Anthony S
Saint Louis, Mo

Sep 14, 2016

Pros: Weight, Ease of Opening, Blade Material

Cons: None

Spyderco C199TIP

all around a great knife, light weight, great steel

Jorge
Florida

Sep 01, 2016

Pros: Weight, Blade Material, Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Pocket Clip

Worth the wait

Spyderco knocked it out the park.

Brandon
Alberta

Jul 20, 2016

Pros: Weight, Ease of Opening, Pocket Clip, Blade Material, Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Lock Ease of Use

Everything I thought it would be!

I have been waiting a very long time for this knife to hit the market and I was thrilled when it did. When it finally arrived I was ecstatic. It looked amazing, as my friend described, "the edges are so ridiculously clean it looks like a 3D render of the knife rather than an actual knife." I love the pattern on the handle as well, because it adds an element of interest to an otherwise bland handle. The blade is fantastic, very solid and it came hair whittling sharp. With S90V I know that it's going to be a lot of work before that edge needs to be looked at again. One thing I was afraid of was that I'd have difficulty flicking the knife open 'spyder flick' style but this knife is very easy to open using that method. The only downside, one that I was fully expecting, was the lock stick. It was very strong when I first got the knife and I couldn't even close it with just one hand half the time! However, a week of carrying it and flipping it open and closed constantly has smoothed things out a lot and I now have no problem with lock stick. Don't get careless when you're flipping it open and closed, though, because I'm not lying when I say that blade comes sharp. Got a pretty nasty nick due to my carelessness. Absolutely a fantastic knife, a great addition to any collection and an incredibly sturdy build for an EDC, or even a beater if one were so inclined. As for me, I'm adding it to my EDC rotation.

Chris A
Fort Worth, TX

Sep 09, 2016

Pros: Ease of Opening, Handle Material, Overall Quality

Cons: None

Amazing Integral

Absolutely amazing action with great lockup, perfect centering, and no stick. I'd prefer a full flat ground or hollow ground blade but it still cuts well. Incredibly smooth with fall-shut closing. In handle retention isn't as high as a flipper would be but I've had no issues with that. Get it while you can.

Sean
MO - Missouri

Sep 06, 2016

Pros: Weight, Ease of Opening, Handle Material, Overall Quality

Cons: None

Knife is Great, KC is Better

You've seen the reviews and heard the things (lock stick, no loackbar insert, etc). Sure, there may be problems, but KC and Spyderco should take care of you. I use this knife sometimes in my edc rotation. The first one I received had extremely early lockup. So early that it wouldn't lock up. Sent is back to KC as defective and they had another one out to me right away, they even inspected it beforehand to make sure it would be a good one. The knife had lock stick for a whole 10 minutes. Lockup is solid and doesn't look like it will move, the handle finish is amazing. The knife is thinner than expected, but doesn't feel dainty. I thought I would want a more "custom" looking clip, but the spyderco clip looks pretty good. Only real complaint I have is that I wish the blade was either satin or stonewashed. This acid stonewash opens the blade up for corrosion. In all, it's a great knife when you can get a good specimen, and KC is willing to make that happen.

Jason
Austin, TX

Aug 30, 2016

Pros: Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Lock Ease of Use

Nirvana

The Spyderco Nirvana is an amazing integral knife. Initially this knife had a very strong detent that has worked itself in. It also had a period of lock stick and a lot of lock tension but after I applied silver sharpie to the lock face multiple times the knife completely smoothed out overall. The lock disengages easily with no stick whatsoever for those concerned with that. This is one of my favorite knives and Spyderco hit it out of the park. If you enjoy Spyderco you'll appreciate this blade very much.

Jon B.
Idaho

Jun 17, 2017

Pros: None

Cons: None

Reviewers stop using lubricants on your lockbar.

You can't completely fault the knife company for making this knife the way they did without a steel lockbar insert If you've been putting lubricants on the d**n lockbar. The reviewer that said he used oil, galled the lock face for sure. You use compounds or graphite like mentioned but not in conjugation with oil ever. Be careful the oil doesn't run down the blade onto the lockbar either. I'm sorry this isn't super relative to this knife. I just don't find it fair to fault the knife design when it's user error that's not allowing proper break in. The knife is an awesome design wit some great features for sure. There's a reason why not everyone has had a bad experience with this knife, the ones that haven't are the ones maintaining their knives the right way and breaking them in the right way. The 4 and 5 star reviewers

William
Grand Rapids, Mi

Jul 13, 2018

Pros: Weight, Ease of Opening, Handle Material, Pocket Clip, Blade Material, Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness

Cons: None

Yahoo!

Beautiful and functional in every way, and it will be part of my daily rotation and used for all sorts of tasks. Some of the other reviewers here spoke of terrible lock stick, but not on this one. Beautiful, ergonomically great handle that fits my hand like a glove and is nice and thin (I usually don't like handles thicker than about .56"); blade very sharp out of the box; no lock stick at all; firm lock-up; no blade play anywhere; good strong detent but not too strong; useful jimping, as one would expect from Spyderco; very functional pocket clip that slides well into and out of the pocket. Great job, Peter Rassenti, Spyderco and Knife Center. P.S. No, I don't mind at all that it's made in Taiwan. I have a bunch of great knives from Reate, Maxace, Kizer, Bestech and WE. It's now a global society, folks.

Si Mon Loco
USA

Apr 04, 2018

Pros: Weight, Ease of Opening, Handle Material, Pocket Clip, Blade Material, Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness

Cons: None

Don’t Believe the Hype

Fit and finish is outstanding! No lock stick, sharp and beautiful.

Rex
Bear, De

Jun 03, 2018

Pros: Weight, Ease of Opening, Handle Material, Blade Material, Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Lock Ease of Use, Pocket Clip

Love this Rassenti

I really love this knife, it has such a solid feeling about it, quality is great and it is such a beautiful knife. The only issue is lock stick which can be solved by applying oxguard, also use frog lube or something similar to prevent rust. I am also not a big fan of the pocket clip,other than that this is best knife I have ever handled. This is an expensive knife and should be taken care of, after I got this had to get the Paysan as well, integrals are just truly next level.

Richard
Albuquerque, Nm

Aug 29, 2016

Pros: Ease of Opening, Handle Material, Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness

Cons: None

Beautiful knife and unique!

This is a beautiful design. The handle is the thinnest I have ever seen, there is not an ounce of extra material anywhere. It was very sharp right out of the box and it functioned perfectly from the first, as good an open and close as I could hope for. The reason I gave it a 4 is that my blade and handle are covered with light rub marks all over. I have never seen a knife finished like this in almost 50 years of knife collecting. I don't know if the marks happened during manufacturing or what. The blade is a gray color and looks coated with something, also new to me. I have stone-washed blades but they look way different. Anyway, it is beautiful and it works beautifully, how much more can I ask for?..

Ryan
Myrtle Beach, Sc

Apr 12, 2018

Pros: Handle Material, Pocket Clip, Blade Sharpness

Cons: None

Sebenza competition

Good knife not great. Everyone is trying to compete with the Sebenza but NO ONE is trying to make a BETTER Sebenza. Why not improve on the shortcomings of the Sebenza? Namely the WEAK nature of the frame lock. Even CRK is not improving on their design. The Inkosi is one that is close but does it wrong. This is just another reach for that market with a haphazard attempt...

Richard R
Albuquerque NM

Sep 07, 2016

Pros: Weight, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Lock Ease of Use

Beautiful but disappointing

I have two of theses and this is my second review. The knife is beautiful and sharp. My problems are with the lock. First it would not open one-sided. Now it opens fairly well but I cannot move the lock-bar with one hand to close it. I have cycled the lock-bar five to six hundred times and tried two lubricants to see if anything helped, so far nothing helps. I have another Spiderco with the same problem and it has never closed easily. It is really sad to have a knife like this one and not be able to use it, but at least my other one works perfectly.

Ian M
Oklahoma City, Ok

Jul 15, 2016

Pros: Blade Material, Overall Quality

Cons: Lock Type

Disappointing

Everything about this Chris Reeves / Rick Hinderer / Lionsteel priced mid-tech knife made in Taiwan should skyrocket this folder into the hall of fame. The single piece construction, stone washing, and accent cuts on the handle are stunning. BUT, there's no freaking steel lockbar insert. Meaning it's titanium lockbar on s90v steel: lock stick. Lock stick for days. I've tried to work it out like my Farid knives. But this sabenza caliber knife refuses to smooth out on the chris reeves lock it borrows from. I'd send it back, but it's such a fantastic folder. I'm just flummoxed by the lack of a steel lockbar insert. I just don't understand how a $400+ knife comes without one, or hasn't been calibrated to operate smoothly out of the box. I'll keep using oil and graphite powder to wear down the lock surface in hopes that it eventually becomes an EDC. But for now the lock stick requires two hand to operate the action. Such a disappointment from a knife that took spyderco almost 2 years to release. The lock stick makes it unreliable therefor I can't carry it. And $400 knife or $30 knife I buy them to carry them. It should be an embarrassment that this one can't be used as a easy use cutting tool.

Randomnick
Colorado

Jul 26, 2017

Pros: Ease of Opening, Handle Material, Blade Material, Overall Quality

Cons: Lock Ease of Use, Pocket Clip

Cool Design - Poor Execution

This knife is hard not to like but impossible to love. It's disappointing that Spyderco stepped into the "high-end production" price range as a test with this particular knife...because it doesn't fully represent who would buy something at this price point from them considering it's shortcomings. Pros: Nice action (Kind of. Read on in the negatives.) Good finish. Feels good in hand. Solid feeling in every way: built like a brick. I'll throw S90V here despite the fact that I don't like it. Pain in the ass to sharpen and too prone to chipping...but it is a "high end" steel and a decent choice at this price. Cons: Lock stick. Bad. Mine is over a year old and I flick it around fairly frequently and have attempted to use it for quite some time. I have no lubricant on the lockface...it isn't user error. This thing just locks up and refuses to let go sometimes. Quick 10 flicks (right now) result in: 5 disengages that I can feel and hear the stick but it's not a major concern. 3 disengages where if I were pressing on the back of the blade to disengage it - I would have sliced my finger. I learned that early with this knife...it'll stick unexpectedly when you disengage the lock and suddenly you're putting way too much force on the blade to shut it and it SLAMS shut on your thumb. 2 disengages where it took two hands to disengage. No joke. It locks up so hard you can bruise your finger trying to disengage with one hand... Blade shape. It's terrible. It is more a wedge than a blade. Anyone who owns one contemplates paying $100+ to get someone to regrind the blade completely for them to either a full flat grind or a hollow. I've yet to spring on that because I simply don't like the knife enough to do it but if I did I'm sure it would cut just fine. Who thought this was an acceptable blade?! Lastly and of least concern...the clip. I totally understand that hate for the majority of "custom" clips in the world. I've had a lot of terrible ones. But there are also a lot of awesome ones...and no matter what...they always look better. This piece of bent metal that matches every other $10-100 Spyderco was the most boring choice I would have ever imagined on such a nice "looking" knife.