Questions about the Civilian

J

Juramentado

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Aug 23, 2003
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I just got a Spyderco Civilian as a present and I love it! I appreciate that it's meant for a specific purpose and I'm considering using this as an EDC, along with a smaller plain edge folder.

I just have a few questions and comments about the design and hopefully Sal Glesser can provide some info:

a) I'm a bit surprised as to how thin the tip is. It's much thinner than I imagined it to be. It looks really fragile and now I understand why the warrantee prohibit any utility use. But won't the tip break off upon contacting bone? If I slash at an attacker who might block my strike with his forearm, the tip might break on contact with his radial or ulna bone. If I contact an attacker's collarbone with a downward slash, will the tip stay in one piece long enough for me to do a second strike, if I need to fend off another attacker?

b) I wonder what kind of testing the company did when they designed the blade. Was the design tested on animal carcasses? Yup it's a morbid thought but IMHO any blade that's designed specifically to rip flesh should be tested on similar material.

c) Why is the liner on only one side of the G10 handles?

d) Finally, are there plans to add a emerson opener on Civilians or maybe offer a training version? :)
 
They are adding an emerson opener on the matriarch 2 which is the same blade shape. Even without a tip I would not want to be cut by that knife.
 
tip or no tip that knife will do some serious damage, I would only use it for it's designed purpose , and if the tip broke off inside your attacker , well you got some metal inside your attacker and still have a lot of cutting power, I would not though repeat would not use it for EDc purposes , last ditch self defense purposes only.
 
Yup this knife will certain still do a hell of a lot of damage even with the tip broken off during the very first strike. But it would nice to know if spyderco thinks that the tip will survive the first contact with bone.

I guess I misused the term EDC here. I mean I'll carry this daily only for its intended purpose and still have a smaller folding knife for other uses.
 
If you used the knife to defend yourself, and you ended up slahing and hitting bone, would you really want to carry that knife much again? I don't know that I would want to use the same knife for EDC that was used to fend off an assailant. Just my take on it.

There is an emerson wave Matriarch model in the 2013 catalog. You can download the catalog from their site.
 
I'd say that if you had to use it for self-defense, and the tip broke off the first time it hit bone, and you needed a second strike after cutting your assailant to the bone the first time, you're hanging around the WRONG neighborhood. Just an observation, though. The tip on the current Civilian is twice as thick as the tip on the main blade of my Schrade 8OT stockman that I've carried and used for nearly 40 years.
 
yablanowitz said:
I'd say that if you had to use it for self-defense, and the tip broke off the first time it hit bone, and you needed a second strike after cutting your assailant to the bone the first time, you're hanging around the WRONG neighborhood. Just an observation, though. The tip on the current Civilian is twice as thick as the tip on the main blade of my Schrade 8OT stockman that I've carried and used for nearly 40 years.
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True, but how many ninjas have you killed with the Stockman? ;)

jstrange
 
It wouldn't really matter. The tip isn't the most crucial part on that knife, since it's not meant for stabbing. Even without the tip, the belly and recurve would still rip nicely.
 
I thought I had read somewhere that the tip was designed to break off in bone on contact? Sounds unpleasant to me.
(Probably not factual, I'll have a look for the source.)
 
I've read that it probably will break off, but never that is was intentional. Could be wrong, but I don't think having metal in your attacker's body would immediately benefit you.
 
regarding the liner on just one side: it's not a universally accepted rule but you really need just one rigid side on your handle. that's assuming the pivot assembly is well-made, and the scale is strong enough for general abuse. i've seen a couple of framelocks that have only half a handle (on one side.) the other side just has the flexing lock bar.
 
jstrange said:
True, but how many ninjas have you killed with the Stockman? ;)

jstrange
Click to expand...

In 55 years on this earth, I've never had to use a knife against another living creature. That old stockman has hit bone, concrete, ceramic and porcelin, sometimes with considerable force, without breaking. On the other hand, it's 1095, not VG-10.
 
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