Will Spyderco ever change the way they make knifes in the future

The Urban is an upcoming knife which will be modular. The plan (as far as I know) is to have different scales and even blades sold seperately, mix and match to get what you want. If it sells well, maybe the concept will be expanded.
 
aj1985 said:
Guys i'm really not looking to buy other knives. I'm just wondering why SPYDERCO CAN NOT OFFER GRIPS OR SCALES AS A ADD ON FEATURE THAT WE CAN JUST BUY FROM THE WEBSITE IF WE SO CHOOSE TO.

take care

aj

p.s i wasn't yelling when i used the capslock just made it that way so everyone could read it better. :D
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For Spyderco, a 42 person operation, they would have to move over into the JIT manufacturer model. They would have to carry less inventories and set up a web page were the customer would go online and choose the available handles/preferred materials on the knives. The benefits would cut down on the secondary markets sales for Spyderco, but the con would be less secondary sellers marketing/selling your product. Since you are ordering a customized version, it might negate the need for knife dealers and .com business. Spyderco would shift operations to an online pre-order basis and significantly reduce the cost of inventory of finished product. Obviousely, they would perform the cost analysis to measure the cost of this type of production versus carrying finished product in inventory. This might create delays until they would be able to batch enough orders together to produce a run for a particular knife. The larger the company, the more dollars are allocated to technology that would make this process of "customizing" cheaper. I agree, it would be very cool if we could custome make/personalize our knives on line. Once you do that, forget about selling it.
 
dragonram7 said:
For Spyderco, a 42 person operation, they would have to move over into the JIT manufacturer model. They would have to carry less inventories and set up a web page were the customer would go online and choose the available handles/preferred materials on the knives. The benefits would cut down on the secondary markets sales for Spyderco, but the con would be less secondary sellers marketing/selling your product. Since you are ordering a customized version, it might negate the need for knife dealers and .com business. Spyderco would shift operations to an online pre-order basis and significantly reduce the cost of inventory of finished product. Obviousely, they would perform the cost analysis to measure the cost of this type of production versus carrying finished product in inventory. This might create delays until they would be able to batch enough orders together to produce a run for a particular knife. The larger the company, the more dollars are allocated to technology that would make this process of "customizing" cheaper. I agree, it would be very cool if we could custome make/personalize our knives on line. Once you do that, forget about selling it.
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let me just say i appreciate the input.

Look at the Endura, Delica, Police, Civilian, Lets say these are all pretty much flag ship type models. When i see them i think of Spyderco and they all have been around for a good while. I'm not sure, but probably each has been released in Carbon fiber or G10.

I'm a student automatically means I'm poor:D. So can't Spyderco just make Grips a limited amount like a couple of thousand for people who don't like S.S. handles in Carbon fiber & G10. It's much harder for people to go find carbon fiber models or G10 models. Much easier to just buy handles and replace it themselves.

On your last comment though look at Santefestoneworks, or pimped striders or Sebenzas, even waved spydercos by makers. People do buy these don't they.

take care

aj
 
aj1985 said:
Hey dave

Simply i would just like to buy any knife i wish in SS handles from Spyderco, And that i can choose to order micarta, G10, or carbon fiber scales from them.
aj
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Why stop there? How about FRN, wood, bone, etc. And each handle should be available in Black, brown, purple, blue, green, red, orange, yellow, white, and of course PINK. If you don't want SS handles, DON'T buy knives with SS handles. What seems like a simple request is not really all that simple. There are many stuctural issues with folding knives also.
 
oli said:
Why stop there? How about FRN, wood, bone, etc. And each handle should be available in Black, brown, purple, blue, green, red, orange, yellow, white, and of course PINK. If you don't want SS handles, DON'T buy knives with SS handles. What seems like a simple request is not really all that simple. There are many stuctural issues with folding knives also.
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I pretty sure you can read in my earlier post that i would just like better handles . Well i guess you must know quite a bit regarding structural issues so please explain away. I never said it was a simple request, and i'm just wondering if someone can explain it to me properly why it can't be done. If custom makers can take a knife and machine by hand these grips can't a company find some way as well. I only asked for G10, micarta & carbon fiber and no more than that. I'l be happy with just one of those choice if they were to happen.

By the way it was my first folder from Spyderco, and stop with the don't buy S.S handle knives. I asked a question and hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge than you or me can answer. If i have a problem with a car should i stop buying those all together as well:D.

take care

aj
 
For FRN, moulds have to be made, and those cost a heck of a lot from what I've heard, so there's got to be a demand for them to be made. For stuff like the Delica which already have FRN handles, the problem is lessened somewhat, but for SS handled knives, the question is, can Spyderco sell $10,000 worth of handles (not whole knives)?

I don't know how SS handles are made, but Micarta, G-10 and CF should be relatively interchangeable, just different milling bits?

Now someone please correct me on the last part.
 
Will Spyderco ever change the way they make knifes in the future
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Of course they will, technologies change, tastes change, laws change, and there's much truth to the old saying "the only constant in life IS change". Will they change to meet your personal vision of knife nirvana, or mine? Probably not. Spyderco made a G-10 version of the Police, it was discontinued due to poor sales. The ATR was dropped from the lineup due to poor sales. Would retooling to make it as G-10 handled compression liner lock and resurrecting it make it a wiiner? Probably not.

Far as the idea of "user changeable" handles, IMHO, the D4 and E4 have proved conclusively that the possession of screwdrivers should be restricted to fully trained and licensed technicians. Of course, even before they were introduced, the number of complaints about buggering clip screws and inquires as to how to remove a barrel bolt clip gave us a fairly good clue as to the number of "mechanically challenged persons" in our ranks.

As has been said before, you do have options, there are a number of people who do an excellent job of re-handling Spydercos.
 
dragonram7 I think covered it well enough. To offer multiple handle options, they would either have to be kept in stock, eating up floorspace, or knives would have to be made to order. If you make a mistake in predicting demand, you end up tying up a lot of cash in stock that no one is buying. I don't think Sal wants to pay rent on buildings that merely store knives no one wants to buy because they don't like the handle. If you do things by custom order, you can't have many intermediaries downstream, you build what the customer wants and ship it to them. Now you're hanging on individual orders to keep you afloat instead of shipping out cases of knives to distributors. If you can't deal in volume, you need higher margins on each sale. Do you want to pay more per knife above the cost of the different handle material? Now Spyderco has to sell to a slightly different segment.

there's more risk & uncertainty

They could set up a custom shop, but that's not much different than farming out the work on your own. It wouldn't be cheaper.
 
exchangable handles on a knife remind me of the sunglasses "fad" with several tinted lenses that you can choose to slip into the frame... real "trendy" IMHO....
If I want a nonslippery folding knife....I certainly don't pick a SS handle one and expect it to feel like G-10.... :rolleyes:
 
dragonram and hardheart did a god job of explaining the difficulties.
If I might add another it comes down to a complete redesign of their entire lineup. Spydercos (particularly the lockbacks) are not made in such a way that many users can competently take them apart and put them back together. That is why their warranty and many other knife makers warranties are very explicit in this action voiding their coverage of the knife. While I know that many on these forums do disassemble and reassemble their knives successfully, our membership makes up a small piece of the knife purchasing public. I would be really interested to know how many people send in parts to Spyderco even with the explicit warning to have them put back together. I would think that that number would rise exponentially if it were encouraged. This doesn't take in to account what liability risks spyderco would assume when someone put together their knife in a way that keeps it from operating properly and they cut themselves.
To sum this up spydercos in their present form are not designed in such a way that many can take apart and assemble them safely. They would therefore have to be redesigned in such a way that spyderco and their legal department could feel safe from a liability point of view or they would have to design them with something like inserts that could be changed out without disassembling the locking mechanism. Either way is an extremely costly option and to be honest with you the few knives that I have seen produced with interchangeable panel in their grips have never sold well. Benchmade came out with a few IIRC. They are no longer available.
Hope that helps explain things a little better.
 
TLR said:
dragonram and hardheart did a god job of explaining the difficulties.
If I might add another it comes down to a complete redesign of their entire lineup. Spydercos (particularly the lockbacks) are not made in such a way that many users can competently take them apart and put them back together. That is why their warranty and many other knife makers warranties are very explicit in this action voiding their coverage of the knife. While I know that many on these forums do disassemble and reassemble their knives successfully, our membership makes up a small piece of the knife purchasing public. I would be really interested to know how many people send in parts to Spyderco even with the explicit warning to have them put back together. I would think that that number would rise exponentially if it were encouraged. This doesn't take in to account what liability risks spyderco would assume when someone put together their knife in a way that keeps it from operating properly and they cut themselves.
To sum this up spydercos in their present form are not designed in such a way that many can take apart and assemble them safely. They would therefore have to be redesigned in such a way that spyderco and their legal department could feel safe from a liability point of view or they would have to design them with something like inserts that could be changed out without disassembling the locking mechanism. Either way is an extremely costly option and to be honest with you the few knives that I have seen produced with interchangeable panel in their grips have never sold well. Benchmade came out with a few IIRC. They are no longer available.
Hope that helps explain things a little better.
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well you really did explain it quite well & i do very much appreciate it. Well i guess thats it i didn't realize it would be tough for regular people to assemble or disassemble their spydercos, because i hear often how many people try and do different mods on their spydercos.

take care

aj
 
Glad that helped. Unfortunately we live in a litigation crazed society who rarely take responsibility for their own actions. It didn't used to be this way but now companies (particularly like spyderco and many other knife manufacturers who in the scheme of business are fairly small) have to be very cautious.

TLR
 
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