Spiderco Shaman, should I?

Just ordered it, along with a couple gift cards it cost me $12 out of pocket :).

I’ll post some pictures and my thoughts on it. This will be my first Spyderco ever.
 
Peakbagget46, Glad You picked one up. I think that you will like but if the action is insanely tight, a very slight pivot adjustment may be needed.
 
Gramps said:
I admit to being out of the loop...but why has this knife taken such a significant price hike in just a few weeks? I though the Shaman was priced at around $150. I had this on my list, but I'm now re-thinking.
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Sal mentioned in one of the price increase complaint threads that one reason for increases was underestimating the cost to manufacture certain models. He said a different time that the Shaman's handles are expensive to manufacture. I am guessing the first statement refers to the second, and they just mistakenly priced it too low to start.

...
I don't think Spyderco is intentially gouging customers and believe them when they say they are only pricing them where they need it to be. Instead, I think that they just aren't good at getting production costs down. The Shaman and other Golden models, which by far aren't the most out of whack (Japan models, lol), just aren't where they should be when you look around the market. The Fluted TI Military had to be discontinued and put on closeout pricing to hit where a lot of ZT models are at for their starting price, for example, and those often have better steel than S30V. The Shaman at $150 was on the upper end of where it should fit in the market IMO, and $180 is just crazy.
 
Sonnydaze said:
How true it is...I'm wearing one in M390 in the nice factory leather cross-draw sheath. I have owned a bunch of these in M390 and CPM-3V and have several new ones in the safe in Vanadis 4 Extra...
I still carry my large Seb in my rh pocket, but seldom pull it out any more.
Don
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I carry one of two G3's everyday along w/ 2 folding knives everyday. One EDC, one Tactical and one hard use (fixed blade) and I'm covered all around. The fixed is carried IWB.
 
zhyla said:
I don’t think any knife makes sense at $182 for a contractor. I’m not sure I’d even take a Tenacious out on the job for that line of work. Contractors need knives that they don’t mind if they are lost or snap in half.
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Not all contractors are out there loosing their pocket knives and snapping them in half.

Personally I like having a clean, sharp, slicey, pointy knife with me on the job site. I have other tools for the dirty work. That being said in the case that something does happen, 182 is quite the hit. Especially when you can pick up a Manix for 70 dollars less.
 
The Shawman seems plenty beefy enough, and even a little bit overkill in my opinion. My way isn't necessarily the right way, just how I think.
 
bigguyforyou said:
Please post them, I really do want to see it.
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Yeah me too. I actually killed that deal. I was all gung-ho until the guy outa reno wanted half upfront PayPal friends and family. Pulled the plug. If anyone else knows silversmiths that do folding knives let me know. I’ve been a silver hound lately haha.
 
Man I was looking hard at the Shaman. Even had one in my cart but couldn’t do it at $180 and ended up getting a different knife.

Like others have said it’s alot of dough for S30V and G10 handles. For $70-100 more there are knives with ceramic bearing pivots, contoured and inlayed ti handles, and M390 blades. (We knives, etc.).

At $140 I’d probably have bought a shaman this week.
 
Biginboca said:
Like others have said it’s alot of dough for S30V and G10 handles. For $70-100 more there are knives with ceramic bearing pivots, contoured and inlayed ti handles, and M390 blades. (We knives, etc.).
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I don't think you actually want bearings in this sort of knife, washers are more robust to dust/dirt. Or Ti handles. Or $100 more on the price. This is tough folder, not a pretty piece of art.

People complain so much about S30V being too low end but Spyderco has it dialed in and it's a solid steel choice.

I hope Spyderco finds a way to cost reduce this knife. I think if they could get it down into PM2/Manix 2 price range it would sell really well.
 
I love the Shaman but it is now too expensive for me to justify. Sucks, as I really want one.

I can buy both a Stretch and a Matriarch (not the same, I know but still great knives that I have my eye on) for the same price as a Shaman or a Southard Positron for about $50 less.

In Canada, the Shaman is the same price as most standard Emerson’s and ZTs now.

The discontinued Southard is smaller, but I think a much better value (just one example).
 
zhyla said:
I don't think you actually want bearings in this sort of knife, washers are more robust to dust/dirt. Or Ti handles. Or $100 more on the price. This is tough folder, not a pretty piece of art.

People complain so much about S30V being too low end but Spyderco has it dialed in and it's a solid steel choice.

I hope Spyderco finds a way to cost reduce this knife. I think if they could get it down into PM2/Manix 2 price range it would sell really well.
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I hope so too but am afraid it is just a wishful thinking. If it could stay as it was ($150) it would have been a blessing.
 
zhyla said:
I don't think you actually want bearings in this sort of knife, washers are more robust to dust/dirt.
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This is false. It really depends on how the knife was designed overall. But both types can have issues with dirt, sand etc and even some bearing designs will have less issues than washers. In the end its based on the design of the knife and if it let's debris in. Some would argue its easy to just run bearings under water to clean it out for the most part where washers don't always have that luxury and require disassembly. Either way it's a false claim always being made. The fact is they both can have issues with debris...it really depends on the way it was designed.

And I agree that people complain to much about the steel. S30v is often just 20cuts behind in edge retention from s35vn. 20cuts is nothing. Margin of error. But if this were s35vn people wouldn't be complaining (lol or would they?)

I haven't seen so many grown men complaining about such things. The knife is worth what it costs. Stop complaining and get something in your price range if you don't like the cost.
 
Mo2 said:
But if this were s35vn people wouldn't be complaining (lol or would they?)
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That's a pretty interesting question. At the Spyderco forum I think people are pretty bored with S30V since nearly every USA production knife runs that steel. I've seen people there complain that Spyderco could have used S35VN at least, not knowing that it's basically the same steel from a user's point of view.

I can see some benefit to a higher end steel that is very wear resistant -- this knife to me is meant to be put to work -- but again that bumps into the $100 hammer problem, it just doesn't make sense to beat on something that expensive.
 
Got it yesterday, quite impressed thus far. The handle is quite comfortable and being able to choke up on the blade is awesome.

The action is tight but smooth. It feels really solid. There is a bit of up and down play sometimes when it locks up, but I have a feeling it will go away when it breaks in.

It does really well in the pocket and the clip is well done. It slices better than my benchmade 940 and the tip is very usable.

So far I really like it. The only Spiderco I’ve owned to date. The PM2 I looked at before seemed a bit too thin at the tip for my uses. I don’t have that worry with this one.
 
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Peakbagger46 said:
Got it yesterday, quite impressed thus far. The handle is quite comfortable and being able to choke up on the blade is awesome.

The action is tight but smooth. It feels really solid. There is a bit of up and down play sometimes when it locks up, but I have a feeling it will go away when it breaks in.

It does really well in the pocket and the clip is well done. It slices better than my benchmade 940 and the tip is very usable.

So far I really like it. The only Spiderco I’ve owned to date. The PM2 I looked at before seemed a bit too thin at the tip for my uses. I don’t have that worry with this one.
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Throw some pics up!
 
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