Shabaria blade shape... Experience? Other makers?

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Steelwolf

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Jul 19, 1999
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I was looking through the Spyderco catalog and noticed the Bradichansky-designed Shabaria. Quite a cool looking knife, very beautiful curves.

Does anyone else build a Shabaria, custom makers or otherwise? Has anyone had experience with them, especially the Spydie?

The blade shape does not appear to be a standard utility shape. It appears to be designed for slicing actions in a reversed hammer grip. Am I right in my perceptions? Was the Shabaria primarily a fighting blade?
 
Yuo would be better ansvered at Spyderco forum here or at Spydercos own site.
Shabaria was designed by Eduard Bradichansky (Israeli knifemaker who was killed in a terrorist attack). Shape is quite near some traditional pattern used both in utility and in selfdefence.
 
Tommi, thanks for the idea. I put it in the general forum because I'm not only interested in the Spydie Shabaria, but also any other knives of the same blade shape. I'm also looking for users' experiences with the Spydie blade and other blades like it.

According to the catalog, the Spydie blade was based on the traditional everyday carry knife of some desert nomads. Hence, there might be some other makers who have made similar shaped blades before.

What was the primary use of those knives of the desert nomads? Did they use it to skin and dress animals? Or did they hold it in reserve for fighting and "defending their honour"?
 
I'm guessing here...

Nomadic people probably didn't have too much money to spend on extra knives. Belt knife would be do all knife thus eating might have been the most often used function.
 
To my knowledge Spyderco is the only maker producing a folding version of this style knife. They did it in coordination with Bradichansky.

I had one for a short time and found that it was fairly uncomfortable in my hand and the liner lock would fail with my hand. YMMV

This is not an indictment on Spyderco or the Shabaria, I'm a big Spydie fan just the one I had was not too good. I think based on the geometry of blade/handle design it would be a pretty hard lock to master.
 
Recluse: Thanks for the link. Very nice, but very big. :eek:

cpirtle: Can you expound a little more? How did the lock fail? Was it because it was in such a position that you inadvertantly disengaged it? What grip were you holding it in (forward, reverse, hammer, etc.)? Was the handle uncomfortable because of sharp points? Or was it just that it didn't fit your size of hand?
 
Sure, sorry if I was vague.

I have a large hand, and while the knife was easy to get a good grip on, it was not comfortable because the high points on the handle (which are really high) bit into my hand, while the low point felt really thin. This was in the forward grip, reverse was the same due to the handle geometry. IMO only people with fairly small hands that fit in between the high points would be comfortable with this knife.

The liner lock has a fairly large tab on it which did leave me in fear that it would get bumped. But the real problem was that I ould hold the handle and apply pressure to the spine of the blade and push the blade until the liner was right at the edge of failing. My guess is that the lock on mine would not have supported more than 75 pounds of pressure.

I should also add that although some of my favorite knives are tactical I don't buy knives with tactical use in mind. The Shabaria was not ergonomically designed to be a very good utility knife but in my case the poor lock would prevent it from being used for anything but.

I can say without a doubt that it is one of the nicest looking folders Spyderco has ever made. It rides very comfortable in your pocket and just looks awesome. It's almost a piece of art and pictures do not do it justice.

If you get one I would suggest buying it from a dealer with a return policy and just be willing to eat the shipping. Although all knives should be held to see if they're right for you before you keep them I think it's especially imprtant with the Shabaria.
 
Thanks for that. It's quite clear to me now. I suppose I might try and get it from my local bricks and mortar then. I thought that Spydie makes rather robust liners.
 
Like I said, the liner problem may have been specific to mine. I'm a firm believer that no production company has mastered the liner lock and they all have liners that fail on some of their knives, some more than others. Ever heard of the old 80-20 rule? It applies to a lot of things and probably works on this too. Some companies make a good liner lock 80% of the time, some companies make a good liner lock 20% of the time... ;)

I've had MOD's, MT's, Al Mar's, Spyderco's, Buck's and some others that had bad liners.

With that said, I have 3 liner locks left in my entire collection, 2 are Spyderco's and one is a Buck Strider. Spyderco does have a better history (in my experience) for making liners that are properly implemented.
 
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