Well, as long as the thread began with a clip question,
What do you think of clips?
size, color, shape, material, orientation, etc.?
sal
I love clips! The only Spyderco I have is a FRN Delica, and I would never carry that knife up if it didn't have a clip. The slim profile really lets you forget that you're carrying a knife, but as far as opening goes, I find it pretty hard to open the knife without my hands slipping off the thin handle. The clip acts as an anchor and allows me to open the knife quickly and safely.
I'd never want a clip on a Swiss Army Knife, though, or a slipjoint. They're not meant for quick deployment, and they do just fine at the bottom of my pockets.
Clips are also great because they really seem to prevent the weighed-down-pockets feeling that I get from my larger knives, such as my Griptilian. Then there's the whole thing about deployment. What's the point of having thumbstuds, ramps, and holes to deploy the knife as quickly as possible if we have to double and triple the deployment time because we're digging the knife out of our pockets and manipulating the handle to get it into position? It also prevents a lot of lint buildup and knife wear because it's not getting jostled around at the bottom of your pockets with keys, change, pens and pencils etc.
As far as design goes, I like the way my Delica and Griptilian's clips are: solid, a good width and length, and with a lifted end to allow quick clipping and unclipping. I've never tried a wire clip on a knife though, so those could be better.
Black is definitely the only color for me in clips. For some reason, I decided to polish my Delica's clip to bare metal, and it looks horrendous. It was a really bad idea, and I'll have to pick up another one sometime because it not only makes the knife look ugly, but it draws a lot of attention when it's clipped.
The only problem that I have with clips is that on a couple of occasions I've bent my 550's clip up to 45 or more degrees from the handle on lawnchairs and doorways. Definitely a very annoying thing to happen :thumbdn: But that's a tradeoff.
As far as attachment to the knife, I'd say that for a utility hard-use knife I'd like the "old" Delica barrel style with the nickel groove. It was a really great, convenient idea and it makes it very easy to take your clip off or put it on in situations where you wouldn't have torx drivers, like hunting or fishing. But for a knife that you carry the same way in the same pocket every day, three screws in a triangular pattern do the trick for me.
And of course, anything other than tip up is silly and a good way to sever an artery
It also makes it awkward to open in my most humblest of opinions.
And Gryffin, as far as unfinished clips go, they really scream "THIS GUY HAS A KNIFE! THIS IS NO PLACE FOR A KNIFE! QUICK, MAKE SOME SORT OF RAMBO REFERENCE"
