Calypso, Jr

T

thombrogan

Joined
Nov 16, 2002
Messages
9,948
My wife got me a Calypso, Jr. for Christmas and it's perharps the best cutter in its price range. Tip-down, ambidextrous carry. Bidirectional texture on the handle. Gray FRN instead of black. Fully flat-ground blade. VG-10 steel. Spyderco sharp right out of the box. Integral choil for increased safety and mild palm swell for increased grip retention.

As you can see, the knife is too good to write about with complete sentences.

A few days after Christmas, the Calypso, Jr. was the official box-breakdown knife. On shallow cuts, it most impressive. On deep cuts, it required more force than I had thought it would and made wish I had taken down my Spyderco Native to compare hollow to flat for deep cutting of viciously corrugated cardboard. Finished job with no blisters or boo-boos, so all-in-all it was good.

Fit and Finish:
Out of box, the edge was, well, what you'd expect from Spyderco. Exceptionally sharp. The clip, as is traditionally done, was set for the right-hand side of the knife. The screws were set in pretty tight and I almost stripped a screw before getting an exact fitting Phillips-head. Found blue Loctite in the screw threads. At least it was the red found in my ATR. :grumpy: This also left a little blue gunk obscuring the right-hand screwholes when the knife was clipped for left-handed carry. Didn't notice anything odd with the pivot out of the box, but it did develop (or I just noticed) a gritty feeling when being opened or closed. Still smooth enough, so no biggy.

The edge eventually needed resharpening and it's just built for the Spyderco Sharpmaker. You can use the 30 degree setting without any reprofiling, though adding a micro-bevel with the 40 degree setting would increase edge life and durability as well as speed up future sharpenings.

The Calypso, Jr makes both a great stand-alone knife and a wonderful edition to any collection. For an online discount price of about $41, I'm surprized that it's not constantly back-ordered.
 
As a compulsive knife buyer, the Calypso Jr. is my absolute favorite Spyderco knife. For a less than 3" blade (2.5" cutting edge) it is an awesome cutter, and attractive to boot.

I had thought I had lost my orginal calypso jr back when they were no longer made. I eventually found it about a year later, buried at the bottom of my rope bag. I just picked up one of the limited run gray versions, so I'll not be without this knife again.

Spyderco has, in my opinion, produced some butt-ugly knives lately. I'm really glad to see the calypso jr make a return. That and the Native III have restored my faith in the company.

Al F.
 
Al,

I'm guessing that the knives with the large humps around the opening holes are what you consider ugly if the Calypso, Jr. and the Native III are the ones that catch your eye. For me, the better they cut, the better they look.
 
Yep, of all the spyderco's the Calypso line is
my favorite. The design is so smooth in the way
it works that most folk's didn't understand it.
Shame really since once they try one for awhile
they.....get it!:D
 
I have 3 calypso jrs, but none with a plain edge. I really need one. I love this design.
Kyle Fuglesten
 
You know how the blade seemed to drag a bit more than you expected on some of those boxes--well I would blame the width of the blade. As the blade picks up a little bit of glue residue from the corregation the wide blade starts to drag. One improvement would be to make the blade narrower, closer to SAK dimensions. All you have to do is get rid of that stupid hole in the blade and that would be no problem.
 
Hi Thom:

I just got my Calypso Jr yesterday. It makes the perfect companion for my "buried" edc. (By that I mean the large folder I carry in my pack.) I like to have a full-sized edc nearby, but the local knife laws and sheeple reactions pretty much rule out carrying anything sizable clipped to me. Given the capability of the C-Jr, I may lighten the load a bit.

On another note: Do you (or does anyone) have both the Dodo and the Calypso Jr? If so, how would you compare them?

Best regards.
 
Originally posted by Jeff Clark
All you have to do is get rid of that stupid hole in the blade and that would be no problem.
Click to expand...

To quote scripture:

"What, dude?"

Thinning the edge, perhaps. I knocked back the edge-bevel of my Delica and, this evening, found that it cut much better (it was already very sharp before I narrowed it, but now it cuts better. Gotta be the Puppy Chow). Something for me to try on the Calypso Jr as box cutting time is coming around again (woo-hoo!). Will also try with the Native to see if hollow-ground binds more or less.
 
That was one of the first knives to really push the cutting ability of flat ground blades, reviewed a long time ago by Joe Talmadge. It would be of benefit to most to own this knife or something very similar to it. It is nice to see that it works well on the 15 right out of the box.

-Cliff
 
berzerker, I have the DoDo and Calypso Jr.
DoDo is of course a high end knife, well suited for precise cut outs, box opening and pruning branches. It feels strong in the hand.
With the Calypso I can do more of a variety of jobs, the flat ground blade with the point is great all round. It feels light in the hand.
Nothing bad about either knife.
 
berzerker, I have the DoDo and Calypso Jr.
DoDo is of course a high end knife, well suited for precise cut outs, box opening and pruning branches. It feels strong in the hand.
With the Calypso I can do more of a variety of jobs, the flat ground blade with the point is great all round. It feels light in the hand.
Nothing bad about either knife.
 
Originally posted by Jeff/1911
Thanks for the informative review. Oh, and happy new year!
Click to expand...

My pleasure. Sorry my words can't do just to this knife. Happy new year to you, too.
 
Thom,
Great review! I really like the Calypso jr too. I even shaved my buddies head with at a party once. :D Now when I talk to him about knives know all he can talk about is the knife. :rolleyes: Which I'm going to give him now that I have a gray replacment.

When I bought gray modle the retailer asked why I was so excited in getting this knife. He didn't think much of it becouse Spyderco discontinued it. Then I explained why this was such a great knife flat grind, taper to the blade, handle, and steel makes a great combination. I even let him cut up some stuff to show him why this is a great knife and it changed his mind.

This is a real sleeperin the knife world. And I like it that way. More for me and my friends. :)

Take care
Brian
 
Thanks, Saberman.

I think sleeper is an understatement. The Calypso, Jr. offers a combination of cutting ease and security that hasn't been matched at its pricepoint. The Native matches its security, but, sometimes, its blade is too thick. The Delica is a great cutter, but lacks an integral choil. The Calypso, Jr. is their unholy lovechild.

I'm psyched that they were rereleased, because they were discontinued when I first became a Spyderknut. Of course, how much of knut can I really be if I haven't shaved anyone's head with it yet?
 
I go out further on a limb: I think it's the best knife Spyderco ever designed. For what it's meant to do, it's just awesome, and really there's very little competition if you think about the combination of performance out of the box, blade steel, handle design, and price.

I agree with Cliff, you will benefit from having a Calypso Jr in your collection, it will change your outlook on what's important in a high-performance matter separator
 
Hi Gull Wing:

Thanks for the info. I'm glad to hear the DODO feels strong in hand. I'm anxiously waiting for a blue model to arrive on Friday.

I really got to appreciate the flat grind on the C-Jr early this morning (1:30AM, temp in dirt-floored back basement around 0 degrees, crouch-height ceiling). That little blade went through insulation so fast a miserable job of preventing pipe-freeze almost became fun. This knife really is an undiscovered classic. Oh well, more for those of us in the know.

Best regards
 
Joe Talmadge said what I was going to say, but Joe is more eloquent than I. So I'll just say that I agree completely with Joe. He's a really intelligent guy!
 
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