Pros: Weight, Handle Material, Blade Material, Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness
Cons: Pocket Clip
Bitter Sweet
For the life of me I cannot understand why Javier Vogt & secondarily Spyderco designed this knife this way. This is a bitter-sweet review. I absolutely love almost everything about this knife. The blade shape is great. The S30V steel is high-performance. I love the polished G10 handles. They are sculpted and move wonderfully in the hand, making this folder a nimble blade. As with the Amalgam, another favorite of mine, the full flat grind on this knife slices through anything with minimal friction and resistance. All these features point to a great knife but… I just cannot wrap my head around one design feature… and I’m not talking about the tiny portion of exposed edge in the lock-release well. If you are not familiar with this issue, there’s a ton of opinions online to read. Personally, I find that to be a strange design choice but I do not have a problem with it at all. The angle geometry of the lock-release well is such that you CANNOT easily catch your finger on the ‘exposed’ blade edge. Before buying, I read all the negative feedback on this particular feature. But I had to try it out myself. My conclusion is: one would have to be either trying to slice their finger on this ‘exposed’ blade edge or one would be ignorant about handling knives. Let’s put that aside. It’s not my issue. So here’s the deal. My issue is one that I haven’t seen discussed anywhere online. It’s beyond me, as I said earlier, why a designer like Vogt and/or a great brand like Syderco would allow such a design. In the first few days I had this knife, I had two instances of the blade opening as I withdrew it from my clothing. The first time this happened, I nearly cut myself badly by surprise. The cause was not hard to figure out. This compression lock flipper comes with a singular option of right-side, tip-up carry. I prefer to carry my clip-folders just behind my right-hip, inside my waistband. Here’s the problem: it’s tip-up carry only and the hilt side opposite of the flipper (horn) has an inexplicable blunt hook on it. I assume this was an artsy-fartsy design for an open-blade thumb rest -- despite the fact that it has no jimping on it. It’s baby butt smooth. In a tip-up carry, this inexplicable loop or blunt hook faces upward. This blunt hook is what caught on my clothing as I deployed the knife. Both times it caught on the inside hem of my waistband. What a surprise. The first time, I thought it was a fluke. Then it happened again. I stopped carrying it this way, obviously, and I haven’t had the problem since. Bitter-sweet. For the life of me though I cannot understand why this blunt hook is where it is and the knife is configured for only a tip-up carry. As a knife aficionado, I expect more. If I had the chance, I would ask Javier Vogt: is that feature worth the dangerous possibility of the blade coming open during the draw of the knife? Maybe he wanted the blade to come open before anyone, including the bearer, knew it was open? Hmmmm. I for one, however, still love this knife. I must rethink the way I carry this one, but it is mostly great. The fact that the flaw was so avoidable, really really frustrates me. I’m pissed that such a great knife with one-and-a-half design flaws, can still sell and people like me will not totally regret buying it. But do better guys!!! Seriously!
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