Spyderco Civilian

You're probably going to hear of any stories with the civilian as it was designed for people outside of the "civilian" sector.
 
I just don't get what's so hard to understand about this knife? It's design is to cut people whilst fighting for your life. Complaining that the tip breaks under "moderate" use would imply what? In the process of cutting a moderate number of people the tips broke?

I'm not trying to be a prick but this is like asking Moritaka to beef up the blade of my 16 degree inclusive chef knife because it can't handle pruning trees.
 
I just took a careful look at the tip on mine. I wouldn't dig rocks with it.

But, it appears to be more than adequate for the intended purpose.

Besides, I don't really consider it a multi use tool. Once is more than enough for a lifetime.
 
Why do you need a court decision to tell you it's illegal? If one jury decides to nullify the law, that's great for that person, but it has no relevance to any other jury. Juries are unique and they differ by community...that's good.
 
There is a good point to be made about legality. Georgia used to have a law that carrying a knife for offense or defense was illegal, even with CCW license. That has since changed. It I suspect many states still have laws like that on the books. DA's will use the fact that you violated any law against you in a self defense case. I would be very careful about carrying a civilian unless I was very sure of my state laws.
 
"I would be very careful about carrying a civilian unless I was very sure of my state laws." That can be said about any knife with a blade over 2" that locks and opens with one hand. Plus, it's not just state law, it's city, county and town, all of which can be more restrictive than the state.
 
hmmmmm, no I don't think that using my kershaw leek, or a spyderco PM, or just about any other folder with a more traditional blade would seem out of the ordinary, but pull out a civillian and cut a little something in the break room- bread and cheese anyone- how bout an apple slice? Or need to cut some cord, tape, or open an envelope? Yeah now it looks a bit out of place doesn't it. I would think that the civi falls under pretty much the same laws as guns in many states as they are both weapons. Now I'm not a lawyer, but I would carry a civi only in the same sort of places I'd think about carrying a gun.

I too would like to know- other than design ideals, has anyone got any real world experience with this knife performing as intended? And in the unlikely even that this simple direct question is answered, how bout the follow up. Did dyou go to court? What happened?
 
gomipile said:
Apparently you don't like eating mushrooms. :D
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In as much as it's designed for self defense I don't think you could find a better mushroom harvesting knife.
my wife and I each have one for picking and that's pretty much all it gets used for.
 
Suveges said:
In as much as it's designed for self defense I don't think you could find a better mushroom harvesting knife.
my wife and I each have one for picking and that's pretty much all it gets used for.
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If I understand mushroom harvesting (I might understand wrong) you get the blade behind the mushroom stem and pull it toward you.
A small linoleum knife sounds ideal. Pulling a Civvie toward myself - that's what nightmares are made of.
 
Forget the Self Defense and Mushroom harvesting :D aspects of the Civi and/or Matriarch for a second>> Because I've personally discovered that using my VG-10 Matriarch ( original first run model) has a lot to offer. AS much as I like to use Hawkbills as a companion blade to my regular EDC ( C-60 G-10 handled Ayoob model) I find that a fully serrated Hawkbill can come in very handy at some jobs.

And add the fact that both the Civi and Matriarch are Reverse S blades to boot which can give you some good leverage cutting fibrous materials for instance. Again I do believe that with a thicker blade both models could potentially be great working tools as well as self defense gems.

I do like the ridgidity of the Harpy and Spyderhawk and I do believe that with the same ridgid blade the Civi and Matriarch could both tap into other target markets.
 
The Harpy is great for opening those pesky plastic bubble wrap packages. Just insert the tip and pull.

Tried the same thing with the Civilian. It zipped the package open like nothing. Who said the Civvie tip is weak?

I think I'm gonna start carrying the Harpy as a backup, and see what all it can really do.
 
jnichols2 said:
The Harpy is great for opening those pesky plastic bubble wrap packages. Just insert the tip and pull.

Tried the same thing with the Civilian. It zipped the package open like nothing. Who said the Civvie tip is weak?

I think I'm gonna start carrying the Harpy as a backup, and see what all it can really do.
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Well "jnichols2" that's pretty much the way I got started carrying a Spyderco Harpy as a back up. When I first joined the Spyderco.com Forum and this great place we know as Bladeforums back in 2004 I met up with a great member of both forums who went by Dr. Hannibal Lecter>> him and I became great pals and his Hawkbill enthusiasm rubbed off on me in a really delightful way. I've been a Hawkbill addict ever since. I started out with a Merlin model PE and then I snagged an SE ATS-55 Merlin and liked it even better for opening all kinds of packages and I also used it exclusively on rope and many other fibrous materials. It sure gave my PE Spyder a rest and I was able to prolong sharpening both blades quite a while that way.

Then I took the big plunge when I got a job in a wetlands project. I one day mistakenly took the wrong knife with me to work in the wetlands. I thought I was packing a full sized Endura but by a really good mistake I took a VG-10 Spyderhawk with me instead. I used it to cut through some cat-Tails and reeds and I was blown away by the performance of that oversized Hawkbill monster. And from that day forward I never left home without some Spyderco Hawkbill as a companion blade>> later about 2 months from that time I got from Dr. Lecter the best companion folder ever when he traded me a G-10 Harpy. I carried it all this time ( November 2004 till February 2012) until I lost it back around February ( or it got stolen) and I"ve been homesick for my G-10 Harpy ever since.

The reason I chimed in again on this thread is that I"ve been doing a lot of experimenting with reverse S blades and I like using them. I just can't help but believe that either the Civi or Matriarch ( my main choice) could also take the place of the Harpy and be great for other uses as well. And I would like to see Spyderco do an H-1 Matriarch with a thicker blade >> that way you would have a companion blade with several other uses as well.

But you will love the Harpy when you start to use it. I hope your Harpy has a VG-10 blade. The Harpy with a VG-10 blade is truly a little beast of a cutter in full Spyderedge. Give it a try and let us know how it works out for you. >> JD
 
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JD,

Yes,my Harpy is VG-10. I wish it was G10, but I settled for SS. Now that I'm using it, I realize the SS isn't rally so bad.

I don't really expect to carry the Civilian, it will probably continue to stay home.

I am starting to carry the Harpy, along with a PE knife. The Harpy is growing on me, but it's not very good for opening envelopes.
 
jnichols2 said:
JD,

Yes,my Harpy is VG-10. I wish it was G10, but I settled for SS. Now that I'm using it, I realize the SS isn't rally so bad.

I don't really expect to carry the Civilian, it will probably continue to stay home.

I am starting to carry the Harpy, along with a PE knife. The Harpy is growing on me, but it's not very good for opening envelopes.
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One big helpful trick to keeping any Hawkbill performing well is to keep the tip sharp. Even on the Spyderedged models you still have about a 1/2 to 5/8ths of an inch of the tip part that is plain edged>> it's even that way on the Civilian and Matriarch models too. The tip will get you started and in most cases do most of the work i.e. opening clampacks and other hard to penetrate plastic materials.

And you don't need much pressure at all if that PE tip part is sharp. I will say that I do find the Harpy to be more work friendly than I do with either the Matriarch or Civilian. But I still would like to see a thick, beefed up Matriarch for work purposes.
 
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