My very first Spyderco - circa 1990 w/pics

cgmblade

cgmblade

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Jun 4, 2009
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In the ancient past I had a friend who was a police officer. One day he showed me a new knife he had bought. I had never seen anything like it. I guess it was a early Police model with SS handles. I wanted one and found a small hole in the wall mail order store (before the days of the internet) on the opposite side of the large metropolitan area I lived in. When I got to the store I ended up buying a smaller version because it was cheaper and I thought it would fit my needs better.

I carried that knife everyday and used it at the bike shop I worked at to cut the plastic binding straps and large cardboard boxes that new bikes came in. At the time it was a very unusual design and I got a lot of positive comments from people who saw it. I had no clue how to sharpen the serrated edge at the time, but even so it never seemed to get dull.

It doesn't have a model name or number on it but is very similar to a Delica. It weighs about 3.9 oz. My collection of Spydercos has grown over the years and while I don't edc this knife anymore it still has a place in my heart.

1st_spydie1.jpg


1st_spydie2.jpg


1st_spydie3.jpg


1st_spydie4.jpg


1st_spydie5.jpg


Here it is with a gen 3 Delica

1st_spydie6.jpg
 
Sweet! Love the old vintage spydies and the stories they could tell. That's an Economy, I believe. Forerunner of the Delica. Hang on to that! Thanks for sharing.
 
C05S Economy Standard. The stamped clip is a dead giveaway. Harvey Keitel's character used the same knife in Point of No Return. :thumbup:
 
Cool, I didn't know it was in a movie. I'll have to rent that and watch it again. Thanks for the model name also.
 
Great story and pics! Are the two edges of the spyderhole on the Economy rounded? It kind of looks it in the pictures. I'm curious because I smooth all my spyderholes down a bit when I get them.
 
Thanks for the comment, Sal. I've been a fan of Spyderco ever since that first knife. Keep up the good work.

Kreole, the edges of the spyderhole on the old Economy are beveled or rounded a little. It's much smoother than the spyderhole on my Salt 1 or Delica 4
 
Cool stuff, I got my first Spyderco for christmas in 1990, a serrated delica. Long gone now but that one led to a whole bunch more.
 
Sweet knife...what kind of steel was it?

My first sypederco was the rescue knive and that was in 1998.
 
The "Economy" model, later called the "Standard" was created to counter the growing price of the "Worker" model wich was getting more and more expensive due to the appreciation of the Yen.

We knew that if we didn't offer a lower priced model, we would be over run with cheap copies from Taiwan and China.

When the "Standard" grew in price, we developed the Delica for the same reason. When the Delica grew in price, we were inundated by Taiwanese and Chinese copies that almost put us our of business.

The current "byrd" brand and the Spyderco "Tenacious" and "Persistence" models are our lower cost offering to compete on the lower price point level.

Some of the "byrd" brand models are in their "2" development. Already hard to beat in terms of price/performance, the byrds will continue to be refined. We have an excellent dedicated maker that will impress.

Spyderco knives have always been the higher performance lower cost cutting tool for the working man/woman. We still try to honor those roots.

The new Manix2 is a lower cost offering from our Golden factory. The new FRN UK Pen Knife (in-the-works) will also offer good quality, high performance, lower cost USA made "Slipits" for our customers.

sal
 
Wow, Sal. Thanks for the history that was interesting. I'm going to start a new thread on this, but I think it's time for a Spyderco book. Let me suggest a title: 'The hole truth'.

Think about it.
 
I had one of those, with a standard edge. The stamped clip didn't work very well for me. It was like attaching two dull scissors to the edge of my pocket. I'm so glad they dropped that clip design.
 
shangchi108 said:
I had one of those, with a standard edge. The stamped clip didn't work very well for me. It was like attaching two dull scissors to the edge of my pocket. I'm so glad they dropped that clip design.
Click to expand...

We learned that the hard way as well.:o

sal
 
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