There seems to be some questions that have already come up regarding the Tenacious model. Apparently a PDR consumer catalog accidentally went out with some customer service orders and information has been circulating in our forums about some of the models. The Tenacious being one.
The Tenacious is a round hole Spyderco brand model that is made in Mainland China.
While the general market could care less about where a model is made, I felt that I owed an explanation to the forumites that frequent our forums.
As most of you know, Spyderco has avoided making any Spyderco brand models in Mainland China. I have personally fought this for many years. We created and developed the entire line of byrd brand for that purpose. Those of you that own byrd models know the quality and designs are quite nice, especially considering the price.
We have decided that we will have to make at least one round hole Spyderco model in China. It was something that we had hoped to avoid, but circumstances have forced the issue. Reasons include:
1. All of our competitors are building in China (Buck, Gerber, Columbia River, Benchmade, Cold Steel, Kershaw, etc.) using their trade names. (I think we are the last hold out). Major customers (chains) have been asking us to compete in that arena and they feel that our inexpensive models (Endura, Delica, etc.) are too expensive to compete.
2. The large chains require large volume and will not tolerate missing or delaying shipments. Our current makers of Spyderco brand models do not have the capacity to service these large customers. Even our own factory in Golden has to push hard to service Wal-Mart with the one model they carry (the Native).
3. The small specialty cutlery shops are shrinking regularly, I think because of the internet and the big chains. This leaves fewer customers capable of stocking and selling the more expensive Spydercos.
4. One of the reasons is that there is another knife company making round hole models in China and we must compete against our own look that are being sold at much lower prices. Looking like Spyderco is popular these days.
I imagine some of you might hate me for going in this direction, (my apologies JD). Some of you will not care. Some of you will understand and not hold it against us. It will help us survive in a very competitive environment.
The Tenacious is an in-house design that Eric and I created. It is a 3.25 blade, Walker Linerlock. G-10 scales, dual Skeletonized full liners. 4 way clip with all screw construction. Full flat grind. The edge is sharp to the handle. Steel on this intro model is 8Cr13MoV.
We worked on the design and with the maker for over a year, continually refining until we were satisfied that we had a highly functional, ergonomic, strong, safe package, and we can deliver high volume if called for.
We hope it will compete favorably. MSRP is under $50.
We will try to post some pics later today.
sal
