The Spyderco Military is Awesome

B

Bugout Bill

Joined
Jan 2, 2013
Messages
1,508
Earlier this month, I bought myself a Spyderco Military with my tax refund. It was the standard, S30v/Black G10 model. I started my summer job today and put the Millie through the ringer. I think that I have found my ideal work knife. :D The ergos are superb and the knife operates really well when wearing gloves, something I do a lot while at work. I was doing a lot of landscaping work today, and the Millie was put to work trimming some bushes as well as clearing brush. Some of the brush was roughly an inch thick, but they proved to be no problem.

Unfortunately, the Millie is not without flaws. The tip-down only carry is a bit annoying, I found myself trying to instinctively put it back in my pocket tip up. Additionally, the light weight of the knife does not lend well to chopping. Finally, the non-flowthrough construction proved to be a bit of a pain to clean (the knife got a little dirty), but a hose and compressed air did a pretty good job.

Anyway, I am really enjoying this knife and I am looking forward to using it again.
 
Thats quite an endorsement (real world usage endorsements like yours are best), and I agree with everything you said. Another positive attribute for the EDC guy is how flat and easy to carry it is. Thats a lot of blade in a very ergonomic package that carries effortlessly.

 
The Millie will never be a great chopper because of its light weight, but you can modify the other two issues. Quite a few folks have removed the backspacer. Some have replaced the standoffs with new ones from a knife parts supplier. The clip mod can be done by several folks and you'll have a flow-through, tip up Military.
 
dalefuller said:
The Millie will never be a great chopper because of its light weight, but you can modify the other two issues. Quite a few folks have removed the backspacer. Some have replaced the standoffs with new ones from a knife parts supplier. The clip mod can be done by several folks and you'll have a flow-through, tip up Military.
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I've been rather intrigued by the idea of adding standoffs, it seems like it would be a fairly cheap and straightforward thing to do. Unfortunately, specific details have been a bit lacking in some of the threads on the subject.
 
I wish I liked my Military more, but it just sits in the knife box I have unused. Nice knife, I just prefer the Police 3 hands down if I want a large folder. 80% of the time the Police 3 is in my pocket. Not sure the last time I carried the Mili. :(
 
It took me a while to use and like the Military. It wasn't the knife itself - was simply just the size - I thought it too big to carry. Now I see it as a big knife in a very small package. I forget I'm carrying a 4" folder.
 
I carry my Military without clip, tip up.
Stays in my pocket straight very well because of it's length.
Love carrying it, unfortunately not when I expect to use it in crowded places, people give me strange looks when using it because of the size I guess.
 
I wanted, so badly, to like my Military more. It is the lightest knife, for it's size and capability that I've ever used. It opens easily with gloves as without, and is comfortable in a variety of grips.

What I ddn't like was the thin liner lock, and that the steel liners stop halfway down the handle. It was enough to make me look elsewhere. Lately, it's been a SERE 2000 (which has a very thick liner lock and full length steel liners under the G10) that I used the other day, wearing gloves, and it worked great.
 
MatthewSB said:
I wanted, so badly, to like my Military more. It is the lightest knife, for it's size and capability that I've ever used. It opens easily with gloves as without, and is comfortable in a variety of grips.

What I ddn't like was the thin liner lock, and that the steel liners stop halfway down the handle. It was enough to make me look elsewhere. Lately, it's been a SERE 2000 (which has a very thick liner lock and full length steel liners under the G10) that I used the other day, wearing gloves, and it worked great.
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I too, like thick, beefy folders with steel liners but I also like knives that are plain cutting machines. For me, the military belongs to the second category and is top of the heap as a work knife. The lightness and slimness coupled with it's cutting performance is what makes the military what it is. I was underwhelmed when I got my first military because I was anticipating a beefy folder and I was just pissed of at what I felt was a deceptive name for it.

I still owned a mango farm during that time and since I paid a premium for that military(I got it from a local dealer at a ridiculous price) and I wanted to get my money out of it so I started using it in the farm for a lot of my farm chores, one of which was shaping a lot of bamboo to maintain my bamboo hut. That was when it clicked. I also used some other knives and even my old bali. The military really shined when you cut a lot of material. The military taught me that if I wanted to just cut open envelopes and packages, then any old thick tactical knife would do, but when there was serious work to be done, I took out a military.
 
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Just get a Ti version

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MatthewSB said:
... What I ddn't like was the thin liner lock, and that the steel liners stop halfway down the handle...
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I've never, ever heard of a Military lock failure outside of intentional testing in 10+ years of following the company and owning Military's from several periods in their development. I have an early Millie with dino jimping that locks up in exactly the same place it did when it was new. No blade play in any direction. I've got two other Millies from when they started doing digicam handle scales. They're the same way. No lock issues or handle flex under normal use, even in heavy cutting.

If you like beefier folders, the Millie may still never "feel right" to you; I'm the same way about some iconic knives that just don't connect with me. I just don't think you'll ever have to worry about a part failure due to the light weight of the Millie.
 
dalefuller said:
Jill, this is OT, but... who's the little one in the background? Nice country view, BTW.
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That's my B/F's dog Levi Garrett and he's pretty big at 80 pounds.

You can get a plain Ti model too, just as solid as the fluted and a lot cheaper, plus it's easier to find ATM.
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I really like my Military, just not quite enough to ever grab it in place of my Benchmade 710. I should probably quit buying ~4" folders at this point, I always just end up back with my 710.
 
jill jackson said:
That's my B/F's dog Levi Garrett and he's pretty big at 80 pounds.

b62d8g.jpg
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Yeah, if he's 80 pounds he definitely isn't a "little guy". Great looking fella from what I can see. Hard to tell much about him from the pic but I did notice him there.

The Millie looks great too, BTW (just to keep some knife content in the post).
 
MatthewSB said:
I wanted, so badly, to like my Military more. It is the lightest knife, for it's size and capability that I've ever used. It opens easily with gloves as without, and is comfortable in a variety of grips.

What I ddn't like was the thin liner lock, and that the steel liners stop halfway down the handle. It was enough to make me look elsewhere. Lately, it's been a SERE 2000 (which has a very thick liner lock and full length steel liners under the G10) that I used the other day, wearing gloves, and it worked great.
Click to expand...

The liner lock is strong enough, thicker just makes it heavier. Same goes for the liners. If it needed a thicker lock and full liners there would be threads about lock failures etc. Lots of options for heavy folders, but not many 111g (1. run CF) 4" folders that work well when wearing gloves.

IMHO it carries better tip down even though 95% of my folders are tip up..
 
I love the Military too.. for weight and size it can't be beat. I'm with you on the tip-down only and been asking Sal to change that for years, but as others have said (and I've done) just go buy a drill/tap bit and either use the clip off a knife you have and don't use, or get an aftermarket from a knife supplier online and bada'bing... tip up. The back spacer doesn't bother me really but you could pick-up stand offs when getting your clip to replace the spacer. The tip down issue is the only reason I've never pulled the trigger on a Ti version.. which I'd love to have.
 
MatthewSB said:
I wanted, so badly, to like my Military more. It is the lightest knife, for it's size and capability that I've ever used. It opens easily with gloves as without, and is comfortable in a variety of grips.

What I ddn't like was the thin liner lock, and that the steel liners stop halfway down the handle. It was enough to make me look elsewhere. Lately, it's been a SERE 2000 (which has a very thick liner lock and full length steel liners under the G10) that I used the other day, wearing gloves, and it worked great.
Click to expand...

why did you not like having partial liners? did the g10 crack on you when you used it? did the linerlock bend out of shape and become useless? Or do you just like adding weight when it is completely unnecessary to do so?

IMO the only single thing you could possibly say about a Military's "weakness" is the tip. And that's only if you find yourself doing constant, hard prying with the tip. The tip is a massive benefit to all other cutting chores, IMO. ANY other hard use cutting chore can be handled more than adequately with the Military, and usually it will handle it much better than thicker tactical knives. If you simply like more weight in your hand or pocket that's one thing, I just get a bit peeved that people try to say it's somehow weaker because it's not thick and heavy.

If you want to see a Military put through hell check out "Spyderco Military Russian Hard Use" video on youtube. The guys go to town on it. Batoning through sheet metal, stabbing through sheet metal, cutting hard wood, battoninig hard wood, insanely hard spine whacks over and over and over. I can't understand their language, so I don't know if they considered it a pass or fail, the Military was pretty spent afterwards, but the lock never failed from what I saw, though it did move all the way to 100% engagement by the end. And they ended up snapping the tip off when they stabbed deep into hard wood and started prying side to side, which is a given. I generally hate videos like that, but I stumbled across it yesterday and I have to say the Military lived up to what abuse I knew it could take, and then some. Even though they did abuse pretty much all the life out of it.
 
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