Spyderco's Hawkbills

J

JD Spydo

Joined
Nov 20, 2004
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Being an avid Spyderco collector/user/enthusiast for quite a few years now I guess I've been guilty of taking some things for granted. Just in the last week I started to cruise some other knife companies websites to take a comparative look at the few other Hawkbill knives that are out there competing with the great ones in the grand lineup of HAWKBILLs made by Spyderco. And it is very easy for me to say that they are still my favorite Hawkbill knives by a long ways. And after looking at the second rate hawkbills of the competition it just made me appreciate Spyderco's Hawkbills much, much more.

Well it didn't take long to realize that the Great Spyder Factory pretty much has a place on the corner so to speak when it comes to some of the great hawkbills designs that have blessed us with. 3 years ago I barely knew anything about Hawkbilled knives. Since I joined a couple of Forums and got a lot further into my Spyderco collectiing I broke down about 2 and half years ago and got 3 Spyderco Hawkbills: i.e. Harpy, Spyderhawk & Civilian~~ And in due time I put them all to use :cool: . I was totally blown away at how many cutting chores you can do better with a Hawkbill. Albeit I will never deviate away from my beloved big Dyad which as you know has 2 standard blades ( one SE and one PE); but I will always in the future have some sort of Hawkbill to accompany it as I have for the past 18 months. And it will be a Spyderco of some sort.

But after looking at 3 different company's Hawkbills I very quickly realized that the Great Spyder Factory has got them all beat. Everything from the Civilian to the TASMAN they are nothing but quality through and through. The Hawkbill would be even a more explosive seller if we could just find a way to get the average knife user to give them a whirl. We Spyder-heads really need to show Spyderco our appreciation for daring to do something way out of the ordinary. And when the Superhawk arrives let's buy them out quickly so their efforts will be rewarded. Even the "high falutin" Titanium Cara Cara offered by MOD will be blown away by the upcoming Superhawk. Spyderco is the REAL DEAL with Hawkbills. They are the best and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. What do you all say? :)
 
Please explain some of the uses where a hawkbill has an advantage over a "regular" knife blade. I have a Tasman Salt SE & really can't figure out what to do with it.
 
guyfalks said:
Please explain some of the uses where a hawkbill has an advantage over a "regular" knife blade. I have a Tasman Salt SE & really can't figure out what to do with it.
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What do you normally use a knife for?
 
JD Spydo said:
And after looking at the second rate hawkbills of the competition it just made me appreciate Spyderco's Hawkbills much, much more.

Even the "high falutin" Titanium Cara Cara offered by MOD will be blown away by the upcoming Superhawk.
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I think Spyderco is a great company and has some great designs, but the Cara Cara is a titanium framelock with a S30V blade and a reversible clip for tip up/tip down carry. All the MOD knives I have seen are of very good quality including the Ladyhawk I gave my daughter many years ago. So how exactly will it be blown away?

Jack
 
What exactly is the superhawk going to be? While we're discussing new knives, when does the new Calypso in G10 with dual liners come out?
 
donovan said:
I think Spyderco is a great company and has some great designs, but the Cara Cara is a titanium framelock with a S30V blade and a reversible clip for tip up/tip down carry. All the MOD knives I have seen are of very good quality including the Ladyhawk I gave my daughter many years ago. So how exactly will it be blown away?

Jack
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Well Donovan I will not argue for one second about the quality of the MOD Cara Cara knife. It is everything you said it is. It has 2 major problems in my opinion however: First of all it is way overpriced for a specialized market that the Hawkbill market is currently catering to i.e. fishing/maritime, first responders of all types, military in special situations and a select group of knife afficionados such as me and probably yourself. I seriously doubt if many of the aforementioned are going to buy the Cara Cara at $300 + when the Superhawk will probably be in the $110 to $130 price ( that's a guess on my part). Second Spyderco has already established itself as having 3 to 4 models of Hawkbills as very recognizable in that particular market and much more available than the MOD Cara Cara. It's even too specialized for the group that it's in to ever be a huge seller. It was almost a year before I found a dealer who even had a Cara Cara that I could check out first hand and he was charging pretty close to full flaming retail to boot.

Now keep one thing in mind: I personally like the Cara Cara. If I could get one either used or at a highly reduced price I would have one. But I am very confident that you will see many more common knife users buying the Superhawk over the Cara Cara. My opinion to which I am entitled but I do believe that time will bear me out. But as far as the superb quality of the MOD Cara CAra>> no argument about that one but I again say that it was just simply aiming too high from a marketing standpoint. :)
 
JD Spydo said:
Well Donovan I will not argue for one second about the quality of the MOD Cara Cara knife. It is everything you said it is. It has 2 major problems in my opinion however: First of all it is way overpriced for a specialized market that the Hawkbill market is currently catering to i.e. fishing/maritime, first responders of all types, military in special situations and a select group of knife afficionados such as me and probably yourself. I seriously doubt if many of the aforementioned are going to buy the Cara Cara at $300 + when the Superhawk will probably be in the $110 to $130 price ( that's a guess on my part). Second Spyderco has already established itself as having 3 to 4 models of Hawkbills as very recognizable in that particular market and much more available than the MOD Cara Cara. It's even too specialized for the group that it's in to ever be a huge seller. It was almost a year before I found a dealer who even had a Cara Cara that I could check out first hand and he was charging pretty close to full flaming retail to boot.

Now keep one thing in mind: I personally like the Cara Cara. If I could get one either used or at a highly reduced price I would have one. But I am very confident that you will see many more common knife users buying the Superhawk over the Cara Cara. My opinion to which I am entitled but I do believe that time will bear me out. But as far as the superb quality of the MOD Cara CAra>> no argument about that one but I again say that it was just simply aiming too high from a marketing standpoint. :)
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Not to mention, it just looks too fancy and "tactical" for me. I'd also be willing to bet the Superhawk with feel better and cut better, regardless of the Cara Cara's fancy looks and high end materials.
 
I've seen the CaraCara for under $250, but I won't argue that it is higher than I am willing to pay. I suspect that your price range on the Superhawk is low, however, for cf and compression lock.

Jack
 
donovan said:
I've seen the CaraCara for under $250, but I won't argue that it is higher than I am willing to pay. I suspect that your price range on the Superhawk is low, however, for cf and compression lock.

Jack
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Well Donovan you might be right. However knowing Mr. Glesser's previous strategies for releasing new models I would hardly believe that he would shoot himself in the foot with a new model or a trial balloon that he is trying to get off the ground. I am sure he is going to price this model to move. With all the previous Hawkbill success he's had I think he has already covered that base.

I personally have tried to corral a Cara Cara and the only 2 opportunities that I had to actually get one have both been around the $300 price range. I will admit that it hasn't been high on my "want list" but I have looked a couple of times and I have done one net search but I didn't find any cheap ones. I doubt seriously if that knife will ever have the fanfare of a Spyderco Harpy for instance simply because of the price tag.

I do think that the Superhawk has the right ingredients to be a success because it is right between a Harpy and a Spyderhawk size wise and it will be a great worker's Hawkbill for those who need a knife a bit bigger than the Harpy. But the Cara Cara is definitely not a bad knife. But I think that MOD really beat themselves with that one :(
 
If you call your company Masters of Defense I guess you are definitely pursuing a niche market and the CaraCara looks to be better suited to defense than utility. I hope you are right about pricing on the Superhawk. I would love to have one, but I am not a collector and there is definitely a cut-off on what I will pay for a user. Unfortunately, carbon fiber is usually the tip off that I won't be getting one (same reason I don't have a BG42 Military in my pocket right now).

Jack
 
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