I am stoked. I get my Lum tomorrow. I am very anxious to get my first look at ZDP.
[I'm a little off put that the Lum logo is not on the blade ETA: Correction, it is on the blade] I have a soft spot in my heart for the man, and I smile almost everytime I see his name and logo on my Benchmade DeJaVoo in S30V (a production version of his All-Rounder). I bought that knife on the personal recomendation of Mr. Lum himself.
I was honored to get to speak to the man shortly before his death. I became enamoured with the Spydie version of his Chinese Folder and was considering having him make me an original. He was very friendly and we chatted for almost half an hour about nothing in particular. He really seemed to enjoy teaching and sharing his wealth of knowledge about various steels and tempers and so on and so forth.
I have been very pleased with the production version of Lum's All-Rounder. With my experiences with Sal's work, I have no doubt that my production version of Lum's Chinese Folder will be just as graceful and smooth.
If time permits I will post some pics later this week of my new Chinese Folder and it's slightly larger cousin the DeJaVoo. If I get really ambitious later, I may even venture my first "review" of a knife to honor the memory of the dear Mr. Lum. (don't hope for too much objectivity out of my review, me liking both Lum and Spyderco as much as I do)
ETA: UPDATE 1
Picture of New Spydie Lum Folder in "action." I will say as I eyed the bevel on the edge of this blade, my first thought was, "wow, that isn't very sharp" since there were visible grooves on the bevel. Once I put it to the paper I was stunned at its sharpness. A gentle scrapping along the top edge of lightweight notebook paper (my daughter graciously allowed her birthday card to be used for this purpose) caused fine curlings ribbons to be created. The shreds showing in the photo are larger than those, but are reflective of the sharpness of the edge.
Just for grins, here is a picture of its bigger cousin that I took some pictures of a while back. If I ever get the gumption, I am going to draft a bit of a review and comparison between these two blades (both Lums; one spydie, one benchmade).
First impressions of Spydie Lum Chinese Folder:
OK, I have it now...
It's nice, it's sharp and I like it. I would have much preferred that Spyderco had decided to use a bronze washer to smooth out the opening and closing action, but I think I understand why this would be a bad idea since the knife is able to be carried tip-up. The bronze washer will often times allow my Benchmade DeJaVoo to open if picked up from a flat surface quickly. Since that knife is carried tip down only gravity and the liner lock detent keeps everything safe and secure.
I can't imagine anyone buying the Lum knife and not liking it. I really love it.
I noticed one small issue on the grind that irks me a bit. I understand how this happened during the sharpening at the factory, but I don't like it. The profile or probably what I should refer to as the bevel of the grind, changes along the curves of the blade. It is steep near the "hilt" and tip but the belly of the blade took a less agressive bevel. I don't really have a means to measure the variation, and quite honestly, I am too lazy to put a marker on it and scratch on the sharpmaker to check. If I had to guess, it seems that it is around a 30 degree bevel (inclusive) near the "hilt" and tip of the blade, which gradually shallows to something between a 35 and 40 degree (inclusive) bevel for about 3/4 of an inch near the center of the belly. I don't know for sure, but I do know that the sharpmaker set to back-bevel will not reach the actual cutting edge in that portion since it is hitting the shoulder of the bevel before reaching the edge (I hope that makes sense). It is almost as if it was hand sharpened on a belt sander (judging by the rough grooves left, that is a fair guess) and the technichian sharpened the deep bellied blade as you would a straight blade. That is it wasn't rocked enough to maintain a constant bevel along the entire length of the blade. This is fixable, but I am kinda surprised that I have to fix the bevel on a brand new, $200 knife.
The edge the factory put on it came together at all points, so it didn't degrade cutting performance to have such a variation in degree of bevel. As I polished the edge a bit on the sharpmaker (I like super polished cutting edges *shrug*) it became clear that I am going to have to go back to the medium grit stones to get that shoulder out of the way so that I can reach the cutting edge at a 30 degree setting. I understand that on a sprint run, certain kinks don't get worked out. Maybe mine was ground on Monday morning after a rough weekend. I'm human... I have bad days, too. I would say this "flaw" in fit and finish would not be noticed by a majority of users. I haven't gotten to the point where I use a loupe to check my edges, but it does seem like a good idea...
I'm weird like that.
In some basic tests (0.3" HD Orange Stihl Brush cutter string; notebook paper, soft wood shaving, arm hair shaving, plastic container scoring) The lum cut better out of the box with the grind that I am complaining about than a brand new S30V knife cut at a perfectly consistant 30 degree bevel. So... in other words, it's not that big of a deal in terms of actual performance of the knife. It's merely asthetics and a fit and finish issue.
I know there is a ton of debate surrounding tip-up vs. tip-down. "To be continued..."
[I'm a little off put that the Lum logo is not on the blade ETA: Correction, it is on the blade] I have a soft spot in my heart for the man, and I smile almost everytime I see his name and logo on my Benchmade DeJaVoo in S30V (a production version of his All-Rounder). I bought that knife on the personal recomendation of Mr. Lum himself.
I was honored to get to speak to the man shortly before his death. I became enamoured with the Spydie version of his Chinese Folder and was considering having him make me an original. He was very friendly and we chatted for almost half an hour about nothing in particular. He really seemed to enjoy teaching and sharing his wealth of knowledge about various steels and tempers and so on and so forth.
I have been very pleased with the production version of Lum's All-Rounder. With my experiences with Sal's work, I have no doubt that my production version of Lum's Chinese Folder will be just as graceful and smooth.
If time permits I will post some pics later this week of my new Chinese Folder and it's slightly larger cousin the DeJaVoo. If I get really ambitious later, I may even venture my first "review" of a knife to honor the memory of the dear Mr. Lum. (don't hope for too much objectivity out of my review, me liking both Lum and Spyderco as much as I do)
ETA: UPDATE 1
Picture of New Spydie Lum Folder in "action." I will say as I eyed the bevel on the edge of this blade, my first thought was, "wow, that isn't very sharp" since there were visible grooves on the bevel. Once I put it to the paper I was stunned at its sharpness. A gentle scrapping along the top edge of lightweight notebook paper (my daughter graciously allowed her birthday card to be used for this purpose) caused fine curlings ribbons to be created. The shreds showing in the photo are larger than those, but are reflective of the sharpness of the edge.
Just for grins, here is a picture of its bigger cousin that I took some pictures of a while back. If I ever get the gumption, I am going to draft a bit of a review and comparison between these two blades (both Lums; one spydie, one benchmade).
First impressions of Spydie Lum Chinese Folder:
OK, I have it now...
It's nice, it's sharp and I like it. I would have much preferred that Spyderco had decided to use a bronze washer to smooth out the opening and closing action, but I think I understand why this would be a bad idea since the knife is able to be carried tip-up. The bronze washer will often times allow my Benchmade DeJaVoo to open if picked up from a flat surface quickly. Since that knife is carried tip down only gravity and the liner lock detent keeps everything safe and secure.
I can't imagine anyone buying the Lum knife and not liking it. I really love it.
I noticed one small issue on the grind that irks me a bit. I understand how this happened during the sharpening at the factory, but I don't like it. The profile or probably what I should refer to as the bevel of the grind, changes along the curves of the blade. It is steep near the "hilt" and tip but the belly of the blade took a less agressive bevel. I don't really have a means to measure the variation, and quite honestly, I am too lazy to put a marker on it and scratch on the sharpmaker to check. If I had to guess, it seems that it is around a 30 degree bevel (inclusive) near the "hilt" and tip of the blade, which gradually shallows to something between a 35 and 40 degree (inclusive) bevel for about 3/4 of an inch near the center of the belly. I don't know for sure, but I do know that the sharpmaker set to back-bevel will not reach the actual cutting edge in that portion since it is hitting the shoulder of the bevel before reaching the edge (I hope that makes sense). It is almost as if it was hand sharpened on a belt sander (judging by the rough grooves left, that is a fair guess) and the technichian sharpened the deep bellied blade as you would a straight blade. That is it wasn't rocked enough to maintain a constant bevel along the entire length of the blade. This is fixable, but I am kinda surprised that I have to fix the bevel on a brand new, $200 knife.
The edge the factory put on it came together at all points, so it didn't degrade cutting performance to have such a variation in degree of bevel. As I polished the edge a bit on the sharpmaker (I like super polished cutting edges *shrug*) it became clear that I am going to have to go back to the medium grit stones to get that shoulder out of the way so that I can reach the cutting edge at a 30 degree setting. I understand that on a sprint run, certain kinks don't get worked out. Maybe mine was ground on Monday morning after a rough weekend. I'm human... I have bad days, too. I would say this "flaw" in fit and finish would not be noticed by a majority of users. I haven't gotten to the point where I use a loupe to check my edges, but it does seem like a good idea...
I'm weird like that. In some basic tests (0.3" HD Orange Stihl Brush cutter string; notebook paper, soft wood shaving, arm hair shaving, plastic container scoring) The lum cut better out of the box with the grind that I am complaining about than a brand new S30V knife cut at a perfectly consistant 30 degree bevel. So... in other words, it's not that big of a deal in terms of actual performance of the knife. It's merely asthetics and a fit and finish issue.
I know there is a ton of debate surrounding tip-up vs. tip-down. "To be continued..."
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