- Joined
- Apr 13, 2004
- Messages
- 17,846
Sal,
Last night I went digging to find my first Endura because I couldn’t recall what steel was stamped on the blade (or if it was even stamped). Turns out it is one of the earliest models, a G-2 stamped Clipit.
By my memory, I recall buying it when I was in 8th grade, which would put it somewhere in 1990-1991. I purchased it locally at the Pace warehouse sales store off of Quincy and Wadsworth (which became Price Club, and is now Costco). However, it was not my first Spyderco knife! By then I had owned several LadyBugs in Black, Blue, Green, and Pink, and I still have the Pink one at home (Yes, PINK!!! 
It was not as expensive when I bought it).
Let me start off by saying I grew up here in the Lakewood area, and went to school in the Green Mountain area, so I’ve been around your Spyderco products from a pretty early age. My Dad bought a model 202 Tri-Angle sharpener way back in the day, and used it for a short time before giving it to me. I can still remember the sound and cadence of him working on a knife, something I have certainly become familiar with over the years myself. Little did I know that was just the beginning of a lifelong hobby/romance/addiction.
I first saw your knives at the knife shop that was on the North side of Villa Italia Mall just across from Baskin-Robbins and Orange Julius. I immediately recognized the brand because of the sharpener. My mother worked at the World Savings bank just off of Alameda across the parking lot from there, so my brother and I spent a good deal of time in that shop as kids. It was there, the first time I saw them, that I upgraded from the Vic Classic(s) I had been carrying for the previous years since 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] grade and purchased my first LadyBug in black. This had to have been around 1987 or 1988. I couldn’t get over how well the SpyderEdge cut!!! It was then that I really, truly, began to appreciate fine cutlery. My handle here on BF is a testament to Spyderco getting me started down this road.
After that, it seems I saw you guys at all the shows at Currigan and the Coliseum we went to. Sal, I remember YOU sharpening one of my Ladybugs for me at what I seem to recall being a home/garden show around 1989 or 1990. I’ll never forget the forearm hair shave test and how I marveled at how much sharper you were able to get that knife than I could. You told me to just keep practicing, and the key was to always keep the knife as vertical as possible. Well, that advice certainly helped me out, and my knives have stayed shaving sharp ever since!
My first Endura was carried for MANY years. It got beaten hard and put away wet (so to speak) ALL of the time. But it just kept begging for more. Even after I broke about ½” of the tip off by being stupid one night in high school and throwing it into a tree, it still cuts just fine. Not long after that, it got re-ground into a Delica-sized blade, and it still lives that way today and works just fine even though the serrations are rounded off so much. It wasn’t until late in college, somewhere around 2000, that I bought another Endura (an Endura II in ATS-55) to replace the original one. That first one did about 10 years of HARD EDC work before being “retired”. Honestly, I can’t imagine too many other knives that a kid my age could have afforded back then that would have endured that kind of abuse. Thank You!!! :thumbup:
(Delica sized blade on an Endura
)
Since the beginning, I have had many, many other Spyderco knives. Too many to count, probably some I don’t even remember. Some have been lost, some given away, even a few stolen. Somewhere around 1992 or 1993 I helped out in a Diawa Reels booth at the Denver International Sportsman’s Expo (my friend’s Dad was a pro fisherman and was sponsored by them). Sharing that booth was a startup outdoor cutlery company called Outdoor Edge. What do you know, those serrations look mighty familiar! Hmm? Seki City, Japan? Really? You aren’t working with Spyderco by any chance, are you? Sure enough, he was (gosh, can’t remember his name though), and so I also wound up helping him demo his skinning, caping, and fillet knives at the show when I wasn’t answering questions about the reels. For my effort, he gave me a couple of knives for free.
In 1997 I bought 4 plain-edged, FRN-clipped Dragonfly models from a shop at Southwest Plaza Mall to give out to my groomsmen at my wedding (and another one for myself, of course). I worked for a couple years (1995-1996) at a small electronics company near where Colfax and 6[SUP]th[/SUP] Avenue intersect, and spent some of my lunch breaks in what I think was the first factory outlet store off of what I seem to recall being South Golden Road. I still have some of the factory 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] ceramic stones of various shapes and sizes I bought there back then for merely a song and dance. I went to work at an optical lab in Denver West for a year after that and spent a lot of time in the outlet store over by Applejack’s, where I purchased some of the first diamond Sharpmaker rods they had available.
In the more than a decade since then, I have acquired many, many more of your knives. Most recently (and not long ago), John hooked me up at the outlet store with a Fluted Ti Military. That is such a SWEET knife!!! I hadn’t been to the outlet for awhile, and I was simply amazed at some of the newer designs I hadn’t had the chance to handle before. The Southard flipper is just awesome! The new kitchen knives you are carrying in there also caught my eye!
Anyway, Sal, I just wanted to say a HUGE and public THANK YOU for everything you have done for the knife industry, and for creating the knife knut that I am today! While I have come to enjoy many different brands and types of knives over the years, I still have a soft spot for the Spyderco brand and get unusually nostalgic when thinking back to my first ones when I was a kid. Please, keep up the GREAT work!!! Take care.
Sincerely, -Jared.
PS (added) - The primary reason I dropped by the factory store just before Christmas is that my oldest daughter is 9. That is close to the same age I got my first pocket knife, and we thought she was ready. I bought her a purple Ladybug and added a lanyard (which has since been changed to camo pink). This is how she found it on Christmas morning. I (poorly) engraved a to and from on opposite sides of the blade as a keepsake. Hopefully this is just the beginning for her too!
Last night I went digging to find my first Endura because I couldn’t recall what steel was stamped on the blade (or if it was even stamped). Turns out it is one of the earliest models, a G-2 stamped Clipit.
By my memory, I recall buying it when I was in 8th grade, which would put it somewhere in 1990-1991. I purchased it locally at the Pace warehouse sales store off of Quincy and Wadsworth (which became Price Club, and is now Costco). However, it was not my first Spyderco knife! By then I had owned several LadyBugs in Black, Blue, Green, and Pink, and I still have the Pink one at home (Yes, PINK!!! It was not as expensive when I bought it).
Let me start off by saying I grew up here in the Lakewood area, and went to school in the Green Mountain area, so I’ve been around your Spyderco products from a pretty early age. My Dad bought a model 202 Tri-Angle sharpener way back in the day, and used it for a short time before giving it to me. I can still remember the sound and cadence of him working on a knife, something I have certainly become familiar with over the years myself. Little did I know that was just the beginning of a lifelong hobby/romance/addiction.
I first saw your knives at the knife shop that was on the North side of Villa Italia Mall just across from Baskin-Robbins and Orange Julius. I immediately recognized the brand because of the sharpener. My mother worked at the World Savings bank just off of Alameda across the parking lot from there, so my brother and I spent a good deal of time in that shop as kids. It was there, the first time I saw them, that I upgraded from the Vic Classic(s) I had been carrying for the previous years since 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] grade and purchased my first LadyBug in black. This had to have been around 1987 or 1988. I couldn’t get over how well the SpyderEdge cut!!! It was then that I really, truly, began to appreciate fine cutlery. My handle here on BF is a testament to Spyderco getting me started down this road.
After that, it seems I saw you guys at all the shows at Currigan and the Coliseum we went to. Sal, I remember YOU sharpening one of my Ladybugs for me at what I seem to recall being a home/garden show around 1989 or 1990. I’ll never forget the forearm hair shave test and how I marveled at how much sharper you were able to get that knife than I could. You told me to just keep practicing, and the key was to always keep the knife as vertical as possible. Well, that advice certainly helped me out, and my knives have stayed shaving sharp ever since!
My first Endura was carried for MANY years. It got beaten hard and put away wet (so to speak) ALL of the time. But it just kept begging for more. Even after I broke about ½” of the tip off by being stupid one night in high school and throwing it into a tree, it still cuts just fine. Not long after that, it got re-ground into a Delica-sized blade, and it still lives that way today and works just fine even though the serrations are rounded off so much. It wasn’t until late in college, somewhere around 2000, that I bought another Endura (an Endura II in ATS-55) to replace the original one. That first one did about 10 years of HARD EDC work before being “retired”. Honestly, I can’t imagine too many other knives that a kid my age could have afforded back then that would have endured that kind of abuse. Thank You!!! :thumbup:
(Delica sized blade on an Endura
)
Since the beginning, I have had many, many other Spyderco knives. Too many to count, probably some I don’t even remember. Some have been lost, some given away, even a few stolen. Somewhere around 1992 or 1993 I helped out in a Diawa Reels booth at the Denver International Sportsman’s Expo (my friend’s Dad was a pro fisherman and was sponsored by them). Sharing that booth was a startup outdoor cutlery company called Outdoor Edge. What do you know, those serrations look mighty familiar! Hmm? Seki City, Japan? Really? You aren’t working with Spyderco by any chance, are you? Sure enough, he was (gosh, can’t remember his name though), and so I also wound up helping him demo his skinning, caping, and fillet knives at the show when I wasn’t answering questions about the reels. For my effort, he gave me a couple of knives for free.
In 1997 I bought 4 plain-edged, FRN-clipped Dragonfly models from a shop at Southwest Plaza Mall to give out to my groomsmen at my wedding (and another one for myself, of course
). I worked for a couple years (1995-1996) at a small electronics company near where Colfax and 6[SUP]th[/SUP] Avenue intersect, and spent some of my lunch breaks in what I think was the first factory outlet store off of what I seem to recall being South Golden Road. I still have some of the factory 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] ceramic stones of various shapes and sizes I bought there back then for merely a song and dance. I went to work at an optical lab in Denver West for a year after that and spent a lot of time in the outlet store over by Applejack’s, where I purchased some of the first diamond Sharpmaker rods they had available.
In the more than a decade since then, I have acquired many, many more of your knives. Most recently (and not long ago), John hooked me up at the outlet store with a Fluted Ti Military. That is such a SWEET knife!!!
I hadn’t been to the outlet for awhile, and I was simply amazed at some of the newer designs I hadn’t had the chance to handle before. The Southard flipper is just awesome! The new kitchen knives you are carrying in there also caught my eye!
Anyway, Sal, I just wanted to say a HUGE and public THANK YOU for everything you have done for the knife industry, and for creating the knife knut that I am today!
While I have come to enjoy many different brands and types of knives over the years, I still have a soft spot for the Spyderco brand and get unusually nostalgic when thinking back to my first ones when I was a kid. Please, keep up the GREAT work!!! Take care.Sincerely, -Jared.
PS (added) - The primary reason I dropped by the factory store just before Christmas is that my oldest daughter is 9. That is close to the same age I got my first pocket knife, and we thought she was ready. I bought her a purple Ladybug and added a lanyard (which has since been changed to camo pink). This is how she found it on Christmas morning.
I (poorly) engraved a to and from on opposite sides of the blade as a keepsake. Hopefully this is just the beginning for her too!
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