Yojimbo 2 CPM-S90V / CF (review and pics added!)

[symphonyincminor]

After being out of the knife scene for over a year, I just placed an order with Knife Works for their exclusive carbon fiber / CPM-S90V Yojimbo 2.

Any owner opinions on this one? I've read every review I could get my hands on and have seen some fantastic things said about the knife, and some not so nice commentaries on quality control issues. My experience with Spyderco over the years has been exceptional - no real issues to report on the 30 or 40 models that have passed through my hands or ended up in my collection. Pretty darn good track record and a nice reflection on Sal's adherence to putting out high performance, quality products. My CPM-S90V Manix 2 came absolutely perfect from the factory - dare to say, custom quality at a production knife price. Hands down the nicest piece in my collection, including my customs.

This Yojimbo sprint seems to tick all the hallmarks I look for in a premium knife.... textured carbon fiber, highly wear-resistant stainless tool steel, one hell of a strong lock, thin edge geometry (I'm a sucker for hollow grinds), excellent ergonomics, lightweight, and the best opening system in the business. I wonder why they're still in stock? $200 seems like a deal to me for what you're getting. Usually the sprints sell out fast and furious.....

Just looking for some opinions, observations, pictures, or banter to hold me over until it arrives.

 

[Razzle]

I purchased mine strictly for the possible need as a defensive backup, but quickly discovered that the handle and blade shape made it an excellent every day use knife. Super sharp, great ergos for me, I use it for everything from food prep to cutting up boxes.

And I love the ease of sharpening, the straight Wharncliffe blade makes it very difficult to round off the tip.

Mine is getting its own set of Sketchen scales, in either white paper or green linen micarta.... I love the knife so much, she deserves some fancy shoes! (even though the stock peel ply scales are fantastic!)

 

[rwdata]

I absolutely love mine. It is my primary EDC and is used daily. The quality is excellent, it carries very well and is sharp as a scalpel. I use it at restaurants with no one eyeing me like an axe murderer. It really is a beautiful quality knife.

 

[Havoc5J]

At first the handle didn't fit my hand well at all, but I took some sand paper to it and now it fits me like a glove. I was never a user of the Pilipino grip before this knife, but I constantly find myself trying to replicate this grip on my other knives. The thumb on spine position just feels very natural. The straight Wharncliffe slices like a dream and is a very utilitarian shape. Despite its low tip strength it's become my favorite blade shape due to its very responsive tip cuts. The awesomeness of the compression lock speaks for itself.

The only reason I don't carry mine all the time is that it's such an aggressive looking knife. Where I live, you can't pull out a SAK in public without attracting negative attention. The Yojimbo's shape is just more visually aggressive than I'm comfortable using.

 

[RJ80]

I really like mine for typical office uses like opening packages, etc. I didn't buy it with defensive uses in mind, to me it's just a really nice utility knife. Fortunately I don't really have to worry about coworkers freaking out because it looks too scary, everyone at work has a knife on them. I would have preferred a different carbon fiber pattern than the peel ply, but that's personal preference and it is very grippy. The one I have now is my second one. The first one had a bit of vertical blade play, so I contacted Knifeworks and they had me send it in for a replacement. (Great service from them) The second one is perfect, but it wasn't quite sharp, a few minutes on the Sharpmaker fixed that.

 

[tvenuto]

I absolutely love mine. It is my primary EDC and is used daily. The quality is excellent, it carries very well and is sharp as a scalpel. I use it at restaurants with no one eyeing me like an axe murderer. It really is a beautiful quality knife.

+1 on every comment here, although I haven't felt the need to use it in a restaurant yet. Mine came with slightly uneven bevels, but you really have to scrutinize to tell. Otherwise centering, sharpness, detent, lock-up, and every other thing you could ask of the knife are perfect. I didn't have a Yo2 before this one, and I'm seriously considering getting the stock version because I love this one so much, way more than I thought I would. I bought at the preorder price of $230, and I still feel like I got a deal with how awesome this one is for me. Homerun.

 

[SpeedHoles]

Unbelievable utility knife.
Self defense to me may just be a bonus, regardless if it may have been the primary design purpose or not. Added plus is you're giving everyone a big thumbs-up as you hold the blade out proudly, lol. :thumbup:


Peel ply CF is one of my personal favorites and I'd like to see it available on more knives... very low-key and grippy, and not as racer-boi tacky as some CF out there.

I also cannot beleive how much of a bargain, IMO, these are! Can't find any other S90V/peel ply CF blade in the line up for $200!?! And I've seen the G10 go for $100 (very quickly I might add) @ KW. I have one of each version.


S90V/CF:

S30V/G10:

 

[symphonyincminor]

Well, the knife came in about a week and half ago and I've been carrying it ever since. Here's come thoughts:

Fit-and-finish: I had the great folks at Knife Works hand pick a nice example and it certainly doesn't disappoint. Grind lines are clean. Came perfectly centered. Really solid lockup, but if I grab the blade by the very tip I can detect a little side-to-side wiggle, but it's almost unnoticeable and isn't a big deal at all. All the internal components are crisp and nicely-machined. The screws are all flush with no surface imperfections or stripping, and they all came Loctited which is a nice extra from the factory and saves me time from doing it myself. Overall the knife is extremely well-finished and I couldn't be happier.

Design: Right away, it struck me as a very unorthodox design. It took me about half a day to warm up to the ergonomics, locking system, and overall idea of the knife. At some point something "clicked" and it all made much more sense. It's really a design you have to get in your hands and use to fully appreciate all the fine details that went into designing it. Although this is first and foremost designed as a fighting knife, but it fills the role of a utility knife very well. The Wharncliffe style blade isn't at the top of my list for utility designs (I like some belly to my blades), but it should accomplish most tasks that I ask for in a knife.... a kitchen knife, this is not. This is currently the smallest knife in my collection, as I prefer larger knives like the Military, Chinook, Manix 2 XL, etc., but it sure does fit a lot of blade into a relatively small handle. I love hollow grinds, and this one is ground nice and thin, although ascetically I would have preferred a flat grind like on the original Jojimbo.

Ergonomics: The ergonomics seemed a little weird when I first got the knife, as I'm used to bigger blades. For reference, I have about medium-sized hands. There's 2 main ways I found myself using the knife: the first is placing the thumb on the jimping at the front of the handle and allowing my fingers to fall into place. The groves cut into the handle are very well thought-out and placed in the correct areas, although there's not a lot of surface area near the rear of the handle, and while I can get all four fingers on the handle, I found my pinky looking for a little extra gripping area when placing my thumb on the jimping on the handle. The other way to hold the knife was the intended way: thumb on the spine of the knife. It fits like a glove in this position and it feels most natural this way. The blade stock is really thick and makes this grip very comfortable for the thumb. A little extra handle length would have been nice, but I know they tried to make this design as small as possible while maintaining the original design intent. Overall, ergonomics are very good for a smaller knife.

Locking mechanism: The Compression lock is one of my favorites, due to it's simplicity and robustness. The tolerances have to be spot-on to get the locking liner to nest properly between the lock face and the stop pin. It's a fun locking system to play with, as I've probably spent more time opening and closing the knife than actually using it. After applying some Militec-1 to the pivot, the blade drops and swings freely when you have the locking liner disengaged. The tension on the lockbar is really, really strong. This makes for a great detent - no matter how hard you shake the knife, there's no way the blade is coming out. Overcoming the detent to open the knife was a little difficult when I first got it, but after lubing and flicking the knife open probably several hundred times, it loosened up to where it's very smooth. Lockup out of the box was about 30%, and it hasn't moved at all. Very happy about that and a testament to the tolerances on the locking mechanism.

Materials: CPM-S90V is a stainless tool steel with extremely high wear resistance. I don't have a lot of experience with the steel, so I can't comment on edge retention yet. The edge from the factory was "toothy" and would hang when slicing copy paper, but only a handful of swipes on a ceramic rod had the knife screaming sharp. Very reassuring because I know how hard some of these super steels can be to sharpen. Peel ply carbon fiber is my favorite material for knife handles: it has the coolness factor of carbon fiber laminate combined with the grippy texture of G-10. The carbon fiber pattern looks mesmerizing in certain light and is also very utilitarian, being lightweight and extremely tough. Top shelf materials on this one.

Clip: This is a ridiculously strong clip, mechanically-speaking. I noticed a small gap below the screw holes when placing the knife horizontally near a light source (if that makes any sense) and OCD got the best of me. All I needed to do was slightly adjust the angle of the top of the clip to get it flush with the scales, and this thing is really, really hard to bend. It took my about 5 minutes and lots of force to slightly adjust the angle of the top of the clip. Now it sits completely flush with the scales, and this taught me that this clip design can take a lot of bending force with no real degradation to the tension. Cheaply made clips bend very easily, but Spyderco put a lot of effort into getting the heat treat right on these hourglass clips. The tension is really good, not too strong as to make the knife hard to draw from the pocket. I ended up converting it to tip down carry because I did not like the fact that there isn't a lot of surface area to grab when the knife is configured to tip-down carry. I'm a lot happier with the tip-down configuration and the clip doesn't bite into the hand or make the knife feel uncomfortable when gripping it.

Overall impressions: Highly recommended. You get a lot of knife for the money. Premium materials, fantastic design.

 

[Razzle]

Excellent review.

Only thing I did to make mine perfect for me was to sand down the CF on the right side so as to have full access to the Spydie Hole.

Other knives are getting SketchenScales.... this one will also, eventually. (I'd have to let Steve have it for a week, just can't be seperated that long right now!).

 

[Evany]

Great photos, symphonyincminor! Makes me really want one, and I didn't think I was interested in these knives. Damn, wish I hadn't looked at this thread.

 

[Wolverine666]

It's my fave knife of all time.

 

[SaintlyBrees]

It's my fave knife of all time.

Mine too. This knife is easily my favorite, and most used, knife in my collection. I have nothing bad to say about it.

I bought mine when KW first released them and it has only grown in favor with time and use.

And, OP, great review. Thanks for taking the time and effort to put it together and share it with us.

 

[symphonyincminor]

Here's a little update after carrying it exclusively for a few weeks:

The steel is amazing! I have a few CPM-S90V Spyderco's in my collection, but this is the first I've EDC'ed and used. So far it's seen it's good share of cardboard, slicing apart burritos, and opening up USPS boxes of more knives. I've only had to touch it up once on ceramic rods and it takes a fantastic edge without a lot of effort. I wouldn't want to re-bevel this steel, or let it get so dull it needs diamond hones to re-set the microbevel, but for occasional touch ups it's super easy to maintain and holds a great edge. I like it a lot more than CPM-M4.... it seems to take a keener edge with a lot less effort. I would be interested in seeing the RC hardness Spyderco uses on this steel.

I've warmed up to the ergonomics a lot. I have to admit it was a little weird at first, but I knew it was going to be a smaller knife so there would be a little adjustment. They sure do fit a ton of blade in such a slender handle. For reference, my 2 favorite Spyderco's in my collection are a Gen. 1 Chinook and the CPM-S90V Manix 2 XL. Both knives fit my hand like a glove, so much so that's it's scary. So the Yojimbo 2 seemed a little small at first, but after a week of carrying and using, the ergonomics clicked. Those with big hands (I have medium-sized hands) might find it a tad small.

The Wharcliffe blade style excels at most tasks, but I still prefer the belly provided by a leaf-shaped or spear/clip point blade. I find myself using the very tip of the knife to made very precise cuts, which it does very well. Sometimes the knife will hang on heavy duty cardboard, but that's just the nature of a hollow grind on fairly thick blade stock. For shallow cuts, it's extremely efficient.

I was able to tighten the pivot ever so slightly to remove the almost minute amount of side-to-side wiggle. It still drops freely once the lock is disengaged, but only about halfway where you need to manually close the knife after it drops. Lockup is absolutely bank vault tight. The knife has a very 'mechanical' feel to opening and closing the knife.... very, very smooth but lot super loose where the tolerance stackups cause the knife to feel wonky (hard to describe the feeling). I love the way the lockup sounds when it engages!

Overall, I can't recommend this knife highly enough. I've extremely nit-picky when it comes to these things and I can't find any faults at all (those are simply observations based on personal preference above, not knocks against the knife or its design).

I think it's a bargain at the $200 price point. There's quite a few knives on the market with carbon fiber + super steel at or above $200, but I would chose this over every single one (I could provide a list but most of you are already aware of these models). The locking system seals the deal for this design - the Compression Lock combines the simplicity of a single locking liner, with the strength benefit of the stop pin and lockface creating an extremely heavy duty locking system. It's quickly becoming my preferred locking system, and as an added bonus, it's fun to flip open and closed.

Great job Sal and company, and Knife Works too for bringing us this sprint run. :thumbup:

 

[Michael Janich]

Thank you all for your enthusiasm for the Yojimbo 2. I'm very glad you enjoy the design and hope your knives serve you well!!!

Stay safe,

Mike

 

[gitarmac]

That might be my next knife. I use a dodo at work, the yo seems like it would be a very versatile and useful design. I don't understand how it would be any better at defense than any other design. It seems like it would be a poor stabber.

Is it just something that scares the sheeple?

 

[BluegrassBrian]

It's been my edc for about a month. Don't think I can add anything that hasn't been said. Highly recommended.