My Spyderco Tenacious just keeps on going...

[scdub]

I just got my second Spyderco folder. Considering their innovations, attention to detail, and the fact that they keep refining certain models like this PM2, I can understand why their prices are higher than some others…

 

[derfred]

I got my Tenacious at wally world about 3 years ago for 40 bucks. It is put together well but loses its edge fairly quickly. It is well worth 40 dollars though.

 

[katguy]

Spyderco uses a lot of different steels. The tooling, supplies and processes needed to deal with that variety of steel costs a lot of money. A company that only uses a few steels will typically have lower costs.

IMO, this is why we pay more for Spyderco knives.

 

[DA170]

I’ve gifted my son many Spyderco knives..mostly in the Salt series. When he was a lineman apprentice, The foreman were always asking if he had a knife on hand, so I got him a serrated Tenacious. It worked well for a time but on a couple occasions the knife unlocked under heavy cutting while wearing thick FR gloves. It never happened to him but to his coworkers! We figured they were torquing the knife (releasing the liner lock)cutting the heavy maternal. I ended up with it (glove box duty now) and it’s been fine. His main work knives currently are Serrated Shaman to go along with Milwaukee Hawkbill. He doesn’t hand his knives out anymore!

 

[SwissHeritageCo]

These are my daily beaters. Have 3 of them. Excellent action that rivals knives in the $150-200 class, AR-RPM9 steel that’s not bad at all. I always carry one of these with me plus one of my nicer knives.

They’re my sacrifical knives.

I’d say the best bargain of a knife out there at this point in time.


View attachment 2692746

I like the AR-RPM9 steel as well. It's probably not a great steel but they do an excellent job with the heat treat.

I also used a tenacious for years and hated the steel, but I never reprofiled the factory edge and just kept in sharp on crock sticks instead. I would guess the factory edge geometry had something to do with my hatred for that 8cr13mov steel, but damn did it ever dull quickly.

 

[Frisco Felon]

Like I said, I love the Cold Steel Voyager. I just wish that they had a slightly smaller version for EDC. I still have my Voyager and always carry it when I'm doing anything heavy duty.

They do. There are 4" and 3" versions of some of their more popular knives such as Voyagers and Hold Outs.

 

[Frisco Felon]

So one poorly made liner lock means they're all trash?

I'm curious the nature of the failure of the one and what you were doing with it.

No not at all. Just a personal choice. The knife that folded on me was a CRKT. I was twisting prying with it when it folded on my finger. Cut me pretty good but not to the bone. I do own an original Civilian and an Endura from the 90's. Great knives. I have no beef with Spyderco or their designs.

 

[Wowbagger]

When the M4 version came out this year I pounced like a hungry tiger !
I have lots of M4 and I LIKE IT THAT WAY.
Of course I did my normal M O and swapped to black G10 .
Put the nice blue patina on there using golden kiwi fruit the first day before it hit my pocket.
I carried and used the heck out of that knife this summer and enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. I hardly looked at the price; after all it was M4myprecious!

I'm very happy with it !

 

[norcalAF]

When the M4 version came out this year I pounced like a hungry tiger !
I have lots of M4 and I LIKE IT THAT WAY.
Of course I did my normal M O and swapped to black G10 .
Put the nice blue patina on there using golden kiwi fruit the first day before it hit my pocket.
I carried and used the heck out of that knife this summer and enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. I hardly looked at the price; after all it was M4myprecious!

I'm very happy with it !

Can you elaborate on the blue M4 patina? I have a GB2 that could use some forced patina!

 

[Wowbagger]

.

Can you elaborate on the blue M4 patina? I have a GB2 that could use some forced patina!

I clean the blade really well with detergent.
Wipe it with denatured alc.and dry with paper towel (someone may suggest an even better way to get the last bit of oil off (brake cleaner ?)
Then I cut the ends off the fuit with some other knife That woody bit on the end really messes up the patina leaving lines that do not take color along the blade.
Seams to leave kind of a resist substance on the blade from the woody material

Then using the M4 blade I slice up and cube the fruit and arrange hunks along one side of the blade. Depending how you do it you can make a pattern or if you keep the hunks tight and move them every few minutes you can get an even color. The skin seams to contribute, maybe more than the fruit meat so use / keep the skin in the game.

If you let the blade have just the juice and no meat it seams to glaze over and get a dry skin that stops the process; just rinse the blade under hot water and go again. Warmth helps speed up the process. Suddenly I'm picturing mashing up the fruit, warming it and submerging the blade in that but I hate to waste all that fruit. So far I've got the look I wanted with only a few chunks; not even a third of one kiwi and I ate the rest.

I have done at least three blades this way and I found normal green kiwi does not work very well at all. Latest was my REX 121. Interestingly enough my 15V took good patina on the sides of the blade but refused to change color on the spine of the bladed even though I worked it and worked it over several sessions. The REX 121 took patina on the spine of the blade first try.

Another fruit that is great is persimmon but you get more colors and it is less predictable.

 

[norcalAF]

.

I clean the blade really well with detergent.
Wipe it with denatured alc.and dry with paper towel (someone may suggest an even better way to get the last bit of oil off (brake cleaner ?)
Then I cut the ends off the fuit with some other knife That woody bit on the end really messes up the patina leaving lines that do not take color along the blade.
Seams to leave kind of a resist substance on the blade from the woody material

Then using the M4 blade I slice up and cube the fruit and arrange hunks along one side of the blade. Depending how you do it you can make a pattern or if you keep the hunks tight and move them every few minutes you can get an even color. The skin seams to contribute, maybe more than the fruit meat so use / keep the skin in the game.

If you let the blade have just the juice and no meat it seams to glaze over and get a dry skin that stops the process; just rinse the blade under hot water and go again. Warmth helps speed up the process. Suddenly I'm picturing mashing up the fruit, warming it and submerging the blade in that but I hate to waste all that fruit. So far I've got the look I wanted with only a few chunks; not even a third of one kiwi and I ate the rest.

I have done at least three blades this way and I found normal green kiwi does not work very well at all. Latest was my REX 121. Interestingly enough my 15V took good patina on the sides of the blade but refused to change color on the spine of the bladed even though I worked it and worked it over several sessions. The REX 121 took patina on the spine of the blade first try.

Another fruit that is great is persimmon but you get more colors and it is less predictable.

Oh snap, I have persimmons that are fruiting right now, do you use the hard flat type or the soft heart shaped ones?

 

[Wowbagger]

Oh snap, I have persimmons that are fruiting right now, do you use the hard flat type or the soft heart shaped ones?

By the time you asked we were watching a movie ; Coyote Waits (Tony Hillerman). I asked Lisa and she laid down the law. The law said : persimmons after the movie.

She thought about it and said : hard flat bottom.
We almost never see or eat them so it was a mystery to me. I don't know if one is better than another patina wise. Try both is my advice. Seems like years ago I read something here on the forums about persimmons and kept it in mind. Could have even been the Spyderco forums.
Good luck. Please post your experience.

PS : sorry to get off topic.

How about those Tenacious knives ?
I bought the S35V just to get the blue handle color. I'm a sucker for darker blue handle knives.

 

[norcalAF]

By the time you asked we were watching a movie ; Coyote Waits (Tony Hillerman). I asked Lisa and she laid down the law. The law said : persimmons after the movie.

She thought about it and said : hard flat bottom.
We almost never see or eat them so it was a mystery to me. I don't know if one is better than another patina wise. Try both is my advice. Seems like years ago I read something here on the forums about persimmons and kept it in mind. Could have even been the Spyderco forums.
Good luck. Please post your experience.

My buddy, PM me your address and I will send you a box of em! I got fruit to share!

 

[David Mary]

I like the Tenacious. The base model at my retailer of choice is just over $50 USD (after converting from Canadian). In my opinion it is more than worth that. People say that there are better choices, usually referring to the steel. But the Tenacious and Resilience design, even as they come from the factory, have

1) a large handle that facilitates any grip you could want to use,
2a) a strong liner lock with zero blade play, and despite lack of loctite on mine, never even develops blade play,
2b) a strong detent that makes for great and authoritative opening action action (though on one or two out of say 8 examples, I have had to strengthen the detent),
3) and a blade that, for a production knife, is relatively thin behind the edge in a steel that is tough, and easy to sharpen with even the most basic pocket sharpening tools.

Design matters. And I have a tendency to favor low wear resistance tough steels for my own uses, so combine that with the great design and the knife (Tenacious, or Resilience) is quite useful.

I had more issues with torque induced lock actuation on all three 1st Gen. Millies I owned than I ever did on a Resilience of Tenacious.

I had more issues with all three of my non-loctited Millies developing blade play.

Now I own a handful of Resiliences that I modded, and one Tenacious. The mods take the knife from a good budget knife with good cutting performance and ease of sharpening to luxuriously comfortable knives with custom knife level geometry and cutting performance, and even greater ease of sharpening due to the thinner geometry behind the edge. I don’t own any more Millies

I liked the Resilience so much that my favorite fixed blade knife (Prevail, at the top, just above my Tenacious) was heavily influenced by one that I modified, which is now owned by RokJok . But I missed it so much I made another one for myself out of a blue FRN and S35VN Resilience (at the bottom).

 

[J. Doyle]

No not at all. Just a personal choice. The knife that folded on me was a CRKT. I was twisting prying with it when it folded on my finger. Cut me pretty good but not to the bone. I do own an original Civilian and an Endura from the 90's. Great knives. I have no beef with Spyderco or their designs.

Except that's exactly what you said. You "vowed never again" with liner locks because you "had one fail" once.

But exactly like I suspected.....the knife didn't fail, you were doing something stupid with it.

 

[Frisco Felon]

Except that's exactly what you said. You "vowed never again" with liner locks because you "had one fail" once.

But exactly like I suspected.....the knife didn't fail, you were doing something stupid with it.

I had a task that needed to be done. The knife I just happened to have at the time had a liner lock which in the end wasn't the best tool for the job, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[J. Doyle]

I had a task that needed to be done. The knife I just happened to have at the time had a liner lock which in the end wasn't the best tool for the job, nothing more, nothing less.

That's fine. But it is more when you essentially label all liner locks garbage because "one failed" when you were grossly abusing it. It's disingenuous at best.

 

[Frisco Felon]

That's fine. But it is more when you essentially label all liner locks garbage because "one failed" when you were grossly abusing it. It's disingenuous at best.

In the future before posting I shall strive to be worthy of your sense of grandeur.

 

[J. Doyle]

In the future before posting I shall strive to be worthy of your sense of grandeur.

No need for that. Just don't twist things into something they're not. Painting with a broad brush requires context.

 

[Tajbral]

I like the Tenacious. The base model at my retailer of choice is just over $50 USD (after converting from Canadian). In my opinion it is more than worth that. People say that there are better choices, usually referring to the steel. But the Tenacious and Resilience design, even as they come from the factory, have

1) a large handle that facilitates any grip you could want to use,
2a) a strong liner lock with zero blade play, and despite lack of loctite on mine, never even develops blade play,
2b) a strong detent that makes for great and authoritative opening action action (though on one or two out of say 8 examples, I have had to strengthen the detent),
3) and a blade that, for a production knife, is relatively thin behind the edge in a steel that is tough, and easy to sharpen with even the most basic pocket sharpening tools.

Design matters. And I have a tendency to favor low wear resistance tough steels for my own uses, so combine that with the great design and the knife (Tenacious, or Resilience) is quite useful.

I had more issues with torque induced lock actuation on all three 1st Gen. Millies I owned than I ever did on a Resilience of Tenacious.

I had more issues with all three of my non-loctited Millies developing blade play.

Now I own a handful of Resiliences that I modded, and one Tenacious. The mods take the knife from a good budget knife with good cutting performance and ease of sharpening to luxuriously comfortable knives with custom knife level geometry and cutting performance, and even greater ease of sharpening due to the thinner geometry behind the edge. I don’t own any more Millies

I liked the Resilience so much that my favorite fixed blade knife (Prevail, at the top, just above my Tenacious) was heavily influenced by one that I modified, which is now owned by RokJok . But I missed it so much I made another one for myself out of a blue FRN and S35VN Resilience (at the bottom).

View attachment 2693370

Very well put - words of wisdom to be sure. I wholeheartedly agree, especially with your statement here, "Design matters. And I have a tendency to favor low wear resistance tough steels for my own uses, so combine that with the great design and the knife (Tenacious, or Resilience) is quite useful." I think that about sums up the way I feel about this great knife.