which Sypderco to get for EDC

ginshun

ginshun

Joined
Apr 6, 2004
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Only Spyderco I have is the Spyderfly, but I would like to get a folding Spyderco fro EDC.

Which one would you guys reccomend?

Also, what are the fiberglass reinforced nylon hadles like? Are thye like Zytel? 'Cause if so, I will stay away from them, that stuff sucks.

Are they more grippy like G10?

Just wondering.
 
we could probably help you more if you gave us some price ranges and expected uses.
 
Zytel is a trademarked name for a fiberglass reinforced nylon. Many Spydercos handles are made from this very material. I wouldn't say that it sucks, in fact I'd say that it's an excellent material for a certain class of knives. It's tough, it's lightweight, and it's inexpensive which keeps the price of the knives down. Most FRN Spydercos are under the $60 price point.

I will however agree that it's not the highest tech stuff available, nor is it the best looking. It does look and feel kinda cheap. But for $50, an Endura with FRN handles is hard to beat. If you want G10, carbon fiber, and titanium, you're gonna have to spend more money.

For you, I'd suggest looking at the Manix (very big), Military (big), or Paramilitary (not quite so big). All have G10 scales and stainless steel liners. These are archetypical Spyderco knives, having similar blades and lines. If these aren't your style, there's about 7 bazillion other Spydercos to choose from. What do you want for handle materials? Blade style? Locking mechanism? Size? How much (or little) do you want to spend?
 
DaveH said:
we could probably help you more if you gave us some price ranges and expected uses.
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keep it around a $100 bucks.

And uses? Whatever I need it for. Probably nothing as heavy as the knife I get will be good for. More often than not it is probably going to be used for cutting string, boxes, ect. and cleaning my fingernails.

Possibly self defense should the need arise, but that is pretty unexpected.
 
GarageBoy said:
What's wrong with Spydie's FRN? It's very damn stiff
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I don't have a problem with Syderco's FRN in particular, just never really liked FRN/Zytel in general. It just feels cheap to me, and gets slipery when wet/damp in my experience. If I want the look, I will gladly spend the extra money to get a knife with G-10 instead.

Anybody tried the Persian? It looks pretty slick.
 
For around $100.00 I don't think you could do better than the MILITARY model (S30V plain-edged), if you don't mind a liner-lock folder.
And, although it is a large folder, it is not too heavy (4.2 oz) and rides in the pocket surprisingly well.

The Manix is very nice too but it's a bit too heavy for my taste in an EDC.

Good luck,
Allen.
 
ginshun said:
Anybody tried the Persian?
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Yes, I would prefer the Paramiliary from a utility perspective, but the Persian would easily handle the tasks you listed well, it also doesn't look nearly as "tactical" as something like the Paramilitary and non-knife people tend to respond better to it.

-Cliff
 
Calypso Jr. will change your mind about FRN and its pretty much a perfect EDC knife. For $100, you could get two of them...

Mark
 
Minjin said:
Calypso Jr. will change your mind about FRN and its pretty much a perfect EDC knife. For $100, you could get two of them...

Mark
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Absolutely correct, but can you still get them?
 
I've never been fortunate enough to use one, but the para military ranks very highly on my list.

The persion is a hot knife too. I really love Spydercos upper end. Now if they just had an axis lock ;-)
 
mili, para mil, manix, persian, whatever you end up with you'll love. spyderco is just an awesome product in general. I too am a zytel hater, but if your experience with frn is from something like a cold steel; withold judgement on spydies. I love my caly jr, awesome knife, and I even like the frn handle too.
 
manix or police/military.

police/mille if you want something lighter and sleeker.

manix if you prefer heavy and sturdy
 
the perian is a nice knife, it is heavy though, and also not too grippy. Its shape is awesome, and is a folding version of a fixed blade style that has been used in the middle east (hence persian) for hundereds (if not thousands) of years. It is a very comfortable knife to hold, just one piece of advice, when using the front choil, choke up on the spine (go above the hump), then it melts back into your hand...i found the front choil uncomfortable with my thumb behind the hole.

The paramilitary is a great light weight heavy user without too much blade. It or the millie really depends on what length you want (the paramilitary was designed to bring some of the militarys excelent features to a more city/state legal code accessable size. The manix is very similar in size to the strider AR, though it is smaller, it is still a tough knife. While the military has a longer blade, the manix is by far "bigger" the millie is a not as tall, with a clipped point instead of a dropped one, and its nested liners and open construction add to its light weight design of the millie.

Finally, if you like the persian but want something more heavy duty, check out the Chinnook II. Very similar in construction to the manix, however with a hollow grind for an even heavier blade, and an overal geometry that is similar to the persan's, but with G10.

Otherwise, take a trip over to www.spyderco.com and just look at the knives.
 
SS ATR is nice, manix is also nice, i like either better than the millie myself, police is also a good 1.
 
ginshun said:
I don't have a problem with Syderco's FRN in particular, just never really liked FRN/Zytel in general. It just feels cheap to me, and gets slipery when wet/damp in my experience.
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For a user I don't think FRN can be beaten - very light, very tough, very hard-wearing. I managed to break a couple of knives over the years, but never an FRN handle. I also don't think it gets more slippery than G10 when wet. Some of the Spydercos (like the Claypso Jr.) actually feel *less* slippery than most of my G10 knives.

Hans
 
I know there's really nothing wrong with zytel frn, but I just don't care for it. It's just a personal preferance issue. Now, there's always the option of the steel handles. You can get an SS handle endura, delica, native, or police, as well as many of their smaller knifes. There's also the Stretch with the rubber-inlayed steel handle(which I'm a big fan of) and the Persian with a micarta handle.
 
Spyderco Delica, Endura or Native III. Not as expensive as say, the Police, or Manix or Military, nowhere near as big, but all three can take a lot of abuse.
 
Open the Spyderco Catalog to a random page. Pin it to the wall, blindfold yourself, and toss a dart. That's your EDC, 96% of Spydies are good EDC's :D
 
To me an EDC folder should be affordable, replaceable should it get lost or damaged, not so big and bulky in the pocket to remind me all the time that it is there or cause me to have to reposition things just to get into the car or sit down somewhere, and also not so big as to scare people when I have to use it in public. It should keep a pretty good edge for when I need it and it should be easy to maintain both that edge and it's appearance.

As an added benefit it should be popular and desirable so that should I need to sell it I can raise a few bucks quickly in a pinch. Spyderco meets all these criteria with most of their line. Some like the Military, the Manix and Chinook are in the much too big category to be practical to me. But most of the line of knives is going to carry well. The Endura, for example, is light and slim enough to be hardly noticed when carried and yet it is not a small folder.

My personal carry has been a Salt 1 that I rebuilt the body on to suit my own tastes but it is still the basic same shape as the original handle. I just basically lined it with titanium to upgrade it. The Salt, Delica and the Calypso Jr. are all great EDC knives They fit into society well, and are legal most places for blade length limits. Another unconventional and often overlooked little big knife is the Dodo which is a high class knife in it's own right. I'd vote for any of these. The Dodo may be more challenging to sharpen but certainly not impossible.
 
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