Chinook 4

The only thing I would change would be to use titanium liners, which could signifigantly reduce weight in such a large knife. Just watch TV, weight loss is very 'in' these days...
 
What would be the advantages of a fixed blade Chinook?

Who would prefer a fixed blade to a folder?

Hi Mark,

Titanium liners wouldn't reduce weight much, just increase cost considerably. Although I must admit that the word; "titanium" seems to "sell" products these days, from razors to pens.

Weight reduction in this model would have to reduce steel thickness. Thinner blade, ball bearing lock (P'Kal style), carbon fiber scales, thinner liners.

I would also need Jame's thoughts.

sal
 
While a fb would be cool. I believe it would go against the idea of the Chinook, a folding bowie with both utility and sd function in one.

I would be willing to pay more for the Ti liners. I wouldn't want to see the steel liners get thinner. I like the stiffness they lend. CF would be great. The back lock on mine is perfect, but I wouldn't argue with a ball lock.

Personally, the changes I would like are mostly based on cosmetics. I would likt to see the finger choil go away and the grind extend further in it's place. I would also like to see a bit better blade to handle ratio. I know we would be talking very small fractions here, but it would add to the look as well as reducing weight. I have already done some modding to mine in this regard, I have also created a relief on the spine behind the lock. It is subtle, but it does give a bit better feel in all grips. It also reduces weight.

Just my thoughts on what has become my favorite Spyderco!

All 4 a Chinook 4
 
Chinook 4 with P'Kal or ball lock, BG-42 or ZDP189 blade:D(current blade is fine too), clip mounts maybe a hair closer to the edges of the scale, machine some material off the non stress areas of the liners to take some weigh off, would be very nice.
 
advantages of a fixed blade chinook: all the advantages of any fixed blade over a folder, secondly, it's unique blade and handle design, thirdly because it would be cool and fun and people would want to buy it. Spyderco's fixed blade need an injection of cool, blades that appeal to romantic imagination, blades that are visually beautiful and have adventure written all over them. That is what spyderco needs to put into its fixed blade line, a sense of romance, that is what a fixed blade chinook would do for spyderco. I want one.
 
Thanks Sal, I stand corrected! Looks like I'll stick with the III : )

I don't know, from a marketing standpoint, what real appeal there would be for the fixed chinook. It would just be a massive, short bladed bowie, which IMHO seems too big for the city and too small for the country. I think that there are plenty of cooler and more financially lucrative projects for Spyderco to pursue. Off the top of my head, a G10, 4 way clipped C60 Ayoob, an Assist-esque glass breaking whistle knife with a sharp point cattering to the urban combat/survival mentality, and a redesigned, pocket friendly firebyrd lighter utilizing the mini bic, would all be BIG sellers in todays marketplace. Or at least I would buy them.
 
Sal said:
What would be the advantages of a fixed blade Chinook?
Click to expand...

Relative indestructibility and increased reliability compared to an folding knife.

As strong as Spyderco has made the Chinook (the strongest folder of my personal experience), if it should fail in desperations self-defense, it will fail at the place of folding.
 
I may be the only one to vote this way, but I'd like a titanium handled frame lock Chinook IV with a full 4 inch flat ground blade. Flat, fast, lightweight and solid. I figure it will look a little like a tighe stick, but without the big hump for the hole.

http://www.knifeart.com/tigholoptacf1.html
 
A little more clarification:

I consider the Chinook II the most perfect folding self-defense and general field and utility knife ever made.

Strong, opinionated statement, eh?

I did not understand how the flat grind of the Chinook III improved the Chinook, and I doubt that the flat grind did improve the Chinook II.

Like most knife aficianados, when I get a new knife, my mind soon turns to what would make it more perfect.

In the case of the Chinook II, I have burned a few brain cells and, frankly, I see no way of making it more perfect.

James Keating gave Spyderco a good concept, and, in the Chinook II, Spyderco perfected that concept.

Amazing.

How often does one see that in this life?

So, as a purely intellectual excercise, how would one change the Chinook to make it better and warrant designation as a Chinook IV?

Remove the weakest link, the folding hinge, and change nothing else.

Literally, change nothing else, not even a shadow of change.

A longer blade or a sharpened swedge would work against the usefulness of this knife.

Make it a full tang fixed blade knife, and skeletonize the tang to match the skeletonization of the liners.

Retain the present liners and scales, in exactly their present form.

In fact, use the exact same liners and scales for the fixed blade version of the Chinook, with all the same holes and fasteners.

Then design the most innovative and multi-position, ambidextrous, modular, IWB/belt sheath the world has ever seen.
Don't make it out of leather, but out of Kydex or some high-tech non-leather, non-biodegradable material.
Machine screws should hold it together and allow disassembly and reassembly in left and right-hand, horizontal and vertical versions.

Make the sheath flat black so that the sheath disappears in plain view (remains unconcealed if the wearer so chooses) as much as possible.

Do NOT make the knife any larger nor change its proportions in any way.

Make it as absolutely identical to the Chinook III as humanely possible, except non-folding.
Retain the hole, exactly as it appears on the Chinook II and III.

Stick with S30V and the current graphics on the blade.

=====

Incidentally, I gave away my car a few years back.
My wife and son have their cars, but I have made a commitment to riding a bike 24/7/365.

Sometimes I ride late at night, in the dark, especially coming home from work during the winter.
Sometimes young men in pickup trucks and SUV's like to hassle me.
They throw things at me and swerve into the bike lane to scare me.
Most full-time bicyclists report this type of harrassment.
None of these young men has ever stopped and gotten out of their vehicle to harrass me, but I carry my Chinook II with me in my waistband for self-defense, if it ever gets to the point where I actually fear for my life.
This knife has taken terrible abuse from sweat, snow and rain, and a fall on ice that broke four ribs and punctured my lung (the scales have some interesting scratches on them from that fall).
Of note, though: in the winter, when I wear gloves, I add a John Greco fixed blade knife to my belt so that I can quickly present a knife to hand, even with gloves.
I would prefer a fixed blade Chinook in a high ride sheath.

It just couldn't get any better than a fixed blade Chinook in a high ride ambidextrous sheath.
 
For the fixed blade, it's hard to beat either of th Perrin designs. Fred makes an awesome bowie. I'll vote for the folding Chinook IV: Lock mechanism either the ball-lock or the Chris Reeves frame lock. Ball-Lock is the first choice but I'd give James the artistic/tactical choice. Steel: It's hard not to love VG-10, but S30V, BG-42, D2 are great also. Scales: Micarta (It's probably not possible), CF, Green G-10. Tip: A reinforced tip with the thickness to the tip. I'd want to keep a very similair handle design-great ergonomics. Hey Eric, any chance in a byrd series DoDo?
 
I second Ken Cox's last post. Perfect, that is what I'd like to see. Now the only thing left is to consider how it attaches to the belt, something better than a tech lock I would hope, shame to create such a balanced elegant knife and wear it with the most ungainly contraption ever produced.
 
Ken Cox said:
I believe Spyderco has already perfected the Chinook as a folder.

The Chinook IV, then, ought not fold.

Make it fixed, and when I say identical to the II and III in every respect and nuance, I even mean the little the scallops in the scales on each side for guiding the thumb into the hole.

To me, the real challenge would involve designing a multi-position sheath that would retain the knife and, at the same time, deliver it quickly to a defender's hand, ready for action.

This same sheath, then, would accept and carry a Chinook II or III in its opened configuration.

Spyderco could sell the sheaths to people who own Chinook II's and III's.

For myself, though, I could not live without a fixed blade Chinook IV that had an IWB sheath for the blade portion of the knife, with the entire grip exposed above the waistband for instant excess, and with some sort of extension of the sheath to act as a liner between the grip and the body to keep the grip from rubbing the wearer's skin through his shirt.
A very high-ride sheath.

Additionally, I would like to see a sheath I could take apart and put back together as a mirror-image of itself, so I could carry it on the left or right side, and so I could carry it so oriented as to present itself in either the Ice Pick grip or the saber/hammer/baseball-bat grip, depending on the wearer's hand and grip preferences.

Make a fixed blade Chinook IV as indistinguishable from its folding predecessors as possible (I'd use the exact same screw/fastener pattern, and even the same fasteners), and put the thought, research and development into the most flexible, multi-position, left/right, IWB/belt sheath the world has ever seen.
Click to expand...

Ken, have you ever considered carrying upside down? I have three knives (3, 4 and 5 inch blades) with kydex sheaths that I can carry handle down and it is amazing how fast you can draw from under even a long coat. I've got a couple other knives in mind for kydex sheaths and I will want them both to be upside downable.

I could really enjoy a FB Chinook with a multi-position sheath!
 
How about a Mini-Chinook IV 3" blade, linerless, with a ball lock. Lighter, more comfortable to carry, easy to keep clean, and legal in most areas. I will buy two.
 
caged ball lock, removable wave, four position clip, S30V steel, G10 handles. Also a Chinook 5 fixed blade same size in a kydex sheath with IWB loop. Thats is my idea of EDC heaven.
 
Firstly, I'll note that I've got a Manix (the full sized model) and haven't owned the Chinook, so take this FWIW. If folks are worried that the pivot is a point of failure, why not design something like the cross-bolt type safety on the Extrema Ratio Fulcrum folders, for the Chinook/Manix? Now, if I were dreaming I'd say that Sal and the other superheroes at at Spyderco should up the stock thickness on the Chinook/Manix to 3/16" or larger, and give them a bit more tip-strength... :)
I know, I know, I know...

And while you're at it Sal, how about pics of the Chinook/Manix killer, (aka, the Tuff Concept). Come on, sir, throw a brother a bone... :)
 
I would like to hear from him if he has the time, on if our thoughts on the fixed blade sound reasonable to him, if we might hold out some hope of ever seeing one in production. I wonder how a thread like this rates as a focus group?
 
I'd vote for a FB Chinook.I've had the Chinook 1 for several years and just picked up the #2 in a trade.Both are beautiful knives.My favorite Spyders.A FB would complete the collection.
 
The comparison of a folder to a fixed blade, by me anyway, does not involve the lock but the hinge and the over all frailty of a folder.

Imagine a table with an open and locked, folding Chinook II or III on it; and, beside it, an exactly identical fixed blade Chinook II or III.

At any moment, a Grizzly Bear, Pit Bull, Tiger, Homicidal Maniac or whatever will enter the room.

Which knife will you choose?
 
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