The impossible has happened! I am disappointed in my first Spyderco! Chaparral Why?

B

Bolt

Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
449
Well everyone, I will be sending my first Spydie back to Spyderco. I waited with much excitement for the Chaparral. I was planning on collecting each variant to come out. Here was my first one. I had been late on the Sage series so planned on making the Chaparral my first one that I would try and get each one that comes out. The package arrived and I opened it like it was Christmas morning. I have a Delica 4, Manix2, Para-Military, Military, Ladybug, Stretch Carbon Fiber, Tasman Salt, Persistance(now with a friend), 2 Spydie Fixed Blades, and this is the first one that I said, "Really????" too. I am sorry guys, but I had expected a much higher level of quality at this price point. None of my other spydies have ever done what this one does out of the box.
The knife is VERY, VERY gritty when opening and closing. I tried to put a little oil on it, but no help. I have opened it maybe 20 times now, and I am now seeing a cut line in the blade around the pivot area. It seems that there may be a bur on the inner side of the liner. An easy enough fix, but now I have a scratch in my new knife. The fit and finish is good, but the lock is so difficult to disengage that I have to hold it with 2 hands and really push on it. It seems that there may be a bur on the lock face causing it to bind up in the locked position. I hope that I just got a bad apple, because I love the size and feel of the knife, but I just can't help but feel like it is a cheaper knife than some of my other spydies. My delica is 10x smoother than this one, opening and unlocking, and is about half the price. Just can't see the high price point here. We are in Para-Military price range and the Chaparral feels like one of the cheap Blade-Tech Mouse knives. Really want to love this knife, but will be sending it back to Sal for his magic touch. I hope!
I have not taken it apart, as I want Spyderco Customer Service to feel what I feel. Hope the rest of you have better luck.
 
My Chapparal had the grittiness problem as well. I blew out the pivot with some canned air and then lubed the crap out of it with Tri-Flow and that solved it.

Seems like the grittiness has been mentioned before on this and Spyderco forums.

Other than that it mine was great.

I hope your issues get resolved soon.
 
I Hope your problems are resolved soon. Out of the many Spyderco's I own, I have never had an issue with any of them.
 
I too own many Spydercos and they have no issues. In Canada it would be expensive to have to send one back!
 
One thing folks often do with traditional style knives is put some dish soap on the pivot area, then open and close the blade a few times, then rinse it out with warm water. It seems to do a pretty good job of clearing the grit out. I don't know if it would work with your Chapparal, but it might be worth a try.
 
The easiest thing to try would be to soak the knife in warm soapy water. Open and close it a few dozen times while under water. Rinse the knife out with cold water and use canned air or a compressor to clear out the excess wter and let it dry. That works 99% of the time to resolve issues like this. In my opinion, this can be frustrating, but has an easy fix to it. It is simply a question of how much tinkering you want to do with it, you do not need to take the knife apart, just follow the suggested I offered and see if it helps.
 
Bolt, you're not alone, but from what I've read on this model, your specimen is particularly abnormal.

Of the spyderco models I own (millies, PMs, delica, and endura) this one was kinda "special." I opened it, flipped it once, closed it and put it back in the box because this chap didn't give me that satisfied feeling all my other spyderco knives give me.

The cutout where the wire clip attaches (they're normal, I guess I don't like wire clips), and the "ratcheting" when opening and closing bugged me a little (pun intended)

I appreciate the thin profile, but I agree, it just seems "cheaper" than my other spydercos.
 
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I posted a thread about on Spyderco's forum about the Chaparral I received a couple weeks ago. I got to pick the least gritty of the stock my buddy had but when I got home I noticed that the blade seems to be bent towards the right side with the pocket clip. We're going to meet up again when he gets another knife I ordered in so I can get it as well as exchange the Chaparral for one with a straight blade. It's very minor but when in hand I can see the "lean" towards the right. The odd thing is that when closed, the blade is perfectly centered. Here are some pics.

SpydercoChaparralBentBlade2011-09-0101Web.jpg


SpydercoChaparralBentBlade2011-09-0102Web.jpg
 
My Chaparral is fine. It did seem to have a little buffing compound in the lock, but otherwise is perfect. A little oil did the job.
The level of fit and finish is higher on the Chaparral than the Michael Walker.
Most of my Spyderco knives have been perfect (Kiwi lockback, Kopas, Stretch, etc.), but I did have to send a
Rookie back to Spyderco because of a problem with the blade at the pivot area. They sent a replacement to me
within 3 weeks. I wasn't happy to have gotten a defective knife, but customer service was reliable and prompt - compared
with the much slower service I have gotten from other companies.
Spyderco does stand behind their products.
 
Sorry to hear about your problem....Its not to late to start your sage collection.
 
I don't think where the knife is made should have a bearing on its expected quality. That's Spyderco's concern; it shouldn't be the consumer's. We're talking about a little folder that costs over a hundred bucks. It should be of superior quality no matter where it's made.

My Sage 2 was made in Taiwan and it is absolutely perfect. I would expect the Chaparral to be the same. But I'm holding off on buying one until I know more about its smoothness and quality control.
 
Considering the large number of knives sold by Spyderco each year, these kind of issues are pretty rare. But when you happen to be the person who gets one that isn't just right, I can understand the frustration. The good news is that Mr. Sal and company will fix you up.

I would take that sucker apart and see whats going on, but I get how you don't want to mess with it. :thumbup:
 
I might have the perfect Chaparral. It seems to be 100% flawless...

No grit, no scraping, blade is perfectly centered, it opens and closes with a nice click, opens up like butter & has no bends...

I've never had a Taiwan made Spyderco, but it seems to be my highest quality knife I have.

The only thing I'd change is the price.

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DedRok said:
I might have the perfect Chaparral. It seems to be 100% flawless...

No grit, no scraping, blade is perfectly centered, it opens and closes with a nice click, opens up like butter & has no bends...

I've never had a Taiwan made Spyderco, but it seems to be my highest quality knife I have.

The only thing I'd change is the price.
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congrats! I like happy endings :D
 
The Chaparral is an interesting design, and I am well pleased with the quality of Spyderco's Taiwan knives.
 
Fair enough. I'll speak only for me: when I buy a Spyderco or an Apple or a Panasonic or an Audi or a Glock -- you name it -- I'm buying that brand. How and where they make it is up to them. As the consumer, what's important to me is that my expectations are met.

All things being equal, I'd prefer to buy USA-made products. But that's not always a choice if I want the best product for me.
 
Call_to_Arms said:
This is a wicked post dude, but in the end its still your preference, I prefer my Spyderco's made in China, Then I use the rest of the money to feed my family next week.:thumbup:
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Exactly! I love how spyderco can meet a diverse set of preferences in its userbase by manufacturing across multiple countries, providing different price points. Now about those spyderedges....

JohnnyLightOn said:
All things being equal, I'd prefer to buy USA-made products. But that's not always a choice if I want the best product for me.
Click to expand...

yup, my Boker PLUS ti subcom is made in china, and I haven't seen any alternative that fits me. It was the first made in china money clip that I bought.
China does not automatically = bad quality.
Taiwan has a more developed manufacturing base than most of mainland, so IMHO on average, a Taiwanese factory will put out a higher quality product, especially in agglomerated industries.
 
tobotech said:

in all fairness, it's tough to compare a Made in USA spyderco to one made in CHINA (Taiwan). There ain't no thing like a Golden Spyderco.
Click to expand...

It's not unfair at all when you compare the prices.
 
Ok, I really did not want this to become a USA vs. the rest of the world discussion. Back to the Chaparral......I think I am going to take some of your advice here and take her apart and just clean her real good. The bur on the back lock seems to be loosening up. I will then carry it the rest of the day to see if use smoothes her out. As for the scratch, disappointing that its there, but I use my knives so one was coming soon anyway. I will leave Sal to the design of the next Chaparral and hopefully the QC will be better on it. And maybe the price will come down a bit too. That one still has me a bit puzzled. Spyderco is still my number one. Now, if the next Chaparral in the series is the same out of the box, we may have a different discussion started here.
 
Well, I took it apart. Broke it down all the way. Took a scotch pad to the pivot area on both sides of blade and frame. Wiped everything down with Remoil and reassembled. Smooth as butter! Really wish I didn't have to do all of that to a brand new $100 knife. Mine must have been made on a Friday, late afternoon. Well, I am back to happy again, as I love the design of this model. Can not wait for the Titanium handles! Really wish we could get the price of these down some though. I wanted to collect the Sage series, but was late getting started, and when I heard about the Chaparral coming out and that it was smaller, I figured I would just focus all attention and funds toward it. Then my collectors heart began to skip a beat as I saw Sage=$115, Chaparral=$112. What? Then I realized that I could by a US made Manix2 for $83 and if I wanted to spend $28 more I could get a US made Military with S30V steel as well. What? Between the $80 Manbug and the Chaparral pricing, my collecting may be slowing down drastically. I realize the economy, and all of that, weakness of the US dollar, blah, blah, blah. Doesn't make it hurt any less. To finish my rant, although I love the design and will still plan on collecting the Chaparral series, I am a little disappointed in the quality of the first one, and the price point hurts for the size of knife and location of manufacture.
 
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