Spyderco Tenacious v.s. Benchmade Vex Face Off!

Sal Glesser said:
Thanx Autoopen,

We appreciate the confidence and support. We hope you enjoy the design and the quality of the piece. Eric and I worked very hard on the Tenacious.

sal
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Sal, my Tenacious arrived 30mins ago via UPS (pics soon!).
I want to thank you for your hands-on work approach, your online accessibility and deep heartfelt passion to sell the best knives in the world! Without your comments to me, my $$$ would have went "somewhere else"...

Now I will also have a great story to tell my grandchildren that way back when the internet was a baby, Sal Glessor (Owner & Founder of Spyderco) personally thanked me for choosing his company's Tenacious product. So John when you turn 10 and are old enough to be responsible for the safe care of this knife I will lovingly give it to you...
Today everything is instant gratification, sales numbers, and the "bottom line". No effort, no time, no interest...
I think people can relate and identify with Sal because he is an average, accessible schmuck (just like everybody else) that has gone above and beyond normal dedication to make a good company into an elite class of superior manufacturers that produce only the highest quality cutlery in the world.
Sal lives a dream, I pray he never wakes. :D
 
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All pics were taken indoors with bad lighting this afternoon with a Nikon P60.

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I haven't handled either, but I like how the Vex (with spyder hole) looks more.

That said, I'd walk right past them and get a Kershaw Storm.

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Looks better, feels better, has a flipper, a recurve blade, made in America, arguably has the better steel and so on and so on. I suppose it would be better if it had G10 inserts instead of the sandpaper though--an advantage I give to the competitors.

I'm kind of surprised at the hurrah these two new knives got when it seems like the Storm has already been doing it better for years.
 
I think for the price, the Tenacious can't be beat as far as low end knives go. I just can't bring myself to buy one being that it has "China" stamped on the blade. Saying that, I would take a $35 Tenacious over a higher end SOG or Gerber on any day.
 
Everyone says the "Tenacious is a low end knife," this makes me want to shake them violently and ask, WHY? (Just because of it's low cost???)

The are only two aspects of the knife that I can see that make it ANY more "low end" then a Spyderco Military, for example:

1. It's made in China-
Yes, but China produces 3/4 of everything you buy at Walmart, it takes jobs away from Americans which sux but China's quality control nowadays is probably equal to our own and in blind stress tests I bet they'd perform similarly. If equal and similar quality knives can be produced for %50 less than being "Made in America" it is we the end line users who profit. Chinese production means less money per knife and very similar high quality knives. With the extra company profits Spyderco could devote it's Colorado factory to being responsible for all the companies design work, R&D, sprint runs, uber high end blade steel science and high end finishing, etc.

2. It doesn't use a "premium steel" -
It's just made of some long winded Chinese alphabet steel that no self-respecting American steel junky has ever heard of or can pronounce. Silence descends on them when from the forest they hear the Buddha whisper: Long winded, Chinese Alphabet soup steel are named to confuse simple minded Americans. This "nameless steel" shall henceforth be named "Chinese Nameless Steel" (AKA CNS) and the world will soon learn that it performs better than %80 of non-high end stainless or high-carbon knife steels that exist in the world today :rolleyes: :D
 
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Sal, why use 8Cr13MoV for the Tenacious when you could have upgraded effortlessly with the still cheap 9Cr18Mo? :confused:
 
autoopen said:
Everyone says the "Tenacious is a low end knife," this makes me want to shake them violently and ask, WHY? (Just because of it's low cost???)
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I do not see the Tenacious as a "low end" knife. It is a high quality knife that is "low priced".

So to put it in mathematical terms: high quality + low price = high value

Tenacious = "high value" PERIOD!


As to being made in China, well China IS capable of high quality and this knife is a testament to that. China also makes electronics and computer components of varying quality from high to low end. They are capable of manufacturing at all levels.

That said, Kershaw is a knife maker that can provide quality knives at low prices AND make it in the US. If the Tenacious were made in the US with 440B or AUS8 at say $40 (I paid $30), I'd still get it and it would still be a high value knife.

The fact that the Tenacious is made in China really doesn't bother me due to its obvious level of quality. Sure I'd like to support the "Made in the USA" label, but the way so many US companies are so quick to ship out the manufacturing of their products and services to a another country to pad shareholder pockets, the less this becomes a priority to me. But Enough of my political rant.
 
autoopen said:
Sal, why use 8Cr13MoV for the Tenacious when you could have upgraded effortlessly with the still cheap 9Cr18Mo? :confused:
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We're still testing 9Cr18Mo. It's a new experimental steel that the makers we work with don't have much experience with.

The Catbyrd Ti model uses 9Cr18Mo. We've also got a Mule team run coming out later this year that also is 9Cr.

I've been told that it's been used on a production knife, but I haven't fpound them and analyzed them yet.

sal
 
We've also got a Mule team run coming out later this year that also is 9Cr.
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I might just have to buy that. I like the look of the Mule blades, but I'm assuming that the 9Cr will be cheaper, and I'm hoping more available than the others.
 
I used to sell kershaw storms. The blade shape is un-practical, the pocket clip is built for looks more than function, and the blades showed rust spots from just sitting in the display case. All of these are opposite on the Tenacious.
 
jim preston said:
I might just have to buy that. I like the look of the Mule blades, but I'm assuming that the 9Cr will be cheaper, and I'm hoping more available than the others.
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I think that they're still limiting the runs to about 600. Just enough to break even.

The Mules are an incredible value though. :thumbup: I highly recommend them.
 
autoopen said:
Everyone says the "Tenacious is a low end knife," this makes me want to shake them violently and ask, WHY? (Just because of it's low cost???)
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The Tenacious is a low end knife when you compare it to other Spydercos

(like the Caly 3, Sage, Military, etc.). But for the price, the

Tenacious is a high value knife just like UpChuck said.


Peta~
 
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