I am very interested in the Spyderco hawkbills, however I can not see a whole lot of differences between them. I know that there are steel, handle material and clip configuration changes, but the overall design looks the same. What are the differences in blade length and tip thickness?
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Differences between the Spyderhawk, Harpy, Tasman & Superhawk?
- Thread starter SOLEIL
- Start date
Well first and foremost the Superhawk is only in Prototype stage. A bunch of us Hawkbill fans are anxiously anticipating it but I don't look for it till spring time 
The Spyderhawk is the biggest Hawkbill that Spyderco has made to date. They made 2 variations of it. They made a plain edged version with a deep blue FRN handle and they made a fully serrated version with a Black FRN handle. Both knives have VG-10 blade steel. They are great hawkbills. The blue one is really one the rare side. And the black one is getting more rare by the day. They ceased manufacture on it about 2 years ago.
The Harpy, The Tasman, The Merlin are all pretty much the same knife design with different bells and whistles. The Tasman and Merlin are both Harpys with FRN handles. The Tasman is out of the SALT series and made with H-1 blade steel. The Merlin was made with GIN-1 & ATS-55. It has been discontinued for about 20 months now. The Tasman is available in either yellow or black FRN handles. They are also available in plain edged and serrated edge.
The Harpy is pretty much Spyderco's flagship Hawkbill. They have made it with the following handle materials>> Stainless, G-10, Carbon Fiber. They made them with several blade steels. The current ones are made with VG-10. The Harpy is also one of the oldest Spyderco knives in the company's history. It goes way back to the earliest days of the company.
You can get more first hand information by checking out TED's Spyderco historical website by going to >> http://www.ted.tweakdsl.nl/spyderco/spyderco.html << Good Luck
The Spyderhawk is the biggest Hawkbill that Spyderco has made to date. They made 2 variations of it. They made a plain edged version with a deep blue FRN handle and they made a fully serrated version with a Black FRN handle. Both knives have VG-10 blade steel. They are great hawkbills. The blue one is really one the rare side. And the black one is getting more rare by the day. They ceased manufacture on it about 2 years ago.
The Harpy, The Tasman, The Merlin are all pretty much the same knife design with different bells and whistles. The Tasman and Merlin are both Harpys with FRN handles. The Tasman is out of the SALT series and made with H-1 blade steel. The Merlin was made with GIN-1 & ATS-55. It has been discontinued for about 20 months now. The Tasman is available in either yellow or black FRN handles. They are also available in plain edged and serrated edge.
The Harpy is pretty much Spyderco's flagship Hawkbill. They have made it with the following handle materials>> Stainless, G-10, Carbon Fiber. They made them with several blade steels. The current ones are made with VG-10. The Harpy is also one of the oldest Spyderco knives in the company's history. It goes way back to the earliest days of the company.
You can get more first hand information by checking out TED's Spyderco historical website by going to >> http://www.ted.tweakdsl.nl/spyderco/spyderco.html << Good Luck
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2005
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Wow that is a good summary. Not much to add. The Harpy/Tasman are only milimeters different in size; so for general use having either is good enough. Collectors...well they make up their own rules. 
Tasman Salt has a thinner tip than the Harpy with a slightly longer blade (5 mm)
Tasman Salt also has spine jimping whereas I don't believe the Harpy's ever did.
One other small item I remember concerning the Merlin. There were a few of the later Merlins made with VG-10 blade steel. I do know that they exist because I know 2 collectors that swear that they have one. I bid feverishly on one on fleabay last summer but lost 
The VG-10 Merlin is listed in the 2003 catalog but I have personally never had one in my hand. But for what you use a Hawkbill for ATS-55 is not bad steel at all. My main EDC has ATS-55 blades ( big Dyad).
I advise anyone who wants a Spyderhawk to get one on their collection ASAP. I do predict that they are going to get very scarce here in this next year. They are already drying up rapidly as we speak.
The VG-10 Merlin is listed in the 2003 catalog but I have personally never had one in my hand. But for what you use a Hawkbill for ATS-55 is not bad steel at all. My main EDC has ATS-55 blades ( big Dyad).
I advise anyone who wants a Spyderhawk to get one on their collection ASAP. I do predict that they are going to get very scarce here in this next year. They are already drying up rapidly as we speak.
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- Aug 1, 2006
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- 1,506
So what's the information behind the Superhawk? Approximate blade size, material---i know it's a prototype and it sounds cool..i stopped looking at the forums for a couple weeks a while back so i have no idea what some of you guys are talking about. Can somebody please fill me in? Thanks. 
The easy answer is "close enough" due to the fact that the other PE Spyderco Hawkbills are difficult to find and prohibitively expensive.