Spyderco Military - 1 year review

Hi Safong. Congrats. hope you enjoy.

actually hardness on the S30V is normally in the 59-60 range. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better edgeholder in todays steels. In our testing, only S90V and ZDP-189 has surpassed S30V edgeholding.

sal
 
My Spyderco Military has been one of the best, most useful EDC knives I own. I own many production folders from Sebenzas, to Emersons, to Al Mar, Severtech, MT, Protech, etc etc etc. Most of these are more expensive folders and some are better overall constructed knives, but for steel strength, cutting ability, light weight and overall cost, the Military fits the bill perfectly. I even like the Military more than my titanium ATR. The lock has never shown any weakness, the weight is light, the handle is nice an big, and the blade is a full 4" and it really really holds a fine edge. All for a price of about $110 (which makes it very easy to replace, if necessary). For the money, the only knife I own that comes close is the BM 710.

I actually am on my second Military V30. The first one I gave to a friend who is going back to Iraq. My second one arrived a week ago and it is perfect also.

I mainly carry it in a formed leather sheath made by Vess. It is a great combo. I find it very handy to carry in the front pocket of Dockers since the knife is so light weight. It is a good design.
 
TorzJohnson said:
I really think the Military is one of the best folders on the market.
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I totally agree. For the money, I think it is the best deal going. The Military is one of the few knives that I recommend to people without any reservation.
 
Sal,

You just keep making high quality blades, and we'll just keep spending good $ to get them.
 
Great idea for a review.
I think a 1 year review is much more relavent than a 1 week review (something I'm also guilty of ;) ).

Yep, the Military is a real winner. despite it's large size I lost one once :eek: It was in my back pocket, and I couldn't feal it :rolleyes: :D

A recommendation on the sharpening. On the high end steels (S30v 440v, BG-42, D2), little and often is by far the best method. Normally a couple passes on a Sharpmaker will bring it straight back to keen sharpness. Leave any of those steels go too long and they can be a real bear to sharpen.
 
Harry Callahan said:
I would recommend S30V over 440V because of ease of sharpening. 440V seems to edge roll while sharpening. A real bummer to deal with. S30V takes a few passes on the Sharpmaker and gets screaming sharp without that dastardly wire edge on one side. Lots of practice (and patience) involved in sharpening the 440V version but you just gotta love that diamond engraving.

The S30V version also has slightly thicker G10 scales and various other subtle improvements. A real bang-for-the-buck knife. Certainly the one to go for if you're looking for a workhorse EDC folder.
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You should read what Buzzbait did to his 440 Military (do a search on this forum) .. solved the sharpening issue by convexing the edge.
 
I've had my S30V Military for about a year now, carrying it almost every day. I gave my old 440V Military to a local LEO friend of mine, who has carried it every day on and off duty. He loves it to death. He's tried all manner of Benchmades, but prefers the raw cutting ability of the Miltary to all of Benchmade's bells and whistles.

I have to say that the S30V model is a perfect upgrade from the 440V version. The S30V is MUCH easier to sharpen and seems to holds at least as good an edge as the 440V, if not better. The stiffer scales make the knife much more rigid. I honestly don't have a single issue with the new S30V model. It's very close to being the perfect utility folder. I wouldn't trade it for ANY production folder on the market today, and I'm not sure whether I'd trade it for any custom folder either.
 
Thanks to this thread I bought an S30V Military - it came yesterday - using it today - I must admit I am far more impressed than I thought I would be.
 
I got mine in the mail a while ago. Wearing it everyday and loving it.
 
Recently i bought third time S30V Millie :) I loved it so much from 1st look at this design, that I could'n live without it. Truelly, it's perfect EDC for me. Thanx Sal.
 
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