I've had DaveH's pass around Spyderco Salsa for about a week now; overall an interesting little knife, but not my first choice. It will frequently be compared to my Benchmade 555, as this is my #1 EDC and in the same price range and market segment as the Salsa.
The Good:
-This knife cuts extremely well. The blade is quite thin and the previous recipient sent it to me with a great sharpening job. It would literally fly through paper, wood, rope, or any other common material I tested it on. Some people don'e seem to like AUS-8, but it worked just fine for me. A more exotic steel would be overkill for something so small anyway. For pure cutting it is slightly superior to the BM.
-Overall build quality and strength is great. Considering it has already been used by several people, I thought the Salsa was holding up well. A little bit of wear on the colored aluminum handle, and a bit of blade play was the only problems I could find. The blade play disappeared after I slightly tightened the pivot. Handle, blade, and clip were all plenty strong for everyday use. Tie with the BM.
-Once it's open the ergonomics are great, everything just falls into place easily. The blade choil does take some getting used to, though. At first you get a "uh oh, finger on the blade" feeling fron the different feel of the choil from the handle.
The Bad:
-The blade shape is odd, and I found it to cause more problems than it solves. It is a very broad Dragonfly style blade, and this extreme width seems to be pointless on a knife this size. It would be great on a kitchen knife, but in this case it just makes it tough to cut around corners and get the point into tight spots. Adds a lot of bulk too.
-I didn't find the Salsa to be very pocket friendly. The wire clip works just fine, but the knife is simply too broad when closed. It is slightly shorter than the BM, but is almost twice as wide from spine to spine. This is a result of the Dragonfly blade.
-The blade hits the clip spacer when you close the knife. The problems of this are pretty clear, you get a small dull spot right in the center of the edge. This gets annoying fast, but I would imagine that even a slightly smaller spacer would solve the problem.
The Ugly:
-The Pepper has got to go. For those of you who haven't seen it, there is a big cartoonish pepper that says "Salsa" on the side of the knife. No thanks, I'll take either a small Bug logo or nothing. Preferably nothing. While they're at it, the handles are pretty slick; I would recommend a much more aggressive aluminum pattern like on the Gerber Air Ranger.
The Ambiguous:
-I'm still undecided on the Compression Lock. While it may be stronger or more reliable than a standard liner lock, it is a lot less convenient. The only way I could close this knife one handed was pinching the lock between my fingers and "reverse flicking" it closed. Which causes the blade to hit the clip spacer. Again. It would make sense on one of the heavy duty MBC knives, but for a daily user I would prefer a linerlock. Actually, the Axis lock has them both beat in terms of smoothness and strength.
-I liked the Cobra Hood feature, but I imagine that many people will not. It soes get in the way when cutting, and can get caught on pockets. Perhaps Spyderco should have attached it with a standard phillips or slotted screw, so those who dislike it can get it off without a specialty driver. No reason to make people buy a tiny torx wrench when a standard screw would work just as well.
If this knife was available with a thinner blade, a rougher handle, and a nonexistant Pepper, it might beat out the BM to become my new EDC. Until then it seems to be a good concept that needs a bit of detail work to make it truly competitive. Overall a nice knife that doesn't really fit my needs.
The Good:
-This knife cuts extremely well. The blade is quite thin and the previous recipient sent it to me with a great sharpening job. It would literally fly through paper, wood, rope, or any other common material I tested it on. Some people don'e seem to like AUS-8, but it worked just fine for me. A more exotic steel would be overkill for something so small anyway. For pure cutting it is slightly superior to the BM.
-Overall build quality and strength is great. Considering it has already been used by several people, I thought the Salsa was holding up well. A little bit of wear on the colored aluminum handle, and a bit of blade play was the only problems I could find. The blade play disappeared after I slightly tightened the pivot. Handle, blade, and clip were all plenty strong for everyday use. Tie with the BM.
-Once it's open the ergonomics are great, everything just falls into place easily. The blade choil does take some getting used to, though. At first you get a "uh oh, finger on the blade" feeling fron the different feel of the choil from the handle.
The Bad:
-The blade shape is odd, and I found it to cause more problems than it solves. It is a very broad Dragonfly style blade, and this extreme width seems to be pointless on a knife this size. It would be great on a kitchen knife, but in this case it just makes it tough to cut around corners and get the point into tight spots. Adds a lot of bulk too.
-I didn't find the Salsa to be very pocket friendly. The wire clip works just fine, but the knife is simply too broad when closed. It is slightly shorter than the BM, but is almost twice as wide from spine to spine. This is a result of the Dragonfly blade.
-The blade hits the clip spacer when you close the knife. The problems of this are pretty clear, you get a small dull spot right in the center of the edge. This gets annoying fast, but I would imagine that even a slightly smaller spacer would solve the problem.
The Ugly:
-The Pepper has got to go. For those of you who haven't seen it, there is a big cartoonish pepper that says "Salsa" on the side of the knife. No thanks, I'll take either a small Bug logo or nothing. Preferably nothing. While they're at it, the handles are pretty slick; I would recommend a much more aggressive aluminum pattern like on the Gerber Air Ranger.
The Ambiguous:
-I'm still undecided on the Compression Lock. While it may be stronger or more reliable than a standard liner lock, it is a lot less convenient. The only way I could close this knife one handed was pinching the lock between my fingers and "reverse flicking" it closed. Which causes the blade to hit the clip spacer. Again. It would make sense on one of the heavy duty MBC knives, but for a daily user I would prefer a linerlock. Actually, the Axis lock has them both beat in terms of smoothness and strength.
-I liked the Cobra Hood feature, but I imagine that many people will not. It soes get in the way when cutting, and can get caught on pockets. Perhaps Spyderco should have attached it with a standard phillips or slotted screw, so those who dislike it can get it off without a specialty driver. No reason to make people buy a tiny torx wrench when a standard screw would work just as well.
If this knife was available with a thinner blade, a rougher handle, and a nonexistant Pepper, it might beat out the BM to become my new EDC. Until then it seems to be a good concept that needs a bit of detail work to make it truly competitive. Overall a nice knife that doesn't really fit my needs.
