Another astronaut knife

[Ultraman]

I posted a thread on this a while back, and more recently someone did the same. So we all know about how Randalls were used, especially in the Mercury missions, also the Victorinoxes in the space shuttle, and the MC-1, and the modified Stryker folding knife. Here's another one which I don't believe has been brought up. I present to you, Spydercos in Spaaaace!:

(Not sure if the claim that it was used on the moon is right. When was the last time astronauts were there? hmmm)

EDIT: THis looks like a work of art. From an ebay blurb:
From Spyderco's website:

Tom Sachs, an artist living in New York with works featured around the world, is also a Spyderco fan. He requested a white Delica in a CombinationEdge for his creation of the "Space Program" a full scale reconstruction of man's first walk on the moon with Tom's twist. It debuted at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, California in September of 2007.

 

[knifedraw]

That is so awesome.. Wish I could add one of these to the collection... man.. 500 bucks for a delica !

 

[Ultraman]

That is so awesome.. Wish I could add one of these to the collection... man.. 500 bucks for a delica !

Yeah, that's a crazy price. Even crazier is that it's sold out

EDIT: I did a little more searching and I suspect this is part of an ART EXHIBIT by a sculptor, and not actualyl used in space

 

[thantos1858]

it looks cool but $500??? I doubt this dude even knows much about knives, he didn't even list any of the materials used. But then again it is probably "classified" anyway. Its basically like $450 for this guys name and nasa on the knife, I mean he is selling a sharpie marker on his site for $12 because it has his name on it wtf

 

[Ultraman]

Hey, looks like this is a special run by Spyderco for the artist Tom Sachs. See Spydercos website

"Tom Sachs, an artist living in New York with works featured around the world, is also a Spyderco fan. He requested a white Delica in a CombinationEdge for his creation of the "Space Program" a full scale reconstruction of man's first walk on the moon with Tom's twist. It debuted at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, California in September of 2007.

Inspired by Tom's enthusiasm for white Spydercos, we've created a collection of some of Spyderco's classic designs in white. The White FRN Delica, Endura, Dragonfly and Ladybug will be available for a short time and in limited quantities.

For more information on Tom Sach's work and the Gagosian Gallery, please contact the gallery at (310) 271-9400 or visit their website at www.gagosian.com."


Spyderco lists this model at around $85, so for the Tom Sachs piece your paying over $400 for the artists engraving and label "modifications"

 

[moonwilson]

Tom Sachs is a huge artist. He is very famous and very influential in art circles. $500 is dead cheap for a Tom Sachs piece, which is why that run sold out. I'm kinda kicking myself for not picking one of those up when I had the chance, I like his work a lot. That run was definitely for art collectors, not knife folks.

FWIW, Tom Sachs does know a thing or two about weapons. Among other things, he has made a fully-functional nuclear bomb (sans explosive and radioactive materials). He has made all sorts of weapons, from zip-guns and chivs on up. He's a very cool, very funny, and interesting guy.

For knife folks, Spyderco did make runs of the Endura, Delica and Ladybug in white FRN as part of that project. I picked up all 3 of those.

 

[Peter Parker]

That is so awesome.. Wish I could add one of these to the collection... man.. 500 bucks for a delica !

Now I don't feel the least bit bad for paying $70 for my 2003 Spyderco Forum Native!

 

[orca8589]

Tom Sachs is an artist. This piece (the Spyderco) is simply an art project of his. The last lunar landing was in December '72, and the first Spydercos (the 'Worker'?) weren't on the market until the early 80's.

You can easily tell by the list of astronauts on the site; none of those names are on any NASA list for the Apollo missions.

Edited to add: oops - ya'll beat me to the punch.

thx - cpr

 

[moonwilson]

Here's an image of an earlier Tom Sachs piece:

Pretty sweet. He made a whole bunch of functional guns and other weaponry out of household materials.

 

[hlee]

Tom Sachs is a huge artist. He is very famous and very influential in art circles. $500 is dead cheap for a Tom Sachs piece, which is why that run sold out. I'm kinda kicking myself for not picking one of those up when I had the chance, I like his work a lot. That run was definitely for art collectors, not knife folks.

FWIW, Tom Sachs does know a thing or two about weapons. Among other things, he has made a fully-functional nuclear bomb (sans explosive and radioactive materials). He has made all sorts of weapons, from zip-guns and chivs on up. He's a very cool, very funny, and interesting guy.

For knife folks, Spyderco did make runs of the Endura, Delica and Ladybug in white FRN as part of that project. I picked up all 3 of those.

Then, how do we know that it was actually "fully functional?"

 

[moonwilson]

Then, how do we know that it was actually "fully functional?"

Because he worked with a bunch of engineers who certified that it was. For art purposes, that's all that matters. He got quite a bit of scrutiny from the feds for that piece. He gets into trouble with the cops a lot for the stuff he does. It's part of his shtick.

This piece was made to illustrate how stupid the anti-knife and anti-gun laws in England are. He made a bunch of guns and knives out of things you can get at any hardware store.

 

[Ultraman]

Tom Sachs is a huge artist. He is very famous and very influential in art circles. $500 is dead cheap for a Tom Sachs piece, which is why that run sold out. I'm kinda kicking myself for not picking one of those up when I had the chance, I like his work a lot. That run was definitely for art collectors, not knife folks.

FWIW, Tom Sachs does know a thing or two about weapons. Among other things, he has made a fully-functional nuclear bomb (sans explosive and radioactive materials). He has made all sorts of weapons, from zip-guns and chivs on up. He's a very cool, very funny, and interesting guy.

For knife folks, Spyderco did make runs of the Endura, Delica and Ladybug in white FRN as part of that project. I picked up all 3 of those.

I apologize if it appeared that my posts appeared to diss the sculptural concept in this product. I did find his work fascinating and no doubt it is top dollar. I guess I got excited at the idea of spydercos being actually used in space (who knows, maybe they have been used there).

 

[dinozzo]

Because he worked with a bunch of engineers who certified that it was. For art purposes, that's all that matters. He got quite a bit of scrutiny from the feds for that piece. He gets into trouble with the cops a lot for the stuff he does. It's part of his shtick.

This piece was made to illustrate how stupid the anti-knife and anti-gun laws in England are. He made a bunch of guns and knives out of things you can get at any hardware store.

Wow thats really awesome! undoubtedly some of the cooler art ive ever seen:thumbup::thumbup:

 

[moonwilson]

I apologize if it appeared that my posts appeared to diss the sculptural concept in this product. I did find his work fascinating and no doubt it is top dollar. I guess I got excited at the idea of spydercos being actually used in space (who knows, maybe they have been used there).

Oh, no problem! I didn't think you were dissing anyone- I just wanted to give some background info on the guy who Spyderco did the run for. He does some really fun stuff that most knife knuts probably don't know about.

Cheers!

 

[Ultraman]

Thanks for setting the record straight!

 

[banana-clip]

Cool looking knife.

 

[puukkoman]

Tom Sachs is a huge artist. He is very famous and very influential in art circles. $500 is dead cheap for a Tom Sachs piece, which is why that run sold out. I'm kinda kicking myself for not picking one of those up when I had the chance, I like his work a lot. That run was definitely for art collectors, not knife folks.

FWIW, Tom Sachs does know a thing or two about weapons. Among other things, he has made a fully-functional nuclear bomb (sans explosive and radioactive materials). He has made all sorts of weapons, from zip-guns and chivs on up. He's a very cool, very funny, and interesting guy.

For knife folks, Spyderco did make runs of the Endura, Delica and Ladybug in white FRN as part of that project. I picked up all 3 of those.

This is dead-on accurate.
I also have one of the white Enduras, but I don't carry it much.

 

[samuel5090]

Here is the newest NASA knife:


In 1999 NASA approached Emerson with a special request for a knife for use on Space Shuttle missions and the International Space Station to replace the Randall Model 17 Astronaut Knife. Rather than design a new model from scratch, NASA chose an existing model which already met their specifications, with one additional design requirement. The model is a folding version of the Specwar knife that Emerson had designed for Timberline with the addition of a guthook cut into the tanto point of the blade with which astronauts could open their freeze dried food packages. The knife features the NASA logo and is not available for purchase outside of NASA.

 

[hlee]

Here is the newest NASA knife:


In 1999 NASA approached Emerson with a special request for a knife for use on Space Shuttle missions and the International Space Station to replace the Randall Model 17 Astronaut Knife. Rather than design a new model from scratch, NASA chose an existing model which already met their specifications, with one additional design requirement. The model is a folding version of the Specwar knife that Emerson had designed for Timberline with the addition of a guthook cut into the tanto point of the blade with which astronauts could open their freeze dried food packages. The knife features the NASA logo and is not available for purchase outside of NASA.

Because the rest of the blade was insufficient to open freeze dried food packets??

 

[phaserrifle]

Because the rest of the blade was insufficient to open freeze dried food packets??

I can only assume that it has something to do with making the job easier/safer. possibly opening such things is more difficult in zero-G, as the package tries to do things we don't experience on the ground.