Cara Cara II on the way ...

afishhunter

afishhunter

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Oct 21, 2014
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My brother just informed me he ordered me a new Cara Cara II, plain edge, for Christmas, and the knife is on the way to me.

I've never owned a Spyderco of any kind before. What can I expect performance wise? For example, will it hold an edge as well or better than my Buck 110, for identical usage? I'm an over the road truck driver (expedited less than truck load freight), my cutting needs are pretty mundane; cardboard up to 4 inches thich, plastic banding, "siran wrap", plastic cargo door seals, and food prep, are my normal uses.

After four or five months, I've stropped my Buck 110 once, to keep it arm hair shaving sharp. (after 40 or so passes through that $&@#* 4 inch thick cardboard. I needed corner proctectors for a load)

Thanks in advance.
 
I love my Cara Cara 2 G10. It's been ages since I had a 110, so I can't compare. Edge retention is...OK with the Byrd line. The Cara Cara is thin enough to keep on working for a long time after it's lost it's shaving edge, though. Should do just fine for your edc needs.
 
The Cara Cara 2 FRN was my first step from cheap/mediocre to better quality (eventually to moderate-higher quality) Spyderco knives. My usual EDC is a Sage 1 or one of my PM2's since my day-to-day cutting needs are minimal and very light duty. The Cara Cara 2 is basically the equivalent of the Eudura in terms of size, weight and blade shape w/ a few differences. The fairly thing full-flat ground blade is ideal for slicing, so food prep and cutting cardboard will be nice.

I still use mine regularly (as a "beater"), usually for yard work like cutting trimmer line or cutting small/medium sized bush branches, etc. The 8Cr13MoV's edge retention is perfect for my needs. I usually strop after every use (its therapeutic for me lol), and when I need to, the steel sharpens fairly effort. IMO one of the best bang-for-buck knives out there.

I can't really compare it to the Buck 110, but I think the knife will meet your cutting demands just fine.
 
I have a couple of Byrd models, including the Cara Cara 2. It came in the box wicked sharp. I found that its very thin profile allows it to cut through cardboard like butter. It gets used mostly as a food processor. Potato peeling, meet slicing, cutting up stuff for salads etc..I then just throw it in the sink with the dish water. No rust showing so far, which is surprising. It's a knife that is cheap enough($17 on Amazon) that you can use and abuse it without being worried about trashing a high priced knife.

It will handle the stuff you mentioned fine. It's one and only drawback I have found is that yes, it requires more touch-ups than a higher quality blade. Yesterday, I carved a couple of pumpkins with it, cut up some twine from a packaging crate from the market, and sectioned a dozen apples for a food project. When it was done, it was in good need of a touch-up. It wasn't completely dull, but getting there. The good news is that the steel is extremely easy to sharpen and touch up with a strop.
 
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