Spyderco Civilian Counterfeit?

M

Mickey

Joined
Mar 17, 1999
Messages
221
I attended a local gun show this weekend. A dealer had a Civilian for sale. It was in a red and black Spyderco box. There was no pouch or "toe tag" included.
The markings were typical Spyderco, but the knife had 2 liners, no Boye detent, grainy black G-10 and flat screws. The blade had light brown marks in some spots as if it had been overheated.
If the knife was opened approximately 1", the blade could be moved over the liner/handle area.
The box contained a white piece of paper with Spyderco literature, but no brochure. I initially thought the price was a good deal since I noticed the Spyderco "bug" and normal markings on the blade.
I guess the moral of the story is to closely examine a blade with a price tag too good to be true.

Mickey
 
That sounds like a counterfeit to me. The Civilian only has one liner, on the right side to accommodate the pocket clip. Good to hear you didn't pick it up.
 
Not sure how many liners the most recent runs of Civilians have, but I can say with absolute certainty that no genuine Spyderco Civilian without a Boye dent has a bug logo on the blade. The Boye dent was added to the Civilian around 2003 and has been used on it consistently ever since, so no Civilian made after that would lack it. The Spyderco "bug" logo wasn't added to the Civilian's blade until around 2008-2009. So any Civilian that has the logo but lacks the dent is either a counterfeit or a "FrankenSpyder" assembled from parts. Given that there have been quite a few of them popping up on eBay, my money would be on the one you saw being a counterfeit.
 
I am thinking of this knife, myself. Can anyone confirm if the G-10 version can be opened by a wrist flick? The Cold Steel lock-backs that I have owned can all do so pretty easily when the lock mechanism wears in.
 
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I highly doubt you could wrist flick open a Civilian. The blade is too light and the detent too strong for that. The CS knives have a comparatively really heavy blade that builds more momentum.
 
EricV said:
I highly doubt you could wrist flick open a Civilian. The blade is too light and the detent too strong for that. The CS knives have a comparatively really heavy blade that builds more momentum.
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That's all I needed to know. Thanks for the non-troll response.
 
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