Spyderco Bill Moran fixed blade from the passaround

[loonybin]

I had the opportunity to participate in the passaround with the Spyderco Bill Moran fixed blade and the Squeak. I realized I didn't post a review here of the knives except in the passaround thrad, so here it is.

Squeak: yeah. What's the purpose of this knife again? Way too small. My 5'1" wife thinks it's too small. It just doesn't impress me at all. OK, review done on that one.

The Bill Moran knife... I'm impressed. Interesting design. Great blade shape. VG-10 is very good. Black coating... I could care less. The handle shape is something I'm just not sure about yet. It works better for me in a hammer grip than a saber grip, and the choil is useful for choking up; however, my hand sits most comfortably with my finger on the choil, but I don't know if I would want to use it that way long-term. It cut the cheese just fine (no, seriously! My wife was slicing up a block of cheddar cheese so I asked her to use it). She didn't care for it, but I used it some and it worked just fine. I think it would slice cheese better if it were hollow ground, but it wasn't really made for that now, was it? After more use, I still didn't care much for the palm swell, but the blade shape is great for outdoor use. It didn't take much to get it back to hair-shaving sharp on my Sharpmaker. I used the 30deg inclusive angles and it only touched the edge of the bevel instead of the entire bevel.

I haven't had a chance to go camping or anything like that, so I just went out to the wood pile and picked some wood to abuse with this thing. I hammered it into a big branch, taking chunks out until my ADD kicked in and I got bored (got about halfway through),

Then I decided to baton it through a log taking off some pieces,

Then I shaved a little bit to make a few curls out of Mulberry root (a quite dense, hard wood)

and the edge handled it all very well. It's still sharp, although it won't shave hair anymore. The finish did not hold up very well, which is one reason I don't care much for coated blades.

So, there you have it.

 

[TLA]

I've got both Bill Moran designed Spyderco's and I like the way the handles feel and I have had both of mine for a fews years now and that make great EDC knives and are home in the kitchen. I have used the upswept blade model to clean some silver salmon and it worked great. Neither one of my blades have any coating on them and my drop point has the orange and black handle.

 

[wiredge]

These morans are great for skinning deer. Made quick work of 3 deer this past hunting season. My hunting buddies love it.

 

[Pointshoot777]

I'm a big fan of the Spyderco Moran knives & own several of them. Master Bladesmith Bill Moran spent many years perfecting the design, and if you were to buy one of his custom knives it would cost you many thousands of dollars. The Spyderco version is the same in handle shape, weight, and balance. . . but uses the synthetic handle material with grippy inserts. The knife can be held in a number of grips. The original custom Morans had a convex edge (sometime I'll get around to convexing one of these knives). - - I prefer the model with the satin blade finish for use as an outdoors/field knife. If for some reason you were to drop it in the woods, its easier to spot. - - One advantage of the black blade model is if youre in a place where youre able to use a fixed blade knife and others are around. Its a bit less noticeable & appears smaller, than a shiny blade. Just choke up on the knife with your finger on the choil to minimize apparent size, take care of your cutting task, and return it to the sheath.- - Well, at least that was my excuse for buying the black blade model when I already have the regular one