Hello forumites, sorry it took me so long to get this review to yall, but over the past 2 and a half weeks i've been killing this puppy. Well, here goes. This knife is awesome, very light weight, yet in my opinion the lock is stronger than my AFCK's and Strykers, liner lock wise, not even using the safety secondary lock on the centofante 2. The liner lock on mine was fitted very good, 100% contact with the tang, and it layed right at the begining of the tang, leaving alto of room for wear. The liner is thinner than my AFCK's, but about the same thickness of my Military, and it is stainless, this indeed will have less flexing, and very little wear, and although some stainless liners like the SOCOM, or others fail the spine whack test, this dog didn't, it has 25 hard whacks under its belt, and didn't fail once, not even when soaked with blood from 4 chuck steaks tied together. The ball detent is great, keeping the blade closed on my Mountain-Biking rides, and a 24inch drop on the clip side of the handle(this is a good way to test your ball detent, all my AFCK's open half way when this is done)but the centofante 2 passed, and the blade did not open. The handles construction is killer, very strong, as strong as my Military, it has a huge and thick spacer that looks to be delrin, or a zytel, and has hubs in which a screw from each side screws into, there are two hubs in the spacer, and all together 4 assembly screws, not including the clip screws or pivot. This method of construction is very solid. Oh yea, the liner/leaf lock is recessed into the G-10 handle. The handle feels so good in my hand, i have big fat hands and fingers, and the handle is just very good. The walker type cutout for the easy release of the liner is very good for utility, and also a fighter, if used in the correct manner of odd grips, which doesn't let your fingers near the liner release. The stop pin is 3/16inches thick, and is totally solid. The new safety lock is really cool, when engaged, the blade doesn't even wiggle at all, very strong, no play. To really appreciate the technology and detail Spyderco uses in there knives I took mine apart. Just a quick view of the insides reveals just how technologically advanced spyderco really is The milling and precise done on the inside of the scales is just great, very precise. The secondary lock is this, a sliding steel bar, with a plastic inserted button/switch that is in the G-10 handle and has no springs, and it has a steel second liner/covering that covers the sliding rod, and has a precisely cut slot in it, this slot lets the pin on the blade rotate freely, and also has a pre-cut section that is bent, and the bent part of this second liner acts as a spring almost, giving the sliding button a slight hill or hump to ride over and this in turn makes it a little harder to engage and dis-engage, if this pre-cut section wasn't there, the button would slide up and down with no pressure applied, causing the slide button to be very weak. The pin in the blade is a little over 1/16 inck thick, and runs through the blade tang, and is only protruding out one side, and looks to be pressure fitted, not screwed in, and believe me is plenty tough. Okay, now the pivot, it is the ecentric D-nut, which is a great invention, i did not fiddle with mine becuse the liner had no wear yet, and I recomend you leave this adjustment to the factory, unless you know what your doing, like me, hehehe. The washers are two hairthin red washers made of some kind of plastic, these are very good, they will give a smooth action, and produce very little wobble because they're very thin. Well, putting the knife back together using very little loc-tite-the blue kind, proved successful. I let the whole knife rest for about 10 hours, let the loc-tite really dry, then cleaned it with WD-40, and this mother was back to silky smooth. The blade is one of my favorites, and very high quality flat grind, with a wharncliffe/drop point blade, that is an exact 1/8 inch thick. The hole opening is quite small, but can be opened with speed, but sorry, i prefer to flip this knife, it flips so fast and smooth, and I haven't really had any wear on the liner or stop pin, if I do, i'll just rotate the ecentric D-nut and this inturn will lower the tang, and the liner will be like new-sorry Mr. Glesser. My blade is ats-34, and fully serrated. OK, YOU WANNA HERE WHAT THIS KNIFE IS MADE OF, READ BELOW.
Now, why I used the word "killing this puppy" is because I really tested it, hard. Some this this is just a shank, well,it may look it, but you are oh so wrong. I went to the local Pathmark, and picked up some heavy chuck steaks, I got 4, and they are each about almost 1inch in thickness, and kind of sewed them all together, with fishing line, this made some piece of meat, about 3-4inches thick, and a diameter no bigger than an adult males face., I hung that from some 550 para-cord from a tree in the back, and with the centofante 2 having its factory edge, and secondary lock engaged, I stabbed it about 10 times, the blade went all the way in, everytime, then to finish off the meat, i slashed it twice, and the whole chunk of steak was in half, and ants crawling on it. I had no problems with the lock dis-engaging. The stabbing's i used were normal, heavy thrusts, like really fast jabs. And slashed in the reverse grip. After the stabbing tests, the whole knife and my hand was soaked with blood from the warm steaks, i went to my formica drawing desk in my room, and gave it 10 really hard whacks on the spine, it passed every time, and the secondary lock was dis-engaged, then i tried it with the second lock engaged with the already engaged liner, it passed another 10 whacks. After my cleanup, the knife, my table, my hands and the steaks on the floor, i washer the whole knife in warm soapy water with a sponge, and it came gleaming clean, then WD-40 the whole knife, it was like new. Now, the abuse, i couldn't resist alittle chopping with this knife, went outside again, and chopped at some scrap wood i saved for chopping tests, the wood i used was 1inch thick ply wood, well, i really had no goal in doing this, i just wanted to see what it could do. Well, since this knife is very light, and a tad handle heavy, the results where not to good, but the flat grind did a good job of hacking at the ply-wood about a good 30 or 40 times. After another cleaning, i noticed the serrations where still shaving sharp, and none where chipped, although i reccomend you be careful with the tip of this knife, it is very delicate. So, after all this abuse, the liner engages about 1/16 inch more than it did when it was new, sitting right before the middle of the tang, wow, what a true tough dog. The clip on this is very nice, it is silver, and the typical spydie/benchmade type clip. It is high and makes the knife sit very low in the pocket, but does cover the pivot for adjusting. I just adjust the pivot and use some loc-tite, then leave it, it never loosened. Well, I hope you heard alot of juicy details in there, i love this knife, and it is now my favorite flip at home/bagel cutting, food preparating folder. This knife works great in the kitchen, although i now want a plain edge
So, if you have a chance to buy one, please do, If and when you hold it, you will think, wow, what a delicate fragile knife, but just read this review, and test it yourself, it's a wild-dog in a kittens clothing in my opinion. Cheers to Spyderco, and Mr. Centofante for making such an outstanding knife. Buy one today.
Frank, aka rage on bladeforums.com
Now, why I used the word "killing this puppy" is because I really tested it, hard. Some this this is just a shank, well,it may look it, but you are oh so wrong. I went to the local Pathmark, and picked up some heavy chuck steaks, I got 4, and they are each about almost 1inch in thickness, and kind of sewed them all together, with fishing line, this made some piece of meat, about 3-4inches thick, and a diameter no bigger than an adult males face., I hung that from some 550 para-cord from a tree in the back, and with the centofante 2 having its factory edge, and secondary lock engaged, I stabbed it about 10 times, the blade went all the way in, everytime, then to finish off the meat, i slashed it twice, and the whole chunk of steak was in half, and ants crawling on it. I had no problems with the lock dis-engaging. The stabbing's i used were normal, heavy thrusts, like really fast jabs. And slashed in the reverse grip. After the stabbing tests, the whole knife and my hand was soaked with blood from the warm steaks, i went to my formica drawing desk in my room, and gave it 10 really hard whacks on the spine, it passed every time, and the secondary lock was dis-engaged, then i tried it with the second lock engaged with the already engaged liner, it passed another 10 whacks. After my cleanup, the knife, my table, my hands and the steaks on the floor, i washer the whole knife in warm soapy water with a sponge, and it came gleaming clean, then WD-40 the whole knife, it was like new. Now, the abuse, i couldn't resist alittle chopping with this knife, went outside again, and chopped at some scrap wood i saved for chopping tests, the wood i used was 1inch thick ply wood, well, i really had no goal in doing this, i just wanted to see what it could do. Well, since this knife is very light, and a tad handle heavy, the results where not to good, but the flat grind did a good job of hacking at the ply-wood about a good 30 or 40 times. After another cleaning, i noticed the serrations where still shaving sharp, and none where chipped, although i reccomend you be careful with the tip of this knife, it is very delicate. So, after all this abuse, the liner engages about 1/16 inch more than it did when it was new, sitting right before the middle of the tang, wow, what a true tough dog. The clip on this is very nice, it is silver, and the typical spydie/benchmade type clip. It is high and makes the knife sit very low in the pocket, but does cover the pivot for adjusting. I just adjust the pivot and use some loc-tite, then leave it, it never loosened. Well, I hope you heard alot of juicy details in there, i love this knife, and it is now my favorite flip at home/bagel cutting, food preparating folder. This knife works great in the kitchen, although i now want a plain edge
So, if you have a chance to buy one, please do, If and when you hold it, you will think, wow, what a delicate fragile knife, but just read this review, and test it yourself, it's a wild-dog in a kittens clothing in my opinion. Cheers to Spyderco, and Mr. Centofante for making such an outstanding knife. Buy one today.Frank, aka rage on bladeforums.com
