- Joined
- Apr 7, 2014
- Messages
- 866
... and I am pleasantly surprised. I needed something for office carry, and since the Chaparral doesn't really excite me and I've already been carrying a Sage 1 for quite some time, I thought it'd be fun to try something new. Enter the ZDP-189 Dragonfly and some RIT dye:
The RIT dye took to the FRN almost immediately, and I am incredibly happy with how it turned out. But more than that, like I said, I'm pleasantly surprised with the design itself. It packs a pretty decent sized blade into its small handle, and the choil really adds some comfort during use. For such a tiny package, there's a pretty good amount of cutting edge, and it's a pretty affordable way to try out ZDP as well.
Aside from the design, I don't know if I've just been lucky, but the past few FRN Spydercos I've gotten have been very nice out of the box, even better than those I picked up a few years ago. Even bevels at reasonable (i.e., not overly obtuse) angles:
A centered blade:
And very smooth action, no bladeplay in any direction, not even a little; quite impressive for a lockback, which continues to be one of my favorite locks due to its straightforward and reliable nature. Spyderco lockbacks in particular have that great authoritative "clack" when it closes.
The only possible downside to the knife is that a very slight burr was left from the factory, but that was easily fixable with a couple swipes on a Sharpmaker rod. But even so, that's only me looking for a possible flaw, and I couldn't reasonably ask for a better edge from a production knife, since right out of the box it was able to cleanly shave and pretty decently pushcut newsprint:
All in all, I'm a pretty happy camper. It took me a while to get around to the Dragonfly, but I'm happy I did. There might even be a couple more in my future so my wife can stop "borrowing" mine...
The RIT dye took to the FRN almost immediately, and I am incredibly happy with how it turned out. But more than that, like I said, I'm pleasantly surprised with the design itself. It packs a pretty decent sized blade into its small handle, and the choil really adds some comfort during use. For such a tiny package, there's a pretty good amount of cutting edge, and it's a pretty affordable way to try out ZDP as well.
Aside from the design, I don't know if I've just been lucky, but the past few FRN Spydercos I've gotten have been very nice out of the box, even better than those I picked up a few years ago. Even bevels at reasonable (i.e., not overly obtuse) angles:
A centered blade:
And very smooth action, no bladeplay in any direction, not even a little; quite impressive for a lockback, which continues to be one of my favorite locks due to its straightforward and reliable nature. Spyderco lockbacks in particular have that great authoritative "clack" when it closes.
The only possible downside to the knife is that a very slight burr was left from the factory, but that was easily fixable with a couple swipes on a Sharpmaker rod. But even so, that's only me looking for a possible flaw, and I couldn't reasonably ask for a better edge from a production knife, since right out of the box it was able to cleanly shave and pretty decently pushcut newsprint:
All in all, I'm a pretty happy camper. It took me a while to get around to the Dragonfly, but I'm happy I did. There might even be a couple more in my future so my wife can stop "borrowing" mine...
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