Questions about the Persian

Starfish

Starfish

Joined
Jun 14, 2001
Messages
1,256
I asked for suggestions about the next Spyderco purchase, and several of you offered up the Persian. I have to admit, I was a little underwhelmed at first, but I am becoming intrigued. Naturally, I have some questions for the Persian owners :)

1) Is the blade shape useful? What kind of tasks does it excel at? What tasks would be better suited to another blade shape?

I've not owned any folders with such an upswept tip, and can't imagine where it would come in handy. Neither have I owned any folders with that much belly (I assume that's the curved portion of the blade leading up to the tip).

2) What has been the general reaction among non-knife people to the Persian? I tend to stick with 3" and under blade lengths since I am somewhat self-conscious of larger knives. This one, however, looks to be more of a conversation piece than a frightening knife :)

3) How well does it ride in the pockets? How well does it ride unclipped?

Thanks!

Matthew
 
I've had my Persian for about a month now. Clipped, it rides very well- easy to extract due to the smooth handle and clip-shape. Un-clipped, a little too heavy to me, what with the dual liners and solid bolsters. Knife is a very strong build- a tank!. Lock strength is MBC.
As far as the blade shape, I had my misgivings at first, too. But I have found it an excellent slicer- meat, vegs, fruit, and the like. I feel it would be an excellent skinning/caping blade. Point will pierce at the slighest touch. All those factors together- piercing, slicing, strength- coupled with terrific handle ergonomics, make it a super self-defense knife, IMHO.
It is custom grade quality at a great price...if you get one, you wont be sorry.
 
I'm also considering the Persian.
It looks like it has everything that I want in a folder:

Made my Spyderco
Good blade-steel
Thumb-hole
Lock-back
Dual SS liners
Micarta scales
Not too heavy
Not too long of a blade

The only things I'm not sure of is:
The grip and how it feels in my hand (because I have'nt actually handled one yet).
How thick the blade and blade-tip are.
How it performs as an EDC.

Can anyone else give a detailed review?

Thanks in advance,
Allen.
 
you guys should check the passaround forum more often. ;)

A Persian just left on it's first passaround trip.
 
Just like the whole micarta Calypso jr episode, I can't bring myself to carry such a perfect knife. With the jr, I simply purchased a "user" off Ebay. Problem solved. Harder to do with this new Persian folder. Mine is MINT in every sense of the word. Looks like a useful knife too. Ergh! :D
 
Hi Matthew,
The uses of the upswept blade can be many, it take some use and practice to address old cutting tasks with a new blade shape. I've gotten good reviews from the folks who have used the blade to do three deer in one weekend. The belly allows for skinning and skiving that is very difficult to do with a straigter blade. I trim callouses from my palms without drawing blood. The handle of the piece allows for many grip positions for a small to large hand. Finding the necessary grip to address the cutting task is not a problem. You have to have really large hands for the knife not to fit.

I have not received any negative public reactions from the piece. Ladies seem to be attracted to it rather than repelled.

I've carried the knife for two months and forget that it is in my pocket, until I bump into a cabinate or piece of furniture in the house.

You will have to forgive me my bias...Ed Schempp
 
I have the Persian right now on the passaround. It's going out to the next person on Friday. After that I will write a brief review and post it on the Persian passaround thread (if it's more than a couple paragraphs I will put it in the Knife Reviews forum and put a link on the Persian thread).

But I can give you the bottom line now: When I first got the knife I didn't think it was for me, and was glad it was sent to me on the passaround rather than from a knife dealer. I thought I had saved myself some $$$. Well fortunately I had the Persian for a week rather than five minutes at the gun/knife store. After two days I realized what a brilliant design it is and I ordered one for myself. Ed, you did a fantastic job with this. Even with all the great knives from Spyderco, this one is special. (And I bought it to carry, even though I will suffer the same reluctance to scratch up this beautiful piece that Harry experiences.) :)

BTW Starfish, I tested the fear factor on my wife and she pronounced it in the "scary" group based on the angled blade and the size of it. But she's somewhat timid when it comes to knives so YMMV. The Native is the biggest knife I have that's in the "non-scary" group for her. Where we live knives are not all that common (except for the 8" chefs knives that are in every kitchen in the whole city...for some reason those don't count).
 
Hi Starfish, I'll admit up front that I'm a huge fan of the Persian, fell in love with it the first time I saw it, think I was one of the first guys here outside of the collectors club to get one. When it arrived I spent three hours opening, closing, cutting, and wiping the drool off it before I could bear to put it down long enough to go out on the forums and rave about it.

IMHO, the blade is suitable for any task best done with a push cut, rocking cut or chop. Works great in the kitchen and, I am sure would be an excellent for dressing and skinning larger game. The blade and the rest of the knife are sturdy enough to baton through fair size branches or spit wood. It works well for pull cuts were you want to use the belly of the blade, rather than the tip. While you can do some amazingly fine work with it using the right grip, it is IMHO, not as well suited to fine work as a smaller blade. I find it least suited to tasks where you pull cut using the tip, cutting pictures out of a magazine for example, as the high tip makes the hand/wrist position needed to accomplish this odd and unnatural to me. But a Kiwi in another pocket, or the Jester on my keyring, takes care of these tasks easily. Nor would it be suited for cutting carpet for the same reason. On the other hand, I am told it is a very useful self defense blade. Although MBC is not my "thing" I can see where it would be excellent for slashing or stabbing. I have yet to need to sharpen mine, but, having sharpened high tipped skinners before, am confident it will be a fairly easy job.

Reaction by non-knife people has be amazingly good, considering the size of the knife. I firmly believe that the bolsters and scales are the reason for this, causing people to associate it with "grandpa's pocketknife" rather that "Rambo's throat slitter". Zero negative reactions to the closed knife, much milder reactions to it open than to many smaller black FRN, G10, or micarta knives but stronger than those smaller "gents knives" with bolsters and scales. Not a knife I would whip out and start cleaning my nails with during a boring business meeting, but one I am fairly comfortable using to cut up an apple in my cubicle (and I work in an extremely PC environment). Unlike the Chinook II, which is ALL wolf, the Persian is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

As far as unclipped pocket carry goes, and due to the RH only clip that's the only way I carry it, the Persian rides very well in either the rear or front pocket of jeans. It's big enough that it does not move around my your pocket and thus is always where I expect it to be, yet small enough that it's not difficult to remove. For a knife of its size and weight, the Persian is quite comfortable in the pocket, more so than a lot of smaller and thinner knives with more "pointy" edges on their handles. While, as I said, I have not carried it clipped, IMHO any knife this size would need to be the sole object in whatever pocket it was carried in. Because of the location of the tip up clip, the knife rides fairly high, with both handle and blade visible, so it is, IMHO, less to be mistaken for a pager or some other electronic gadget than a tip down knife.
 
The Persian is really great. I've been carrying one recently. Spyderco and Mr. Schempp should be very proud of this knife.

One thing I like a lot about it is the handle. It's definitely one of the most comfortable handles that I've felt on a folding knife. The handle design is versatile and feels good in several different grips. Plus, the handle is gently rounded off at the edges, so it doesn't have a blocky feel to it like most folders. Micarta is such a nice material for scales, too.

There aren't many knives around to fill the role that I think the Persian does. It's a medium-large, gentlemanly knife that looks good, but is solid enough to see real use. Those qualities make it very appealing.
 
Sorry for taking so long to get back to this thread....

Mr. Schempp, thanks for taking the time out of your knifemaking schedule to share your (admittedly biased :)) opinions of this knife and the tasks you feel it excels at. That tells me a lot!

And to all others who took the time to answer the questions, I thank you too. It looks like the Persian is going on my wish list for my birthday next month (right next to the Paramilitary :))

Thanks,

Matthew
 
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