Spyderco UK PK in S110V could be true greatness.

Wowbagger

Wowbagger

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Sep 20, 2015
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Too new for me to say much. Only carried it one day; have not used it much.

I would say if you are even curious get it. It is an interesting knife. Very firm once opened, not too hard to close (remember this knife has no lock). Has a half stop (I am already considering eliminating that though for most people it may not be safe to do that so don’t do it on my advice.

I will be adding more thoughts and updating this thread as we get to know each other.

I will FIRST use only diamonds to sharpen it,
Maybe
I took the heavy burr from the factory off using a hand held “extra fine “ 1200 grit aligner diamond plate then went to the next step finer in the line . . . get ready to leap off the mile high cliff with me . . . ready set go . . . to an “extra, extra fine” at 8000 grit. Just a little hop and a skip there.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
These aligner sharpener guys aren’t even on the same planet I am but anyway . . . . 1200 to 8000 . . . a l l l righty then.
The little short stones shown in the upper left of this photo


Once I get all the wonderfulness possible from diamonds and diamond strops on softer wood . . . cutting for ever, cutting well, feeling like a great edge should and all that . . .
something I have never experienced with S110V but am determined to master . . .
THEN
I will go to Silicon carbide, probably only a couple of stones, and start my learning all over again.

an adventure to be sure. May take me a while.

UKPK :

What is your favorite way to close it ? For example once you push it out of straight and open you can close it with your thumb on the spine of the blade or can put your thumb in the spider hole to close it.

Probably other methods I am unaware of

I really like the color. Even though I like the blurple well enough I REALLY wanted an S110V in this blue color. The Para 2 on amazon looks the same color as the UK but in fact it is an old photo or some such and the actual knife is blurple. So that was one reason I went with the UK.

I like how smooth(ish) the UK is when closed; meaning no gaping notches between the blade and the handle.

Is deep carry for those who enjoy that. Not a big deal for me but is a high end feature.

to be continued . . .
 
It really is a great knife. I think I love it so much because it's so similar to the Caly 3.
 
Murphjd25 said:
It really is a great knife. I think I love it so much because it's so similar to the Caly 3.
Click to expand...

Caly; yah I agonized over that one for the longest time when I was looking at buying my first Spyderco. Not sure now what made me not get it. Maybe it was just the ZDP steel in the Dragonfly that I ended up getting. I still look longingly at the Calys.

How does it compare size wise to the Delica ? I was going to look it up but haven't yet. I am embarrassed to say I don't own a Delica yet. A friend has one and as I remember they are similar length but maybe the blade is more tapered on the Delica.

Anyway some one can put both in a photo for me ? (a UK and a Delica)

PS: oh yah the little ZDP Dragon is in the last photo above.
 
If you don't mind a few others thrown in, here you go.



Left to right, BM556 Mini-grip, G-10 UKPK, Burgundy Calypso Jr., ZDP Delica, Paramilitary and Mini Manix
 
Thank you for that photo. Yup about what I said right ?
Nice collection.
 
I'm a big UKPK fan. For closing, I usually overcome the initial spring tension with my thumb and then push it closed the rest of the way with my index finger on the hump.

2zimrme.jpg
 
Wowbagger said:
Thank you for that photo. Yup about what I said right ?
Nice collection.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but that's just an assortment, and an old picture I had uploaded. The Caly3/UKPK has a broader blade, but the big difference in ergonomics is the Calypso family finger choil, which the Delica lacks.
 
UK PK seems to work for shirt pocket carry. So few do. The Cold Steel Holdout III (smallest one) was designed to do this and does it well. Other knives I intended to carry that way such as the Spyderco Balance does not work for shirt pocket carry. Too dense and short; folds up the pocket. Surprised me.

On another note was looking at balsa strops to use with diamond paste / spray.
Ironically the balsa wood mounted on aluminum plate for the Edge Pro is cheaper to buy than the blank aluminum plates. I was going to mill and glue balsa onto the blank plates but cheeper to buy already assembled. Go figure.

Thirdly I'm considering pushing out the roll pin on my Edge Pro to move the rear plastic stone holder forward so I can use my Aligner diamond stones in my Edge Pro. Would have to drill another hole in the guide rod. A lot of fooling around. Might do it as a temporary while I am carrying and learning to sharpen the UK PK. Thoughts ? It isn't the process involved, that's easy for me, just the going back and forth that would suck though maybe a screw or slip fit pin in place of the force fit roll pin is the answer.

PS: I have not forgotten that I can use the larger DMT small plates in the Edge Pro with no mod. Thank you again for that info. Just looked at the Super Fine and it is only 1200. I want to get my 8000 Aligner in the game as well.
 
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I'd like to pick one of these up. I only have experience with the G10 UKPK's though, can anyone with both the G10 and a newer (preferably the S110V) FRN versions tell me if they have changed the spring tension/resistance to closing. I find myself wishing the G10 versions spring held itself open longer before releasing, does the newer FRN versions happened to fix that?
 
Jimbo75 said:
...can anyone with both the G10 and a newer (preferably the S110V) FRN versions tell me if they have changed the spring tension/resistance to closing.
Click to expand...

I don't have a g10 one, but I have both the old saber ground frn ones and the current flat ground frn models. The current BD1 and s110v models have a new backspring design with much greater closing resistance. It's a split spring/tuning fork design. The burgundy one in the pic above is a scale swap I did with the new blade and spring and scales from an old model.
 
Update:
Finally took the time to measure the blade :
  • Below the spine where one would cut stuff (bellow the spyder hole on the spine) ~2mm to 2.1mm (~5/64inch 0.080inch)
  • Behind the edge (has a fairly wide edge bevel so a fair way from the edge) and this varies in an interesting way :
  • near the heal of the edge 0.60mm (0.0236inch)
  • half way to the point and from there to the point 0.65mm to near 0.7mm (0.0276inch)
Shave sharp near the heal of the blade; have done minimal cutting there but some and abrasive material at that.

Lost all shave sharpness from half way to the tip to the tip.

Does this partly have to do with change in edge geometry ?

Sharp enough to keep doing its job in this area . . . that is trimming hard rubber and cutting rubber coated cloth with some dust and dirt on it.

Once I thought the edge had petered out like the one mentioned bellow but that may have been a particularly difficult specimen of hard rubber because in later cuts the blade/edge were doing well enough.

So for now I am just testing and not reprofiling. I never reprofiled the one mentioned bellow. I kept it factory stock. It was just awful.

Conclusion so far : cutting performance and edge retention markedly improved over the previous example of S110V which was .75mm (0.030inch) behind the edge with a much smaller sharpening bevel. and some where above 3mm at the spine.

I'm still liking the lockless blade detent. Works just fine; easy enough to close one handed. Great knife.
 
Update to the update:
Yes, I heard the person in the back mumbling :
But what were the edge angles ?
For this UK PK 33.5 combined (~17° per side)
For the previous example 31 combined (according to Spyderco actual testing on my blade 15° + 16° ).

and what the heck does "trimming" mean ?
means cutting slivers off the corner/edge of a square cornered block of rubber. The slivers being about 1mm or less thick and from .5mm to 4mm wide. So really spine thickness of the blade is pretty irrelevant but edge geometry is critical; thinner behind the edge and shallower angle the better.

Well that doesn't make sense maybe I am remembering the width of the sharpening bevels wrong on the old blade (haven't had that knife for eight months or so) they should have been wider than my present thinner knife. Angles and thicknesses are all recorded here correctly though.
 
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Another significant work day using this edge, trash day, . . . verdict . . .
= GOOD !
I am fairly well convinced there was a problem with my last S110V blade. I sharpened it many, many, many times and it would still dull in a day.
Granted I was using mostly Edge Pro with Shapton stones. Later I did use diamond for a toothy edge. Still sucked very badly.

This UK PK I have only taken the bur off the factory edge with a DMT 1200 and then went to shave sharp with the DMT 8000 and the edge for the most part remains very usable and sharp enough meaning easily catches on my thumb nail along the length of the blade except about a 1/4 inch of edge 3/4 inch from the point which is usable (not crumbled and rough like the previous blade) but just does not catch on my nail as well as the rest of the edge.
So
I may thin this blade out a scosche behind the edge but it's a winner as it is. The geometry is so close to the old blade I now question whether thinning out the old blade would have solved my woes.

I can whole heartedly recommend the Spyderco UK PK

What would I change ?
I would like to try one with the finger choil of the handle ground off. Just a straight handle there. More like a Delica or an Endura. The Coil works and works well and there is no problem with it it is just that for me this is more of a light cutting knife than a work horse and I would like more grip options rather than be locked in "here" or "here". See my Ti-lte with the thin blade and my Urban Trapper with the Krey-Ex handle. That sort of handle is all I need; I know . . . boring.

That is really, really nit picking though.
Hey . . . I got it . . . how about just offer the Delica and or Endura in S110V ?
That would be cool in addition to the UK PK being cool.
Which it certainly is. Great, great pocket knife !

PS: I could even go for Delicas and Enduras with this UK PK detent rather than back lock. Suicidal I know . . . I guess I need to get hurt before I get convinced all this heavy duty lock stuff is a must for City Slickers like me.
 
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Still cutting and CUTTING WELL !
Has lost a little of the nail catching sharpness which tells me it is time to touch up
BUT (and that is a big but) :D
the actual performance has not deteriorated one bit. Very controllable and consistent. I can pare the hard rubber blocks just exactly as I need to and NO SKIPPING.
Brilliant !
hahahaha . . . in a way I am disappointed because I was looking forward to grinding the area of the blade behind the edge considerably thinner. I don't have an excuse to do that. Probably in a month or so I will. Using a modern slow white grind stone running in water.
For now though I cut and I cut and I don't sharpen. THIS is what I was expecting from S110V.
 
I started a new thread in the General Discussions Called "What is your gold standard . . . "
but really this is where I first intended to post this info and pics so without further ado :

It’s a small task but I cut this stuff most every work day. Very hard rubber with anti wear and I assume components in it to allow it to stand up to frictional heat without breaking down too much.

Due to wear and misalignment these slivers need to be trimmed off before proper alignment and function can be restored.

Thas where my high alloy blades come in to play.

I can tell in a day or two if a blade has been properly heat treated, if the geometry is too obtuse and just generally how well a particular specimen of steel is going to perform else where in the world.

I have had the first example of S110V go from cutting OK to cutting very poorly and then becoming nearly useless in one day. To this UKPK in S110V going for a week or more now and still performing well.

Besides the UKPK other knives that have stood out are the Benchmade Ritter Grip. in M390 and the Gayle Bradley one in M4. They go for a week or more and are precise and predictable the whole time before needing sharpening (and this is with lots of other tasks not just this one).

As a comparison a SAK goes a day or two but that’s it. I used to use a chisel ground exacto knife and that was about the same; maybe a touch better. I would resharpen it to a sloppy mirror finish.





Using all the various alloys on this one chore is, for me, kind of like wine tasting. It is fun and interesting to detect the subtle differences. I am just glad I don’t have to spit at the end . . . or send the knife back or throw it away afterward.

Only you knife nurds can appreciate what I am saying. Most people would look at me as if I had been dropped on my head.
 
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