What do people like about the Dodo?

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kgriggs8

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I am not starting this thread to bash the Dodo even though I will say now that I never liked it. I have had two over the years and both found homes with people that loved them. I give all the Spydercos a try and I like to try out new designs but the Dodo never got any love from me for various reasons. Now I see there a cult of Dodo fans that really like this knife and I wonder what I am missing.

Here are some things I didn't like:
Short blade
Reverse S blade
Large when folded and takes up plenty of room in the pocket
Ball lock was hard to unlock
Tip up only carry (edit, I meant tip up but wrote tip down)

Here are a few things I want a knife to do that the Dodo couldn't do well:
1. Cut a sandwich in half, impossible.
2. Stab a hole in a plastic bucket, harder than with a inline tipped blade.
3. Cut an apple or other fruit, not the best blade for that.
4. Cut tie wraps, can be done but I didn't like the way I had to use the blade to do it safely.
5. Open mail, it is no letter opener.

There are a bunch more things that it didn't do well and only a few things that it did as good or better than a normal knife. So what is the appeal? What is the benefit of the Dodo over say a Centofante 4? The Cent 4 has one of the more useful blades ever put on a production knife IMHO. I carry a BM 921 Switchback which has a very similar blade the Cent 4 and I almost never find myself wanting more.
 
1) I find the oversize handle gives me more positive control over the blade (I bought my first one shortly after a slip with a Delica nearly removed the tip of my little finger)
2) The reverse S blade excels at opening the ever-present clampaks that everything seems to come in these days. Once the tip penetrates, the inside curve slices the plastic with less tendency to slip out of the cut.
3) I open my mail with a Dodo all the time. It works as well on envelopes as it does on clampaks.
4) I find the ball bearing lock quite easy to unlock with either hand.
5) Mine is tip up only. I wish it were tip down, but I can deal with it.
6) My uses are primarily as a utility knife, and some of the things I do regularly are simply much easier and safer to do with this knife than any other I have found.

If you have any more Dodos you don't want, send 'em my way :D
 
Keep in mind that it is a very specialized tool. It has SD and utility purposes and is designed to do that well. The ergonomics are the best of any smaller knife of any brand that I have even felt. It's meant for cutting: rope, drywall(in worked well), cardboard, and many other materials that could be found in a shop.

All the things listed can't be done great with just one knife. The Dodo is specialized and tailored to particular uses more so than many other Spyderco's. You either like it or don't. I think mine(Black, SE) is one of the better knives Spyderco has produced over the years.
Yablonowitz said this much better than I did.

mmmotorcycle
 
I have a PE blue one. Its neat and all...... But I often hear it called a small knife which I plain just don't get. Small blade yes large handle. The handle is longer wider and heavier then a Delica.

IF you have to live/work with a 2 inch blade then it makes great sense, if you don't I feel many will carry the same size package but with a bigger blade or if the want a small blade match it with a smaller handle for easy carry .

Its fans really like them though.
 
Funny, many of the things you don't like I find makes the Dodo great.

A short (legal and job required) blade, the S-curve gives it great slicing ability, and a handle big-enough to actually grab and control the blade when cutting.

I admit the sandwich cutting issue is important - that test usually means I carry an approximately 4-inch blade as I use a subsandwich as the test criteria standard media.

Personally, I never quite get this 1:1 handle:blade ratio thing so many go on about. Give me a handle I can grip first, be-darned the blade length.
 
I like that the handle is larger than the blade and the reverse s-curved blade. For some reason I find that this blade shape works extraordinarily well on small blades for me. True that I cannot cut a sandwich, but the Dodo is not the only blade I carry.

The handle is very comfortable, and the wire clip is just icing on the cake. I also like the ball lock... wonder why Spyderco doesn't use it on more knives? The ball lock is almost as easy to unlock as the Axis, you just dig your thumb in and you can use it just like you would an Axis.
 
kgriggs8 said:
I am not starting this thread to bash the Dodo even though I will say now that I never liked it. I have had two over the years and both found homes with people that loved them. I give all the Spydercos a try and I like to try out new designs but the Dodo never got any love from me for various reasons. Now I see there a cult of Dodo fans that really like this knife and I wonder what I am missing.

Here are some things I didn't like:
Short blade
Reverse S blade
Large when folded and takes up plenty of room in the pocket
Ball lock was hard to unlock
Tip down only carry

Here are a few things I want a knife to do that the Dodo couldn't do well:
1. Cut a sandwich in half, impossible.
2. Stab a hole in a plastic bucket, harder than with a inline tipped blade.
3. Cut an apple or other fruit, not the best blade for that.
4. Cut tie wraps, can be done but I didn't like the way I had to use the blade to do it safely.
5. Open mail, it is no letter opener.

There are a bunch more things that it didn't do well and only a few things that it did as good or better than a normal knife. So what is the appeal? What is the benefit of the Dodo over say a Centofante 4? The Cent 4 has one of the more useful blades ever put on a production knife IMHO. I carry a BM 921 Switchback which has a very similar blade the Cent 4 and I almost never find myself wanting more.
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You Are so lucky:D , The Dodo is discontinued:( :mad:
Arnon
 
I meant tip up carry, I edited that part. I am not really all that fussed about tip up or tip down, it is just that some knives fit in the pocket better in some directions. For example, I think the Manix feels better in the pocket in tip down carry than in the tip up. The curve of the handle or the rest of the knife will tell you what way the knife will fit best.

arnon,
Take your 26 posts and jerking off avitars somewhere else. If you are not going to add anything to this topic, you are just taking up space.
 
The Dodo excels in certain areas, and lacks in others, obviously. It's not an all purpose blade like the Endura or Manix, that can do more or less any folding knife task, so if that's what you want, the Dodo isn't for you.

What it does excel in is cutting things apart, no matter how tough they are, with minimal effort and very controlled cutting while being a total masterpiece of ergonomics. I own two of them, and they have never let me down or been topped in cutting ability by any knife I've ever taken to work.

I'm a person that always has at least two, and usually three knives on him. I always have a larger utility blade like the Military or perhaps a Delica, something small, like my Lava, and either a Dodo or something fully serrated for a cutting job a little rougher than cardboard or paper.

So yeah, it's not geared toward some EDC uses, and I would probably never carry it exclusively except to work, but it does what it was meant to do, and it does it exceedingly well, to the point of being "Greatest Designs Ever" material in my opinion.
 
J85909266 said:
The Dodo excels in certain areas, and lacks in others, obviously. It's not an all purpose blade like the Endura or Manix, that can do more or less any folding knife task, so if that's what you want, the Dodo isn't for you.

What it does excel in is cutting things apart, no matter how tough they are, with minimal effort and very controlled cutting while being a total masterpiece of ergonomics. I own two of them, and they have never let me down or been topped in cutting ability by any knife I've ever taken to work.

I'm a person that always has at least two, and usually three knives on him. I always have a larger utility blade like the Military or perhaps a Delica, something small, like my Lava, and either a Dodo or something fully serrated for a cutting job a little rougher than cardboard or paper.

So yeah, it's not geared toward some EDC uses, and I would probably never carry it exclusively except to work, but it does what it was meant to do, and it does it exceedingly well, to the point of being "Greatest Designs Ever" material in my opinion.
Click to expand...

This post pretty much sums it up for me. Alot of the things that you're looking for in a knife don't fit what the Dodo was designed for IMO. You can't blame the Dodo for not being able to cut fruit or sandwiches effectively when it has such and short blade length and specialized blade shape. It's clear that the tip wasn't designed for stabbing. So I understand why you wouldn't really like it, but if you used it for cutting large amounts of cardboard, I think you'd be voting for the Dodo over other knives that may fit what you described (like the Military).

Arnon,

Your post is really a waste of space. I don't see any good reason for it. The only reason for that post that I can think of is that you don't like the fact that he doesn't like the Dodo(?). Unless you're a commie, what's wrong with him not liking what you like?
 
To be honest, the DoDo cuts and cuts and cuts. Very well. Not sandwiches, not fruit, but I have an 8" Al Mar Chef for that.

My main attraction to the DoDo was the fact that it has a full-size handle and a mini-blade. Not all of use need or want or can even legally carry the latest 3.5-4" pigsticker. Some of us need something that has a large, ergonomic, safe handle but a blade that won't garner unwanted attention. The DoDo did this better than, I feel, any other knife yet.

Also, the knife is completely and totally ambidextrous, G10, and S30V. Why wouldn't someone be attracted to this?
 
I pulled out my Dodo at work (big box home improvement) to cut something open for a customer, and he said "wow, that thing was just made to cut!" That pretty much sums it up.

I cut cardboard, twine, plastic bands, tape, paper, cloth, etc. etc. It chews it all up and spits it out in two pieces. That's what I love about it.
 
kgriggs8 said:
arnon,
Take your 26 posts and jerking off avitars somewhere else. If you are not going to add anything to this topic, you are just taking up space.
Click to expand...

I took the :jerkit: from my post. sorry it was there, it was not ment to be there... my bad..:confused:
Be Well ARNON :thumbup: 27
 
I think the Dodo is a hit mainly because of the handle design, i'd readily accept that the blade shape limits it's applications.


Spyderco may or may not reintroduce the Dodo, but i could see them using the handle design for other molds.
 
arnon said:
I took the :jerkit: from my post. sorry it was there, it was not ment to be there... my bad..:confused:
Be Well ARNON :thumbup: 27
Click to expand...

I just want to apologize to Arnon for my response to his first post in this thread. I misunderstood what he was saying. I apologize for jumping to conclusions Arnon:o .
 
Arnon sent me an e-mail and I want to apologize as well. I kind of slammed him when I should have just let it slip. Sometime we get touchy over a simple misunderstanding. In any case, all is forgiven on my end and I want o welcome Arnon to the forums. Sorry about that dude!

Back to the Dodo, do you guys think it is a highly specialized blade or does it have more uses than I am aware of.

When I had one, it did seem to cut a few things really well. The clamshell thing comes to mind. It has a pointy tip yet it is curved in like a claw. This design allows you to puncture something and then pivot the blade slowly so you can control the force of the cut. There is a built in lever in the blade. A highly upswept tip is the exact opposite. It is a slasher and you can lose control of it.

I guess everyone uses a knife differently and has different things they need to cut. That is why they make so many different blade shape. For me, a pointy 4" Warncliff blade is close to ideal for most tasks I need to accomplish.
 
kgriggs8 said:
Arnon sent me an e-mail and I want to apologize as well. I kind of slammed him when I should have just let it slip. Sometime we get touchy over a simple misunderstanding. In any case, all is forgiven on my end and I want o welcome Arnon to the forums. Sorry about that dude!
Click to expand...

thanks Arnon :) :)
 
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