Serrations, cheap handles, big hole, expensive for what you get...these are what I mostly heard about Spydercos when I first came across them.
Back in the early 90's I had a couple of Benchmades, SAKs, Bucks, then I got a hold of a lot of Spydercos with the FRN handles, some pinned models, and all fully serrated. I hear what some people are saying here, and that tools should be judged for their utility, but I thought they were kinda odd-looking, and always thought the spydie hole detracted from what could have been a knife with nice lines and I just couldn't really get into them. I eventually ended up giving them away to a couple of my EMT buddies, and one still has the Police and Endura that I gave him.
Ever since I gave those first Spydercos away, I had never really given them a second look. I continually heard people saying that they didn't like the serrations (I still don't), the FRN handles feel cheap, the bump that's needed to accommodate the spydie hole ruins the lines of what would otherwise be a good-looking knife (I have warmed up to this), etc. I tended to lean towards these somewhat negative opinions until I decided, and quite hesitantly I might add, to take the leap and check out what the new Spydercos had to offer. I really liked the leaf-shaped blade of the Manix 2, and an orange sprint run popped up on the exchange with a package deal involving a re-handled Military. I figured what the hell, I'll get to see what all the fuss is all about. I received the knives, and immediately felt a big difference in the Manix 2 compared to what I remember of the older Spydercos that I had. Very smooth pivot, grippy G10, ambidextrous axis lock, a really nice knife. I promptly cut my finger when the blade fell closed. I was sold on the Manix2.
I looked the Military over, and assessed the situation. The knife was in pieces and had to be put back together. It was originally a Ti Millie, and the previous owner took it apart to use the framelock on his CTS-XHP Millie, So I had a Ti facing scale and brown G10 linerlock with the S30V blade. He had a hard time putting it back together, so the knife was sold as-is. Took it to my gunsmith, and he assembled it no problem. I tried to like it, but I couldn't get past the backwards-ness of the setup. A couple of weeks later, I was able to get an M4 Millie on the exchange. I put my Ti facing scale on it, and now I had a Ti M4 Millie with the new Ti RIL. Oh...Mah...Gawd... This was more like it! I carried this often, and had become my favorite knife to EDC. I saw a pimped Ti Millie for sale, and contacted the person who did the work, and made my almost-perfect Millie even better. Rounded the spine, etched the M4 blade, beadblasted the outside surface of the pocket clip, I put in standoffs in place of the backspacer, and changed the T6 torx screws to T8's since the original ones were prone to stripping.
I got that knife back almost 2 weeks ago, and since then I have gotten a Gayle Bradley, Digicam Para2, PPT, CF Lum, a Cat, a Ti Lum and another Ti Millie on the way, pre-ordered 2 blue M390 Para2's, and 2 M390 Millies. The aesthetics part of it was the biggest hurdle to get over, but these new Spydies make it easy. They might have a higher average price point than say, Kershaw, but the quality and innovation is there. I'm still not drawn to the ones with pinned construction or FRN handles though.
