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- Jun 8, 2005
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Alright, I've finally been able to get a Centofante, Native S30V, Native III, Kopa, Paramilitary and Delica all together for me to evaluate. All but two of these were gifts and thus, I did not do any real testing with the vast majority (and one of them was a friend's on borrow, the Centofante). All knives passed three moderate spine whacks and mild leverage testing against the lock. The images are all from www.knifecenter.com.
Native III + S30V Native: The first thing I noticed was that the Natives were surprisingly large, and the III being slightly larger than the other Native. The III's FRN handles look only so/so, but they feel great and are the grippiest of the two natives. In fact, next to the para and probably tied with the Delica, they were the grippiest scales of the bunch. The S30V Native had much more attractive handles, in my opinion, and looked higher quality, but the scales were noticeably less grippy. Again, the S30V Native is marginally, though noticeably, smaller than the other and you'll want to keep that in my mind if a thin knife you seek.
As expected, I loved the ergonomics of the Natives, and really enjoyed the positive grip the finger choil provided. I also think that, over all, it's a rather beautiful knife. Furthermore, the Native III is only ~40 dollars online, roughly the same as the Walmart S30V Native, but you can still buy from companies you like. (NGK)
The blade shape is pretty typical and should do fine for unspecialized jobs.
As usual with lockbacks, the action is slow. Worse yet, the spyder holes on both Natives are too small (which I think is true for the majority of Spydercos, after using the para) and they're partially recessed. I actually think that looks really good, but it does inhibit ease of opening. The thumb ramps felt good on both Natives, but neither provided especially great grip. Between the two, the Native III's felt (and looked) the best, but the S30V one was slightly grippier.
Neither Native has steel liners. They should have them, and according to Sal, the new one will have them. This isn't a big deal, and I wouldn't call it problematic, but here's the simple facts: you can buy a Knife of higher quality (in my humble opinion), the same handle materials, blade steel, lock type, made at the same factory, with mostly the same dimensions, except WITH steel liners in the form of the Centofante--for no more money. Does it weigh noticeably more? No. In fact, I dare say it weighs slightly less, though that's just my in-hand feel and not tested.
Ultimately, both were fantastic--and both have room for improvement.
http://www.knifecenter.com/knifecenter/spyderc/images/sp78pbk.jpg
Centofante: Here's the real low price champion of the comparison. This knife has, in my opinion, the best FRN scales in the world today. They're grippy enough (could use more gripocity), theyr'e beautiful, look high end, and even feel high end. The chrome spyder on it helps stylistically, in my opinion. The handle is noticeably longer on the Centofante than the Natives, which is good if you, like me, have large hands. In fairness to the Natives, the choils allowed plenty of finger room that I do not find on other 3 inch folders (minigrip). This might surprise some people who have not handled with the para or centofante, but these two knives come very close in overall length. That is to say that although the centofante is thin and light, it's quite long, the longest of the bunch (except for perhaps the para).
The blade shape is gorgeous, one of my favorite blades in the industry, and made out of VG10. Very practical. The thumb ramp on the Centofante is the second best in the comparison, next to the para, both attractive and grippy.
The Delica was a great mix of features. The very simple handle shape was surprisingly ergonomic, even without the length of the centofante or the finger choils of the other knives. Furthermore, the scales were at least as grippy as the Natives', although they don't look nearly as nice in my humble opinion. The greatest strengths of the Delica were found in its carry profile. Very slim and very light, this or perhaps the Kopa is the easiest to carry. The spyder hole is normal sized, but isn't recessed, so it's pretty accessable. Physically, the Delica is much smaller in appearance than both the Centofantes and Natives (and obviously the Para) and will make a great EDC. Nonetheless, in this area, I must still give my vote to the Centofante overall unless you genuinely need added grippiness or a shorter knife (it's not much thinner, but this is still appreciable).
These last two are quite a bit more expensive than these other knives, which is something to keep in mind. By quite a bit, I mean well over twice as much. The question is, do you get 2-3 times the knife for 2-3 times the price? The simple answer is no. These two knives are inferior deals. But if you have the money to spend, they will reward you.
The particular Kopa I had was in the beautiful coccobolo wood handles. Stylistically, the Kopa is the clear winner here. It is also the smallest and least "scary" of all the knives reviewed, making it an ideal gentleman's folder. Also, as every non-knife person knows, natural handle materials make the knife far less deadly and thus very acceptable. Beauty and fit and finish will definitely be the first things you notice about the Kopa, and really, that's what you're paying for here. Like two other knives here, this one utilized VG10, one of my favorite steels. This knife is significantly shorter than the others here and much more pocketable. This knife includes a mild choil and feels great (size considered) in the hand. The wood, although not grippy in the typical sense, is more grippy than you might think at first. The contours for fingers worked well, and the short handle still managed to reasonably accomidate my relatively large hand. This knife is really out of place in this company of cheap, hard working knives and is the easy choice if looking for a gentleman's folder. Like the other lockbacks, this action is not particularly flickable, although the fully exposed spyderhole does help (as opposed to the recessed Native Spyderholes). However, I find the spyderhole looks a bit strange on this one for some reason when closed. I'd also like to say I particularly liked the pocket clip. Not especially in way of function, but in looks, it was quite beautiful. Metal clips are especially nice because they're so much more visually durable than painted ones in that they don't scratch up so obviously. Lastly, I'd like to mention that this knife is a bit heavier than it looks. I suppose it's the stainless steel areas of the knife. It really is functionally on par with the Centofante, Delica and Natives, in my opinion, but much prettier and more socially acceptable. This is the obvious pick when appearance is most key.
I found some good photos on Spyderco's forum comparing the size of the Kopa to the Delica and Native. As you can see, the vast majority of length lost in the Kopa is in the blade, not the handle, which in my opinion is a positive trait.
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/4687/nativekopadelicaclosed5am.jpg
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6247/nativekopadelica3om.jpg
This brings me to the final segment of the ultimate Spyderco EDC rundown. There are so many other knives I'd love to review here, the R, D'allara, Poliwog, etc, are all excellent choices that I just don't have access to right now. Hopefully I'll get a few hours with them in the coming year, and I'll create a more comprehensive (useful) comparison.
If the Kopa was the height of style and fit and finish in the rundown, then the Para must be the height of beefyness. The first thing you'll notice about the Para is its size. It's comparable in overall size to many of your four inch blades. Fortunately, it's not as heavy as it looks. But a big portion of the knife will definitely stick out of your pocket. Despite its comparable blade *length* to the other knives in the comparison, every single other dimension is increased. It's roughly as long as the Centofante and at least as thick as a Native. The blade is roughly twice as thick as its competitors. The Para has bilateral (although only partial) steel liners. Among three inch folding competitors anywhere, this knife will stand proud. This is my favorite knife, ergonomically. Imagine that they combined my favorite features of the Native's handle (choils) with my favorites from the Centofante (handle length) and decided to throw in G10 scales to seal the deal. It has a great finger choil, significantly more understated than the Natives (so people who don't like choils may not be quite so turned off by this knife), but you don't really need the extra grippyness when combined with the G10 scales and extra length (ala Centofante). Speaking of the G10 scales, these are some of my favorites, along with the 710 from Benchmade. A great balance of grippyness without too much harshness--no sandpaper here. For those who haven't had much experience with G10, I feel it has two great features. One, it's *tough*. My para has been beaten up and the handle just can't be damaged. I can't believe how tough it is. Whenever it gets dirty, I just run it under the sink and clean it up. Which brings me to my next point. G10 gets grippier when wet somehow. Other surfaces are just as good as G10 when dry, in my opinion, but in sweaty conditions (or otherwise wet), G10 begins to excel. The spine of the knife is by far the grippiest of the comparo, but it's also the most hideous. The fit and finish is noticeably marred in this particular spot and it looks like they marks were done sloppily or else left unfinished. Despite this, they will hold onto your thumb like there's no tomorrow. Due to the shape of the knife, when you apply thumb pressure, everything slips perfectly into my place in my hand, giving the best grip of any knife I've ever used. The Spyder hole is much larger than other spyderco's and this greatly improves ease of opening and flickability. I hope that this becomes a trend in future Spydercos.
The action of this knife is also far improved, thanks, in part, to the excellent compression lock. It can be flicked open AND closed, not unlike an axis lock. Supposedly, it is stronger than an axis lock, which I can't say, but if it's comparable, than I don't care. It isn't as easy to use, but it's very easy to clean, with its blow through sandwich design, which I really like. The compression lock uses no ball bearing, at least the newer ones, but it's still not perfect--it takes much less energy to open than even my ball bearing based knives (and definitely the rest of the line up). Of course, it's only offered in tip down, so this isn't that big an issue, but it is easy enough to open that I could definitely see it slipping out. The pocket clip here is excellent. I normally don't like painted clips, but this one is battle tested, with absolutely no scratches whatsoever. Whatever it is, this is the toughest I've ever seen.
When you need the toughest knife in this blade length and don't care about how big or heavy it is (it really isn't that heavy, to be honest), I have to recommend the para. This one is mine, and I'm biased towards it, as it has been growing on me since the day I bought it. It's very nearly *the* knife for me. But this is definitely not going to be a sheeple friendly knife. It's the polar opposite of the Kopa. Also, the Centofante (among others here) is a superior deal. You could buy two Centofantes and have enough left for a Kershaw Vapor. How tough do you need your knife to be? You could save enough money to terribly scratch up one of your work knives and have another in the drawer ready to go. But for me--the Paramilitary is my ultimate pick and my favorite Spyderco.
Native III + S30V Native: The first thing I noticed was that the Natives were surprisingly large, and the III being slightly larger than the other Native. The III's FRN handles look only so/so, but they feel great and are the grippiest of the two natives. In fact, next to the para and probably tied with the Delica, they were the grippiest scales of the bunch. The S30V Native had much more attractive handles, in my opinion, and looked higher quality, but the scales were noticeably less grippy. Again, the S30V Native is marginally, though noticeably, smaller than the other and you'll want to keep that in my mind if a thin knife you seek.
As expected, I loved the ergonomics of the Natives, and really enjoyed the positive grip the finger choil provided. I also think that, over all, it's a rather beautiful knife. Furthermore, the Native III is only ~40 dollars online, roughly the same as the Walmart S30V Native, but you can still buy from companies you like. (NGK)
The blade shape is pretty typical and should do fine for unspecialized jobs.
As usual with lockbacks, the action is slow. Worse yet, the spyder holes on both Natives are too small (which I think is true for the majority of Spydercos, after using the para) and they're partially recessed. I actually think that looks really good, but it does inhibit ease of opening. The thumb ramps felt good on both Natives, but neither provided especially great grip. Between the two, the Native III's felt (and looked) the best, but the S30V one was slightly grippier.
Neither Native has steel liners. They should have them, and according to Sal, the new one will have them. This isn't a big deal, and I wouldn't call it problematic, but here's the simple facts: you can buy a Knife of higher quality (in my humble opinion), the same handle materials, blade steel, lock type, made at the same factory, with mostly the same dimensions, except WITH steel liners in the form of the Centofante--for no more money. Does it weigh noticeably more? No. In fact, I dare say it weighs slightly less, though that's just my in-hand feel and not tested.
Ultimately, both were fantastic--and both have room for improvement.
http://www.knifecenter.com/knifecenter/spyderc/images/sp78pbk.jpg
Centofante: Here's the real low price champion of the comparison. This knife has, in my opinion, the best FRN scales in the world today. They're grippy enough (could use more gripocity), theyr'e beautiful, look high end, and even feel high end. The chrome spyder on it helps stylistically, in my opinion. The handle is noticeably longer on the Centofante than the Natives, which is good if you, like me, have large hands. In fairness to the Natives, the choils allowed plenty of finger room that I do not find on other 3 inch folders (minigrip). This might surprise some people who have not handled with the para or centofante, but these two knives come very close in overall length. That is to say that although the centofante is thin and light, it's quite long, the longest of the bunch (except for perhaps the para).
The blade shape is gorgeous, one of my favorite blades in the industry, and made out of VG10. Very practical. The thumb ramp on the Centofante is the second best in the comparison, next to the para, both attractive and grippy.
The Delica was a great mix of features. The very simple handle shape was surprisingly ergonomic, even without the length of the centofante or the finger choils of the other knives. Furthermore, the scales were at least as grippy as the Natives', although they don't look nearly as nice in my humble opinion. The greatest strengths of the Delica were found in its carry profile. Very slim and very light, this or perhaps the Kopa is the easiest to carry. The spyder hole is normal sized, but isn't recessed, so it's pretty accessable. Physically, the Delica is much smaller in appearance than both the Centofantes and Natives (and obviously the Para) and will make a great EDC. Nonetheless, in this area, I must still give my vote to the Centofante overall unless you genuinely need added grippiness or a shorter knife (it's not much thinner, but this is still appreciable).
These last two are quite a bit more expensive than these other knives, which is something to keep in mind. By quite a bit, I mean well over twice as much. The question is, do you get 2-3 times the knife for 2-3 times the price? The simple answer is no. These two knives are inferior deals. But if you have the money to spend, they will reward you.
The particular Kopa I had was in the beautiful coccobolo wood handles. Stylistically, the Kopa is the clear winner here. It is also the smallest and least "scary" of all the knives reviewed, making it an ideal gentleman's folder. Also, as every non-knife person knows, natural handle materials make the knife far less deadly and thus very acceptable. Beauty and fit and finish will definitely be the first things you notice about the Kopa, and really, that's what you're paying for here. Like two other knives here, this one utilized VG10, one of my favorite steels. This knife is significantly shorter than the others here and much more pocketable. This knife includes a mild choil and feels great (size considered) in the hand. The wood, although not grippy in the typical sense, is more grippy than you might think at first. The contours for fingers worked well, and the short handle still managed to reasonably accomidate my relatively large hand. This knife is really out of place in this company of cheap, hard working knives and is the easy choice if looking for a gentleman's folder. Like the other lockbacks, this action is not particularly flickable, although the fully exposed spyderhole does help (as opposed to the recessed Native Spyderholes). However, I find the spyderhole looks a bit strange on this one for some reason when closed. I'd also like to say I particularly liked the pocket clip. Not especially in way of function, but in looks, it was quite beautiful. Metal clips are especially nice because they're so much more visually durable than painted ones in that they don't scratch up so obviously. Lastly, I'd like to mention that this knife is a bit heavier than it looks. I suppose it's the stainless steel areas of the knife. It really is functionally on par with the Centofante, Delica and Natives, in my opinion, but much prettier and more socially acceptable. This is the obvious pick when appearance is most key.
I found some good photos on Spyderco's forum comparing the size of the Kopa to the Delica and Native. As you can see, the vast majority of length lost in the Kopa is in the blade, not the handle, which in my opinion is a positive trait.
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/4687/nativekopadelicaclosed5am.jpg
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6247/nativekopadelica3om.jpg
This brings me to the final segment of the ultimate Spyderco EDC rundown. There are so many other knives I'd love to review here, the R, D'allara, Poliwog, etc, are all excellent choices that I just don't have access to right now. Hopefully I'll get a few hours with them in the coming year, and I'll create a more comprehensive (useful) comparison.
If the Kopa was the height of style and fit and finish in the rundown, then the Para must be the height of beefyness. The first thing you'll notice about the Para is its size. It's comparable in overall size to many of your four inch blades. Fortunately, it's not as heavy as it looks. But a big portion of the knife will definitely stick out of your pocket. Despite its comparable blade *length* to the other knives in the comparison, every single other dimension is increased. It's roughly as long as the Centofante and at least as thick as a Native. The blade is roughly twice as thick as its competitors. The Para has bilateral (although only partial) steel liners. Among three inch folding competitors anywhere, this knife will stand proud. This is my favorite knife, ergonomically. Imagine that they combined my favorite features of the Native's handle (choils) with my favorites from the Centofante (handle length) and decided to throw in G10 scales to seal the deal. It has a great finger choil, significantly more understated than the Natives (so people who don't like choils may not be quite so turned off by this knife), but you don't really need the extra grippyness when combined with the G10 scales and extra length (ala Centofante). Speaking of the G10 scales, these are some of my favorites, along with the 710 from Benchmade. A great balance of grippyness without too much harshness--no sandpaper here. For those who haven't had much experience with G10, I feel it has two great features. One, it's *tough*. My para has been beaten up and the handle just can't be damaged. I can't believe how tough it is. Whenever it gets dirty, I just run it under the sink and clean it up. Which brings me to my next point. G10 gets grippier when wet somehow. Other surfaces are just as good as G10 when dry, in my opinion, but in sweaty conditions (or otherwise wet), G10 begins to excel. The spine of the knife is by far the grippiest of the comparo, but it's also the most hideous. The fit and finish is noticeably marred in this particular spot and it looks like they marks were done sloppily or else left unfinished. Despite this, they will hold onto your thumb like there's no tomorrow. Due to the shape of the knife, when you apply thumb pressure, everything slips perfectly into my place in my hand, giving the best grip of any knife I've ever used. The Spyder hole is much larger than other spyderco's and this greatly improves ease of opening and flickability. I hope that this becomes a trend in future Spydercos.
The action of this knife is also far improved, thanks, in part, to the excellent compression lock. It can be flicked open AND closed, not unlike an axis lock. Supposedly, it is stronger than an axis lock, which I can't say, but if it's comparable, than I don't care. It isn't as easy to use, but it's very easy to clean, with its blow through sandwich design, which I really like. The compression lock uses no ball bearing, at least the newer ones, but it's still not perfect--it takes much less energy to open than even my ball bearing based knives (and definitely the rest of the line up). Of course, it's only offered in tip down, so this isn't that big an issue, but it is easy enough to open that I could definitely see it slipping out. The pocket clip here is excellent. I normally don't like painted clips, but this one is battle tested, with absolutely no scratches whatsoever. Whatever it is, this is the toughest I've ever seen.
When you need the toughest knife in this blade length and don't care about how big or heavy it is (it really isn't that heavy, to be honest), I have to recommend the para. This one is mine, and I'm biased towards it, as it has been growing on me since the day I bought it. It's very nearly *the* knife for me. But this is definitely not going to be a sheeple friendly knife. It's the polar opposite of the Kopa. Also, the Centofante (among others here) is a superior deal. You could buy two Centofantes and have enough left for a Kershaw Vapor. How tough do you need your knife to be? You could save enough money to terribly scratch up one of your work knives and have another in the drawer ready to go. But for me--the Paramilitary is my ultimate pick and my favorite Spyderco.
