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- Jun 9, 1999
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Thanks to the kindness, generosity and trust of fellow forumite DaveH I have had the opportunity to play with a Spyderco Spyderhawk for the last few days. Part of the deal with pass-arounds is a little review, so here we go. Ill update this once I send the knife on its way; these are my impressions in the last day and a half.
Here's a pic:
Question: do you think this could be considered fratricide?
And here's my pathetic attempt to capture the menace of this blade:
Specs
From Spydercos website:
Blade Steel: VG-10
Blade Thickness: 1/8" 3mm
Clip: Stainless steel/black
Diam. Blade Hole: 1/2" 13.5mm
Edge Type: SpyderEdge
Handle Material: Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon
Hardness: 58-60
Length Blade: 3 5/8" 92mm
Length Closed: 4 15/16" 125mm
Length Cutting Edge: 3 3/8" 85mm
Length Overall: 8 1/4" 210mm
Weight: 3.0oz 85g
Blade
First impression: Aaaahhh! This thing would make most muggers flee in mortal terror. Just look at the picture! A curving, pointy, serrated blade scares the hell out of almost anyone. Last night I couldnt get to sleep, so I started thinking of just why this is. Curved blades scare people and instantly make them think of a weapon, even though there are plenty of legitimate uses for them as tools. I think that its because the design of such blades draws its inspiration from the claws of predatory animals, so somewhere deep in the human psyche curved sharp things are equated with fear. Just a little philosophical rambling on my part.
I havent really cut anything with this yet wait OK, I just sliced a strip of cardboard from a box I have here. As others have noted, the curved blade draws the material into the cut. This would work great for breaking down cardboard boxes. Its sharp too, as would be expected from Spyderco. The grind lines are beautiful, Spyderco is great in this area. The satin finish is smooth but utilitarian, fine for this application. This knife has made the rounds before, so the tip is a bit rounded off. Ive fixed this on other knives before with a stone so its no big deal to me. Overall I like the blade quite a bit.
Lock
Im not so pleased with the lock. It suffers from the same failing as every other Spyderco lockback Ive owned and handled; vertical blade play. The lock is secure, but it will allow the blade to move upwards a bit while cutting. This is less than confidence inspiring during use, and degrades the knife significantly in my eyes. I believe that they may be left a little loose to allow the knife to be opened more easily one handed; perhaps others have input on this theory. For the record, my standard of comparison in this instance is a Case Cheetah. Its a lockback as well, and it feels like a bank vault when open. No vertical play whatsoever. I will say that I like the Boye détente in the release. It feels good in the hand and I can see the value of having it there to prevent accidental closure.
Handle
It looks a lot like the handle on the Endura; no wait, it is the handle on the Endura, "Endura" is even molded into the corporate logo in the middle. Nevertheless its a very comfortable handle and I like the security afforded by the checkering pattern. The clip is the standard Endura clip which gets the job done just fine. My only complaint is that the handle is made of FRN. I hate FRN handles with a deep and abiding passion. They just feel cheap to me and also dont hold up well. The handle on my Delica deformed around the clip screw, so now it will spin 180 deg. This wasnt from some intense trauma or heat, just from carrying it around in my back pocket for less than a year. I was very disappointed and refuse to buy any more FRN handled knives. That said, its not a bad choice for this knife because lots of people do like FRN handles and they do the job just fine for them. This allows Spyderco to stay in business which is a good thing because the world would be a very boring place without funny looking blades with holes in them. Also, from what I understand in many cases where a knife is used in self defense it is held as evidence and never returned to the owner. It's a lot easier to swallow losing an FRN handled knife than a carbon fiber handled one.
Summary
It has it's good points and bad points, just like any other knife. I don't like the lock or the handle material; but it fills a niche. The lock is secure, just unrefined, so it would work fine for self defense which I believe is it's main strength. It could do some damage and at the least would give any agressor second thoughts.
Suggested Improvements
- A tighter lock
- A reinforced tip
- A version with different handle materials
- Reinforcement around the clip attachment point
Comments, Questions?
What do you think, and what non-destructive tests would you like to see? I have it for 5 more days, I'll be glad to cut some stuff up in the name of science. Also, I'll have a few more pics later, I uploaded the wrong ones at lunch. They'll be up later tonight, so check back later.
Here's a pic:
Question: do you think this could be considered fratricide?
And here's my pathetic attempt to capture the menace of this blade:
Specs
From Spydercos website:
Blade Steel: VG-10
Blade Thickness: 1/8" 3mm
Clip: Stainless steel/black
Diam. Blade Hole: 1/2" 13.5mm
Edge Type: SpyderEdge
Handle Material: Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon
Hardness: 58-60
Length Blade: 3 5/8" 92mm
Length Closed: 4 15/16" 125mm
Length Cutting Edge: 3 3/8" 85mm
Length Overall: 8 1/4" 210mm
Weight: 3.0oz 85g
Blade
First impression: Aaaahhh! This thing would make most muggers flee in mortal terror. Just look at the picture! A curving, pointy, serrated blade scares the hell out of almost anyone. Last night I couldnt get to sleep, so I started thinking of just why this is. Curved blades scare people and instantly make them think of a weapon, even though there are plenty of legitimate uses for them as tools. I think that its because the design of such blades draws its inspiration from the claws of predatory animals, so somewhere deep in the human psyche curved sharp things are equated with fear. Just a little philosophical rambling on my part.
I havent really cut anything with this yet wait OK, I just sliced a strip of cardboard from a box I have here. As others have noted, the curved blade draws the material into the cut. This would work great for breaking down cardboard boxes. Its sharp too, as would be expected from Spyderco. The grind lines are beautiful, Spyderco is great in this area. The satin finish is smooth but utilitarian, fine for this application. This knife has made the rounds before, so the tip is a bit rounded off. Ive fixed this on other knives before with a stone so its no big deal to me. Overall I like the blade quite a bit.
Lock
Im not so pleased with the lock. It suffers from the same failing as every other Spyderco lockback Ive owned and handled; vertical blade play. The lock is secure, but it will allow the blade to move upwards a bit while cutting. This is less than confidence inspiring during use, and degrades the knife significantly in my eyes. I believe that they may be left a little loose to allow the knife to be opened more easily one handed; perhaps others have input on this theory. For the record, my standard of comparison in this instance is a Case Cheetah. Its a lockback as well, and it feels like a bank vault when open. No vertical play whatsoever. I will say that I like the Boye détente in the release. It feels good in the hand and I can see the value of having it there to prevent accidental closure.
Handle
It looks a lot like the handle on the Endura; no wait, it is the handle on the Endura, "Endura" is even molded into the corporate logo in the middle. Nevertheless its a very comfortable handle and I like the security afforded by the checkering pattern. The clip is the standard Endura clip which gets the job done just fine. My only complaint is that the handle is made of FRN. I hate FRN handles with a deep and abiding passion. They just feel cheap to me and also dont hold up well. The handle on my Delica deformed around the clip screw, so now it will spin 180 deg. This wasnt from some intense trauma or heat, just from carrying it around in my back pocket for less than a year. I was very disappointed and refuse to buy any more FRN handled knives. That said, its not a bad choice for this knife because lots of people do like FRN handles and they do the job just fine for them. This allows Spyderco to stay in business which is a good thing because the world would be a very boring place without funny looking blades with holes in them. Also, from what I understand in many cases where a knife is used in self defense it is held as evidence and never returned to the owner. It's a lot easier to swallow losing an FRN handled knife than a carbon fiber handled one.
Summary
It has it's good points and bad points, just like any other knife. I don't like the lock or the handle material; but it fills a niche. The lock is secure, just unrefined, so it would work fine for self defense which I believe is it's main strength. It could do some damage and at the least would give any agressor second thoughts.
Suggested Improvements
- A tighter lock
- A reinforced tip
- A version with different handle materials
- Reinforcement around the clip attachment point
Comments, Questions?
What do you think, and what non-destructive tests would you like to see? I have it for 5 more days, I'll be glad to cut some stuff up in the name of science. Also, I'll have a few more pics later, I uploaded the wrong ones at lunch. They'll be up later tonight, so check back later.
