ToXicXxX
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2013
- Messages
- 112
Im sure this one has been done 1000x over, but I would like to pitch my review out there for the world. I have two military's currently, a black/black that I have EDC'd for about a half a year and as such has gotten heavy use and a digital camo one that I just keep on it's box safe at home.
I wear ACU when I go out shooting, so the digital camo model compliments me perfectly!
Introduction
This knife is probably one of the best sub $300 knives you will ever own. It comes with a razor sharp CPM S30V blade out of the box and is ready for whatever you throw at it. All of mine have come perfectly centered out of the box and not loose at all.
Appearance 10/10
This knife is of true Spyderco fashion, you will either love its practical and sleek looks or despise it. The G10 handle is a wonder to behold in grip-ability and is second to none in my collection. The DLC coating on the blade is very well done and adds that "tacti-cool" look that some of us go for.
Practicality 8/10
I find this knife always gave me a lot of weird looks at work when I would use it rather then those ungodly OLFA spring loaded safety knives, maybe because it was all black and had a 4 inch blade, but hey. You may find this knife is a bit big for a EDC pocket knife and can its large clip tends to draw a lot of attention. One giant bonus is the spyderhole, which with a little practise you can use to quickly draw and deploy the knife from your pocket with.
Blade steel 9/10
CPM S30V seems to be all the rage in your high end production line knives, and it is good steel, so long as you never damage it or roll it, then repairing and resharpening the blade will be the bain of your existence. S30V will hold a laser edge as im sure you all know, and will hold it for a fairly long time (my black one held it's edge right until it tried to cut through steel wire and lost the tip after a good half year of ownership). I will go on to say that S30V is probably the lowest grade steel in my collection, and ZDP189 or M390 will outperform it in a heartbeat from my experience.
Liner Lock 10/10
The lock on the military is tried and true, and will never fail. I've certainly never handled a Chris Reeve (im not a fan of the looks), so I can't compare to that, but I have handled fixed blades and I can say that it feels as firm as one of those. I much prefer this style of lock to the ones found on most other spyderco's (like my caly 3) because I can operate it one handed.
Durability 8/10
Let me go on record by saying I was not particularly kind to my black military, I work at a hardware store and it's experienced just about everything there is to cut there, from wooden corner-round to fibre high tension banding and it survived, until it encountered a simple gift wrap bow with hairline thick steel cables in it. Somewhere along the line the tip of my black one was broken off in the line of duty, im not too sure if it was just very fragile or it hit something hard. The S30V is certainly not as durable as I wish it could be, but that appears to be the price you pay for a good edge, and im positive this knife was not ment for what I did with it. The only steel I have that seems to have taken worse and came out looking better is D2.
Overall 9/10
This knife is one of those knives that needs to be in your collection, it's worth it's weight in gold and will help you on your day to day countless times. It is probably one of my favorite knives and I look forward to getting a few sprint runs of it in the future. I don't think you could call yourself a true spyderco fan without at least one of these babies. My only advice is be nice to her, don't do what I did.
Thanks for reading!
I wear ACU when I go out shooting, so the digital camo model compliments me perfectly!
Introduction
This knife is probably one of the best sub $300 knives you will ever own. It comes with a razor sharp CPM S30V blade out of the box and is ready for whatever you throw at it. All of mine have come perfectly centered out of the box and not loose at all.
Appearance 10/10
This knife is of true Spyderco fashion, you will either love its practical and sleek looks or despise it. The G10 handle is a wonder to behold in grip-ability and is second to none in my collection. The DLC coating on the blade is very well done and adds that "tacti-cool" look that some of us go for.
Practicality 8/10
I find this knife always gave me a lot of weird looks at work when I would use it rather then those ungodly OLFA spring loaded safety knives, maybe because it was all black and had a 4 inch blade, but hey. You may find this knife is a bit big for a EDC pocket knife and can its large clip tends to draw a lot of attention. One giant bonus is the spyderhole, which with a little practise you can use to quickly draw and deploy the knife from your pocket with.
Blade steel 9/10
CPM S30V seems to be all the rage in your high end production line knives, and it is good steel, so long as you never damage it or roll it, then repairing and resharpening the blade will be the bain of your existence. S30V will hold a laser edge as im sure you all know, and will hold it for a fairly long time (my black one held it's edge right until it tried to cut through steel wire and lost the tip after a good half year of ownership). I will go on to say that S30V is probably the lowest grade steel in my collection, and ZDP189 or M390 will outperform it in a heartbeat from my experience.
Liner Lock 10/10
The lock on the military is tried and true, and will never fail. I've certainly never handled a Chris Reeve (im not a fan of the looks), so I can't compare to that, but I have handled fixed blades and I can say that it feels as firm as one of those. I much prefer this style of lock to the ones found on most other spyderco's (like my caly 3) because I can operate it one handed.
Durability 8/10
Let me go on record by saying I was not particularly kind to my black military, I work at a hardware store and it's experienced just about everything there is to cut there, from wooden corner-round to fibre high tension banding and it survived, until it encountered a simple gift wrap bow with hairline thick steel cables in it. Somewhere along the line the tip of my black one was broken off in the line of duty, im not too sure if it was just very fragile or it hit something hard. The S30V is certainly not as durable as I wish it could be, but that appears to be the price you pay for a good edge, and im positive this knife was not ment for what I did with it. The only steel I have that seems to have taken worse and came out looking better is D2.
Overall 9/10
This knife is one of those knives that needs to be in your collection, it's worth it's weight in gold and will help you on your day to day countless times. It is probably one of my favorite knives and I look forward to getting a few sprint runs of it in the future. I don't think you could call yourself a true spyderco fan without at least one of these babies. My only advice is be nice to her, don't do what I did.
Thanks for reading!
