Tired of Spyderco Lack of QC

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I think the blade centering closed, is a bit hit and miss with Spyderco, but it is with B/M, too.
I have a lot of perfectly centered Spydercos, as this picture of my EDC, Chinook shows..
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In fact looking through my knives, I'm finding a lot of perfectly centered blades (also perfect G-10, no marks on the blades at all) as this SuperHawk shows, and the F/G 95 Manix, with a Ti Military.
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I recently had an issue with a Delica 4 I received as a gift. I took the clip off to try and switch it around, decided I like the original position more, and tried to put it back on. Only I couldn't, because the screws had stripped. I didn't have to use much pressure, and didn't see any evidence of loktite on any of the screws on the knife. Of course, a quick message to customer service, and a few days later I have replacement screws and a pocket clip securely fastened to my knife.

Having said that, it's rare that I find an issue with the Spydercos that I've bought. The times that there was an issue, it was almost always cosmetic. As far as the stripped screws go, I have to wonder if it is a vendor issue, rather than a Spyderco issue. I can imagine a couple shipments of bad screws would go a long way.
 
jill jackson said:
Barong, also perfect in all other ways...
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The recent threads made me take out all my Spydies and take some group photos. I also spent a little extra time looking over the blade centering and overall F&F. Things look pretty good.
 
Well first I would say that complaining about those issues on a $40 knife is well.... My Ontario Rat 1 wasnt perfect either. Now lets talk about my Benchmades all over $100 including my Gold class CPM M4 Griptillian. I have never seen a more disgusting lack of edge sharpening by a commercial company in my life. Their bevels suck. Spyderco to me is a gold standard, NOT A SINGLE DULL BLADE from factory and to me that is ten times more important then if my blade is a bit off center. To me from what you say:

1) Blade off center but not scratching on the liners
2) G10 scales with slight scratches, a material that will get scratched up anyways
3) Screws stripping, well surprise that can happen on any folder, and its happened with other brands easily for me


All this leads to a knife that out of the box will open easily still, and slice the heck on first time out of the box

Benchmade

1) dull freakin blade
2) did i mention dull blade
3) oh yeah they all have a dull blade

Leads to a pretty knife that cant cut even paper out of the box.... hmmm let me think what I will stick with...

And BTW FWIW... my upper end Spyderco, such as my Gayle Bradly, I would put up on fit and finish against most of my customs
 
arijer said:
Benchmade

1) dull freakin blade
2) did i mention dull blade
3) oh yeah they all have a dull blade

Leads to a pretty knife that cant cut even paper out of the box.... hmmm let me think what I will stick with...
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That is pretty distressing that a knife came from the factory with so many different problems. :confused: I can't help but noticing, though that this multitude of issues can be solved in one simple step: Learn to sharpen. :D
 
Just to share my experiences, I own about a dozen Spydercos and they are all perfect, except for my Stretch 2. It has an uneven grind (not the edge, the blade itself) which gives the appearance of an off-center blade. Strangely enough, this is the third Stretch I've owned with the same exact problem, while all my other knives have been perfect.
 
cziv: sorry guy, but it's gotta be bad karma, or sumthin'
i worked in a knife shop for 8 years and own a few spyderco's myself.
i've always admired their attention to detail and workmanship.
never saw anything like you're describing, and i've handled 100's of 'em.
call the company directly. i'm sure they'll set things right.
mfg's need to have feedback on quality issues; that's how corrections get made.
ps- do yourself a favor and buy benchmade's "blue box" tool kit. it has all the bits you need to adjust/tighten most folders.
 
arijer said:
Well first I would say that complaining about those issues on a $40 knife is well.... My Ontario Rat 1 wasnt perfect either.
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My Ontario Rat-1 folders were both perfect and still are after batoning firewood and much practice survival skills play. :thumbup:

But I didn't come complaining about a Resilience, even though I took it apart 4x's last night (using the right mixture of hex wrenches and torx bit) trying to stack the 4 washers in some combination that would center it - no luck though.

If you read the OP -
habitual offenses in all of my Spydies from 3 Militarys to a Police 3
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you see my latest beef is with the Military which I won't recount for you. You'll have to go to page 1 and read about it. :D
 
I have 67 Spyderco knives and never had a problem with a single one of them. I did buy a paramilitary on the secondary market once that had an off centered blade but it was a well used knife so I don't know the history behind it.

I have noticed though on the Chinese line Tenacious/Persistence that the clip screws are cheap and the head strips easiliy. Other than that, I have never had a QC issue.

Funny though, I got on a kick last year and wanted to try something different. I bought 4 Benchmade knives (small grip, large grip, Vex and 940) and out of them all the only one that didn't have some type of problem was the Vex and small grip*scratches head*.

Problems on the 940 was pretty bad side to side play and dull as a butter knife. The Grip had side to side play as well. I tightened it every couple of days for 2 weeks and finally had to go get some lok tight to keep it from loosening up.

That was kind of a turn off for me after all the good I had heard about Benchmade. A few months later I grabbed up a large Bonecutter that was perfect in every way.

Not really posting the Benchmade stuff as a bitch as much as trying to convey (and I never thought I would say this as I can be pretty anal about knife quality) that certain tolerances are acceptable and I truly think we expect higher standards for production knives than are reasonable sometimes.

Anyway sorry that you haven't been happy with your purchases. Do you buy from one dealer or several? I thought that you mentioned Cutlery Shoppe. I have bought multiple knives from Jeff and he is top notch.
 
No, I buy 95% of my knives from another very excellent company but for my last Spydie (I keep saying this) I have it ordered from CS and Jeff is going to be removing it and inspecting it before shipping it.

Side to side play is a Benchmade thing - at least on their axis locks. Lock-Tite or plumber's tape on the pivot screw seem to be the preferred way to cure the problem. :)
 
cziv said:
No, I buy 95% of my knives from another very excellent company but for my last Spydie (I keep saying this) I have it ordered from CS and Jeff is going to be removing it and inspecting it before shipping it.

Side to side play is a Benchmade thing - at least on their axis locks. Lock-Tite or plumber's tape on the pivot screw seem to be the preferred way to cure the problem. :)
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Jeff is outstanding. I just remembered back when I had bought a CF Caly III from him and it had a little rub mark where the knife opens and closes. If it had been a user I wouldn't have even mentioned it. I wrote him and told him that I was keeping it as a safe queen and he gave me a perfect replacement and was just great about the entire thing.

He even said that he would not be reselling the knife and told me he just got himself a new user. Good people at CS!!!
 
Liveitloud said:
Jeff is outstanding. I just remembered back when I had bought a CF Caly III from him and it had a little rub mark where the knife opens and closes. If it had been a user I wouldn't have even mentioned it. I wrote him and told him that I was keeping it as a safe queen and he gave me a perfect replacement and was just great about the entire thing.

He even said that he would not be reselling the knife and told me he just got himself a new user. Good people at CS!!!
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That's great news. If things work out with him, I'll have a new "go to source" for Spydercos. I want a Para 2 also - just the G-10 S30V model but it's so much nicer and improved according to YT videos and pictures than the Para 1. I like the new handle and blade which should accomodate pretty good size hands.

I'm not a big collector and usually have no more than about 20 - 25 folders, they come and go in trades, sale, gifts. One thing is constant though. We laugh at the non-knife people who wouldn't spend more than $10 for a carnival or swap meet folder but I think when you get up in the $100 and over range for a folder then you should get a beautiful example of the knife. They are, after all just "pocket knives." :)

3 weeks to go until my Demko custom gets here and I just picked up a sweet XM-18, so I have new toys to last until Spyderco releases these two folders.
 
cziv said:
That's great news. If things work out with him, I'll have a new "go to source" for Spydercos. I want a Para 2 also - just the G-10 S30V model but it's so much nicer and improved according to YT videos and pictures than the Para 1. I like the new handle and blade which should accomodate pretty good size hands.

I'm not a big collector and usually have no more than about 20 - 25 folders, they come and go in trades, sale, gifts. One thing is constant though. We laugh at the non-knife people who wouldn't spend more than $10 for a carnival or swap meet folder but I think when you get up in the $100 and over range for a folder then you should get a beautiful example of the knife. They are, after all just "pocket knives." :)

3 weeks to go until my Demko custom gets here and I just picked up a sweet XM-18, so I have new toys to last until Spyderco releases these two folders.
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The 3 dealers that have given me outstanding service for Spyderco products are Jeff as mentioned, Knife Works (quickest shipping ever to Texas) and Jim Howe at Howes Knife Shop. You should really check that site out. Jim is awesome!! He loves Spyderco and is very good at getting back to you to answer questions or concerns. He has actually moved to the top of my list lately for knife purchases. He also has free shipping which is a plus!
 
Liveitloud said:
The 3 dealers that have given me outstanding service for Spyderco products are Jeff as mentioned, Knife Works (quickest shipping ever to Texas) and Jim Howe at Howes Knife Shop. You should really check that site out. Jim is awesome!! He loves Spyderco and is very good at getting back to you to answer questions or concerns. He has actually moved to the top of my list lately for knife purchases. He also has free shipping which is a plus!
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One of those dealers is where I buy most of my production knives from, including the latest screwed up Military in my OP, a Police 3 with blade badly off centered and G-10 scratch, which I ended up selling.

I returned the Military for replacement which either gets you a new knife, also, reimburses their shipping fee & your return shipping fee too. They didn't give me either one credited, I see on my CC statement only the base list price refunded. In fact, I was going to call Monday and have an argument about that probably. :rolleyes:

God probably is telling me I have enough folders! :D
 
I'm a huge Spyderco junkie and still prefer them to BM 90 percent of the time, not that theres anything wrong, I just like their somewhat efficient and oddball designs that come out.

But I will say that their QC is a bit out of whack.

Leafstorm that had vertical play out of the box.
Paramilitary that had a very difficult and clicky lock even after 4 months of dedicated usage on a daily basis.
Endura was perfect
Paramilitary 2 was perfect
Native was perfect
Millie Ti was BARELY off centered, but didn't care. Centered blades become off center quickly after real use anyway unless you're buying harder use knives in my experience.

That being said I like their designs and I'll still recommend them. Probably the only knives I've ever used that don't require constant pivot adjustment. They care more than most knife companies as well and lets not forget, they have their own bloody forum that they pay for just to find out about this kind of stuff. Please post your experience there where it will certainly matter more and be critiqued and picked apart much less.

BUT, I will tell you this right now, Spyderco has a factory seconds program. That makes me feel a little better about their QC if I just fingerpoint all my minute problems to the possibility that these might be the origins of a few blades.

But yeah telling people about your problem and then hearing about 50 other people's fervor about how good their experience were is never good. It's like dating a girl you hate and hearing her ex bf's stories about how awesome she was to them.
 
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