It could be a real factory second, but I've never known of Spyderco sending a second's knife out that ugly. I think it is a fake. It has several things that make me think that. One is the missing letters, the hole drilled through them. Two, the words are on the wrong side. Three, the pivot seems to be out too far. Four, the jimping seems a bit odd or something in that last picture. Five, the blade looks out of proportion (but that could be the camera angle). I can see Spyderco getting one thing wrong, but not that many and some of these are big mistakes. My verdict: fake being passed off as factory second.