, but they seem to be intelligent upgrades. If anything, the Military has become more robust.
My favorite change to the Military is the ball detent. The detent on my new digicam is far more positive than the detent on my first two versions. This is a night and day change. Now that the detent is so much stronger, I have a feeling that the Military may be back in my front pocket for quite some time, and may actually return to EDC duty. The size of the backspacer has become smaller on the new version, which is fine with me. The more open the design of the knife is, the cleaner it stays, and the easier it is to clean. This has always been a strong point of the Military, and seems to be getting even stronger.
One other small cosmetic change is the engraving on the blade. The word “MILITARY” is now gone, and has been replaced by the Spyderco bug. The word “MILITARY” never bothered me at all, but I definitely prefer having the bug there. The bug rocks.
I also noticed that the pocket clip screws have changed from philips head to torx. My older S30V Military had Philips screws for the pocket clip, torx for the scales and hex for the pivot. It took a whole tool box just to get the darned thing apart. I’m down to just two drivers now, which is perfect. A very practical and welcome change.
I don’t notice much else. The scales on my digicam are a tad more grippy than on my older S30V Millie, but that’s probably just my old ones smoothing out over time. The lock is just as vault-like as the old one. I actually had to adjust the old lock recently. The blade had developed just a hint of vertical play after many years of abuse. A slight rotation of the stop pin, brought the lock right back to perfection. Even after all this time, the lock bar still does not even travel half way across the blade tang.
The blade hasn’t really changed. It still has that same splinter picker tip that comes in so handy, and that thumb ramp that helps give the Military such a wonderful grip. I picked up a vernier scale in the office, and measured the blade edge to be around .025”. Exactly the same as my old S30V Military. It’s not the ultra-high performance edge of my Spyderco Caly3 (.015) or Benchmade Rittergrip (.015), but it is a very resilient edge that slices like crazy. It’s a great blade for heavy duty cutting, that also retains the ability to perform smaller tasks.
The shape of the handle scales seem to be the same. You still get that spectacular grip that few other folders have yet to achieve. And now, with the addition of the finger choil jimping, the choked up position is even more secure than it used to be.
Spyderco has definitely improved their fit and finish over the years. The digicam Military is far better in these regards than my older model. The backspacer now lines up perfectly with the handle scales, and the blade shows far fewer machine marks at the tang and round hole than previously versions. Even the centering of the blade has improved slightly, although this means very little to me personally. This is my third Spyderco in a row that has shown much improved finish. The others are the Caly3 and the Police3.
Do I have any criticisms? Yes, but nothing too big. S30V is nice, but I’d prefer to see an upgraded steel on this model. S30V has been known to be a tad brittle at times, which is definitely not good on a blade this large, with such a pointy tip. Taking a tip from Benchmade and including a tougher tool steel as an option would be very nice. If Spyderco could produce something less brittle but harder than their S30V, I’d be on it in a heartbeat. And on the digicam model specifically, all black hardware would have been nice, if Spyderco could have come up with something more durable than the old black painted screws. Same goes for the pocket clip. I much prefer whatever Benchmade uses on their flat black pocket clips and hardware. It holds up much better.
So other than a few minor critiques, the Military is still a great knife by today’s standards, 8 years later. I sure can’t say that about many other production folders in the knife business. The Military would still be good if it hadn’t changed one iota from my first 440V Millie, but thanks to Spyderco’s continual refinements, the Military just keeps getting better and better.
My original review of the 440V Military, from back in 2003, can be found here:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=264955
Some photos of the new black blade digicam Military:
I bought my first Military almost exactly 8 years ago. To be honest, I was not impressed at first. I had a love for natural handle materials, and G-10 was the antithesis of natural beauty. I was also more than a bit intimidated by the size of the Millie. After 30 years of small and medium sized slipjoints, a large tactical folder can be quite a shock to the senses. The Military had no full steel liners. No flipper. No “fun to play with” Axis lock. The 440V blade was hard for a tactical knife neophyte to sharpen. And the Military just didn’t have those elegant flowing lines that so many other knives possessed. On paper, Millie looked like a complete bust.
So I made Millie my beater, hoping to use it up and break it, and then get to buy something more to my preference. But the darned thing turned out to be impossible to break, and after using it so much, I finally took a shining to it. The lock always held. The grip was always excellent. And the blade always made the cut. I don’t know. Maybe that’s what a tactical folder really is, a collection of common sense features without aesthetic frills that might get in the way of function. If so, you can’t get much more tactical in a folder than a Spyderco Military. To be truthful, I still find it to be a hideous beast. I just see the beauty in its ugliness now. It’s kind of like admiring a hyena. It’s not cute and cuddly, but it is one of the most amazing predators in existence.
I used that first Military like it was going to go out of style, for about two or three years. It was also the knife that I learned my proper sharpening techniques on. I sharpened it over and over and over, trying to develop a good reproducible method. Because of this, the blade was worn down very prematurely, to the point where the flat ground blade had noticeably lost cutting efficiency. This was about the time that Spyderco first switched to S30V. So I gave that first Military to an LEO friend of mine, and made the upgrade to S30V.
The S30V Military has served me well for many years, and was used almost every day for the first couple of years. It hasn’t seen a whole lot of EDC use over the last two or three years, but has remained as my outdoor carry of choice. The only real reason for its displacement from EDC has been the less than thoroughly positive ball detent. I wear a lot of loose fitting shorts and khaki’s these days, and have had issue with the Military inadvertently opening in baggy pockets. The S30V steel is fine for me. I don’t love it like I love M2, D2 and BG-42, but it’s good enough for most occasions. The Millie is also maybe a little big for my EDC today. It was fine a few years ago, but with today’s public attitude towards knives, I’ve scaled down just a tad, to something less conspicuous. The Benchmade Griptilian and Spyderco Endura get the most carry in public now.
My prompting to write this review is my latest acquisition in the Spyderco Military lineage, the black blade digicam Military. I’ve never been much of a mall ninja or anything, but I like this Millie a lot. Camo is fashionable at this point in time, and I’ve grown to appreciate the rust resistance afforded by blade coatings. I’ve haven’t tried Spyderco’s blade coating until now, but am very impressed by my coated Benchmade blade. Hopefully, Spyderco will do as well.
This new Military sports quite a few small refinements over my admittedly old model. The most noticeable change is in the blade jimping. The old “tank tread” spine jimping is now gone, and a more traditional blade jimping appears on both the spine and finger choil. The newer style of jimping seems to be just as functional as the tank tread. I like the look of the tank tread much better, but I have to admit that the new style causes much less abrasion on my hand, when I dig into my pocket. The tank tread was a real cheese grater. The finger choil jimping is a very welcome addition.
It also seems that Sal and company have thought fit to add a second nested liner to the handle of the Military, as well as moving from plastic washers on the pivot to the more popular phosphor bronze washers. I don’t notice any functional difference in these changes. The blade opens with the same level of smoothness, and the handle feels to have the exact same rigidity, but they seem to be intelligent upgrades. If anything, the Military has become more robust.
My favorite change to the Military is the ball detent. The detent on my new digicam is far more positive than the detent on my first two versions. This is a night and day change. Now that the detent is so much stronger, I have a feeling that the Military may be back in my front pocket for quite some time, and may actually return to EDC duty. The size of the backspacer has become smaller on the new version, which is fine with me. The more open the design of the knife is, the cleaner it stays, and the easier it is to clean. This has always been a strong point of the Military, and seems to be getting even stronger.
One other small cosmetic change is the engraving on the blade. The word “MILITARY” is now gone, and has been replaced by the Spyderco bug. The word “MILITARY” never bothered me at all, but I definitely prefer having the bug there. The bug rocks.
I also noticed that the pocket clip screws have changed from philips head to torx. My older S30V Military had Philips screws for the pocket clip, torx for the scales and hex for the pivot. It took a whole tool box just to get the darned thing apart. I’m down to just two drivers now, which is perfect. A very practical and welcome change.
I don’t notice much else. The scales on my digicam are a tad more grippy than on my older S30V Millie, but that’s probably just my old ones smoothing out over time. The lock is just as vault-like as the old one. I actually had to adjust the old lock recently. The blade had developed just a hint of vertical play after many years of abuse. A slight rotation of the stop pin, brought the lock right back to perfection. Even after all this time, the lock bar still does not even travel half way across the blade tang.
The blade hasn’t really changed. It still has that same splinter picker tip that comes in so handy, and that thumb ramp that helps give the Military such a wonderful grip. I picked up a vernier scale in the office, and measured the blade edge to be around .025”. Exactly the same as my old S30V Military. It’s not the ultra-high performance edge of my Spyderco Caly3 (.015) or Benchmade Rittergrip (.015), but it is a very resilient edge that slices like crazy. It’s a great blade for heavy duty cutting, that also retains the ability to perform smaller tasks.
The shape of the handle scales seem to be the same. You still get that spectacular grip that few other folders have yet to achieve. And now, with the addition of the finger choil jimping, the choked up position is even more secure than it used to be.
Spyderco has definitely improved their fit and finish over the years. The digicam Military is far better in these regards than my older model. The backspacer now lines up perfectly with the handle scales, and the blade shows far fewer machine marks at the tang and round hole than previously versions. Even the centering of the blade has improved slightly, although this means very little to me personally. This is my third Spyderco in a row that has shown much improved finish. The others are the Caly3 and the Police3.
Do I have any criticisms? Yes, but nothing too big. S30V is nice, but I’d prefer to see an upgraded steel on this model. S30V has been known to be a tad brittle at times, which is definitely not good on a blade this large, with such a pointy tip. Taking a tip from Benchmade and including a tougher tool steel as an option would be very nice. If Spyderco could produce something less brittle but harder than their S30V, I’d be on it in a heartbeat. And on the digicam model specifically, all black hardware would have been nice, if Spyderco could have come up with something more durable than the old black painted screws. Same goes for the pocket clip. I much prefer whatever Benchmade uses on their flat black pocket clips and hardware. It holds up much better.
So other than a few minor critiques, the Military is still a great knife by today’s standards, 8 years later. I sure can’t say that about many other production folders in the knife business. The Military would still be good if it hadn’t changed one iota from my first 440V Millie, but thanks to Spyderco’s continual refinements, the Military just keeps getting better and better.
My original review of the 440V Military, from back in 2003, can be found here:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=264955
Some photos of the new black blade digicam Military:
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