Spyderco Sharpness

cgmblade

cgmblade

Joined
Jun 4, 2009
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Spyderco knives are renown for their sharpness out of the box.

I'm a fan of Spyderco, but not a fanboy. At the risk of being flamed I gotta call it as I see it and I got several Spyderco knives over the past year that weren't as sharp as they should have been, imo.

The knives in question are a Delica 4, a Aqua Salt, and an Endura G10.

One of the first things I do to test the sharpness of a new knife is the fingernail test. A sharp knife will bite into the nail and not slide. All three of these knives skidded along my thumb nail.

Portions of some of the blades were sharp enough to snag a few arm hairs, but it wasn't a uniform sharpness along the whole edge.

I don't think there is any reason a Spyderco knife with the quality steel used should have an edge angle greater than 20* per side. Using an unscientific black marker test I estimate that the Delica was about 22* per side. The Aqua Salt was less than that, but still greater than 20*, and the Endura G10 was slightly more than 20* on one side and about 21* or 22* on the other side.

All of these knives came with edges that were probably sharp enough for the average consumer, but given Spyderco's reputation I don't think that is good enough.

I know Spyderco knives have a final sharpening by hand, but I'd like to see a more standardized process where the edge angles actually meet and they are no greater than 20*. In fact, I reprofiled my Delica to 15* per side and it's doing great.

Has anyone else been less than satisfied with the factory edges on their Spyderco knives?
 
Dull factory edges on Spyderco knives is no surprise to me. I've only had a couple that came razor sharp out of the box, including the E4 ZDP, Stretch, Native, and Spin. The rest have come either mildly sharp or dull. It's not a super big deal to me anyway since I resharpen it myself after the first time I use it anyway.
 
Of the 21 Spyderco's I own, all of them have come very sharp, several have come "scary" sharp. Sorry to hear about your situation with the sharpness, but all I can say is that no one/company can give a "perfect" product every time.

Canis
 
sorry to hear about this

HOWEVER I find that i really dont care all that much about a knife's sharpness out of the box, as it will need sharpened eventually anyways. as long as it can take and hold a good edge I'm perfectly happy with it. My delica 4 was pretty sharp out of the box, but not as sharp as it could have been. I still love it, especially now after I've sharpened it :D
 
This is odd. The two spydercos I've bought factory new were shaving sharp. The few I've gotten in trades that were new but pre-owned shaved out of the box.
 
I'd rather the factory not even sharpen them.

Of the new spydercos that I have handled the military's have always been razor sharp out of the Box but most others not so much.
 
I don't think this is acceptable for the knives to come barely sharp out of the factory.. and having the mentality that it is okay because you will eventually sharpen it yourself is NOT a good excuse. If I received a dull knife at order, I would get in contact and have it replaced or sharpened at their expense.
 
The only Spyderco of many I've received without a good edge was the Aqua Salt.
 
well both of my spydercos, ladybug and paramilitary, came extremely sharp out of the box. but as other people have said no company is perfect. but in general spydercos come very sharp.
 
eneyman said:
I don't think this is acceptable for the knives to come barely sharp out of the factory.. and having the mentality that it is okay because you will eventually sharpen it yourself is NOT a good excuse. If I received a dull knife at order, I would get in contact and have it replaced or sharpened at their expense.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it probably should come sharp, but if it doesn't, then big deal. If you want to pay the shipping to have it sharpened again by the factory, then props to you - I don't have that kind of money to hand to UPS/FedEx when I'm going to end up sharpening the knife myself anyway.
 
Most of mine have not impressed me much, but lately here both my Native S30V and Stretch ZDP have been exceptionally sharp out of the box. The Stretch I have reworked (to the edge of sanity I might add lol), the Native is still factory. I truly could care less what they come like. Like knifenut, they could just not put a secondary bevel on and lemme do my thing I'd be just as happy.
 
cgmblade said:
At the risk of being flamed I gotta call it as I see it and I got several Spyderco knives over the past year that weren't as sharp as they should have been, imo.

Has anyone else been less than satisfied with the factory edges on their Spyderco knives?
Click to expand...

First off, don't think you should have to apologize for a honest question about Spyderco. I'm only here as a registered user, and can't speak for anyone else, but I've never seen people getting flamed for an honest question.

My experience with Spyderco has been with 5 knives over the last year. Every one, the Tenacious, Endura 4 ZDP, Kopa, Endura 4 G-10 handle, and Sage arrived out of box shaving sharp.

The ones which I use (Keeping two for possible sale NIB) I touched up with an extra-fine DMT and translucent Arkansas stone to eke another few measures of super-duper sharpness out of them. Because I can.

I can't really say what you should do, since I don't know how dull the knives came. But, I would inspect the edge with a magnifying glass to see if it is uniform along the entire length, and it appears to have no obvious flaws. If not, then touching it up (if you have the equipment and skill) to the level you desire.

If it is flawed, I'd return it to the vendor explaining the problem and they SHOULD send you a replacement free of charge.
 
On the average, the Spyderco knives I have purchased new have come with the best factory edges of all the brands I have tried. Granted, the hundred or so I've purchased new is hardly significant statistically speaking, since Spyderco has sold about a million others, but that is my personal experience. Of course, that is only comparing them to Benchmade, Kershaw, Case, Queen, Schrade USA, Schrade China, Great Eastern Cutlery, Northwoods, Camillus, Ontario, CRKT, Gerber and Buck. So you can check those brands off your list of manufacturers to try if you are looking for consistent razor edges out of the box.

Good luck in your hunt for perfection.
 
FWIW,Every Spyderco I've ever bought came stupid sharp OOTB.

I agree with what someone else posted about 100% perfection 100% of the time.It's nearly impossible in a production knife,but Spyderco comes pretty darn close in my experience.Maybe I'm just lucky.

My Kershaws came with shaving sharp edges about 90% of time.Same thing with Buck,Al Mar,Victorinox,& a few others I can't think of right now.

On the other hand Benchmades,Case,& Queen are only about 50% of the time.They make a fine product,but their edges usually leave a lot to be desired.

I don't mind sharpening them,but I understand the OP's disappointment in saying "You really shouldn't have to" & I agree with that.

A while back,I started a thread about this very subject regarding Benchmade & got almost identical answers posted here.
 
My Mili and 2 delica's are great. I do agree that with hand sharpened knives there can be a few lapses. That said, I believe Spyderco's factory edge is the best of any production knife company.
 
I've seen very, very few Spyderco's that would not take hair off without touching skin, right out of the box. Most knives today are that sharp NIB, with an exception once in awhile. The ones that aren't generally have the thicker blades/edges.
 
The majority of my knives have come very sharp, then again peoples milage may vary on what "sharp" is as well. If a knife can cleanly cut paper out of the box without tearing I feel that is sharp enough from the factory. Haven't been dissatisfied yet.
 
I thought spyderco went on record as delivering knives with a 30 degree grind (15 per side). OP says greater than 20 per side and close to 45 inclusive if you add it up.

Perhaps I am mistaken but I seem to recall Sal on the Sharpmaker video stating that they ship knives with 30 degree edges. Correct me if wrong please.

Granted my collection is pretty small but all my spydercos seem to be pretty sharp and when I put them on the sharpmaker I use the 30 degree setting and get good contact. Occasionally a portion of the grind appears to be slightly thicker than 15/15 but I have a hard time blaming anything beyond my technique since I am not a master sharpener.

That said if you are fairly certain you have greater than 20/20 grinds perhaps you should use the TITS method. (Take It To Source) or simply call Spyderco and discuss what you think you have uncovered. I have never seen or heard any CS stories that were less than great.

What is more, I built a stone holder for freehand sharpening and constructed it with an angle that is within a 0.1 degree of 15 degrees. Since I built it, I use it for all of my Spydercos and my findings indicate that all of mine are quite close to 15 degrees per side (again, I would not want to claim the mastery needed to assess the difference between 15 and 14 or 16...but I think I can tell the difference of 15 and 20).

Watch this. At 2:30 Sal addresses what Spyderco was doing at the time the video was made. Perhaps they opt for a larger angle on some steels?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjvxTf5QNGs
 
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Nice and sharp edge on the 2 spydies I've bought. Bevel at about 20deg a side on both of them out of the box. Used them until they needed touching up and then took them both down to 15deg per side.

No complaints from me about the edge out of the box.
 
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