Ronald - interesting question, brings back many memories. The Endura and Delica were designed in 1988. We'd been fending off "knock offs" with the "Standard" model for 3 years. The "Standard" model was also going up in price quickly as the Yen was steadily increasing in strength back then.
All of our knives were Stainless handles, tip down. I realized that there were seveal drawbacks towards our "regular Stailess" models ever becomeing mainstream. The Endura and Delica were going to be the "ultimate" folders for the general ELU.
"Needs" to solve in the designing process;
1. Two blade sizes to try to please the majority of the ELUs. Some like a large blade (3.5 - 4.0 inches - 90 - 102mm) and some like a smaller blade (2.5 - 3.6 inches - 62 - 775mm). Clearly two designs were necessary and one could not just be a "Shrunk" up version of the other. When designing smaller or larger knives, one must take into account that the general hand size is not changing much, just the preference. We needed two separate designs that looked like siblings.
2. We had to maintain Spyderco's "High speed low drag high performance" attitude. That is what we offered and I didn't want to change that. "No more than necessary, no less than perfect'. We continued to use Gingami I as the steel (used to be G-2, changed to GIN 1) because at the time, it was one of the better production steels available. Our edge requirements were already separating us from the others, even in Seki.
Ergonomics were still essential. The knives are designed with the "hand" and the "cut" as paramount. Looks were never very important. We'ed already been branded "ugly" by the market because of the hump.
Guys that design with appearance in mind, like Goddard and Centofante, chose to eliminate the hump. I can design without the hump if I choose (Native design is mine), but in general, I prefer to "expose" the hole and the hump provides that as well as a thumb rest.
3. We had to reduce costs. Under $40 retail was the goal. The Endura was introduced at $35 retail, the Delica at $25.
4. We'd been making tip down stainless clips since '81 (for those that do not know, Spyderco introduced the clothing clip into the knife world). We believed the "drop" opening was a little too flashy for the general ELU. Lester was already having legal problems with the Butterfly knives and we wanted to avoid that. Tip up was was more secure, required less of a learning curve and wouldn't have people using the "drop" quick draw opening.
The integral clip was an adventure. We ended up changing the mold 6 times in order to create an integral clip that worked perfectly. We finally ended up going back to metal. Now we're looking a coating the metal somehow.
4. Functionality was the top priority. The texture was developed to provide funtionality combined with identification (for protection purposes). Additonal sizes were being requested. Our supplier came up with the Ladybug as a miniature Endura. I came up with the Dragonfly and Rescue (a lightweight "Mariner") as additonal designs on the same theme. The "Merlin" was a liteweight Harpy.
We must have done something right with the set (Edura, Delica, Rescue, Merlin, Dragonfly and ladybug) as these patterns seem to have been copied more than any other in this decade.
I'm sure I've left out some details, but this should give you a general idea. If you have more Q's, please ask.
sal
