- Joined
- Feb 13, 2000
- Messages
- 370
Around the time I first joined these forums, Mike and Spark were playing with an online knife magazine to accompany the forums and one of the first articles was a review for the Emerson Commander, the first waved knife. Emerson knives have never been known for being easily attainable compared to other brands of production knives and I don't think I ever saw a non-coated plain edge Commander in stock when I was looking. I soon wound up getting addicted to Spydercos (well, that and Microtechs, but that's another story) anyway. So the release of the waved Enduras and Delicas kind of brings things full circle for me.
I got mine from Knifecenter, one of the few times I've ordered from them since they're in state so I have to pay tax. Still, they were the only store that had some in stock at the time. These don't seem to be that common so if you're interested in them, getting ahold of them ASAP might be smart if you don't want to wait for another wave of restocks.
It's been a few years since I've ordered a knife. Hobby took a break for a bit when I took a break from the forums (an old computer didn't much care for these forums). Well, I did pick up a Walmart Native last Saturday, but aside from that my last Spyderco purchase was a Vessuvius. So a few things have caught me off guard about the knife.
First, this is the third Endura I've bought but the first I'm actually keeping. The first two Enduras were bought as birthday gifts for two (fraternal) twin buddies of mine during our senior year of high school. My Spyderco EDCs have been 440v Natives. I'm impressed by the, IMO, better construction of the Endura. I can actually adjust screws if I need to. However, my hands are a bit smaller than average (long fingers, but thin) so getting a proper grip is taking some adjustment. On a waved draw, I wind up holding the knife about an inch lower than a comfortable grip. Maybe I should have gotten a waved Delica . . . then again, I kind of had the feeling I'd wind up with both eventually. Of course, it may be possible to drill a new set of clip holes so the knife doesn't ride quite as low in the pocket. It's a big enough knife that I would think that there would still be enough weight to keep it in there if it was riding about a centimeter or two higher.
The tension on a lockback's spring has definately increased since a few years back. This was obvious to me with the Walmart Native since I had been carring an older Native when I walked into the store. As others have noted, the lower position of the hole on a Native's blade relative to the handle when closed constributes somewhat to that model being harder to open, but that now seems like a minor factor compared to the spring just getting tighter the past few years. Obviously this helps keep the knife from opening on you in the pocket, but I cut myself lightly earlier when an attempt at opening using the hole led to my thumb slipping a bit when I didn't overcome the tension and the blade snapping shut. It only made a slight slit in the upper layers of skin without drawing blood, but that was eye opening. Repeatedly opening and closing it while watching TV or something will hopefully help, though I apparently managed to cut myself again earlier on my other index finger doing something similar earlier which did draw a little blood. So much for being able to claim that I haven't bled from one of my own knives since my one six years ago . . .
The clip was way too tight out of the box. My first attempt at a wave opening failed when the knife didn't clear the pocket. A little adjustment with a torx screw fixed this so hopefully my pants should last longer now AND I won't rotate my pants a few inches clockwise trying to draw the knife.
The wave of course is neat. I'm wearing khaki shorts today, so I have to pull the knife back out of my pocket to open it, which is kind of awkward, but it definately does open. Every Spydernut owes it to themself to at least play with one of these things, even if they don't get one themselves.
I got mine from Knifecenter, one of the few times I've ordered from them since they're in state so I have to pay tax. Still, they were the only store that had some in stock at the time. These don't seem to be that common so if you're interested in them, getting ahold of them ASAP might be smart if you don't want to wait for another wave of restocks.
It's been a few years since I've ordered a knife. Hobby took a break for a bit when I took a break from the forums (an old computer didn't much care for these forums). Well, I did pick up a Walmart Native last Saturday, but aside from that my last Spyderco purchase was a Vessuvius. So a few things have caught me off guard about the knife.
First, this is the third Endura I've bought but the first I'm actually keeping. The first two Enduras were bought as birthday gifts for two (fraternal) twin buddies of mine during our senior year of high school. My Spyderco EDCs have been 440v Natives. I'm impressed by the, IMO, better construction of the Endura. I can actually adjust screws if I need to. However, my hands are a bit smaller than average (long fingers, but thin) so getting a proper grip is taking some adjustment. On a waved draw, I wind up holding the knife about an inch lower than a comfortable grip. Maybe I should have gotten a waved Delica . . . then again, I kind of had the feeling I'd wind up with both eventually. Of course, it may be possible to drill a new set of clip holes so the knife doesn't ride quite as low in the pocket. It's a big enough knife that I would think that there would still be enough weight to keep it in there if it was riding about a centimeter or two higher.
The tension on a lockback's spring has definately increased since a few years back. This was obvious to me with the Walmart Native since I had been carring an older Native when I walked into the store. As others have noted, the lower position of the hole on a Native's blade relative to the handle when closed constributes somewhat to that model being harder to open, but that now seems like a minor factor compared to the spring just getting tighter the past few years. Obviously this helps keep the knife from opening on you in the pocket, but I cut myself lightly earlier when an attempt at opening using the hole led to my thumb slipping a bit when I didn't overcome the tension and the blade snapping shut. It only made a slight slit in the upper layers of skin without drawing blood, but that was eye opening. Repeatedly opening and closing it while watching TV or something will hopefully help, though I apparently managed to cut myself again earlier on my other index finger doing something similar earlier which did draw a little blood. So much for being able to claim that I haven't bled from one of my own knives since my one six years ago . . .
The clip was way too tight out of the box. My first attempt at a wave opening failed when the knife didn't clear the pocket. A little adjustment with a torx screw fixed this so hopefully my pants should last longer now AND I won't rotate my pants a few inches clockwise trying to draw the knife.
The wave of course is neat. I'm wearing khaki shorts today, so I have to pull the knife back out of my pocket to open it, which is kind of awkward, but it definately does open. Every Spydernut owes it to themself to at least play with one of these things, even if they don't get one themselves.
