spyderco knife?

Spyderco products are excellent. Always handle a knife as much you can, though, before buying. See how it comes to hand, how it feels when open, whether the clip will fit what you usually wear – but not so tightly you cannot easily get it into use. A small sheath neck knife might be a good choice, too.

As a general rule I'd suggest going for the version with the plain, rather than serrated, edge unless you mainly expect to be cutting people free from their seatbelts in car accidents and similar emergency uses. Serrated blades are harder to sharpen and less versatile. Keep a plain edge sharp and stropped and it will cope with any task a serrated edge can handle and more besides (including a quiet bit of whittling when you're relaxing :))

Aye, Jon.

The dragonfly handle is pretty short and narrows in the middle for even less "hand-filling" feel. It's not any smaller than the Gerber LST though, and quite a bit bigger than a SAK classic's handle. The blade has a small non-sharpened semi-circular cut-out for your index finger, that makes up for this – but this also takes away a significant amount of the cutting edge. The cutting edge is only a little longer than 1.5". I'd personally rather have a longer handle and have 1.75-2.25" of plain edge for slicing stuff followed by 3/4-1" of serrations for stubborn rope.

Also, in my experience: for 1/8" braided cord or 1/4" paracord serrations are only a tiny benefit since a straight edge sharpened on a "coarse" stone does so well. For 1/2-3/4" ropes, serrations are definitely a lot easier and stay sharp a long time. Fishermen sharpen their straight edge knives with a course file though, and it does 75% as well as serrations, but is very easy to touch up. (But a file-sharpened edge gets dull extremely fast if you whittle).

SAK's 2 blade regular sized (91mm / 3.5") knife (no can-opener, bottle opener, or corkscrew / screwdriver) could be a good choice for you. Sharpen the big blade with a coarse stone & it will work good for rope. Sharpen the little blade with a fine stone for whittling. I wish Victorinoz made one with a scissors, file & non-sharpened awl (for untying knots) instead of the can opener & bottle opener for backpacking. Who carries cans ?????

ps: Serrations only sharpened on 1 side like Spyderco's can whittle shavings to start fires, make fuzz-sticks, etc just fine. The trick is to put the knife in your left hand so the non-dished-in part of the serrations is against the wood. For whittling faces on hiking sticks, etc, most of the Spyderco blades are too wide to turn in the cut. The small blade on a regular sized SAK is a good width for whittling faces, etc.

Spyderco is well known for making some of the best knives in the world. They're rugged, dependable and most important… SHARP! How long they stay that way depends on the abrasion resistance of the steel used in the blade.

The Spyderco Dragonfly is offered with blades in at least three types of steel. All three steel options for this knife are as tough and have better abrasion resistance than most folders carried by backpackers. The Dragonfly’s AUS-8 steel option is in the low range of high abrasion stainless steels; its ATS-55 steel is in the middle range of high abrasion stainless steels; and its VG-10 is also in the middle range of high abrasion stainless steels.

They offer other light folders in CPM-S90V and ZDP-189 steels which are the best abrasion resistant stainless steels made.

I have used a fully serrated Spyderco Delico knife for the last 10 years. Best knife I have owned. The full seration is great for cutting rope, webbing, seatbelts, etc. I have cut people out of cars after accidents with it on two separate occasions.

If I bought another one, I would probably get the half serrated version.

…for all the input. I'm still weening myself from huge multitools. Now that I think about it, I'll probably go with non-serrated; I happen to do a lot of woodcarving in my spare time, and campsite whittling sounds fun. I'm willing to go a little heavier if it means having something comfortable to use, so I'll try before I buy.

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Many people like the extra security a lock-back offers. However, I've never had a slipjoint (non-locking) knife fold on my fingers during normal use in 40 years of daily use…

The secret is to never use the point as a drill. ie: If you are pushing almost straight in (more or less like a stabbing motion) and trying to rotate the knife around to bore out a hole, then it is likely that the knife will eventually fold up on your fingers. The only backpacking related tasks that I can think of that use this motion are 1) drilling a "spindle depression" in a "fire board" for making fire without matches using a bow type apparatus, and 2) digging pitch-loaded wood out of old stumps so you have some "fat wood" to use as a fire starter.

During everyday carry uses: sometimes, when using the knife to cut up cardboard boxes into smaller sections for recycling, the blade can get stuck when using a sawing motion as you go down the length of a long cut. However, the blade never closes more than 45 degrees (leaving 135 degrees for your hand), so you'd have to accidentally draw the tip out of the cardboard and than cause it to fold by stabbing it back into an uncut section of cardboard in order to cut yourself. This could feasibly happen, but has never happened to me, my kids, or any of the scouts I work with…

If you want a lockback, I recommend Benchmade's Axis lock. Their 3" Griptilian knife ($56 online) is a great everyday carry & backpacking / scouting knife. From Spyderco, I like the Paramilitary best, but thier Native & Delica are also very nice and only around $40. The Native's steel stays sharper a little longer than the Griptilian or Delica and is available at many Super-Walmarts.

The cheaper "normal" steel in the SAK, Gerber LST, or Buck 110 (etc) is not in the same league as the super-steels like 154CM, VG10 or S30V from Spyderco or Benchmade. You'll be sharpening the cheaper knives a LOT more often… However, the softer steel also sharpens very fast in comparison to the high-tech steels.

I use my SAK MUCH more often each day than my Benchmades or Sypdercos because the scissors, fingernail file and tweezers fix hangnails much better, etc. I have to sharpen the SAK weekly (takes 10 minutes), but only have to sharpen the 154CM / VG10 ones monthly (takes 20 minutes), the S30V ones (takes 30 minutes) every two months and the ZDP189 one every 4 months (takes 45-60 minutes).

For woodcarving, I have to sharpen the SAK every 15 minutes (takes 3 minutes) and sharpen the 154CM / VG10 ones every 30 minutes (takes 10 minutes) and the S30V one every 40 minutes (takes 20 minutes). Woodcarving works best with a very sharp blade. Everyday usage still works fine even when the blade is only "sharp" instead of "very sharp".

ps: For cutting synthetic rope, the toothier S30V keeps cutting longer when "dull" than the 154CM or VG10, and 154CM / VG10 outlast the SAK, Buck's 420HC, Gerber LST by a factor of 3-4 times.

However, for normal backpacking use, I think the SAK or Gerber LST, or 3" version of the Buck 110 are fine. The Griptillian, Native or Delica are definitely nicer though(longer lasting between sharpenings, more comfy handle, sturdier, etc).

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