Viele II Review:
Got the Viele II in the passaround. A big THANKS to Spyderco, FrankK , DaveH, Jhillas and who else is part of this.
A really informal review: Its a sweet little knife but really not my cup of tea ..anymore. Its strange, only 2 years ago I would have loved this knife, but now I apparently come to get used to the traditional Spyderco look and feel that I am missing some features, mainly the finger choil and a bigger hole.
In the first examination I was pretty thorough, but I couldnt find anything wrong with it. Fit and finish was as good as I have seen. The linerlock locks up rock solid, the face on the tang were the liner engages is a ramp that is actually radiused a little. I would suspect it would take a lot more than light use to get it to slip and the handle is stiff enough that I doubt that I could torque it enough to make it fail other than by sheer force (of course anything can be broken). However, I like liners less and less, mainly because I dont like to reach across the edge of the blade when disengaging. But being somewhat of a knifenut I tend to loose perspective. So I showed the Viele to my girlfriend who is used to knives and approaches them with a pretty neutral attitude but she is definitely not a knifenut. She REALLY didnt care for this lock, she was afraid to close it onto her fingers (and yes, she can be a bit clumsy when it comes to this). She likes her Dragonfly with a backlock just fine and carries it every day.
The blade had a little side to side play, nothing major, and was easily fixed tightening the pivot a tad, but that brings me to my next concern: except for the pivot all screws are hidden, which makes for a very elegant knife, but makes pivot tension adjustment a bit difficult, thankfully Spyderco got it right on this one.
Ok, now my biggest peeve: WHO ARE THOSE !&!*+$ that were calling for PB washers. I think Spyderco should have stayed with they old washers. Those damn PB washers are combined a total of 1 mm (!) thickness. That doesnt sound like much but it leave pretty ugly spaces between the handle and the blade. And at least new they dont have nearly the smoothness as the old washers do. A perfect example that you should be careful because you may get what you wish for. Ok, end of rant. I know that Spyderco transitioned to PB because of customer request, and I trust Spyderco enough that I am sure that they havent degraded their product, but personally I really do not care for them. However, I acknowledge that the design was well thought through: The Viele has a smaller washer on the locking liner side than on the other to prevent the washer to interfere with the locking pin engagement.
The lack of the finger choil makes for a very long cutting edge for such a small knife giving it a very large edgelength/handlelength ratio. The profile of the knife over all is pretty thick. I think such an elegant knife could have done with a thinner blade. The blade stock of the Viele is about the thickness of the Delica, but appears much wider, partially because of those stupid PB washers, partly because the width of the blade is smaller than on the Delica (or Caly for that matter). While I did like the different handle material very much in the beginning, I think by the end of the week I would have preferred both sides being Mircarta. But I am very fond of Mircarta in general. But one way or another, the first thing I did when I got the knife was removing the clip. I know that a Spyderco without a clip is not a Clipit, and I dont mind the clip at all, it allows for an alternative carry. Personally, I think the clip obscures the elegance of the design, though.
In summary: Its a looker, alright. Its a beautiful gentlemans knife, and very well made. But in the end, it seems I am not a gentleman. I am missing the big opening hole, I am missing the Spyder-hump and I am missing the finger choil even if that sacrifices a good deal of blade length. I prefer a handle that fits in my hand and the Viele II has a handle that is a tad too small to fully fit my pinky, even though the handle is quite comfortable otherwise. I couldnt help but to compare it to the Byrd Meadowlark which is my current EDC. The two knives are practically identical in length, both closed and open. The Meadowlark, however, is a bid wider (but less thick) and appears larger, but in actual dimensions is very close. And I will be completely honest I would choose the $20 Meadowlark over the Viele II any day.
Got the Viele II in the passaround. A big THANKS to Spyderco, FrankK , DaveH, Jhillas and who else is part of this.
A really informal review: Its a sweet little knife but really not my cup of tea ..anymore. Its strange, only 2 years ago I would have loved this knife, but now I apparently come to get used to the traditional Spyderco look and feel that I am missing some features, mainly the finger choil and a bigger hole.
In the first examination I was pretty thorough, but I couldnt find anything wrong with it. Fit and finish was as good as I have seen. The linerlock locks up rock solid, the face on the tang were the liner engages is a ramp that is actually radiused a little. I would suspect it would take a lot more than light use to get it to slip and the handle is stiff enough that I doubt that I could torque it enough to make it fail other than by sheer force (of course anything can be broken). However, I like liners less and less, mainly because I dont like to reach across the edge of the blade when disengaging. But being somewhat of a knifenut I tend to loose perspective. So I showed the Viele to my girlfriend who is used to knives and approaches them with a pretty neutral attitude but she is definitely not a knifenut. She REALLY didnt care for this lock, she was afraid to close it onto her fingers (and yes, she can be a bit clumsy when it comes to this). She likes her Dragonfly with a backlock just fine and carries it every day.
The blade had a little side to side play, nothing major, and was easily fixed tightening the pivot a tad, but that brings me to my next concern: except for the pivot all screws are hidden, which makes for a very elegant knife, but makes pivot tension adjustment a bit difficult, thankfully Spyderco got it right on this one.
Ok, now my biggest peeve: WHO ARE THOSE !&!*+$ that were calling for PB washers. I think Spyderco should have stayed with they old washers. Those damn PB washers are combined a total of 1 mm (!) thickness. That doesnt sound like much but it leave pretty ugly spaces between the handle and the blade. And at least new they dont have nearly the smoothness as the old washers do. A perfect example that you should be careful because you may get what you wish for. Ok, end of rant. I know that Spyderco transitioned to PB because of customer request, and I trust Spyderco enough that I am sure that they havent degraded their product, but personally I really do not care for them. However, I acknowledge that the design was well thought through: The Viele has a smaller washer on the locking liner side than on the other to prevent the washer to interfere with the locking pin engagement.
The lack of the finger choil makes for a very long cutting edge for such a small knife giving it a very large edgelength/handlelength ratio. The profile of the knife over all is pretty thick. I think such an elegant knife could have done with a thinner blade. The blade stock of the Viele is about the thickness of the Delica, but appears much wider, partially because of those stupid PB washers, partly because the width of the blade is smaller than on the Delica (or Caly for that matter). While I did like the different handle material very much in the beginning, I think by the end of the week I would have preferred both sides being Mircarta. But I am very fond of Mircarta in general. But one way or another, the first thing I did when I got the knife was removing the clip. I know that a Spyderco without a clip is not a Clipit, and I dont mind the clip at all, it allows for an alternative carry. Personally, I think the clip obscures the elegance of the design, though.
In summary: Its a looker, alright. Its a beautiful gentlemans knife, and very well made. But in the end, it seems I am not a gentleman. I am missing the big opening hole, I am missing the Spyder-hump and I am missing the finger choil even if that sacrifices a good deal of blade length. I prefer a handle that fits in my hand and the Viele II has a handle that is a tad too small to fully fit my pinky, even though the handle is quite comfortable otherwise. I couldnt help but to compare it to the Byrd Meadowlark which is my current EDC. The two knives are practically identical in length, both closed and open. The Meadowlark, however, is a bid wider (but less thick) and appears larger, but in actual dimensions is very close. And I will be completely honest I would choose the $20 Meadowlark over the Viele II any day.
