"Military" laser etching on blade...

[Flood]

A while back, while checking auctions on ebay, I noticed a Military knife with a characteristic that I had never seen before. Whereas the models I had seen up to that point had "Military" ENGRAVED, with some location description also engraved, this model had what looked like a laser etching depicting the word "MILITARY" in bold black letters, and no other words in the front-side of the blade.

While searching for a similar topic in BF, the only thing I came up with was a post by a fellow forumite who mentioned that "the engraving is done by a laser and looks almost like it's stamped".

My question is, is this the newest model? Also, did this model come with a silver or a black clip? The one I saw sported a silver clip.

Thanks in advance,

-Flood

 

[cerulean]

Yeah, that's the newest model. It just says, "MILITARY" on the blade. In the choil area on the stamp side, it reads "Spyderco CPM 440V" and in the same area on the opposite side, "Golden, Colorado U.S.A.". On the older models, all that stuff is printed directly on the blade, in the beveled area.

To my knowledge, the newest models come with a black clip.

Etching and engraving - those are two words that are often used interchangeably. When I think of "etching" though, I think of a chemical etch, such as with acid. "Engraving" I associate with a machine removing metal.

Older Military models were diamond engraved, while the new ones are laser engraved. The laser engraving is much darker.

I think all of the 440V models are now laser engraved. Diamond engraving is pretty obvious, but it's hard to tell that laser engraving is actual engraving just by looking at the lettering with your naked eye. If you've got a loupe or magnifying glass handy, a closer look reveals that the marks are engraved though; the letters are rougher and contain a multitude of little furrows.

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Cerulean

"We cut things to create things" - J.K.M.