Stainless vs. FRN?

GronK

GronK

Gold Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2001
Messages
19,303
I recently received my new teal Dragonfly. I have carried it for a couple of weeks now and find I miss the weight of the stainless one I lost some years back! I have owned Delicas, Enduras, Manix2 and Natives with various handles and much prefer the lighter FRN handles. With the smaller knives I have enjoyed the stainless Cricket, Kiwi, and my earlier Dragonfly but have never warmed to the smaller knives in FRN. The extra weight of all stainless feels excessive on the larger knives but are "right" feeling on the smalls. Anyone else notice this?
 
It's just physics combined with preference. A smaller blade with heavier handle happens to match the same desired weight as a larger knife with a lighter handle.
 
I like the look, and feel of stainless. It's old school. I don't like the slipperiness though. I end having to put traction tape on them, which is ugly. I tend to stay away from stainless. I really don't carry small knives..........yet.
 
I am on the FRN train for the DF and dont like stainless steel really it's nice looking and everything dont get me wrong

For my small knives I generally want them to be noticeably lighter then normal sized ones

It's not the end of world though I dont mind the chunkiness of my Techno for instance but all in all I prefer plastic/CF most of the time
 
I carried a police model for almost 10 years from 1988. I am a big fan of the stainless steel models. And I'm okay with the larger models like the police. I do have a G10 police but I don't find it better than my stainless version in fact I have two stainless versions
 
I like my stainless Police so much that it's got me eyeballing smaller Spydies with stainless handles. I love how quickly the scales acquire character and, at least with the Police, they don't feel like they compromise my grip.
 
I love stainless handled spydercos. They are the epitome of a strong work knife. Its hard to argue the slippery factor though, I just wish they would revamp the ss handles with SOME kind of traction, no synthetic materials but maybe machine some grooves or add jimping in strategic locations. My ss police is in my top three spydercos but I would like a little jimping on the thumb ramp.
 
Though I like the G10 DF best of all the FRN dragonflies get far more pocket time. That 1.2 ounces disappears in the pocket and you don’t even notice is there. And it won’t drag down your board shorts or other lightweight clothing.
 
FRN for the win. Stainless is nice, its fancy and has good heft but man is it slippery! Even just opening my stainless scaled knives when fiddling with them I'd take FRN any day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top