Any update on the spyderco bushcraft knife? Sal?

[Franco G]

I like the small hole in the 52100 Mule and so far no rust even when it gets sweaty from neck wear. I don't mind the comet either ,it seems to fit a thumb fairly well.

Spydy fixed blades RULE. I have a Yang and 2 mules and want MORE!(sorry for yelling).

Congratulations! You discovered a rustless 52100!

Seriously, a bushcraft knife is for outdoors, it is for heavy use in wet environment (mostly), and O-1 rusts. A hole in blade is a nonsense.

Franco

P. S. Concerning the fixed blades, Spyderco is not end of the story. look at these (HI Ang Khola in 5160 steel, Fehrman's First Strike in 3V, Buck/Strider in 420HC, and Fehrman's Peace Maker in 3V).

 

[Sal Glesser]

Congratulations! You discovered a rustless 52100!

Seriously, a bushcraft knife is for outdoors, it is for heavy use in wet environment (mostly), and O-1 rusts. A hole in blade is a nonsense.

Franco

P. S. Concerning the fixed blades, Spyderco is not end of the story. look at these (HI Ang Khola in 5160 steel, Fehrman's First Strike in 3V, Buck/Strider in 420HC, and Fehrman's Peace Maker in 3V).

Thanx for your continual positive comments about our company.

While I appreciate your comments, I must respectfully disagree with you. I think what we do does make sense, and we try very hard to do a good job at what we do.

"Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there, it just means you can't see it"

sal

 

[kbuzbee]

Thanx for your continual positive comments about our company.

Well Sal, most here do support your efforts. I guess you can't please EVERYONE. So be it.

... I think what we do does make sense, and we try very hard to do a good job at what we do.

I agree. I can think of only one other maker (think INFI) who so consistently comes up with such wonderful and innovative designs. We (I!) appreciate your efforts and am really looking forward to this one.

Ken

 

[tholiver]

Any info on sheath options for the Spyderco Bushcraft?

Personally I like O1, steel. To me it doesn't seem any more rust prone than other carbon steels.And it holds a wicked edge and is easy to sharpen and polish.
Granted i've only had my O1 Enzo for 3 months but i haven't seen any rust yet.
And we have been having lots of rain and high humidity here this summer.
The relative humidity has been 94% for a week, and its been mostly raining (without any sun ) for almost 3 weeks.
Its been a very damp, sticky, wet, soggy, gross August and my Enzo is still shiny.

 

[Mr Blonde]

Wouter,

Would you mind if I were to post those pictures on the BushcraftUK forum?

They look miles better than any I have taken!!

Thanks for asking. No problem, go right ahead.

Wouter

 

[muddog49]

Sal, I see it, Spyderco ROCKS!

 

[Unsub]

Also the thing that the Mule and most spydercos have that most fixed blades don't particularly do well is having a first rate edge geometry.

I don't see the panic about having to do a bit of maintenance.
99% of firearms are carbon steel and you don't see them with rusting issues.

 

[TedPalmer]

did I miss it? what is the estimated release date?
thank!
Ted

 

[hollowdweller]

That's gonna be a really nice blade.

Love the compact look, thin blade (1/8" right??) great fat handle and overall shape.

Any chance of a run later in D2 with carbon fiber scales:thumbup:

 

[Aimless]

I read a bunch of stuff about zdp-189 discoloring, but I've been using my little delica for months every day, I even used it as a kitchen knife for about 6 months, never had a problem.

I had to carve a turkey at the wife's house when we were dating and her knives were cheap and dull as tripe. I pulled out a big tactical folder and still had problems, finally I grabbed the little delica I had bought and thrown in my pack. Zipped right through that turkey like an electric carving knife.

I was just looking for a new fixed blade, please announce in this thread when it is for sale.

 

[ROCK6]

Thanx for your continual positive comments about our company.

While I appreciate your comments, I must respectfully disagree with you. I think what we do does make sense, and we try very hard to do a good job at what we do.

"Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there, it just means you can't see it"

sal

I agree Sal; I personally like the hole, but Pitdog over in the WSS forums made a great recommendation. You could either plug the hole with brass on request or work it to fit an aftermarket tritium plug. There is functionality with the hole if you use a lanyard, however, having a tritium plug would be a good asset if you dropped you knife after dark...a brass plug would also match the brass handle pins if that's the final decision. Regardless, the hole makes it unique and I really look forward to picking one up...great job Sal,

ROCK6

 

[Unsub]

I like the idea of a tritium plug but it would be better if all the holes in fixed spydies were the same size so it would fit my Mule or a Bushcrafter etc. Spyderco would not even have to make it some company like TAD could. Heck I might drill other knives for it.

 

[philthygeezer]

If it's carbon steel, will it function as a compass if you hang it with fishing line on the hole?

Full tang looks great for structural standpoint. Sometimes you want to hammer the butt of the knife into wood for notches, and even into saplings to cut down trees with the knife. Would skeletonizing the tang affect it's strength when performing these hammering tasks?

I think Scandi grind makes the best sense for having an edge that is at a strong angle, and perhaps keeps the blade itself strong - like a sabre grind. Also sharpening is easier on a flat stone as you just lay the flat of the scandi grind on the stone. If bushcraft and survival is the name of the game, best to have an edge that is easy to sharpen with rocks in the bush.

 

[hwpaintballer]

If it's carbon steel, will it function as a compass if you hang it with fishing line on the hole?
Full tang looks great for structural standpoint. Sometimes you want to hammer the butt of the knife into wood for notches, and even into saplings to cut down trees with the knife. Would skeletonizing the tang affect it's strength when performing these hammering tasks?

I think Scandi grind makes the best sense for having an edge that is at a strong angle, and perhaps keeps the blade itself strong - like a sabre grind. Also sharpening is easier on a flat stone as you just lay the flat of the scandi grind on the stone. If bushcraft and survival is the name of the game, best to have an edge that is easy to sharpen with rocks in the bush.

If the carbon was magnitized like a magnetic needle then maybe but it would still still be hard to make it level plus makes sure it balanced, and most compasses are floating in fluids.

 

[JNieporte]

Damn that's nice. I'll take at least one, depending on the price. The only Spyderco fixed blade I own is the Vagabond.

 

[Unsub]

I will take 2 of each price is no object.

 

[The Mastiff]

Mr.Claycomb stated:

I don't know anyone who seriously talks about sharpening a scandi bevel on rocks

I do believe some of your customers do. This isn't the first example either. When I pointed it out last time your response was confusing, as these aren't all that uncommon over the different forums. Mr. Geezers post

"I think Scandi grind makes the best sense for having an edge that is at a strong angle, and perhaps keeps the blade itself strong - like a sabre grind. Also sharpening is easier on a flat stone as you just lay the flat of the scandi grind on the stone. If bushcraft and survival is the name of the game, best to have an edge that is easy to sharpen with rocks in the bush.

Wether possible or practicle or not I'll leave it to more experienced bushcrafters and knife designers but he ( Mr. Geezer) isn't the only potential customer that has thought it important enough to include the idea in their "ideal bushcraft knife" post here and other forums.

I bring this up as your previous response seemed somewhat haughty in dismissing the subject. That's of course your right but as I stated, these are potential customers. Regards, Joe

 

[Unsub]

While I have never used a rock in the bush i have used a small pocket stone like the one that comes with the Pilots Survival Knife Ontario makes in a little pocket on the sheath.
I always liked that especially on that particular knife but it would also be a nice feature for a bushcraft knife. I know some of the trappers like a really soft steel so they can touch it up every time they skin an animal.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Philthygeezer,

While the blade may be stronger due to coming with a Scandi single bevel grind, this is incidental and wasn’t something that figured in the thought process behind the design. When we were talking to Sal about edge geometry we suggested 20-25 degrees total, the prototypes were ground at a greater angle and although I can’t find the exact figure, I am pretty sure it was 30 degrees total. This isn’t a weak edge for wood working, but some care will be needed if you want to bang it against bone when dressing big game or doing heavy splitting. Being able to carve really well was one of the leading pieces of design intent. There are lots of sturdy knives out there, but not so many that cut (wood) really well.

On the rock sharpening thing. I have yet to actually meet someone who uses knives of the style that I make who has this as a criteria when choosing a knife. I have read it a few times on US forums, maybe its a cultural thing, or maybe geographic Anyway, I had dismissed it as something I should be worrying about well before designing this knife, and while working on this project it never re-entered my mind.

Let me explain why. There are several reasons.

The first is possibly due to a complete lack of imagination on my part. In spite of trying, I cannot conceive of a situation where I would plan on sharpening my knife on a rock; if I expect that I will need to sharpen my knife, I would plan on taking a pocket hone to do so. This would go in whatever clothing or pack would be going with me. If I didn’t have space for a pocket hone, some wet-n-dry paper would do almost as well. Good, fine grained, stones aren’t all that common in the areas that I have spent time. I don’t generally want anything harder to sharpen than D2 or S30V, but given the choice between something that would keep its edge even longer, and something softer that would respond well to a rock, I would have to go for the super-steel because suitable stones seem so rare. Good stones may be available to some people, but I don’t think that chancing on finding one should be part of most folks plan. If that is the case, then it shouldn’t be a major consideration during a production knife’s design process either.

Next, the only thing that really strikes me as an activity that will dull a knife such that it needs repeated in-field sharpening, that could be achieved on a 220grit river stone would be skinning big game. While this is a bushcraft knife, bushcraft has many meanings for different people, field dressing and skinning ability were not at the top of the list of design requirements for this knife. If they had been, the handle would have been flatter, much narrower at the front, there might well have been more guard, and it would have had a flat or hollow grind. This knife was intended to be good at woodwork, first and foremost. Whenever I have been on extended trips and have been doing a lot of carving, battoning, splitting and cleaning small game, I have wanted to sharpen occasionally, but only because I have wanted to restore a shaving edge. Using a local stone would have been worse than just carrying on with stropping against a dirty leather belt.

Scandi single bevels sharpen easy on nice flat hones. Their purpose is to give extra control on cuts where the width of the bevel acts like the sole of a plane. I do know that some people like to use convex scandis and others like to add a micro bevel, but for them to work best on wood, the bevel must be dead flat, or slightly concave. Unless you were able to find or produce a flat surface from your local stone, you would quickly render your flat bevel into a convex shape which would take quite a lot of effort to remove at a later date. If you really feel that a bush knife needs to be something that can be sharpened on a rock, I would think that a flat grind with a secondary bevel would be a better buy. That smaller bevel would be a lot easier to work and there would be fewer problems with inadvertently changing the edge geometry. Having to take 5/16” of steel off has to be harder than just working on just 3/32 or so.

Finally, if everything really has gone to hell in a hand cart and someone just must re-sharpen on a rock, and they are lucky enough to find a good one, it’s not likely to be situation where they are going to worry much what it does to the knife. I would hope though that such occurrences are rare enough that anticipating them does not become the primary driver when buying kit. If it does, there are already a whole lot of other knives on the market that are designed for chopping, prying, pounding on…. and sharpening on rocks

I know that some people will disagree strongly with the above, but any designers out there will recognise that it is nigh on impossible to please everyone. Pretty much every feature of this knife was chosen knowing that whatever was done, somewhere, someone, was going to be annoyed :grumpy: that we hadn’t done it some other way!

 

[The Mastiff]

Mr.Claycomb, thank you for taking the time once again to share your design ideals and philosophy with us. I suppose it would be kind of difficult making everyone happy. The fact is though you have designed one hell of a knife. I personally plan on getting one. I'm glad the knife will be done in o-1 also.

I wish you success with your and Spyderco 's final product. . Once again, thanks for taking the time to keep us in the loop, so to speak. Joe