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Vastly underappreciated Sage 4

L

lambertiana

Gold Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2000
Messages
9,526
I was looking for a knife with desert ironwood scales, and decided to spring for a Sage 4. This knife gets virtually no attention on the forums, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. Fit and finish are outstanding! Of all my Spyderco knives, this may have the best overall build quality (my collection includes a number from Golden, Taichung, and Japan - Moki). Granted, most of these do not have the most figured wood, but overall I love it.






 
The 4 is my favorite of the sage series. The 3 doesn't appeal to me so I've never tried one but I've had all the others.
The sage 4 has a bit of extra heft and handle thickness that I appreciate and fit/finish in my example were on par with the other Taiwan offerings (impeccable).

You're absolutely right about it being underrated. Enjoy yours!
 
The lockup on mine is VERY solid. The lockbar clicks in very loudly and assuredly. The ironwood must also be very hard because the bolsters on mine are scratched some, but the wood is still fine.
 
I love desert Ironwood and I love bolsters. Major turning off point of Sage 4 for me are screws on the bolster and scales.
 
I love the build quality of my sage 1 & 2. But as much as I like the lockback and the SS/ironwood combo, I think the Sage 4 looks strange with the bolsters taking up half the handle. If the bolsters was only 1/4 - 1/3 of the handle, I would own one. Also not a huge fan of the screws through the bolsters
 
I really like the execution of the lock back mechanism on the Sage 4. There is a hidden stop pin embedded in the blade tang. It travels through an arc-shaped cutout in the liners to give the blade a solid feel when opened.
I wish that Spyderco would do the same trick on all of their lockback models.

-nate
 
I really dig this Sage. I love the addition of the wood scales and the bolsters, but I'm not a really big fan of lockbacks. That being said, I'm not totally against the lockback. I think though that Spyderco could have done this knife a little better with out the screws, and also think that since the screws and clip are there they could have made them stainless to at least match the bolsters and blade. The black just throws the whole thing off for me.
 
i've always liked lock backs, from the buck 110 to the endura. however, my taste is gradually shifting to liners and frames for one reason only: the stop pin. it's stronger when making hard cuts or when making a sudden chopping motion. i'm not sure whether or not a shallow back lock can offer enough resistance.
 
Don't let that stop you Hank. As Nate mentioned, the sage 4 and the chaparral models actually have hidden stop pins. The examples I've had of each felt very solid.
Here's a picture of a chaparral. (Not mine)
1zqbqmv.jpg
 
Last edited:
spketch said:
Don't let that stop you Hank. The sage 4 and the chaparral models actually have hidden stop pins. The examples I've had of each felt very solid.
Click to expand...

Agreed!!
This knife is extremely solid. The internal stop pin totally decouples any opening force from the lock bar.
The result is that you don't experience any blade movement during hard cuts.

Likewise, lock strength for lockbacks has been proven out in numerous side-by-side tests of various other locking mechanisms.
So overall it's a pretty stellar example of what a lockback knife should be, and I wish that Spyderco would implement these same features on all of their other lockback models.

-nate
 
zkiller195 said:
I love the build quality of my sage 1 & 2. But as much as I like the lockback and the SS/ironwood combo, I think the Sage 4 looks strange with the bolsters taking up half the handle. If the bolsters was only 1/4 - 1/3 of the handle, I would own one. Also not a huge fan of the screws through the bolsters
Click to expand...

The length of the bolsters is in tribute to Al Mar, whom is credited with the development of this particular style of the back-lock(IIRC it's technically a "front-mid lock" here??). Many of his designs had bolsters in this proportion.
 
I have one and I like it a lot. I don't see anything wrong with the size of the bolsters. The black screws stand out against the titanium, and sure they could have used shiny screws there, but it doesn't bother me.

The fit and finish is great, except around the wood scales. They are just a hair or two smaller than the liners. You have to expect that with natural materials.

I hope Spyderco will make the sage 4 again with new scales, like they did with the sage 3.
 
I have mine. One of the most beautiful knives in my collection. I agree with you that this knife does not get enough attention.
 
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