SNG First Impressions

Buzzbait

Buzzbait

Gold Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2001
Messages
6,732
My SNG finally arrived yesterday, and I am initially impressed. I’ll give it a few months of pocket time, and see how it goes. I’ve been searching for a new EDC for awhile now, but have been unable to find a knife that’s just right. My EDC has been a Spyderco Military, which is a tough act to follow. I wanted something with a slightly shorter blade than the Military, with a stouter tip, and something other than a liner lock. The Para-Millie looked good, but I just can’t get used to the compression lock. The Manix is an awesome knife, but the weight finally did me in. The Sebenza was a great knife, but I wanted more grip security than titanium alone would allow.

Perhaps the SNG will do the trick for me. It looks like a real tank in pictures, but the knife is extraordinarily light. Those titanium and G-10 scales really cut down on the weight. The blade length is pretty close to prefect for me, as is the blade shape. I even love the choice in steel, having used S-30V extensively in both my Millie and Manix. Visually, the knife is absolutely stunning, and I’m very accustomed to the pros and cons of frame locks.

I won’t say that the purchase decision wasn’t made without some trepidation. I’ve heard many good things about the SNG, and many complaints as well. I personally haven’t come up with any big complaints yet. The fit is darned near perfect on my new knife. It is clearly not your average production knife type of fit. The frame lock engages perfectly, and opening is much smoother than I expected, given the G-10 scale. The knife even “Spydie drops” very easily, which often is not the case with light handles.

The SNG definitely needs a jeans pocket dedicated to it though. With the tip-up carry, the butt end of the handle fills the top of your pocket. And there a whole lot of junk in this knife’s trunk. Getting your hand past the knife to grab some spare change is pretty much out of the question in my small pockets. But then again, I felt the same way about the Manix and Military, so there’s nothing new to me there. That’s the price you pay for a full-sized handle.

The blade to handle ratio may bother some people. The handle is somewhat large in size, in comparison to the usable amount of blade. The finger choil in the blade takes up quite a bit of room, leaving you with a whole lot of blade, and only a little to cut with. Fortunately for me, this was exactly what I was looking for. I didn’t want a particularly long blade, but wanted a handle big enough to be both comfortable and secure in my hand. I’m also a big fan of blade choils for choking up on precision cuts, and the SNG has a larger choil than either of my favorite Spydies.

The pocket clip is unusual. The knife slides into your pocket like butter, but proceeds to grab on for dear life. Again, I’d rather have that than an excessively loose clip. Adding a lanyard made the pocket draw quite a bit easier. I really dig how short the pocket clip is. As far as I’m concerned, the less pocket clip showing, the less clip to catch onto something I brush up against.

I was also worried about the grip security of one G-10 scale and one titanium scale. But as it turns out, the grip is exceptionally secure. The G-10 is much rougher than the G-10 of my Manix and Millie.

Sharp doesn’t even begin to describe how the blade came. I did a quick test on my arm hair last night, and lost a massive patch of my manliness. I look like a shaved sheep now. Long sleeve shirts for the next week or so, I guess, until things grow back. I also did some quick cutting tests on cardboard and stuff, and was pleasantly surprised. Cutting efficiency is very good, although I may reprofile the blade to a 30 degree inclusive angle.

Well done, Strider!!! I definitely had my reservations about buying an SNG, but my bravery appears to have been greatly rewarded. The knife seems to be very well made, and useful as all get-up.

I’ll post back up here in few months, with a more thorough evaluation, once the SNG has had a fair amount of pocket time.
 
Good "first impressions" post.
I'll be looking forward to any in depth review from you.

I wanted something with a slightly shorter blade than the Military, with a stouter tip, and something other than a liner lock.
Click to expand...

If the SNG does'nt work out for you, check out the Spyderco Pacific Salt!

Good luck,
Allen.
 
Hey Buzzbait,

Glad you took the plunge, and I'm looking forward to your continued review as well.
 
It looks like a real tank in pictures, but the knife is extraordinarily light.
Click to expand...

I had the same thought when I got my SnG, but actually, it's not that light -- according to the Strider FAQ's, the SnG weighs in at 4.6 ounces. It's just so well balanced that it feels light.
 
The SNG is an awesome knife!! That was a great write up!! You got yourself an amazing knife!! CONGRATS!
 
Great write up it sums up so many of my same first experiences. Since that knife my expectation have grown and ive bought several decent blades yet its always the sebbie that ends up in my pocket. Recommended :-)
 
Good to hear this by way of a well thought out review/comment rather than a fan-boy. Does it look like Strider has got its QC under control finally?
 
Spearpoint. Drop point. Whatever you want to call it. It's the non-tanto version. ;)

SNG.jpg


I'd hardly say that one knife is a representative sample of any company's products, but the knife that I do have is nearly flawless in its fit. Strider did an exceptional job on it. It is the only Strider that I have personally handled.

I hate to compare a Strider SNG to a Sebenza, as they are so remarkably different. The Sebenza really lends itself to exceptional fit and finish. The full titanium scales add an air of quality, as does the finish on the blade. The fit, due to the greatly refined method of production, would be pretty hard for even the most talented knifemaker to surpass. Chris Reeve perfectly executes his designs.

The SNG is a bit different. It’s kind of hard to jump up and down about the quality of a rough slab of G-10. G-10 is a great scale material, but carries very little “Wow” factor from a connoisseur's standpoint. Strider did a dynamite job of fitting the G-10 and giving it a nice grip texture. But no matter how you look at it, the G-10 scale is only a fine utility oriented piece of work. Same goes for the blade. Strider did a excellent job of grinding the blade, which gives the SNG some great cutting ability, and then proceeded the slap a few coats of paint on it. There’s no beautiful finish on the blade, just some added rust resistance, anti-glare coating, and a little bit of testosterone induced tiger striping.

Strider has done a sensational job of executing their design goals, just as Chris Reeve has, but the goals are entirely different. It seems, at least from my standpoint, that Chris Reeve set out to produce his vision of the perfect quality folding knife. To achieve high reliability, he uses the least number of parts, but makes those parts perfectly. The result is as much a work of modern art as it is a tool. Strider, on the other hand, looks like they envisioned a number of initial performance goals, and set out to achieve them in the most simple and practical way possible. Where they could, the tried to add a rather aggressive military styling. The goals were high, and the knife meets those goals, plain and simple. When the day is done, the Sebenza yearns to be both carried and collected. The SNG expects to be ridden hard and put away wet. Both knives are very well done, but should appeal to entirely different audiences.
 
Yep. It did the trick perfectly. I made my own spanner out of a old metal washer I found in the toolbox. I used my bench grinder and Dremel tool to get a near-perfect fit into the bull pivot. The bull pivot is a pretty cool design. Very simple, yet very effective.
 
Buzz, can't remember if you said you didn't like belt carry or not, but if you'd like to clear some pocket space, I'd give Lifter a ring. GREAT leather and a very good price.
 
That's a great review.

Personally I "get" the sebenza, I only partly "get" a Strider. Your review makes alot of sense to me. Great job!
 
Nope. I'm not a belt sheath type of guy, although Lifter's stuff is pretty awesome. He’d be at the top of my list if I were shopping for a leather belt sheath.

I "get" both the Seb and the Strider. Excellent knives, both of them. I doubt there's much chance of me ever getting rid of my Sebenza. It's just too darned perfect to let slip out of my hands. At least that's my impression after about 3 or 4 years of Sebenza ownership. The Sebenza is a standard of reference to judge all other folders. I find very few shortcomings in the my large Sebenza.

Only time will tell on the Strider SNG. I've been very enthusiastic about some knives at first, only to have them fall by the wayside after a few months. It doesn't happen often, but it has happened. So I'll try not to rush on forming opinions. I find that most good knives really need a pretty extensive amount of time to find those subtle weak and strong points. You need to try a folder in varying weather conditions, carried in lots of different kinds of cloths, and used on lots of different cuts. I also like to get a knife to the point of needing to be resharpened a few times, if that’s possible through my normal knife chores. I'll have a much better grasp of the Strider once late spring comes. Spring always brings lots of outdoor time and lots of repairs on the house.
 
Buzz
Great review! It makes me long for my old SnG. I got rid of it because I was not impressed with the lock security. It would 'click' whenever pressure was applied to the spine. Other than that, it was an awesome blade.
I traded it for a few other knives. One was the Manix. Initially I thought the Manix was quite a stout blade (and it is), but while doing light prying the other day with it I really wanted the SnG. The Manix is kinda flippy floppy weak for prying while the SnG is a much better because of the large pivot and greater handle/blade area contact.
Any particular reason why you went with the SnG and not the SmF?
Luke
 
I’m surprised. If I had to choose, I'd probably decide on the Manix for lock security. No, the pivot on the Manix is not big, but if Sal says that the pivot won't be an early point of failure, I'll trust him at his word. He's done a lot more controlled testing on the Manix than I have. Then again, I have a very high trust level in Spyderco’s lockbacks, and use an Atwood Prybaby for all of my prying needs. While the SNG will be my EDC for the time being, the Manix will be getting the brunt of the work on hiking and fishing trips.

I went for the SNG because of the smaller size. While I do love large folders, I really don't need anything that large for basic EDC use. Sometimes the longer blades actually make it harder to do some of the more precision oriented cuts I encounter in everyday use, where I'm just sneaking the tip of blade into something. I didn’t want to go too small on the blade, and didn’t want to give up too much lock strength or handle security, so the SNG was a natural choice for me. I’m sold on S30V as a steel for midsize folders, and pretty much insist on a nice choil for choking up. The SNG is everything I was looking for. The SMF would probably have been larger than I wanted to go with.
 
I'm kind of lost. Was the blade not centered? Did you need to do something to get this knife right?
 
Buzz, have you tried holding and using the knife in a full hammer grip? I ask because I do this occasionally, and found the SNG just doesn't work for me this way. That's not unique to the SNG, I'm finding that it's a property of the half-handle/half-blade choil. For example, I can't securely hammer grip the Spyderco R2 either, though the SNG seems to give me the most trouble. In sabre grip, with my thumb up on the thumb ramp, the half&half choil works better for me.
 
bd - The blade wasn't perfectly centered when I first got. A slight rotation of the bull pivot, which may have tightened the pivot, centered up the blade nicely. No loss of buttery smoothness.

Joe - I know what you mean about the hammer grip. I don't think I've ever found a folder that felt really good to me in hammer grip, other than maybe my stag handled Buck 110. That 110 has some seriously thick scales, which makes it feel alot like a full fixed blade handle. The problem is especially tough for me, due to the shape of my hands. I have medium sized hands, but with very long fingers. A hammer grip leaves my fingers curled all the way around the handle, and jammining right back into my palm.

For this reason, I almost solely use a sabre grip to hold my folders when cutting. If I were to use the choil in the hammer grip on my SNG, my long thumb would ride almost right to the cutting edge of the blade, and my cramped fingers would have little control over the knife. The sabre grip alows my thumb to exert some pressure downwards on the knife, forcing the handle into the fold between the second knuckle of my fingers.

I get a stronger grip without using the choil of the SNG, because more of my thumb makes contact with the traction grooves on the handle and blade. The handle also provides greater thickness than the choil for my forefinger. The choil allows me to choke up for more precise work, with a slightly compromised amount of grip security. The situation is the same for both my Military and Manix, but to a greater extent, since the Spydies have very small choils. I love choils, but generally don't use them for the tougher cuts. Less grip and less leverage on the blade.
 
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