Design idea

J

Jiantbrane2

Joined
Mar 9, 1999
Messages
489
This is for those of you who didn't read the post concerning the white Jess Horn. I've been thinking about variety of the Spyderco designs lately, and this is what I came up with.

~Native handle and blade WITHOUT a swedge, ~ATS-55 (So as to keep it in the same price range as the current Native),
~possibly a flat grind... you don't often hear of those getting chipped, but a hollow grind would suffice I suppose
~G-10, carbon fiber, or "volcano grip" (that bidirectional radiation
pattern has NO grip),
~pins like those of the Police and Rookie
~put together so that there is no blade play (yes, that would sacrifice
the blade's immediate swing due to the depression of the lock- BIG DEAL! This would be more gain than loss)
Make this knife at an affordable price ($60 or less), and it would
absolutely put any other lockback on the market to shame!
What do you guys think?
Howie
The guy who thinks the paper ribbons should be removed from Hershey's Kisses!
 
sounds like a fine idea to me. i'd love a flat ground native with OD green G-10, but i'd rather have screwed construction rather than the pinned.

howie, have you looked at a micarta calypso jr? i have one of those and two natives (1 regular, 1 BF) and i find them remarkably similar in many respects. it differs in a flat ground blade, better handle material than regular and pinned construction. pretty close to the specs you provided above, though it is aus-8 steel.
 
Right. The Calypso Jr. is a cool knife, for sure. Like you said, though, it AUS-8. It's also over $60. To me, that's not an affordable knife. I've only got one knife over $58, and that is my 710. My Native was $40. I, too, would LOVE scres instad of pins, but that ineveitably increases the price. By the specs I stated, there is no reason it would have to be more expensive than the Zytel Native. Unfortunately, the knives aren't always priced in relation to size and materials; this is obvious if you look at the prices of the Copilot, Toad, Pegasus, Q, R, Dragonfly, Ladybug, and Cricket. Obviously, the Navigator comes nowhere close to the Endura in materials cost, etc., but actually costs more. I thought all of those specs out pretty carefully, and I hope it is taken into consideration.

Thanks for the tip
Howie
 
Howie - Some info to share;

The cost of G-10 to purchase and work into a knife is considerably more expensive than an injection molded handle. Probably by 5-10 fold. The cost of working Carbon Fiber is more than G-10.

It is not possible (at this time) for us to produce a Native size Knife with these machined handles and normal Spyderco quality and a good steel that would retail for less than $60

Tha Navigator cost more because of the G-10 material & labor costs.

The cost of a new handle in FRN is also a very expensive tooling cost and is only considered where a high volume over a long period of time is expected. Even then, the cost of the tooling (as high as $60,000) must still be amortized in the cost of each knife produced.

You will need to take these facts into account when "thinking out the specs".

Hope this helps.

sal
 
Whoops! The is one thing I forgot! The prices I'm thinking of probably aren't the same ones you are. For instance, my regular Native was $40, though the MSRP is in the mid-50's. So for this knife, I suppose I should have said a price of a bout $100, which is not what the dealers would sell it for. I did take into account the cost of G-10 (the price of a Rookie is about $65), which is why I included the possibility of the Volcano grip).
I apologize for any confusion.

Thank you
Howie
 
Howie - That makes more sense and is more realistic (though still difficult) and might be possible. The BF Native could not MRSP for $100. It was G-10, 440V, a grind which our machines already know how to do, and a lockback design for which the engineering had already been done.

sal
 
Just for my understanding....
What you're saying is that the BF Native would <u>never</u> make MSRP down to $100, even if it had been run into the several thousand instead of several hundred? The reason being that a majority of the price was for materials and labor, with comparitively little R&D and tooling costs. Correct?

------------------
"Absolute safety is for those who don't have the balls to live in the real world."
St. Mary's County, Republik of Marilundt

[This message has been edited by rockspyder (edited 21 December 1999).]
 
Rockspyder - There is less engineering than in a new model, but I didn't figure Engineering or tooling.

The cost of the materials is greater, but the major extra cost is the working of the materials. G-10 requires machining and a lot of handling. 440V requires twice as long to grind, extra annealing time for some of the processes, more wheel wear, more critical heat treat, etc.

sal

 
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