Spyderco Forums

A customer brought in this well-used, well-loved Cara Cara for sharpening today. He uses it as a rough-use chore knife, cutting bailing twine on hay bales etc. The clip kept coming lose, so I put some loctite in and re-installed the clip. The action was a bit slow, I cleaned out lint and some dried dirt and grime, and lubed it up. Flips open beautifully! Now to get it sharp...

Handling this knife, I can't help but pine for a Delica and Endura with choil. Handled a Byrd Raven the other day for the first time in a while also, both designs are so good!

That thing looks pretty nice. I see a bit of edge damage, but I'm sure it can last many more years for the owner.

Thanks for sharing.

Always nice to see a work horse taken care of, even if a little later. Thanks for sharing.

I do enjoy seeing a real user. We see too many polished edge, unblemished knives around here.

I agree. All these impressive steels hardly getting used. Yet here we have the lowly 8cr13mov making hay!!

I want to see some sprint PM2's with this kind of use! Send me one and I'll use it hard.

araneae wrote:I do enjoy seeing a real user. We see too many polished edge, unblemished knives around here.

ginsuwarrior wrote:I agree. All these impressive steels hardly getting used. Yet here we have the lowly 8cr13mov making hay!!

I want to see some sprint PM2's with this kind of use! Send me one and I'll use it hard.

I'll put three through their paces, and a couple friends willing to do the same! :p

Now that's a knife.

BAL wrote:Now that's a knife.

Couldn't agree more! Looks great like that. That is how a knife should look! Those serrations look pretty toasted though.

Now THAT a knife!

That thing would be absolutely beautiful with a mirror polished edge. Pics after sharpening?

Very cool! Thanks for continuing to share some of the things you get to see at your job, kennethsime.

That pic only screams about real love! :D

Cereal_killer wrote:Now THAT a knife!

That thing would be absolutely beautiful with a mirror polished edge. Pics after sharpening?

Unfortunately, I didn't get to snap any pics after sharpening. We usually only finish knives to about 1200 grit on a ceramic hone, and while the edges are quite effective, it's nothing compared to what some people accomplish on these forums.

Chris_H wrote:Very cool! Thanks for continuing to share some of the things you get to see at your job, kennethsime.

Anytime! Unfortunately I'm moving on soon, but I'll never stop being a knife nut, lol.

There is nothing like a well used knife. I find a certain amount of beauty in a beat up tool that is still perfectly functional. It makes me wanna go out and use the crap out of every knife I own. They really take on a personality once they get worn in.

amazing looking knife! thanks for sharing

Look how happy it is. Its almost smiling.

araneae wrote:I do enjoy seeing a real user. We see too many polished edge, unblemished knives around here.

ginsuwarrior wrote:I agree. All these impressive steels hardly getting used. Yet here we have the lowly 8cr13mov making hay!!

I want to see some sprint PM2's with this kind of use! Send me one and I'll use it hard.

Well, even my hardest used knives will almost always have a polished edge. There's nothing better than the contrast between a beat up knife and a mirrored bevel. As for beat up Para 2 sprints, my 20CP is hardly beat up, but gets used thoroughly. I don't go around opening soup cans with it though so the blade isn't covered with scratches.

I love that picture, I look at it at least once a day. If I'd had a knife like that as a kid on our farm, it would probably look really bad! This one just looks well used, and eager for more.

I wonder, do they use the same blade coating as the DLC Spydercos? I wonder how a true DLC blade would look after the same amount of use? You really have to start cutting abusive stuff to get the DLC scratched off that bad. I put my DLC Para 2 through months of cardboard cutting everyday and it never developed a single scratch from it.

Evil D wrote:I wonder, do they use the same blade coating as the DLC Spydercos?

The website only states "black electric plating" is used so I take that as some other kind of coating (like black nickel maybe?) besides DLC.