- Joined
- Jun 9, 1999
- Messages
- 4,729
Better late than never! I apologize for taking so long to get this review up; I can't even say I've been busy, just lazy. I consider it an obligation to at least say a few words about a knife I recieve in a pass-around, since the owner of the knife has been kind enough to let me play with it for a while. The least I can do is add my thoughts for the perusal of the community. I tried to get fairly in-depth with this, with a lot of pics. Unfortunately, I didn't get to do much cutting with this knife. I sliced up some cardboard and cut a little fruit with it, and that was as far as it went. I did carry it around for a week and just did a lot of playing with it to get a feel for how it handled. Here's what I found:
Specs (From Spyderco's website)
Blade Steel: CPM(T) 440V
Blade Thickness: 5/32" 4mm
Clip: Metal clip with Indexing/control holes
Diam. Blade Hole: 9/16" 14.5mm
Edge Type: PlainEdge
Handle Material: Green G-10
Length Blade: 3" 76mm
Length Closed: 4 1/2" 115mm
Length Cutting Edge: 3" 76m
Length Overall: 7 3/16" 182mm
Weight: 4.25oz 121g
First, I wasn't very familiar with this knife when I signed up for the pass-around. I wasn't posting here much when it was introduced and the few pictures I saw just didn't really interest me. It just looked ugly and clunky to me. When I had a chance to play with it for a week though, I figured "What the hell" and signed up. Boy am I ever glad I did that! This knife amazed me right out of the box. That big, ugly, clunky green handle nestled into my hand like it was born there. This is seriously one of the most comfortable handles I have ever run across. It's substantial enough to really fill up my hand, which is rather large, and yet the knife is still light enough that it carried very comfortably clipped IWB of a pair of very lightweight summer shorts. The day I recieved the knife I carried it in the RF pocket of my BDUs, but really it wasn't very comfortable there. It's too big and restricted access to my pocket. I was leary of carrying it IWB because of the 'horns' on the top of the handle. This was a problem when I was wearing pants with a somewhat tight waistband, but with loose fitting jeans or BDUs I didn't know it was there, even sitting down.
The blade of this knife was equally impressive as the handle. This was the Leaf point model, which I prefer to the trailing point for aesthetic reasons. The steel used on this knife is Crucible's S60V, formerly known as CPM 440V. I have some experience with this steel in my Kershaw Boa. I've found that while it is very difficult to sharpen using traditional methods (I use an Edge Pro), it will take a very sharp edge and hold it for a long time. I've had a few problems with my Kershaw's edge deforming slightly, because although S60V is very wear resistant, it is often left fairly soft by manufacturers to keep it from being too brittle. Based on the feel of the steel while sharpening the Lil' Temperance, I believe that Spyderco's heat treat leaves the blade a bit harder than Kershaw's. I have no way to validate this however. It's sort of a moot point, since Spyderco has since begun producing this blade with S30V, which can left much harder due to it's inherent toughness. I think this was a very good move because I see this as a very heavy duty knife whose edge could end up suffering impacts while cutting tough materials, say for instance hitting a staple in a cardboard box. A blade of S60V would probably dent more than one made of S30V in such a situation, IMO.
My main complaint with this knife is the lock. Now hold on, I know this is Spyderco's ingenious Compression lock, and my complaint is actually rather minor. Based on the principle the lock operates under and examination of it, I don't see how anyone could make this lock fail without using a vise and a 6 foot pipe over the handle. My complaint is that this particular knife exhibited a small amount of vertical blade play. I did a search to see if others had experienced the same problem and found only one post referring to it, so maybe this isn't a widespread problem. It in no way affected the integrity of the lock, but it did detract from the rock-solid feel imparted by the substantial handle. One problem I did not have with this lock that others have mentioned was closing the knife one-handed. Here is a pictorial demonstration of how I did it:
First, I adjusted my grip to this position. This is the same position I hold a liner lock in to release the lock.
Next, I positioned my middle finger against the lock bar, like so. Then I pushed against it to release the lock. I needed to use my thumb on the other side of the knife to counteract the force exerted by my middle finger. It's a little awkward, but it wasn't hard to get the hang of it.
After that, all that was left was to use my index finger to begin closing the blade, then to complete the motion with my thumb. With a little practice this method became as natural to me as closing a liner lock. It takes a bit of dexterity, but it's well worth the practice to be able to close this knife one handed, which is one of the main appeals of Spyderco knives to me.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Specs (From Spyderco's website)
Blade Steel: CPM(T) 440V
Blade Thickness: 5/32" 4mm
Clip: Metal clip with Indexing/control holes
Diam. Blade Hole: 9/16" 14.5mm
Edge Type: PlainEdge
Handle Material: Green G-10
Length Blade: 3" 76mm
Length Closed: 4 1/2" 115mm
Length Cutting Edge: 3" 76m
Length Overall: 7 3/16" 182mm
Weight: 4.25oz 121g
First, I wasn't very familiar with this knife when I signed up for the pass-around. I wasn't posting here much when it was introduced and the few pictures I saw just didn't really interest me. It just looked ugly and clunky to me. When I had a chance to play with it for a week though, I figured "What the hell" and signed up. Boy am I ever glad I did that! This knife amazed me right out of the box. That big, ugly, clunky green handle nestled into my hand like it was born there. This is seriously one of the most comfortable handles I have ever run across. It's substantial enough to really fill up my hand, which is rather large, and yet the knife is still light enough that it carried very comfortably clipped IWB of a pair of very lightweight summer shorts. The day I recieved the knife I carried it in the RF pocket of my BDUs, but really it wasn't very comfortable there. It's too big and restricted access to my pocket. I was leary of carrying it IWB because of the 'horns' on the top of the handle. This was a problem when I was wearing pants with a somewhat tight waistband, but with loose fitting jeans or BDUs I didn't know it was there, even sitting down.
The blade of this knife was equally impressive as the handle. This was the Leaf point model, which I prefer to the trailing point for aesthetic reasons. The steel used on this knife is Crucible's S60V, formerly known as CPM 440V. I have some experience with this steel in my Kershaw Boa. I've found that while it is very difficult to sharpen using traditional methods (I use an Edge Pro), it will take a very sharp edge and hold it for a long time. I've had a few problems with my Kershaw's edge deforming slightly, because although S60V is very wear resistant, it is often left fairly soft by manufacturers to keep it from being too brittle. Based on the feel of the steel while sharpening the Lil' Temperance, I believe that Spyderco's heat treat leaves the blade a bit harder than Kershaw's. I have no way to validate this however. It's sort of a moot point, since Spyderco has since begun producing this blade with S30V, which can left much harder due to it's inherent toughness. I think this was a very good move because I see this as a very heavy duty knife whose edge could end up suffering impacts while cutting tough materials, say for instance hitting a staple in a cardboard box. A blade of S60V would probably dent more than one made of S30V in such a situation, IMO.
My main complaint with this knife is the lock. Now hold on, I know this is Spyderco's ingenious Compression lock, and my complaint is actually rather minor. Based on the principle the lock operates under and examination of it, I don't see how anyone could make this lock fail without using a vise and a 6 foot pipe over the handle. My complaint is that this particular knife exhibited a small amount of vertical blade play. I did a search to see if others had experienced the same problem and found only one post referring to it, so maybe this isn't a widespread problem. It in no way affected the integrity of the lock, but it did detract from the rock-solid feel imparted by the substantial handle. One problem I did not have with this lock that others have mentioned was closing the knife one-handed. Here is a pictorial demonstration of how I did it:
First, I adjusted my grip to this position. This is the same position I hold a liner lock in to release the lock.
Next, I positioned my middle finger against the lock bar, like so. Then I pushed against it to release the lock. I needed to use my thumb on the other side of the knife to counteract the force exerted by my middle finger. It's a little awkward, but it wasn't hard to get the hang of it.
After that, all that was left was to use my index finger to begin closing the blade, then to complete the motion with my thumb. With a little practice this method became as natural to me as closing a liner lock. It takes a bit of dexterity, but it's well worth the practice to be able to close this knife one handed, which is one of the main appeals of Spyderco knives to me.
TO BE CONTINUED...
I'll probably be sending them back to spyderco for examination.