- Joined
- Mar 7, 2015
- Messages
- 417
Phylogeny
So I just received my first Delica (the HAP40 sprint), and while I was playing around with it I got to thinking about the relationships between the different models Spyderco makes. Obviously, since the knives don't actually evolve from each other, the "evolutionary" tree of knife designs won't be quite right, but we can approximate.
For simplicity, let's start with the in-house designs, since we would probably first divide things up by designer anyway.
One layer of distinction we might establish is based on the type of locking mechanism used. The lock mechanism informs many aspects of the knife's design, such as what tasks it's suitable for, what materials it can be made out of, whether it works for lefties, what kind of construction can be used, etc. Specifically, Spyderco makes a lot of midrange mid-lock folders, such as the Delica. Ignoring sprint runs and variations with different handle materials, which we can deal with later, most of these models seem to primarily be offered in a "lightweight" configuration with heavily textured FRN handles.
We can further differentiate based on types of steels, which for Spyderco is also related to where they are produced. We have the Golden-produced Natives that use Crucible powder steels (S35VN, S110V, etc), the Seki-produced Salt series blades with H1 steel, and the knives that come primarily in VG-10 and are also produced in Seki City.
Focusing on the current production VG-10 models, we're left with the Delica, Endura, Matriarch 2, Lil Matriarch, Dragonfly, Stretch, Ladybug, Manbug, Rescue, and Rescue Assist.
That was a very long introduction to the specific problem I was pondering. While it's obvious that the Matriarchs and Rescues are directly related, it's less clear how the rest of them are descended. The Delica and Endura are pretty clearly the large and small versions of what is more or less the same design. The Manbug and Ladybug are a similar situation. For a long time, I thought it was obvious that the Dragonfly was just a smaller Delica, or a larger Ladybug. However, this overlooks one crucial difference: the 50/50 choil. Whereas the Dragonfly has its prominent choil, the Delica and Ladybug do not. The Stretch has one, however, which begs the question: Is the Dragonfly more closely related to the Delica or the Stretch? I posit that the Dragonfly is something of a combination of the Stretch and Delica, but I don't know enough about the history of each model to know which ones came first.
Also, why were the Delica and Endura designed without the choil? From my rudimentary observations, it seems like one could be incorporated with very little modification to the existing design, and would make them even more versatile than they already are.
This post has gotten much longer than I intended it to be when I started it at 4 AM, so I'll just leave it at that. Has anyone else thought about these things or have anything to add? I find this stuff very interesting, but maybe it's just me...
So I just received my first Delica (the HAP40 sprint), and while I was playing around with it I got to thinking about the relationships between the different models Spyderco makes. Obviously, since the knives don't actually evolve from each other, the "evolutionary" tree of knife designs won't be quite right, but we can approximate.
For simplicity, let's start with the in-house designs, since we would probably first divide things up by designer anyway.
One layer of distinction we might establish is based on the type of locking mechanism used. The lock mechanism informs many aspects of the knife's design, such as what tasks it's suitable for, what materials it can be made out of, whether it works for lefties, what kind of construction can be used, etc. Specifically, Spyderco makes a lot of midrange mid-lock folders, such as the Delica. Ignoring sprint runs and variations with different handle materials, which we can deal with later, most of these models seem to primarily be offered in a "lightweight" configuration with heavily textured FRN handles.
We can further differentiate based on types of steels, which for Spyderco is also related to where they are produced. We have the Golden-produced Natives that use Crucible powder steels (S35VN, S110V, etc), the Seki-produced Salt series blades with H1 steel, and the knives that come primarily in VG-10 and are also produced in Seki City.
Focusing on the current production VG-10 models, we're left with the Delica, Endura, Matriarch 2, Lil Matriarch, Dragonfly, Stretch, Ladybug, Manbug, Rescue, and Rescue Assist.
That was a very long introduction to the specific problem I was pondering. While it's obvious that the Matriarchs and Rescues are directly related, it's less clear how the rest of them are descended. The Delica and Endura are pretty clearly the large and small versions of what is more or less the same design. The Manbug and Ladybug are a similar situation. For a long time, I thought it was obvious that the Dragonfly was just a smaller Delica, or a larger Ladybug. However, this overlooks one crucial difference: the 50/50 choil. Whereas the Dragonfly has its prominent choil, the Delica and Ladybug do not. The Stretch has one, however, which begs the question: Is the Dragonfly more closely related to the Delica or the Stretch? I posit that the Dragonfly is something of a combination of the Stretch and Delica, but I don't know enough about the history of each model to know which ones came first.
Also, why were the Delica and Endura designed without the choil? From my rudimentary observations, it seems like one could be incorporated with very little modification to the existing design, and would make them even more versatile than they already are.
This post has gotten much longer than I intended it to be when I started it at 4 AM, so I'll just leave it at that. Has anyone else thought about these things or have anything to add? I find this stuff very interesting, but maybe it's just me...