- Joined
- Mar 3, 2003
- Messages
- 726
The two knives I recieved in a passaround and will be reviewing are:
The SpyderHawk
and the Blue 93mm Rescue
Pros:
They are both quite lightweight, due to the FRN scales, which, to me at least, do not feel cheap in the least. They are quite firm, certainly enough to make a good handle, and comfortable. I thought that the humps might make the handle uncomfortable to hold and use, but I got used to them and they did not bother me during actual use. The index finger rest on the Rescue works well.
The locks were also the best implementation of the lockback I have seen to date. Easily opened and closed with one hand, even flicked easily if that is you're preferred method of open, they also have very little bladeplay. In order to feel even the small amount of vertical blade-play that exists, one needs to grab the blade and handle. When actually cutting things I never noticed the lock "settling at all."
The clips were not especially tight, a little loose for my taste actually, but if I actually owned them I could easily remedy that by bending them in a vise. (I have this complaint for every folder, for most people it is not a problem, I just like the clip very tight.) One of the knives actually came with a slightly wobbly clip, but that was easily fixed with two coins. It has not loosened at all over time. I like the clip system on these folders
Cons:
They were both rather wide for their size, compared to the other knives I own. The humps were probably a major contributing factor to this. The Spyderhawk, in fact, is actually wider than my Benchmade Skirmish, though shorter. The width can occaisonally be annoying.
The blade of the Spyderhawk does not quite do it for me. The blade has a lot of full thickness steel in front of the hole, which to my eye is wasted. This is largely an aesthetic complaint, and I'm not sure how it would be done, but I would like the blade if the grind was a bit higher. I also don't like hollow grinds much in general, especially short hollow grinds like the kind featured on the SpyderHawk.
In EDC use, both knives performed quite well. I only did normal things like cutting tape and string with the SpyderHawk, and a bagel with the Rescue. They both performed just fine at these tasks. I decided to test them with something a little bit more demanding. I used the Rescue, the Spyderhawk, and a Benchmade 806 as a comparison plainedge blade, to cut some rope, shown in this picture:
This was a highly unscientific test, with no attempt made to standardize the sharpness of the three blades, as I am not very good at sharpening serrations. They were all at least paper push cutting sharp at the beginning, however. As for the test, I just doubled the rope around in my hand and cut through the loop. My observations were thus:
The best performer was the Rescue. Without too much effort, it cut the rope just about every time, in one slice. The second place would have to go to the 806. It required a little more effort, but often cut through the rope in one slice, although sometimes it slid off the rope if I did not push hard enough. I think that if it had much duller than the relatively unused Sharpmaker edge it had, it might have just slid off every time. The SpyderHawk actually required two slices, almost every time, to cut through the rope. The hooked blade shape certainly did not slide off, rather it seemed to get "stuck" sometimes. Perhaps in nautical applications a different technique would be used to cut the rope.
In conclusion, I would recommend the Resuce for an EDC knife. It has good qualities, and aside from the lack of much in the way of a point, would work very well for most everything. The Spyderhawk, while also relatively easy to carry, might, due to the specialized blade shape, be less useful for some things, but it is a quality knife, and certainly worth the money of anyone who likes it or might find it useful.
The SpyderHawk
and the Blue 93mm Rescue
Pros:
They are both quite lightweight, due to the FRN scales, which, to me at least, do not feel cheap in the least. They are quite firm, certainly enough to make a good handle, and comfortable. I thought that the humps might make the handle uncomfortable to hold and use, but I got used to them and they did not bother me during actual use. The index finger rest on the Rescue works well.
The locks were also the best implementation of the lockback I have seen to date. Easily opened and closed with one hand, even flicked easily if that is you're preferred method of open, they also have very little bladeplay. In order to feel even the small amount of vertical blade-play that exists, one needs to grab the blade and handle. When actually cutting things I never noticed the lock "settling at all."
The clips were not especially tight, a little loose for my taste actually, but if I actually owned them I could easily remedy that by bending them in a vise. (I have this complaint for every folder, for most people it is not a problem, I just like the clip very tight.) One of the knives actually came with a slightly wobbly clip, but that was easily fixed with two coins. It has not loosened at all over time. I like the clip system on these folders
Cons:
They were both rather wide for their size, compared to the other knives I own. The humps were probably a major contributing factor to this. The Spyderhawk, in fact, is actually wider than my Benchmade Skirmish, though shorter. The width can occaisonally be annoying.
The blade of the Spyderhawk does not quite do it for me. The blade has a lot of full thickness steel in front of the hole, which to my eye is wasted. This is largely an aesthetic complaint, and I'm not sure how it would be done, but I would like the blade if the grind was a bit higher. I also don't like hollow grinds much in general, especially short hollow grinds like the kind featured on the SpyderHawk.
In EDC use, both knives performed quite well. I only did normal things like cutting tape and string with the SpyderHawk, and a bagel with the Rescue. They both performed just fine at these tasks. I decided to test them with something a little bit more demanding. I used the Rescue, the Spyderhawk, and a Benchmade 806 as a comparison plainedge blade, to cut some rope, shown in this picture:
This was a highly unscientific test, with no attempt made to standardize the sharpness of the three blades, as I am not very good at sharpening serrations. They were all at least paper push cutting sharp at the beginning, however. As for the test, I just doubled the rope around in my hand and cut through the loop. My observations were thus:
The best performer was the Rescue. Without too much effort, it cut the rope just about every time, in one slice. The second place would have to go to the 806. It required a little more effort, but often cut through the rope in one slice, although sometimes it slid off the rope if I did not push hard enough. I think that if it had much duller than the relatively unused Sharpmaker edge it had, it might have just slid off every time. The SpyderHawk actually required two slices, almost every time, to cut through the rope. The hooked blade shape certainly did not slide off, rather it seemed to get "stuck" sometimes. Perhaps in nautical applications a different technique would be used to cut the rope.
In conclusion, I would recommend the Resuce for an EDC knife. It has good qualities, and aside from the lack of much in the way of a point, would work very well for most everything. The Spyderhawk, while also relatively easy to carry, might, due to the specialized blade shape, be less useful for some things, but it is a quality knife, and certainly worth the money of anyone who likes it or might find it useful.
