I'm a predominantly Spyderco owner but I get a slight distaste in my mouth at the pack of dogs syndrome. I guess it's best (safer?) not to post anything but praise and satisfaction and stay silent and alone when you don't feel good about what you received. Praise is encouraged while dissatisfaction or disappointment requires you quietly send it in and never say anything about it until you get your knife back a few extra bucks and a few extra weeks later and when it is returned you're obligated to praise the customer service in a post that will invariably fill up a page or two about your awesome 'experience'.
I agree some gripes may seem petty but what really gets me more than petty gripes or even trolls are several pages from the Forum police. I might not make any new friends and may even lose a few but I'm of the belief that the well intended here can perpetuate this sort of thread into infamy when they are best left to comment on then let fade away . . .
Time will tell how the M4 Millie turns out after some use. Comparisons to other Spydercos also seem fair to me. For instance, I'm a little confused as to why the blade work on the M4 Gayle Bradley can be so refined while the opposite is true on the M4 Military. When you inspect each side by side, the machining of the GB blade is smooth and just plain refined looking which lends itself to the custom level smoothness of the GB action while the Military appears and in fact is, striated and appears to be grinded with much coarser wheels. I believe the so called "gritty" action reported on the M4 Military is all due to the coarse blade grind and the ball rubbing across the coarse grained striations on the tang.
Is it unfair to ask why a Spyderco fan can't expect the same blade work refinement from the M4 Military as we get with the Gayle Bradley?
I thank you reek for speaking your mind. I think that as spyderco fans, and as people who end up loving this company in all respects get tunnel vision, and that all versions and everything that comes out would be perfect or is awesome etc. I can contest 1/3 of my blades of over 20 spydercos, had problems. 4 of which had to be replaced by spyderco.
[eg TOTALLY not center pacific salt, as to the point of completely rubbing off the finish on the black/black. VERY warped ceramic stones where it looked like a sea-saw on the table, such dull knives [endura 4 to be exact in this one] that you thought they were just showcase knives with blunted ends. I literally ran the knife with pressure against my finger and all it left was a bit of pink from the pressure.].
With that being said, as fans, I think we need to get into reality that not all spydercos are perfect, or will be. They have excellent QC and CS, to combat this. And there are times when knives look good on paper but when you get it, it just doesnt make you happy. And I think peoples perspective, given it is stated in a such way that its not totally whiney, or whatever it may be like "my knife is too stiff I hate spyderco its shit blah blah" those kind of comments, that can easily be rectified by reading around - use oil
- I understand the "hatred" towards those posts. But If a person is giving their honest opinion with reasons to back it up as to why they don't like it, I think its as valid if not more [because it may be more rare] than a "I love this knife because....".
As I close up this essay, I would like to, again thank you for making that point reeek.
Post reconsidered.
