I'm not an expert on steel by any means, so I'm not very qualified to compare this knife steel to another. But I do like how razor sharp it came and after doing some cutting, it seems just as sharp as when I got it and it still shaves hair.
As I said earlier, this knife feels great in my [somewhat large] hand. It's very similar in size to the Superhawk handle, with slightly different ergonomics.
I mentioned earlier that the G10 was far grippier than my Caly 3 handle. After putting the two side by side, it looks like the texture on the Caly 3 is slightly finer, with the Manix 2 G10 exhibiting larger spacing between the ridges. This picture shows the texture difference between the two, with an insert of an extreme closeup.
The liners, as noted by others, are skeletonized. I imagine that they must be much lighter than the standard Manix 2, as there's a substantial amount of steel removed. This is a well balanced knife and, while never having handled the non-skeletonized version, probably an improvement over the standard run. Sorry for the kind of crappy picture; my DSLR died and so I'm shooting with my little point-and-shoot. Nonetheless, it gives an idea of the amount of metal removed.
Today was a slow day for cutting things. I started off the morning by slicing some oranges with my Manix 2. It went through very easily. After cutting them, I let the juice sit on the blade for about 15 minutes before running it under water to clean it off. I'm not sure how long some of these steels take to corrode in acidic environments, but the quarter hour in the OJ didn't affect the blade at all. Looks just like new.
Since I didn't really have a whole lot that needed cutting, the Manix decided to get revenge on the USPS box that had trapped it in the dark for so long. To simulate breaking down multiple boxes, I cut it into many small strips. Some sticky residue remained on the blade, but I wiped that off easily with some glass cleaner and a paper towel. The knife handled the cardboard with aplomb and remained razor sharp afterward.
After a whole day of use, I'm still very happy with this knife. I plan on continuing to use it to cut things at every occasion and am glad that Spyderco continues to go out of their way to innovate and bring us these great designs and steels!
