Street Beat arrived today, first impressions.

[ehhh]

So I finally got my Street Beat after missing the USPS carrier a couple times (should have had it last Friday).

Took it out of the box and my first impressions were good. The handles are thinner than I expected and have a very nice feel to them (first time handling a knife with micarta scales). The knife fits very well in my hand (I wear S size gloves) and balances towards the handle, giving it a very maneuverable feel. It is a little on the thin side, but I like the compactness.

The edge is typical of out of the box Spydercos: Very sharp. The thickness right behind the edge came in at .019", which is one of the thinnest edges on any of my knives. The only knife I have with a thinner factory edge is my old Schrade lockback with a 3/32" thick, full flat ground blade which measures .015" behind the edge. The blade is very pointy and has a slight recurve to it, which I was unaware of at the time of the purchase, but not disappointed by. I really like how recurves cut, though the recurve on this is very shallow.

I've read all over that the fit and finish on these is perfect. I hate to be picking nits (I am anal when it comes to details), but for me "perfect" really has to mean it looks perfect to my unaided eyes (beyond having glasses on).
The fit and finish is excellent. The best I have seen on any of my knives, in fact. However, it is not perfect. The plunge grind is not completely even, and the micarta scales are a little uneven as well. You can tell by either looking at the top of the knife or by looking at the "topography" of the micarta layers in relation to the pins. They're by no means far off and are completely acceptable to me (a self proclaimed nitpicker). A less discriminating eye might not even notice the difference. Is it comparable to a custom? I don't know as I've never handled one, but it is VERY good.

I have also seen a lot of complaints about the sheath. Perhaps Spyderco addressed the issue, but my sheath is great. As long as the knife goes in right, there is no rattle and no movement of the knife. Sometimes, it will pop out of place and rattle around if I give it a push while it's in the sheath, and sometimes it just doesn't go in right and rattles. More often than not, it goes in good and solid with no rattle. It's a great sheath in my opinion. Not a big fan of the TekLok so I ordered an IWB loop and some screws, and I'll post an update (probably with pics) when I receive it.

Features I would personally change if I had the choice :

1. Bring the false edge to a point. Not necessarily sharp, just grind it to a point. I just find it more visually appealing. For a SD designed knife, it wouldn't be a bad idea either.

2. Get rid of the "forward lanyard hole." It seems like a bad place to put a lanyard if you plan on putting it in a sheath, doesn't it? I think the Spyderco bug is enough to denote it as a Spyderco knife.

There has been some controversy over the price of this knife. After finally getting my hands on one, I will give my personal input: I don't think it's worth the price. I think a $100-120 street price tag would've been much more reasonable, imo. Bark River makes some similar size/quality knives at around ~$100 street price. There are also a bunch of custom makers around these forums that will make a similar sized knife for ~$150 or less. Don't get me wrong, I love the knife and it's not leaving my collection anytime soon. I just think it's priced a little higher than it should be. I actually took a couple days to decide whether to spend my money on the Perrin or a custom (made to my specs) from this forum and finally decided on the Perrin because I really like the design and sheath for discrete carry.

My hat's off to you, Spyderco!

Now you should make a folding version of this knife! I'd kill for a folder with G10 or FRN (to keep the price down ) scales and nested liners. Lockback would probably interfere with the handle design the least. Just a thought

-Jon

P.S. Out of curiosity, the Street Beat is only a sprint run and not in full production, right?

Pics later, my connection is slow as molasses right now.

 

[Knife11]

Where's the pics!

 

[U.C.O.K.]

Do you buy it online? Where's you got it? Cheers!

Frids

 

[Parker]

Gents, I just got one as well, and my take is as follows -

The point is perfect as it is - if you were to bring that false edge further forward, you'd compromise the tip strength to the point of likely failure. It will certainly penetrate meat or whatever sort of soft stuff is in the way of the meat.

The handle fits my hand, a skinny XL, a friend's hand who is a meaty XL, or my wife's hand, which is like a six-year-old's hand and fits them all well. I did radius off the choil and would recommend this to anyone who buys one of these, since it will make the knife a lot more comfortable to use often.

The sheath which came with mine is a really great fit, I'd prefer to see rivets used instead of eyelets, but that's a personal preference item, and I ash-canned the techlock in favor of a simple loop of p-cord. The P-cord just works better for me and is a more comfortable carry.

I would like to see the grind lines radiused between the choil and blade flats, but this is again personal preference, and I also radiused the forward edge of the handle scales. I'm not a fan of sharp lines or grinds on a knife, especially one I'll carry, but since these items were the work of 5 minutes on my part, I'm happy.

The knife cuts well, indexes well, and is a fantastic iteration of the Fred Perrin ethos, better than the FB4 was by a ways. I've not had to sharp it up yet, but the usual spyderco experience is that they are easy to sharp up and they hold an edge for acceptable durations. Nothing bad about that.

You guys hit a home run with this one, and I am I believe retiring several smaller knives by dint of this one.

 

[Razzierb]

I was not a fan of the earlier Spydie / Perrin FB collaboration (FB04 I think), but I'm a big fan of the Street Beat. The workmanship on this model is exceptional down to the swirling in the Micarta scales. Very nicely done Spyderco.

 

[ashtxsniper]

Glad you like it.

 

[ehhh]

It is quite nicely done, though imo still a little pricey (obviously not enough to keep me away though ).

I received an IWB loop and some chicago screws from knifekits and it does fit if you tinker around with things. Don't buy an extra set of chicago screws because you don't need them and they don't fit anyways. If you order the IWB loop alone, the shipping is more expensive than the loop itself, so if you don't have the money to afford a custom sheath, this is a great option.

So here's what you do if you don't like the teklok and want IWB carry (you can't attach it "normally" so here's what I came up with after a little thinking):

Before (the loop just comes with the little post you see next to it):

Take the screw post that comes with the loop (left) and a rubber silencer from the Street beat (right):

Combine the two (you really don't have to do this, but I feel it's a little more secure and looks better in the end):

Attach it to the end of the screw sticking out of the loop:

Take a screw from the Street Beat Sheath and stick it through the top-most rivet (it's a tight fit, so be patient and don't shove it in there, try screwing it in if you really can't get it to go):

Then just screw it on:

One thing that I don't like about setting it up like this is that you can turn the loop and unscrew it. That doesn't really matter though since it shouldn't be turning in your waistband like that

I did find a grip position that is very comfortable, and I suppose it is how it was designed to be held. If I hold it like I'm trying to pull a trigger with the butt of the knife more towards the middle of my hand, all the contours work great. Personally, if I choke up much more than that, the contours are off. YMMV.

Just ordered a Caly Jr too. I think I've been bitten by the Spyderco bug, I just can't get enough of their flat ground blades.