What are your favourite plastic handled lockbacks?

Cosmic Superchunk

Cosmic Superchunk

Joined
Jan 28, 2001
Messages
3,709
With all the new locking mechanisms out there and all the high tech materials used like titanium and carbon fibre, it seems that Zytel or thermoplastic lockbacks are overlooked. What are your favourites?

Mine are:

Spyderco Endura
Spyderco Calypso Jr Lightweight
Spyderco Native
Benchmade Ascent 830
Benchmade Ascent II 831
SOG Autoclip
SOG Magnadot
Cold Steel Gunsite II
Gerber EZ-Out
Gerber Magnum
Gerber LST
 
Spyderco Dyad. It's nice having both a plain-edge, AND a full-serrated blade in the same folder.:).
 
The Calypso Jr. is king, what with the fishy scales and flat-ground VG-10.

I have a soft spot for the blue Delica, though.
 
spyderco Native(not owned, but tested)
spyderco Delica(2yrs and just like new)
calypso jr lightweight on order
 
Mine would have to be the now discontinued Wayne Goddard lightweight by Spyderco.
 
Native FRN all the way!
Gerber LST
Calypso Jr Ltwt

I tend to think that I'll like every Spyderco lockback I try. Vive la FRN!
 
Spyderco Native 440V
Spyderco Calypso Jr. Lightweight
Spyderco Cricket
SOG Autoclip(large) TiNi coated.*

*Here is something interesting I did with the TiNi coated SOG Autoclip:
I carefully ground the edge off my Autoclip's blade until I could see nothing on both sides of the blade except the TiNi coating. Then I re-ground the edge on the right side only(~20 degree angle) leaving the TiNi coating all the way to the edge on the left side of the blade. This gave the 440A blade the cutting longevity of a much higher end steel. I took it out and cut 1/2" manila rope over 100 times without re-sharpening. The actual count was over 100, but I cannot recall the exact number of times it sliced on that edge.
 
Spyderco Calypso Jr Lwt! The scale pattern is a bit unusual and very functional and that thin flat ground VG-10 blade is a slicing machine. When I showed my first one to my Dad he looked at it without saying much, rolled it around in his hands several times, reached in his pocket and pulled out a quarter. Dad handed me the quarter and folded the knife and put it away in his pocket saying, "It's bad luck to give a knife to someone, thanks!"
 
any spyderco lightweight clipit. Endura, delica, native, rescue, calypso jr., the benchmade ascent series is decent, as is the cold steel voyager series, but spyderco takes the prize in design and quality.
 
Of course I loke my Spydies, but I also think that there's a dark horse contender - Meyerco. Their FRN handles feel really tough, if not really ergonomic. They even put ATS34 in FRN! I also like the new countoured CS Voyagers.
 
My fave plastic-handled lockbacks are:
from Spyderco: (in no particular order)
Delica
Endura
Ladybug
Dragonfly
(I don't own a Calypso Jr. lwt but mention it anyway)

And from Cold Steel:
medium clip point Voyager
large clip point Voyager (both plain edge)

Jim
 
It's hard to go wrong with either the Spyderco Delica or Calypso Jr.Lightweight. Zytel definitely isn't my favorite handle material, but those two knives are both outstanding.
 
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