C36TI - Ti Millie

Harry Callahan said:
Well, I have a Military with a detent ball that's flat as the Kansas horizon. Please spare me the cheerleader routine. A manufacturing shortcut is a manufacturing shortcut, no matter who you are and no matter how reputable your company has been in the past. If the new Mil does, in fact, use a steel detent ball then I'm not interested as I have ACTUALLY HAD A REAL WORLD PROBLEM WITH SPYDERCO'S STEEL DETENT BALLS. I have a C36 Military that I paid over a hundred bucks for that HAS A FLAT STEEL DETENT BALL.

I'm a Spyderco enthusiast. Not a troll. Not some disruptor that's paid to work the forums. I'm just a guy that wants a TI framelock Military WITH A CERAMIC DETENT BALL. Does the new TI Mil have one? Who knows? It's not yet been established by those in the know. Anybody got the skinny on this?
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I can't say I have the skinny on it, but the one in my pocket has a steel detent ball. Did you buy the one you have with a flat detent ball new from a dealer, or did you get it on the secondary market? I only ask because I have seen auctions for Militaries that have had the detent filed off or removed to make it easier to open. If you did indeed buy it new, how long did it take to wear flat? What did Warranty and Repair say when you sent it in?

Even my oldest ATS-34 model still has a good detent. One problem is a manufacturing defect (if it wasn't someone's deliberate modification). If you said you have a dozen C36s and every one has a worn flat detent, I could see your point.
 
Hi Harry,

I'd sure like to see that Military with the flat ball bearing. And we'd certainly make it right.

Steel ball bearings have many grades and hardness differences from heat treating differences. We once received a run of knives from a vendor (not Military's) that wore out the ball baring in 100 openings +- 10. (Naturally they were not distributed). I Imagine it's possible that we got a bad run of ball bearings from a vendor, but not likely. We check for that. I will always keep an open mind to problems. That's how they get solved.

In our testing, we've not found any advantages to ceramic as a ball bearing over what we now use. Eric likes to use ceramic ball bearings in his personal ball lock models, and Howard Viele uses them on his ball lock customs.

Hi Unit,

Our customers kept asking for a Titanium Military RIL. We've not completed the Millie2 design and we didn't have a great deal of experience with Titanium, so we decided to begin by making limited runs of the current Military in Titanium with a RIL. Titanium is heavier than some of the other composites we use, but there are many opf our customers that prefer the Titan material even with the additional weight.

I try to make knives as light and strong as i can, because that is my preference, but we make alll stainless models as well, because our market asks for it.

I expect that if the variation is well received and desired, we would do a normal CQI improving and refining what our customers tell us about. Heck, we would even a ceramic ball if that's what our ELU's wanted. ;)

When the Millie2 design is ready for production, then we would begin to convert the TiMil RIL as well.

sal
 
Sal,

Is a sprint run of true lefties possible for the Ti Military? I miss out on so many awesome designs due to right handed people being so dominant in the knife world. There are several designs I would buy right now but I won't due to them not being true left handed friendly. And despite the fact that the clip is reversible it doesn't mean anything when you can't operate the liner lock properly.
 
Great response Sal, you are a stand up guy!!!

Finally a knife with Sebenza like materials with a thumb hole to open, Im pretty excited. Thanks Spyderco!
 
Harry Callahan said:
Well, I have a Military with a detent ball that's flat as the Kansas horizon. Please spare me the cheerleader routine. A manufacturing shortcut is a manufacturing shortcut, no matter who you are and no matter how reputable your company has been in the past. If the new Mil does, in fact, use a steel detent ball then I'm not interested as I have ACTUALLY HAD A REAL WORLD PROBLEM WITH SPYDERCO'S STEEL DETENT BALLS. I have a C36 Military that I paid over a hundred bucks for that HAS A FLAT STEEL DETENT BALL.

I'm a Spyderco enthusiast. Not a troll. Not some disruptor that's paid to work the forums. I'm just a guy that wants a TI framelock Military WITH A CERAMIC DETENT BALL. Does the new TI Mil have one? Who knows? It's not yet been established by those in the know. Anybody got the skinny on this?
Click to expand...

I am not an engineer, but I have clients who are, and I have been told that ceramic is a great deal harder than hardened steel, and when the two are in contact the ceramic will wear the steel out quite rapidly, even if the steel is hardened to customary standards.
 
JNewell said:
You're comparing MSRP on one knife to street price on the other. This one will have a street price in the $180-190 range. Roger's site says MSRP on the G10/M4 version is $299 with estimated actual price around $200.
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I just saw the Ti RIL S30V version on sale for $188.90 USD at a popular U.S. online store. They are available at only one place in Canada for, get this, $295 CND! That is $280.40 USD! Something is wrong here. That's practically a $100 difference. Something is very wrong. I know there is usually a bit of a difference between Can/US prices on the same knife, but this is ridiculous. Something is very, very wrong.

Thank heavens I had and still have no interest in this particular Military. I'm quite content waiting till May for my M4 Millie at a street price of ~$200 USD, and I have no problem going south to the land of sane and reasonable prices for it.
 
JNewell said:
I am not an engineer, but I have clients who are, and I have been told that ceramic is a great deal harder than hardened steel, and when the two are in contact the ceramic will wear the steel out quite rapidly, even if the steel is hardened to customary standards.
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Alumina ceramic and zirconia ceramic can be polished to a very high degree so wearing into the blade can be minimal if at all.

I know a custom maker that gold plates the ball on his linerlocks.

Is there a measurable difference in performance?

sal
 
KarlMaldensNose said:
I just saw the Ti RIL S30V version on sale for $188.90 USD at a popular U.S. online store. They are available at only one place in Canada for, get this, $295 CND! That is $280.40 USD! Something is wrong here. That's practically a $100 difference. Something is very wrong. I know there is usually a bit of a difference between Can/US prices on the same knife, but this is ridiculous. Something is very, very wrong.

Thank heavens I had and still have no interest in this particular Military. I'm quite content waiting till May for my M4 Millie at a street price of ~$200 USD, and I have no problem going south to the land of sane and reasonable prices for it.
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That's business as usual. Is it any surprise to see things priced according to anticipated demand?
W&W is one of the only places in the country that even tries to give a significant discount off MSRP, and remember they have about one tenth the consumer base of a U.S. dealer.
On average they come close to U.S. rates (especially with Spyderco products) and save you all the hassle at the border. For that I'm more than willing to pay a few inflated prices.
That's without the crazy specials.
If you factor in the regular sale prices my bet is that you'll save money in the long run.
 
Joshua J. said:
That's business as usual. Is it any surprise to see things priced according to anticipated demand?
W&W is one of the only places in the country that even tries to give a significant discount off MSRP, and remember they have about one tenth the consumer base of a U.S. dealer.
On average they come close to U.S. rates (especially with Spyderco products) and save you all the hassle at the border. For that I'm more than willing to pay a few inflated prices.
That's without the crazy specials.
If you factor in the regular sale prices my bet is that you'll save money in the long run.
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I didn't want to name the place, because other than this particular instance every other knife I've looked at or bought from there has been reasonably priced if not identical to U.S. prices, factoring in the exchange rate. On top of that, the proprietor of that place has been nothing short of dazzling in terms of both personal and professional attention and courtesy paid to me. W&W is a godsend for us Canucks and I am sincerely grateful for Jay's work. My intention wasn't to call the place out and complain specifically about it, but rather to bitch and moan about the general disparities between "down there" and "up here." I don't think I did a very good job.:o
 
Sal, thank you for the correction (honestly!)


Sal Glesser said:
Alumina ceramic and zirconia ceramic can be polished to a very high degree so wearing into the blade can be minimal if at all.

I know a custom maker that gold plates the ball on his linerlocks.

Is there a measurable difference in performance?

sal
Click to expand...
 
Sal, are there any other custom makers who are using your ball lock besides Howard Viele?
 
I like the P-Mill's lock better, theres a cut out in the blade so the lock spring just slides into when closed almost like when its locked open..no ball. A wonderfull design. I wonder if this could be done with a liner lock?
 
Right now it seems like only a limited number has been released to dealers.
Mr Glesser would there be more released in the very near future.
I hope you also make some titanium military with CPM M4, and with S90V steels.
 
From what I've seen posted on the Spyderco website forums production was supposed to be 50-100pcs a month. Depending on how many are on backorder at how many dealers it might take awhile to get one after the initial release depending on how many went out.
 
IIRC Sal said a longggggggggggg time ago that the Ti Millie was all ready, he was just waiting for more units to be completed/arrive. Therefore, I believe the initial release will be around 500 or so and depending on how the public responds, 50-100 more releases per month.
 
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