After wandering somewhat randomly thru my Spyderco collection recently, pocketing whatever knife appealed to me on a certain day, today I chose a knife that has appealed to me from day 1, the Tropen.
It's been a controversial knife ever since it was released in Jan, because of the fear mongering over the dreaded 1/2" of exposed edge in the closed position but I have yet to be cut on that edge (or in any other way) by this knife. The blade shape is also off-putting for a lot of people who don't "get" what this knife is all about.
This is knife designed specifically as a SD/fighting knife. You can see this from the upswept blade, designed well for both slashing and stabbing. The shallow swale on the spine which can used for certain block/capture knife fighting techniques. The long handle, both ends of which can be use to make non-bladed blunt force strikes (like you would w/a kubuton) when closed, the rear end only when open; and, of course, the wave tab, which enables quick out of pocket deployment. It is also notable that the handle was designed so that it could be held comfortably and securely in both a conventional and reverse hand grip; just another indication of its actual purpose.
Lastly, I like the fact that the knife can be opened in 5 different ways; far more than any other folding knife that I know of (whether made by Spyderco or not) using: 1) the flipper, 2) the wave tab from the pocket, 3) the Spydie hole or wave tab w/the thumb, 4) a vertical gravity flick or 5) a horizontal wrist flick; the last 2 methods enabled by a relatively (but not too) light detent common to Taichung made Spyderco knives. The very attractive polished G10 (reminiscent of "old school" micarta) and the polished clip (reducing evidence of pocket wear) are just extra cherries on top of all of the other great features designed into this knife.
Definitely one of my favorite knives made by any company, not just Spyderco, and I'm going to carry it for more than just a day or 2, like I have been doing w/the others.
