C42 Howard Viele questions/suggestions

Sithus1966

Sithus1966

Joined
Jan 24, 2008
Messages
1,096
I picked this up fairly cheap for a reason. As you can see someone did what they shouldn't and used the tip for, who knows what and now it's broken. My original intention is to turn the blade into a Wharncliffe as I have done with other broken blades.

But my question is this, should I send it to Spyderco for the other issue before doing it or just Wharncliffe it as I wanted to and use it.
As you can see in one picture the lock bar travels all the way to the far side of the blade.

I'm sure there is really nothing that can be done with this old model but I am wondering if any of you have had any experience with such a thing and what Spyderco's response might be. I believe a e-mail would be the easiest way to pose the question rather than paying to have it shipped to get a reply.

Other than the tip it's a great knife.

Dsc05076.jpg

Dsc05077.jpg

Dsc05078.jpg

Dsc05081.jpg
 
Personally I wouldn't reprofile this into a wharncliffe. I think the nice clean swedge on the spine if the blade should be preserved as much as possible. I would reprofile the blade to add some belly and curve up to meat the swedge. Not alot that I think can be done for a 100% lockup though. Does it stick when unlocking or does the blade have vertical blade play? If not, I'd just reprofile the blade and not worry about the lockup.

Kind of a shame though, There aren't many of those Vieles around anymore.
 
I've had 2 of 'em and the liner lock did the same thing on both, these were meant to be a Gentlemans knife and as such were not meant for har use, personally I can overlook the liner lock issue as I only use it for eatin' out or very light work, I've never had the lock fail and 'cause of how far over they are if they failed it would probably jam the blade in the open position anyway.
 
I never did hear how anybody liked the Sprint of that knife called the Viele 2. They are still listed on Spyderco's website. But I've yet to hear anyone say much of anything about the newest Sprint version.

I tend to agree with the one Brother that they weren't really made to be a hard use knife. For that reason I always liked the JD Smith much better which has a similar blade style. Also the handle on the JD Smith seems pretty rugged for the most part. The Viele is one of the very few Spyders I've never owned. They do look nice though.
 
JD Spydo said:
I never did hear how anybody liked the Sprint of that knife called the Viele 2. They are still listed on Spyderco's website. But I've yet to hear anyone say much of anything about the newest Sprint version.
Click to expand...

I didn't care for it as much. They changed the back scale from Micarta to G-10 making it much more difficult to get in and out of the pocket. One of my favorite things about the original is the smoothness of operation and deployment, it's still the smoothest knife I own, and no, I don't have any customs :p . Also I found the size to be much too small. The original Viele fits my hand perfectly (as I've stated before, one of my all time favorite Spydies and I think one of the best looking).

Pity to see this one broken... maybe you could put a blunt nose on it similar to the Caspian?
 
The second generation of the original Viele was superb. It's one of the knives I had to sell when I was unemployed a few years back and I miss it a lot. It had thicker liners and better materials throughout solving the problems the original had (early wear causing the lock to go all the way across the tang with no way to adjust it). I've kept my eyes open for a second gen on the used market but haven't found one. I may just buy one of the 2's and try it out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top