Ikuchi

Well, I often wear loose fitting jogging pants, so the knife can easily cant to the side with the tip so the natural location has me sliding my thumb down the edge where the tip is. No mashing my finger into it at all, just a light brush past it has the tip catching my thumb, if I apply any pressure at all it is going to grab my flesh pretty good.

Grabbing it from a seated position makes positioning even worse. Would not be nearly as much chance with tighter fitting jeans, but I assure you it is clipped to my jogging pants pocket right now, and grabbing the end of the knife lightly and just starting to slight down for a better grip has the point poking into my flesh.

In this specific instance the knife is hanging at about 45 degrees, which twists the knife to line up the tip side of the scale for perfect alignment to catch the edge of my thumb.

Yea sure, perfect storm? Maybe, but if I weren't consciously thinking about it I'd be hurting. I have not tried it in jeans yet, but I cans see what your saying, however jeans are not my typical attire.
 
Absolutely love mine! Dissapears in pocket and is a great slicer. Perfect size for me too.
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The third time I noticed it happened when I was putting the knife in my pocket so I put the clip to the other side.
 
sgt1372 said:
Hmmm . . . ????

I had to pull out my Ikuchi to try to figure out what you guys are talking about and these comments don't make much sense to me.

I agree that there is some risk of cutting yourself on the tip of the knife IF you run your fingers along the bottom of the liners where the tip resides when the knife is closed AND if you force the flesh of your finger tip between the liners where it can encounter the tip BUT my question is, Why would you ever do that?

When the knife is clipped in your pocket (or even placed loose in your pocket) either left or right handed w/the knife in the tip up position, your finger would be placed on the top of the knife handle where the flipper dial is located, where you cannot possibly run your finger against the tip because the tip is located on the opposite side of the handle.

Even just handling the knife in a normal way requires you to hold it w/the top of the knife in the palm of your hand w/the back of the blade and the tip facing away from your hand, such that is is impossible to cut your a finger on it.

The only way you would run your finger over the bottom of the liner in the way described is if you placed the knife "upside down" with the clip on the bottom and the closed knife in a tip down position which would be entirely impractical because you cannot open the knife using the flipper dial (or in any other way) if the knife is positioned in this manner.

The only way to open the knife if you pull it out of your pocket with this orientation requires to you first rotate the knife 180 degrees before you can use the flipper dial to open the knife. This just makes no sense to me and sounds like the kind of nonsense people have mentioned about the "dangers" of the Tropen. Both of these knives are entirely safe to use w/o any risk of being cut, if handled in a normal way.
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I'm right handed. When the Ikuchi is clipped in my RFP there's no problem as the tip is facing toward my pant seam and away from my hand as I slide my it down the pocket. However, I frequently carry in Right Back Pocket with the Ikuchi clipped to right side of pocket. Now the top part of the handle is against the edge of the pocket, and blade spine and tip are on the open side. So when I slide my hand down my RBP the tip catches on the left side of my right index finger. I was aware of this issue when trying it so avoided injury.

To minimize the problem I lightly ground down a very tiny portion of the tip with a medium ceramic rod from my Sharpmaker per a recommendation found on the Spydercoforums. It's barely noticeable to the naked eye. That has resolved most of the problem.
 
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sgt1372 said:
Just picked mine up at the PO.

I like it. It fits nicely (in terms of size) between a Smock and Positron in the knife case. I prefer larger knives w/blades 3.5-4" long but already knew that the Ikuchi would be smaller, so I certainly don't hold that against it.

I can't "Bic flick" the blade open w/my thumb. Can only open it w/the tip of my index finger, which allows for a better hold/hand position than using the thumb (even if I could do that) anyway. The detent on the knife is NOT light enough for me to gravity or wrist flick it open, vertically or horizontally, as I can w/most other Taiwan made compression lock Spydercos. However, I can easily flick it open horizontally when releasing the lock bar, as I can with all Spyderco compression lock knives, but it's difficult to release the compression lock bar w/a finger tip because the lock bar is not fully exposed. I have to use the fingernail on my index finger to release the lock bar instead. I keep my nails cut short; it may be harder to do this w/longer nails.

There is no way to use the Spydie hole to open the knife, since the entire blade is covered by the handle when closed. The alignment of the Spydie hole w/corresponding holes in the handle is a nice touch. You could mistake this decorative hole for a lanyard hole if you weren't paying attention, especially since there isn't a lanyard hole in the handle to begin with. Frankly, I'm not a fan of lanyard holes anyway because of design compromises made (made too often IMO) to include one in the handle which often requires an improper (or less than ideal) placement of the clip on the handle; below the lanyard hole so that the knife sticks too far out of the pocket, as is the case w/the Smock and Silverax; 2 other flippers. So, I don't miss there not being a lanyard hole on the Ikuchi.

I'm also not a big fan of CF/G10 laminate scales that Spyderco seems to be using far too often lately; the Amalgam, Smock, Silverax and Mantra3 being 4 other knives using it as well. Just don't like the feel of the laminate as much when compared w/other materials but I can live w/it; it's not a deal killer for me. On the other hand, I very much like the deep pocket wire clip that (w/o a lanyard hole) is placed right at the top of the handle w/the knife in a tip up closed position, which is the way it should be.

Given it's size and appearance, the Ikuchi easily could be dismissed as just another gentleman's EDC knife. However, given the shape of the blade and handle, the Ikuchi can also be considered (and used as) a SD knife as well.

The thin, pointy upswept blade makes it a kwaiken that can be held in comfortably in a conventional or reverse grip. Its small size and light weight makes switching grips much easier than w/larger and/or heavier knives. Add the quick means of deployment with the flipper dial or by doing a compression lock bar release flick and you'd got a lethal tactical weapon.

So, the Ikuchi is a keeper and look forward to carrying it on occasion. It won't replace the small and lightweight Bastinelli/Marcaida Pika karambit that I carry daily but the Ikuchi will be a useful supplement (or alternative to) the Pika whenever I decide to carry it too.
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This is an update of my initial comments quoted above:

After playing w/the Ikuchi for awhile, I find that the jimping on the flipper dial is very abrasive and after continued use is starting to hurt my finger tip. So, I started using my fingernail to engage the flipper dial instead.

Also, after lubing and loosening the pivot screw a bit, I find that it is easier to just open the Ikuchi by doing a compression tab release flick which is now my preferred way to open this knife.
 
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Got my Ikuchi day before this past Tuesday. Been carrying it since. Gotta say, I am liking this knife quite a lot, and am glad I grabbed one. Mine measures about 0.016" BTE...
Very well done Spyderco!

u.w.
 
Well, it's been delivered. At the doctor currently, anticipation is killing me. First world problem!
 
Just got mine. Perfect F&F. It's a little stiff out of the box but it's broken in nicely already and the flipper has been great to use so far. Even compared to the monster Shiro 111 it yields an impressive amount of blade for it's size.

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Mine has a ridiculously strong detent. Will that loosen up?
 
K.O.D. said:
Mine has a ridiculously strong detent. Will that loosen up?
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Is the detent too strong or is the pivot screw just too tight?

FWIW, my the pivot on mine was too tight for my taste. I just adjusted the pivot and lubed it (w/o taking it apart) and the blade now drops easily when I release the compression tab and give it a little shake; locks open quickly and easily when I do a compression tab release wrist flick; and, is easy to close single-handedly when I release the compression tab and give it a slight reverse flick to close it as well.

None of these actions can occur w/o the compression tab being FULLY released at the same time.

This suggests to me that the detent is neither too light nor too strong and is evidence that there is still some detent tension on the blade even when the compression tab is released. It just requires a little practice to flick the blade open and closed w/o using too much or too little force and, unless you have really slender finger tips, I find that just using the edge of the nail of my index finger is the best way to fully release the compression tab.

It should also be noted that adjusting the pivot is a little tricky and requires some fiddling to maintain the centering of the blade, because there are 2 pivot screws that need to be adjusted in order to achieve just the right level of tension to allow freer movement of the blade while also keeping the blade centered.
 
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Hmm..., I'll try slightly loosening the pivot. I just put a drop of tuf glide in to see if that would help. It's a little smoother.
 
Yeah, pivot screws were crazy tight. But, I can't seem to keep it centered. Ugh. I'll mess with more tomorrow. It's frustrating. With it looser, I really like it, but being off center, rubbing bothers me.
 
K.O.D. said:
Yeah, pivot screws were crazy tight. But, I can't seem to keep it centered. Ugh. I'll mess with more tomorrow. It's frustrating. With it looser, I really like it, but being off center, rubbing bothers me.
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Yeah, it's really fiddly but I finally got it the way I liked it.

What I did was loosen both sides up and then gradually re-tightened each side trying to maintain the centering while testing the blade tension until I got both where I wanted them.

Didn't take that long as I recall. I'd guess about 15-30 mins max.
 
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