Spyderco Dodo

C

Cliff Stamp

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Oct 5, 1998
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Very striking visuals, never fails to attract attention, however the aggressive blade style often prints as a weapon. In spite of what I thought was a rather restrictive blade and handle style, it proved to be quite useful as an EDC knife, even helping out in the kitchen.

The main feature of the blade shape is the point presentation which was shown to give a huge advantage in regards to deepness of cuts on a slice compared to a standard point profile as illustrated by a K2 using both of them for several cuts on a phonebook.

It of course has restrictions on use, doesn't make a great potato peeler, won't be my first choice for carving a bowl, but is a lot more useful than I thought on first glance. The lock also proved to be very stable and strong, and to a point self-cleaning. Ref :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/knives/dodo.html

It is now on extended EDC rotation.

-Cliff
 
I got a blue Dodo for my wife after I noticed her struggling to get leverage to cut open a box with her Dragonfly. She has a quilt shop that we built here on the property and the Dodo is a perfect utility knife. Not a slicer for the kitchen but a definite asset for general shop work. The relatively large handle gives great control and leverage and the blade shape lends itself to accuracy and depth. I like it and so does she.
 
I carried a DODO while deployed to the desert. There were times when I had to wear civilian clothes, so I couldn't wear a combat knife. I carried the DODO as a back up weapon. It seemed to get lots of use other than as a weapon, but it was ready to go at all times. I gave it to a friend after I came home. Nice knife.
 
I had lock problems with 2 Dodos, so I will have to wait until the design comes out with a different lock. I LOVE the Dodo design, handle, everything about it, but I have no personal confidence in the lock based on my experience, even though most people say theirs are like rocks. If they make a Dodo with a different lock I'll be first in line!
 
There were comments in the Spyderco forum about initial problems with the lock which had been addressed. Did you send them in to get looked at?

-Cliff
 
Great review -- thanks Cliff. I recently got one and I carry it at work, where knives have to be folders and under 2 and 1/2". Due to its qualities, as you set forth in your review, it has replaced numerous "gents" folders as my work EDC.

When I first saw the Dodo about a year ago, I dismissed it. It was only after handling it and using it that I got it. Eric Glesser was really thinking outside the box onthis one.
 
Keith Mayton said:
When I first saw the Dodo about a year ago, I dismissed it. It was only after handling it and using it that I got it. Eric Glesser was really thinking outside the box onthis one.
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Yes, I was much the same when I first saw it, I usually prefer pretty simple blade shapes, but this one will work a lot better than you might think at first glance.

-Cliff
 
There were comments in the Spyderco forum about initial problems with the lock which had been addressed. Did you send them in to get looked at?
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Yes. It came back slightly improved, then I resent it, and a new one was sent, and that one also had a problem. It wouldn't snap shut like the other one, but if you put pressure on the spine (hand pressure, maybe 5 pounds) and left it there, the ball would start to push out of the lock. Within 3 seconds it would then fail and snap shut. I know my experiences with this knife have been uncommon to say the least and I have or have had probably 2 dozen Spyderco's, all high end ones, over the last 6 years and I've been more than happy with the products, so I chalk up my Dodo experience to exceptionally bad luck! Of the 3 I've had two had bad locks, FWIW.
 
Chiro75 said:
if you put pressure on the spine
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I just checked mine, the ball would start to move back as pressure was applied and with ~50 lbs applied to the point on the spine the lock released, so a torque of 125 in.lbs. Once this happened it would release again under light force like you noted, you can re-seat it with a hard snap, and the required force goes up past 15 lbs, and it again becomes resistant to spine whacks. The stability could be increased by using a stiffer spring (which would reduce ease of closure), or a longer travel of the ball which would require a longer cutout as you need space infront of the ball to allow finger purchase. Anyone know if Spyderco has released the actual torque rating of this lock?

-Cliff
 
The Dodo is "MBC" or heavy duty rated, so it should withstand 200 pounds per blade inch. Here's the online catalog description which states the MBC rating:

http://www.spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=33

Here is a thread I started on Dodo lock reliability:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338504

I sent my first Dodo back with a lock problem similar to the one you both describe, or maybe closer to #11 post in the above referenced thread. It would close with hand pressure without touching the lock 3-5 times in a row after otherwise working properly for 100 or more cycles (I cycled it a LOT). So, I sent it to Spyderco.

Spyderco sent me a new one the same day they received my first one. Excellent customer service IMO. Anyone who gets a bad one should fully expect Spyderco to repair it properly or replace it with one that locks properly. I'm confident that if you stick with it they will ultimately get it right. I was willing to bear with the problem because I was so impressed by the design. I still am.

The one I have in my hand now will not close with hand pressure, even with "pumping" my thumb on it as hard as I can, or holding the pressure for 10 seconds, or anything else I've tried. I've done this over and over and nothing I do seems to make this close without purposely pulling back the ball. It passes pretty hard spine whacks too.

DaveH attributed the problems with his to burrs, and solved it will emory cloth. I declined to go that route as Spyderco told me it would void the warranty. Also, I'd think failure could relate to geometry, as in the ramp on the tang and the ball track above it need to be as close to parallel as possible to avoid a situation where the ball simply gets squeezed out from between the two -- right?

In any event, I look forward to Cliff's objective assessment of this issue.
 
I have a different "problem". The knife locks rock solid, no ball movement at all, no bladeplay even when putting way to much weight on the blade. But that little ball is kinda hard to disengage? The problem is that the ball turns when i try to disengage the knife. Not a problem here, i love the ball lock, and mine seems very strong. Such a short blade and MBC rating means that this is an almost indestructable blade in soft targets. But getting the ball unlock is not as "effortless" like the rest of the knife! :D
 
A couple of things are possible, Yojimbo-girl. The ball could be hanging up on a burr in the little metal part that it slides around it, or the piston might be grinding against the G-10 under the scales, too. Another possibility is that the springs are mucked up together inside the knife. This is an issue with some of the locks because there are two springs inside and if they get wrapped up in each other it's a mess. Only way to know is to pop the knife apart and look.
 
That was the significant problem I had, every once is a while it was very very difficult to disengage, like it was jammed. Other times it was fine.

As already mentioned I fixed it with emery cloth.
 
The Dodo is probalby the fugliest knife I have seen. I was literally shaking my head when I first saw it. But as often, the worse they look....the better they feel. When I first held it, I was very surprised and really impressed. That is one amazing little knife. I loved the ball lock, but haven't used it enough to have issues with it appear.
 
It's a deceptively useful little blade. Also EXTREMELY valuable for places with very restrictive length limits - you can do much more with a Dodo than most 2.5" blades.

In my experience, most cuts focus on the downturn tip. Seems like many of Cliff's results in the kitchen showed this as well. I'm wondering how this will affect long-term performance and sharpening. It seems like eventually, the tip will wear much more than the rest of the blade. Then again, S30V should wear very well, and I'll probably loose it (NOOOO!!!) or rotate it to less-frequent EDC before I see huge amounts of blade wear.
 
Tohatchi NM said:
I'm wondering how this will affect long-term performance and sharpening. It seems like eventually, the tip will wear much more than the rest of the blade.
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Most blades tend to wear unevenly anyway, though the Dodo will focus wear on one part more so than most styles. Blade wear though is a very slow process, unless you cut a lot of abrasive material like used carpet. The main concern would be preserving the unique shape while sharpening.

-Cliff
 
Cliff -- given some recent posts that touched upon warranty and service, do you plan to ask Spyderco for another one to confirm that the lock failure was a fluke? :confused:

It bears repeating that my replacement Dodo's lock does not fail no matter how hard I try to make it do so.
 
I'll be returning the Dodo shortly along with some other knives I have to ship around. I'll include in it a reference to this thread and the review.

I have no doubt they will examine this Dodo and use it to improve the lock, assuming the problems have not already been addressed.

I don't intend to ask for a replacement, it was a sample anyway. There are lots of reports of the locks being stable, however of course if they send a replacement I'll check the lock on that.

-Cliff
 
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