Review of the Ocelot and Kiwi:
I didnt have as much time this week as I would have wished to play with these two knives, so the review will be relatively short. I had looked at both knives for a while now and was sitting on the fence for both of them and so I am very happy that the passaround enabled me to handle them. Turns out that I fell on one side of the fence for one and on the other side for the other.
Kiwi:
Starting with the Kiwi it never fails to amaze me how Spyderco manages to put such a powerful grip on something this small. I would never have guessed looking at these deep cutouts and the little meat they leave, but the grip is actually very solid allowing for powerful cuts. In many ways quite a piece of engineering, but while I like the shape while it is closed it doesnt speak to me when open. I can appreciate the effort and thoughtfulness that went into this little knife, but it doesnt do much for me on an emotional level. While I can get all excited about the Dragonfly and Cricket the Kiwi ends up as something that is simply not my cup of tea.
Ocelot:
Ahh, the Ocelot. When it was first announced I was sure I would be buying one. I was very excited about it .but then I saw the first in hand pictures and my excitement turned into dismay as it looked to me as if the Ocelot was a cute little piece mocking the original Wegner design Boy, was I WRONG!
The Ocelot falls firmly and squarely into the line of stout full-size folders. Full size I mean not so much a certain blade or overall length, but rather a folder that does not appear to have been designed around a certain restriction in size. I have pretty large hands (looooong fingers, wide but short palm area and pretty skinny) and I get a nice full hand grip on it, that is in no way weaker than the grip than the Chinook or LilT offer (which is the sort of company the Ocelot should be evaluated in) and the entire knife extrudes sturdiness and is very confidence inspiring. The blade is not distally tapered and the spine is 3 mm wide making this together with the thick (0.05), full length liner plus backspacer a strong folder indeed. This leaves its mark in the weight it is not light, but because the handle is slimmer and curved, it carries better by far than either the Manix, Chinook, LilT or Yojimbo. I get along well with carrying a Manix, but the Ocelot simply disappears in my pocket because it tugs so nicely back towards the hip in the RFP. Sheaple-friendliness (sorry, NKP-friendliness) is a given with the paw prints. It is amazing how the attitude towards a knife can change with such a minor feature: Never mind the size ..oh is that cute!
Again the ergos are outstanding. The peculiar blade shape allow for a few choked up grips that offer outstanding bladecontrol and allows application of enormous push force with both hands (I am trying to show that in the pictures). Even gripped behind the 50/50 choil (even though it looks a little peculiar in the photo) the grip is still completely secure and strong.
Now to the drawbacks as far as I see them. Even though the Ocelot has a pretty strong negative rake angle, I would have wished for more. As it is, it lends itself to cutting mainly with the belly which is exactly as it should be for a skinner, but as EDC I would have liked easier access of the tip.
Speaking of the tip, here come a complaint that is unusual for a Spydie. The first 0.5 to 1 towards the tip were flat out blunt: It wouldnt shave, it wouldnt cut newspaper or any kind of paper for that matter. No big deal, I though, all it needs is a quick trip to the Sharpmaker, but while the rest of the blade got sharper, the tip didnt respond much .mmmmh, so I figured it was simply not maintained well and was too far gone, so I carefully proceeded to sharpen it on the grays no dice. So I continued on to a medium coarse stone. The sharpening was difficult as well and only then I noticed that the thickness behind the edge strongly increased towards the tip (on the last 0.4 towards the tip the blade thickens from about 0.025 to 0.04 behind the edge. At the thinnest part, at the apex of the belly, the blade is 0.02 behind the edge) and the original edge angle increased as well, approaching 20 deg. I struggled with it quite a bit, since I didnt really feel it would be right to make major changes to a pass-around knife but it didnt feel right to pass on a blunt knife either so I very carefully reduced the edge angle towards the tip a tad (but it is still greater than 30 deg included) and sharpened the entire edge up a bit. It now responds the Sharpmaker with a 40 deg setting and the part towards the tip is now what I would consider passable sharpness. If it was my knife I would slim out the blade much further, but again, not on a pass-around knife and the way it is makes for a very sturdy tip with out sacrificing much cutting ability on the belly. Again I was a bit surprised to see this on a Spydie, but to me it is really not a big deal as it is easy enough to adjust the edge to personal preferences. I can just hope that the small adjustment I made doesnt find too much disapproval. I included a picture of the edge to show that I didnt completely screw up the edge.
And finally the much talked about shortcoming of the paw prints. Personally, I love them. Remember they are the reason, why you can pull out a heavy duty knife in the company of non-knife people with complete impunity. They can be cleaned out with a toothbrush or even better with an ultrasonic bath, if such is available. However, a screw construction would really have been the right way to go on this model.
In the end, the Ocelot went straight back onto my must have list. It might be cute, alright, but it is also more than capable of delivering a heavy punch.
Thanks to FrankK and Spyderco for these terrific passarounds!
I didnt have as much time this week as I would have wished to play with these two knives, so the review will be relatively short. I had looked at both knives for a while now and was sitting on the fence for both of them and so I am very happy that the passaround enabled me to handle them. Turns out that I fell on one side of the fence for one and on the other side for the other.
Kiwi:
Starting with the Kiwi it never fails to amaze me how Spyderco manages to put such a powerful grip on something this small. I would never have guessed looking at these deep cutouts and the little meat they leave, but the grip is actually very solid allowing for powerful cuts. In many ways quite a piece of engineering, but while I like the shape while it is closed it doesnt speak to me when open. I can appreciate the effort and thoughtfulness that went into this little knife, but it doesnt do much for me on an emotional level. While I can get all excited about the Dragonfly and Cricket the Kiwi ends up as something that is simply not my cup of tea.
Ocelot:
Ahh, the Ocelot. When it was first announced I was sure I would be buying one. I was very excited about it .but then I saw the first in hand pictures and my excitement turned into dismay as it looked to me as if the Ocelot was a cute little piece mocking the original Wegner design Boy, was I WRONG!
The Ocelot falls firmly and squarely into the line of stout full-size folders. Full size I mean not so much a certain blade or overall length, but rather a folder that does not appear to have been designed around a certain restriction in size. I have pretty large hands (looooong fingers, wide but short palm area and pretty skinny) and I get a nice full hand grip on it, that is in no way weaker than the grip than the Chinook or LilT offer (which is the sort of company the Ocelot should be evaluated in) and the entire knife extrudes sturdiness and is very confidence inspiring. The blade is not distally tapered and the spine is 3 mm wide making this together with the thick (0.05), full length liner plus backspacer a strong folder indeed. This leaves its mark in the weight it is not light, but because the handle is slimmer and curved, it carries better by far than either the Manix, Chinook, LilT or Yojimbo. I get along well with carrying a Manix, but the Ocelot simply disappears in my pocket because it tugs so nicely back towards the hip in the RFP. Sheaple-friendliness (sorry, NKP-friendliness) is a given with the paw prints. It is amazing how the attitude towards a knife can change with such a minor feature: Never mind the size ..oh is that cute!
Again the ergos are outstanding. The peculiar blade shape allow for a few choked up grips that offer outstanding bladecontrol and allows application of enormous push force with both hands (I am trying to show that in the pictures). Even gripped behind the 50/50 choil (even though it looks a little peculiar in the photo) the grip is still completely secure and strong.
Now to the drawbacks as far as I see them. Even though the Ocelot has a pretty strong negative rake angle, I would have wished for more. As it is, it lends itself to cutting mainly with the belly which is exactly as it should be for a skinner, but as EDC I would have liked easier access of the tip.
Speaking of the tip, here come a complaint that is unusual for a Spydie. The first 0.5 to 1 towards the tip were flat out blunt: It wouldnt shave, it wouldnt cut newspaper or any kind of paper for that matter. No big deal, I though, all it needs is a quick trip to the Sharpmaker, but while the rest of the blade got sharper, the tip didnt respond much .mmmmh, so I figured it was simply not maintained well and was too far gone, so I carefully proceeded to sharpen it on the grays no dice. So I continued on to a medium coarse stone. The sharpening was difficult as well and only then I noticed that the thickness behind the edge strongly increased towards the tip (on the last 0.4 towards the tip the blade thickens from about 0.025 to 0.04 behind the edge. At the thinnest part, at the apex of the belly, the blade is 0.02 behind the edge) and the original edge angle increased as well, approaching 20 deg. I struggled with it quite a bit, since I didnt really feel it would be right to make major changes to a pass-around knife but it didnt feel right to pass on a blunt knife either so I very carefully reduced the edge angle towards the tip a tad (but it is still greater than 30 deg included) and sharpened the entire edge up a bit. It now responds the Sharpmaker with a 40 deg setting and the part towards the tip is now what I would consider passable sharpness. If it was my knife I would slim out the blade much further, but again, not on a pass-around knife and the way it is makes for a very sturdy tip with out sacrificing much cutting ability on the belly. Again I was a bit surprised to see this on a Spydie, but to me it is really not a big deal as it is easy enough to adjust the edge to personal preferences. I can just hope that the small adjustment I made doesnt find too much disapproval. I included a picture of the edge to show that I didnt completely screw up the edge.
And finally the much talked about shortcoming of the paw prints. Personally, I love them. Remember they are the reason, why you can pull out a heavy duty knife in the company of non-knife people with complete impunity. They can be cleaned out with a toothbrush or even better with an ultrasonic bath, if such is available. However, a screw construction would really have been the right way to go on this model.
In the end, the Ocelot went straight back onto my must have list. It might be cute, alright, but it is also more than capable of delivering a heavy punch.
Thanks to FrankK and Spyderco for these terrific passarounds!
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