Spyderfly handle question

[Payback]

I posted this in the balisong forum, but I am hoping mayby you Spyderco fans will have some advice for me:

My Spyderfly finally arrived and overall I am very happy with it.

I have a question about the handles though. It seems as if they have some surface rust. You can see it on the left handle. Anyone else have this problem? What should I do?

 

[Chiro75]

It's from the beadblast. The handles are stainless steel, but beadblasting can create a lot of little nooks and crannies for moisture and even SS will rust under these circumstances. I think you can use Flitz or something like that to clean the rust off, then use a Tuf Cloth to protect the surface. I'm sure Spyderco is addressing the problem for future versions. The other option is to smooth out the handles and use a satin finish ala the BM42. May make the handles a little less grippy, but you would not likely need to worry about rust afterward, either.

 

[J.Davey]

I'll second the Flitz. I've used it for years to clean up my blades, and it works fantastic! A little expensive for a tube of it, but well worth it (and a tube will last a long time).

 

[brownshoe]

If you got it with rust...return it. A brand new knife should not be accepted with rust unless its discounted. Maybe it was handled before it got to you by someone with dirty hands and they left a residue that subsequently rusted.

If it's not new, use Flitz. If that doesn't work, move up to steel wool or a nylon scrubbie pad using Flitz. Don't forget, the more agressive you get, the more likely you will leave a permanent mark.

Hey Chiro, why do you think "Spyderco is addressing the problem for future versions?" Has this been stated by Glesser? Lots of spyderco design flaws died with the model and were not fixed (e.g. Jot's clip being screwed into micarta as opposed to the steel liner.) I'd hope that Spyderco addressed the design considerations for the spyderfly handle before they went into production, thus the handle and finish should not rust under normal use.

 

[Chiro75]

I think Sal mentioned in another thread on this subject that they were looking at correcting the problem, so that's why I said that. I am interested in how something like this can get through the prototype and testing stage, too. Undoubtedly there were more than a handful of prototypes being used and sent around, not to mention the Spyderflies that went to shows, etc. I don't get how rust didn't show up on these. Maybe it was the handling that PREVENTED the rusting and it isn't until they get shipped and sit in boxes unattended for a while that the rusting shows up? An interesting dilemma, to say the least.

As far as the Jot goes, I have one and the clip is loose.

 

[brownshoe]

My clip came off totally and the knife is really too big to be floating around in the pocket. I sent the jot to spyderco and they refused to drill a hole into the liner and screw in the clip. That would've taken <5 minutes. I was po'ed they wouldn't fix it. Instead they gave me a starmate as replacement. However, I read a thread awhile back that Spyderco was no longer replacing Jot's with screw problems. They were now claiming "hard use" and sending them back to the customer. However, the screw problem with this model is a well known design flaw.