Very dull NIB Paramilitary 2 Not really a huge deal...

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zingo156

Joined
Jan 26, 2015
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Let me say this is not a complaint but rather an unexpected occurrence. I expect to sharpen a knife eventually and many times, just not out of the box unless I am re-profiling.

I just got my 3rd Spyderco knife. I have a ffg Endura and another Paramilitary 2 both of those came scary sharp. This is the first knife that I would actually say is rather dull. It will not shave hair even with significant force (it will just turn the skin red), and will only cut paper on one spot of the blade, even at that spot it cuts very hard and catches. Even stabbing first through the paper and cutting the paper leaves an eaten up cut line, not a smooth slice... It was new in box. That said the rest of the build is spot on and perfect! The sharpness has been fixed with a 1000/6000 whetstone and a bit of stropping, I think I have a stropping addiction?

I got it from empire outfitters and I am very pleased with the quick shipping and a bit of taffy in the shipping box, who doesn't like a bit of sugar? Craig also left a hand written message of thanks for supporting his business. Thanks Craig!

I really can't complain, I love the knife, everything else is perfect, the centering on this blade is better than my other PM2 without doing any adjustments.

The PM2 remains my favorite EDC, now I have 2 colors to swap between. I have the black with satin and camo with satin blade combinations.
 
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Out of the 40+ Spyderco knives I have purchased - both on the forums and from Knifeworks and New Graham, the only one that came dull was a M4 Military. Their out of box sharpness is 99.9% awesome.
 
I agree. The reviews also suggest the vast majority of the time they are very sharp. This PM2 I wasn't even afraid of playing around with even without caution.

I do not expect perfection 100% of the time. It is impossible. The knife is still great and I would not take a star off for a dull blade. It took all of 30 minutes to make it razor sharp. Actually now I am sad I can't play with it the same way.
 
Keep in mind most non knife people would be blown away by how "razor sharp" that very same knife is. As you have demonstrated, most anyone unhappy with that level of sharpness is capable of making a sharper edge than any factory edge. That is why you hear so many here say they sharpen a new knife before ever cutting anything with the factory edge.
I must say though, as a rule Spyderco does factory edges consistently better than most other knife companies.
 
I would say definitely true, I like my knives scary sharp and generally sharpen them not long after getting them new, until now, my Spyderco's were the sharpest from factory that I have owned (my RD9 was close and was scary sharp especially for a large blade). What threw me off with this PM2 is when compared to my other Spyderco knives from the factory this one was quite dull. To give a better comparison, on my other PM2 when I had first gotten it, I made about 300 slices through double thick cardboard. I wanted to test sharpening and edge retention (it was my first S30V blade), even after that, it was sharper than this new one.

I consider it sharp when it shaves hair relatively easily, this new PM2 after trying many times took off maybe one hair and turned my arm red. With the other 2 I have when they were new, the same force I used with this new one on the hair shave test would have taken off chunks of skin and I would probably have some serious cuts.

Again, this isn't really a complaint more so I was just not expecting it from Spyderco.

I am certain some people would still have considered the edge "razor" sharp and you could certainly say I am picky about sharpness.
 
I've been pretty lucky, in the 25 years or so I've been collecting Spydercos, I've only had a couple that were unsatisfactory. I'd consider that good!
 
Nice to see that you simply sharpened it up to where you wanted it.

I personally don't care much about how sharp the knife is from the factory, as long as the bevels are even. I can work with a dull apex, but significantly uneven bevels irk me because I'd prefer not to reprofile right out of the box.
 
The bevels on this one are very good.

I have heard that you can send any spyderco back for free sharpening and while some people might do this, I hate to wait when I can do it myself, also practice makes perfect, no one gets great at sharpening without actually doing the work.

When I sharpened it, I finished the secondary bevel so it was as even as I could get it and now it cuts like I want it to. I think that is the main reason I sharpen my new knives after a week, I have a certain "sharp" that I prefer.
 
zingo156 said:
I have heard that you can send any spyderco back for free sharpening and while some people might do this, I hate to wait when I can do it myself, also practice makes perfect, no one gets great at sharpening without actually doing the work.
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You can definitely do this. A few years ago I had a Para 2 that had some screw issues right out of the box, so I sent it in to the shop. I also requested that they sharpen it again since the bevels were pretty uneven. Normally I'd just do it myself, but since they were already going to take a look at it... why not? They fixed it up, sent it back, and it was nearly perfect.

You might have to wait a little while, but I've found Spyderco's CS to be great.

zingo156 said:
When I sharpened it, I finished the secondary bevel so it was as even as I could get it and now it cuts like I want it to. I think that is the main reason I sharpen my new knives after a week, I have a certain "sharp" that I prefer.
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Yep, I like to wear down the factory edge as long as I can, touch it up a few times, then go to town on it to get it where I want it to be.
 
I traded for a PM2 off of a family member that was horribly dull from the factory. I traded it on here to a guy who said he could care less, he was just happy to own a PM2. That's the only dull Spyderco I can recall.
 
When a knife reaches large scale production, it is probably a lot harder to keep them all the same and guarantee sharpness. I am betting part of the problem is what the knife maker considered sharp I did not consider sharp. Maybe they have one person making knives that doesn't know what sharp is, or maybe they just forgot to do one final step in the process. I can tell you if I was making a knife and it was Monday morning and I had not had my coffee yet, I would probably not be making sharp knives. I'd probably forget to put the secondary bevel on it. Speaking of coffee...
 
It's kind of a nuisance to me because I want to take the knife out and start using it right away. I always prefer to reprofile the edge myself when I have the time, but I usually don't have the time until I am forced to sharpen it so I can use it.

So far every Spyderco that I've bought new has been very sharp.
 
I agree, definite nuisance, I was a bit disappointed it wasn't sharp. Nothing that can't be fixed easily at least. If anyone wants to know, I used a King Japanese whetstone to sharpen it. S30V seems to sharpen easily on my stone, I start wet and finish it with the other side which I leave dry.
 
As another stated, so long as the bevels are congruent I don't have a problem re-sharpening a bit either. I recently picked up a Military and it was lightsaber sharp out of the box. About 2-3 runs on an ultra-ultra fine DMT and it was ready to slice a hole through the fabric of time. The grind was near perfectly even.

I got a Manix XL a good while ago and it was not congruent. It remains to date the only Spyderco I have ever received that was not right. Just need to find time to send it back to the mothership.

The sprint run para-military 2 in brown G10 I got was g2g out of the box.

I tend to touch up the edge (if even necessary) on new knives before I use them.
 
I'm not sure why, Maybe they were trying to meet demand which has been extremely high but my PM2 wasn't as sharp as my Endura nor my son's Delica. I was thinking of not letting my son carry it due to the edge it came with. I'm very pleased with the edge retention of Spyderco's S30V blade but was expecting the same impressive arm shaving performance I had experienced with the two previous knives. I'm positive the person putting an edge on there knives are masters at their trade and may dial it back due to the extra time vs expectation of the average consumer. I can just see how this model of knife could have caused such scenario. You couldn't hardly find them for a short while which led me to this thinking.
Although I must admit The razor edge I've grown to expect straight from the box was a bit disappointing the fit, finish, and level of build was more than impressive. Just a thought.
 
A new knife should come "sharp" but many of us will sharpen any new knife anyway, so I don't mind too much.
 
No worries Sal. Since it only took 30 minutes for me to fix, it certainly wasn't a big deal. The overall build was otherwise perfect. I'd still gladly recommend and buy Spyderco knives.
 
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