Sal,
In other words, what you are saying is, "Its not what you like, its the consumer." Read that with the voice of Joe Dirt in your head.
I know that what I like may not be what others like or what sells the best. Take flat ground blades for example, I like them and I think they tend to work better than hollow ground blades on most tasks but for whatever reason, the hollow ground blades seem to sell better to non knife nuts. I guess it is because they look cooler.
There are people who have a different opinion than me like JDSpydo. He really likes hawkbills and has good reasons for that opinion. For some of the tasks he uses a knife for, the hawkbill works well for him. I tend to agree with alot of what he says, we tend to think alike most of the time. I don't like hawkbills at all and even though I have owned a few, I got rid of them becase I found that they just didn't work well for me for most of the things I need a knife for. So, you have to try and make JDSpydo happy and The Deacon and a bunch of other people that have different wants.
That being said, I still say that many of the features of the P'kal will and should find their way into other Spyderco models. Nobody inovates like Spyderco that is why they are still near the top in sales. Benchmade is good but if you take all the new features developed over the past 10 years from Spyderco and Benchmade, I think Spyderco would have a lot more. Most didn't work but that shows they are trying.
I continue to be impressed with the level of inovation that Spyderco is willing to put forth. I have some idea how much it costs to continue to develope new products and technologies. I feel that when the next great lock appears, it will probably be Spyderco that introduces it.
In other words, what you are saying is, "Its not what you like, its the consumer." Read that with the voice of Joe Dirt in your head.
I know that what I like may not be what others like or what sells the best. Take flat ground blades for example, I like them and I think they tend to work better than hollow ground blades on most tasks but for whatever reason, the hollow ground blades seem to sell better to non knife nuts. I guess it is because they look cooler.
There are people who have a different opinion than me like JDSpydo. He really likes hawkbills and has good reasons for that opinion. For some of the tasks he uses a knife for, the hawkbill works well for him. I tend to agree with alot of what he says, we tend to think alike most of the time. I don't like hawkbills at all and even though I have owned a few, I got rid of them becase I found that they just didn't work well for me for most of the things I need a knife for. So, you have to try and make JDSpydo happy and The Deacon and a bunch of other people that have different wants.
That being said, I still say that many of the features of the P'kal will and should find their way into other Spyderco models. Nobody inovates like Spyderco that is why they are still near the top in sales. Benchmade is good but if you take all the new features developed over the past 10 years from Spyderco and Benchmade, I think Spyderco would have a lot more. Most didn't work but that shows they are trying.
I continue to be impressed with the level of inovation that Spyderco is willing to put forth. I have some idea how much it costs to continue to develope new products and technologies. I feel that when the next great lock appears, it will probably be Spyderco that introduces it.
Though I do love discussing particular features -- opening mechanisms, locks, steels, etc -- it's rare (I hope) that I lose sight of how well the overall knife works. The P'kal does have a lot of cool features, but most of those features already show up in Spydercos: the hole, the lock, the steel, the wave, relentlessly-pursued design to meet the design goals regardless of how silly it ends up looking. I do like the new features also, specifically the removable wave and the changes to the ball-bearing lock.
