Centofante C25

[jascolli]

Hi Spyderco enthusiasts. I just purchased this Centofante from a brick and mortar shop. I came across it while on vacation in the NC mountains. I have come across threads that mention the various versions with the rubber inlays, but I have never seen any good information on this one with mother of pearl inlays. Do any of you have any insight on this? Thanks in advance. Jason

 

[nephron]

Some better pictures of the inlay area might be helpful. Never seen that inlay before either(wouldn't be to difficult to do it), I would send some good pictures to Spyderco for clarification, oh and by the way it is a Centofante. Nice catch.

 

[jascolli]

Some better pictures of the inlay area might be helpful. Never seen that inlay before either(wouldn't be to difficult to do it), I would send some good pictures to Spyderco for clarification, oh and by the way it is a Centofante. Nice catch.

Thanks nephron. I had it shipped home. I won't be back until Tuesday. For now, all I have are the sellers pics.

 

[JD Spydo]

OH dude I envy you something terrible . I've had that C-25 and it's big Brother the C-50 both at one time and I could kick myself for letting them go. I tried to get Sal to consider running a Sprint Run of them but the tooling is long gone. I liked the C-50 just a tad bit better because of the longer blade but both of those Centofante models were great.

They remind me of one of my all time favorite commercial knives ever>> and that is the Phil Boguszewski Spike model made by Benchmade back in the late 90s/early 2000s. That blade design is so versatile that you can use it for so many different jobs. Darned!!! I wish I would have found it before you did Also the ATS-34 Steel in those two Centofante models wasn't bad at all. I had much better luck with that steel than I did GIN-1 or AUS-8 for that matter. Congrats and enjoy!

 

[jascolli]

OH dude I envy you something terrible . I've had that C-25 and it's big Brother the C-50 both at one time and I could kick myself for letting them go. I tried to get Sal to consider running a Sprint Run of them but the tooling is long gone. I liked the C-50 just a tad bit better because of the longer blade but both of those Centofante models were great.

They remind me of one of my all time favorite commercial knives ever>> and that is the Phil Boguszewski Spike model made by Benchmade back in the late 90s/early 2000s. That blade design is so versatile that you can use it for so many different jobs. Darned!!! I wish I would have found it before you did Also the ATS-34 Steel in those two Centofante models wasn't bad at all. I had much better luck with that steel than I did GIN-1 or AUS-8 for that matter. Congrats and enjoy!

Thanks for taking the time to reply. What year do you think this was made? It doesn't seem to have been a regular production model. Did Spyderco do dealer exclusives & sprint runs back then? I wasn't planning to purchase this, but I realized it could be a unique piece for a collection.

 

[nephron]

Check this out.
http://www.spydiewiki.com/index.php?title=C25_Frank_Centofante

 

[Peter1960]

... I have never seen any good information on this one with mother of pearl inlays. Do any of you have any insight on this? Thanks in advance. Jason

Hi Jason, I'm 99,999999% sure the inlay is not factory made/original. Looks like an aftermarket part from one of the pre-owners.

 

[jascolli]

Hi Jason, I'm 99,999999% sure the inlay is not factory made/original. Looks like an aftermarket part from one of the pre-owners.

Thanks for the reply. I found some info on another one. Looks like they were a limited run dealer exclusive??

 

[jascolli]

Some information from Santa Fe Stoneworks Spyderco page.

 

[yablanowitz]

So the inlay is not exactly Spyderco factory work, it is Santa Fe Stoneworks aftermarket. They do quality work and are collectible on their own.

 

[jascolli]

Hi All. I have my new to me Centofante C25 back in hand today. I was able to take more detailed photos of it. The Inlay that Sante Fe Stoneworks did is executed extremely well. the action on the knife is very smooth with no blade play. Lock up is as it should be and the blade is nicely centered. Handling this brings back memory's of my first professional job back in the 90's as a Treatment Plant Operator. I was young and could not afford nice knives like this Spyderco, but I recall the guys I worked with having these. I love this thing...

 

[jascolli]

I got confirmation back from Bill at Santé Fe Stonework's that they did indeed do the pearl on this C25 knife back in the mid 90's. What a super nice guy. He also shared some pics of his personal collection which I thought was pretty neat. This guy does some really nice work. I particularly love the spider web pattern that he inlays. I think I'm going to purchase one of his inlayed Harpy's..... oh no...