David Mary "Slicey Baby" Spyderco Astute

[Maximumbob54]

Some size comparison to get a feeling for how the Astute is next to a Natvie 5 and a Mini Grip:

The Astute is a slept on hardly ever mentioned Spyderco budget knife. Look at all that cutting edge! Yeah, it's 8cr so yes it would be better if it was US made in M4 with a Compression lock or Seki made in K390 but it's a "lowly" budget blade.

BUT....

Full steel liners covered in G10, very positive liner lock, NO unnecessary thumb grating jimping or blade length absorbing finger choil, and I don't know if I've ever seen a better blade to handle ratio. Add to that, this design defies all the jibba jabba about how a Spyderco is so bulky in pocket with the Spydie hole adding so much. Nope, not this one. And yes it still flips out with a flick.

AND...

If you super nicely ask for a David Mary Regrind then this is what you get:

It's a laser beam. I achieved cold fusion in my living room slicing atoms in half. Aliens descended and told me to take them to my leader so I pointed at my knife and they bowed down to it in terror and ran back to their ship. I cut my finger with it but the cells in my finger just got confused and went back together since they thought it was just the wind. I was waving it around and seem to have sliced a window into some alternate dimension. I could keep doing this all day.

Jokes aside, I'm blown away how nice the Slicey Baby is. I've read 8cr is actually fairly tough so I'm hoping I don't bacon curl the edge as soon as I get a little rough with it. But if I do then I bet I know a guy...

 

[Runs With Scissors]

That sure is a handsome little knife! It seems that I too have been drawn in to the imported Spyderco knives lately. First, I made a tremendous sacrifice to my favorite visually challenged rodent to get one of David's S35V Resilience Re-grinds. I really, really liked the thin edge on it. I day or two later, I found a Spyderco Resilience locally, and I scooped that up on an impulse. I did a very poor impression of David's work, and of course fell miles short. I did however manage to bring it down to .010 at the edge, which was as low as I dare go with 8CR13MOV.

Now, I have a Resilience and a Tenacious that are insanely good slicers. The DMC Resilience is definitely my new EDC. The Tenacious is cool, but nowhere near as cool as the DMC Resilience. I guess I'll eventually gift the Tenacious, or set it aside, just in case the dark day ever arrives that I lose my Resilience. And...I'll scoop up any of his other re-grinds I stumble into. just cause I'm occasionally a hoarder of nice things.

As far as that Astute goes...I REALLY like the lines on that one. I think ya' got yerself a winner there!

 

[Maximumbob54]

Minor update. I have a bush at the corner of my house right under where the house numbers are. The bush likes to be silly and grow a single branch up that starts covering the numbers. Delivery people these days struggle figuring out which house is which so I don't need to add to their trouble. Noticed while rolling out the trash can this morning there's yet another branch causing misery. Slicey Baby to the rescue. It's only a 3" blade and the branch is already about the thickness of a pencil so I'd better swing at it with some gusto to get the cut started so I can work the blade back and forth to finish the cut. Swish. I thought I missed it but the offender fell back into itself for later retrieval. I've grown very used to slicing paper with ease from sharp edges but this is a whole new sensation. It's a little thrilling.