Tenacious or Cara Cara ?

S

speedtrip

Joined
Apr 4, 2008
Messages
14
Hello
First post so please go easy :)
After your opinions on which you find is the better EDC between the Cara Cara and the Tenacious.I will only be using it in the workplace for general cutting tasks and nothing heavy duty at home.
I know both are made in China but have you guys found one to be better made than the other,also has anyone found a big difference with one handed opening with the different hole shapes on the blades ?
Thanks for your help.
 
I'm here to say welcome to BladeForums, and to offer a completely biased recommendation. I have never handled the Cara Cara, but I have a Tenacious and can't say enough good about it. For the price, I'm not sure it can be beaten.

Has a really tough liner lock, and the Spyder hole we are all so used to.

You could just buy both, they're certainly cheap enough.
 
One difference between the two is the type of lock they both employ - the Tenacious is a liner lock whereas the Cara Cara is a lockback; however both lock up solidly with no noticable bladeplay. Another would be blade shape/length, where the Cara Cara is a slightly longer, but the Tenacious is more wider.

I've handled both in a brick-and-mortar store and both were close in price at the time by a few bucks. I ultimately bought the Tenacious and haven't regretted it since. The ergos on the Tenacious seems to be better in my opinion, and I'm not a huge fan of the bird theme the Byrd line employs in their designs.

I recommend the Spyderco Tenacious but it's really up to you - you're the one that's gonna be using it at work, so just get whichever floats your boat.
 
I can't speak for the Cara Cara, as I don't own one (yet!) but I do own a Tenacious and love it. It is currently my EDC of choice and probably will be for a while. It's a very solid knife for a great price; I really don't have anything bad to say about it.

Both knives feature 8Cr13MoV, which I understand is like an AUS8. Not a bad steel, by any means. The Tenacious comes with G-10 scales, which are like a sort of grippy resin. The Cara Cara can be gotten in G-10, but it can also be found with metal (Steel? Aluminum?) handles, if that's what you're looking for, or FRN, which is more lightweight and plastic-y. The Cara Cara has a slightly longer blade at almost four inches; the Tenacious is 3 3/8. The Tenacious is slightly pointier. The Cara is hollow ground, whereas the Tenacious is full flat ground.

Also keep in mind that they have two different sorts of locks. The Cara Cara is a lockback, while the Tenacious is a liner lock.

Hope this helps. In short, if you aren't really a knife person, I think you'll be perfectly happy with either. If you are, I probably just wasted a lot of time explaining things you already know :o and you'll have to make your own decision. Good luck.
 
the materials on these two knives are identical (if you mean the G10 cara cara), it really comes down to a personal preference: full flat grind and a liner lock, or hollow saber grind and a back lock. I would get the Tenacious. Spyderco liner locks are typically very well done so I seriously doubt you'd ever have issues with the lock, and the flat grind will cut better than the saber grind. If you were going to be doing very abusive tasks with it then I would say use the Cara Cara since the lockback and saber grind are generally considered to be pretty tough, but if you want a knife to cut things and don't intend to be abusive then the tenacious will serve you much better IMO.
 
I have a cara cara and have handled a tenacious, I think the tenacious' wider blade shape looks lovely, the full flat grind IMO is giving a sharper edge than the byrd's saber grind, but I really want a choil on the blade, the cara cara is has alot more blade but the edge is pretty thick, they both have great solid lockup, but I would trust the cara cara's lock back more than the tenacious' liner lock but the tenacious locks up perfect with no blade play and doesn't fail a spine wack test.
 
After seeing that,Im glad I got a few Cara Caras to hand out for X-Mas presents. The handle is stainless steel.
 
poonchasta said:
Here is the Tenacious' liner lock failing the spine whack test in just one whack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7PnQA7ZPwE
Click to expand...

No offense, I havent had the typical social conditioning that convinces Knife enthusiasts about the merits of the spine whack test.

But seriously, you are going to use a test that openly uses a knife CONTRARY to it's design, to make a lock fail?

What is the spine whack test supposed to replicate from real world use?

Hammering nails into wood? deanimating a ninja from behind, non lethally?
 
Ozy said:
No offense, I havent had the typical social conditioning that convinces Knife enthusiasts about the merits of the spine whack test.

But seriously, you are going to use a test that openly uses a knife CONTRARY to it's design, to make a lock fail?

What is the spine whack test supposed to replicate from real world use?

Hammering nails into wood? deanimating a ninja from behind, non lethally?
Click to expand...

Sure, the spine whack test doesn't simulate anything you would normally use a knife for, but it still gives you an idea of how different locks rank amongst each other. It's like saying I don't need an airbag in my car because I'm a safe driver and probably will never get into a car crash. The thing is, though, that you never know what could happen. I dunno. Maybe something heavy will suddenly fall onto the spine of your blade while you're holding it, and you'll be glad that the lock was strong enough to keep it from closing on your hand. If a strong lock didn't matter, then we should all just use slipjoints.
 
poonchasta said:
Sure, the spine whack test doesn't simulate anything you would normally use a knife for, but it still gives you an idea of how different locks rank amongst each other. It's like saying I don't need an airbag in my car because I'm a safe driver and probably will never get into a car crash. The thing is, though, that you never know what could happen. I dunno. Maybe something heavy will suddenly fall onto the spine of your blade while you're holding it, and you'll be glad that the lock was strong enough to keep it from closing on your hand. If a strong lock didn't matter, then we should all just use slipjoints.
Click to expand...

Too bad it's only one kind force. One lock may fail a spine whack, but withstand more force if applied in a controlled manner over a longer period of time. And you should always use a knife as if it WERE a slipjoint.
 
Brutus013 said:
Too bad it's only one kind force. One lock may fail a spine whack, but withstand more force if applied in a controlled manner over a longer period of time. And you should always use a knife as if it WERE a slipjoint.
Click to expand...

The spine whack test isn't the end-all be-all lock test, but it's the easiest and quickest one to perform. You mention that one knife that fails the spine-whack test might pass a different test that applies force in a controlled manner. That makes sense, but that's not the point. The point is to compare different locks with the same test to see how they compare, not to compare different tests on the same lock. If a lockback, like on the Cara Cara, outperforms a liner lock, like on the Tenacious, in the spine whack test, then odds are the lockback will outperform the liner lock on almost every other lock test imaginable.
 
I had both knives and tested both of them, including spinewhack. Both locks didn't fail. It's not that a big-deal anyway.
I vote for the Tenacious, because of the full flat grind and its lighter weight. Cutting performance is great with such a grind.
 
I vote for the Tenacious (I have several Byrds also). Flat grind always better to general light cutting than hollow IMO.:thumbup:

(Tena also sturdy enough for some heavy cardboard cutting, if you hone it frequently. :D)
 
Wunderbar said:
Tenacious. The Cara Cara has only a 1 year warranty.:( The Tenacious has a lifetime warranty.:)
Click to expand...

Plus, the Tenacious has a spider on it. The Cara Cara has a weird bird eye shape for its opening mechanism! I think we all know how much more awesome spiders are than weird bird eye shapes. Am I right!?
 
poonchasta said:
Here is the Tenacious' liner lock failing the spine whack test in just one whack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7PnQA7ZPwE

The Cara Cara has a lockback, which will always beat out a liner lock. If lockup isn't an issue for you, then get the Tenacious, I guess.
Click to expand...

I can repeat the video with either knife mentioned in this thread, and whack it harder, with no ill effects visible to the knife. Neither fails.

I'd recommend the Tenacious, but the Cara Cara reprofiled flat to the stone works nicely as well.
 
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