Native origins

[jaislandboy]

[quote="LJK"]Designed and made for the Wal-Mart crowd!!! Man O man if I didn't read Sal's post with my own eyes I would not have believed it. For some reason I expected a much more romantic and colorful story. ]

+1 on this.... :)

[kgriggs8]

"A company came to us in the mid 90's and asked us to design a knife that would appeal to the Wal-Mart customer."

Is that why the first Native I bought came with a free foam beer can cooler that said "Git'R Done!"? :D

I always wondered about that.

Seriously, the Native seems as close to my Blackhawk as anything.

[ozspyder]

Great background info Sal,

Being a Native knut I really appreciate where the design, name and additional info has evolved from. Though there are no Walmarts here in Oz, we do have K-Mart which I believe is either a sister company or one of similar concept. I can only imagine how our K-Mart knife would look like if it had the distribution backing and the support of our rigid knife carry laws here.

I tend to agree partly with the Deacon and the other senior members here. I would dearly love to see another evolution for Natives IV & V to include the current trend for some very nice clean lines of the full flat grind and possibly screw and liner construction....hey , maybe G10 as well?

However, as pointed out in the earlier post re: high heels vs. practicality. We'd all be driving white cars that drive to a max of 80km/h, no high heels, and general politeness all round. I guess fashion and trendiness does make it difficult for companies to break the mould if that trend dictates how much volume a company can make so that they can sustain themselves with bread and butter to fund other more exciting projects :D

I really like the idea of the Native evolving from a volume controlled beast to a fully customisable beast. I'd dare say if the Native is customisable with parts (and those said parts can come in different flavours of blade sizes, configs, shapes, handle colours, shapes, materials etc..) it would make the longevity of the knife extend beyond the norm even for a Spydie (good thing for the consumer, not so good for Spyderco, but on the other hand sales for Native parts could be a sideline income...feasible or not???? I don't have the faintest idea :rolleyes: )

Just rambling OT now....best get moving on. Thanks again for the history lesson Sal. You da man :)

[Ted]

These are shots of the Native display at SFO. If you click on a pic you'll get a larger one and might just be able to read the descriptions. It was the best shot I could take.

[OuchThatsSharp]

Thanks, Ted for those pics! I have several of those models. Still looking for a Blue G-10 model though. Wish a new variation would come out soon too.

[bh49]

[quote="LJK"]Designed and made for the Wal-Mart crowd!!! Man O man if I didn't read Sal's post with my own eyes I would not have believed it. For some reason I expected a much more romantic and colorful story. ]

+2.
I am shocked.
Native was my first Spyderco and I bought it just to try S30V. It is great knife, still one of my EDCs and holding edge great. I would love to have Paul's version with full flat grind and no swedge. Also G10 and liners would be nice. :p

[The CoPilot]

Sal:

Thanks so much for the reply. As I expected, there was an interesting story behind the design and creation on the Native. Thanks for you willingness to share it with all of us. Personally, the more I understand about the background of something, the more I appreciate it. The Native is definitely a working person's knife.

I would agree with comment posted earlier that it would be fantastic to see a Native introduced with screw construction, liners, etc. It might now be something that Wal-Mart would sell as I expect the price point would be somewhat higher than the current construction, but I think there would be a good market for it in the knife community. You could always test the waters with a sprint run or two after gathering feedback. One of the things I've always liked about the knife is the bi-directional Spyderweb texturing on the handles. That feature has always made it look like one of the most "Spydery" of Spydercos (except for maybe the Model Q).

Anyway, I just wanted to reiterate how much I appreciate the feedback on the origins of the Native. There's nothing like getting the information from the guy who was there when she was born! Thanks again, Sal! Someday I hope I'll get the chance to meet you in person.

-Matt

[The CoPilot]

Sal:

Was the design of the Native at all influenced in part by the Blackhawk? Could they be considered cousins??

[sal]

Yes, the heritage of some models reflect the other designs that were also being created in the same general time zone.

The Renegade, Blackhawk, Military and Dragonfly were in that "era" and would be considered "kin" in "design history". The original Calypso jr was also designed around that time, but took much longer to produce.

sal

[zenheretic]

I guess once there are no more pins, rather than screwed construction Spyders, is when we'll see the pin crowd come out of the woodwork asking why all knives are put together with screws.

I have a hard time believing the average knife carrier wants to take it apart to clean it. Most want a maintenance free cutting tool.

[Michael Cook]

:spyder: Wow! That "native chief" is awesome! too bad it never went beyond prototype. :spyder:

[ronin203]

:spyder: Wow! That "native chief" is awesome! too bad it never went beyond prototype. :spyder:

I agree, I'd love to have one of those. :cool:

[dedguy]

On the subject of the swedge grind on the Native I personally like it because it adds visual interest to the blade. On a broad blade like the Native I think the additional lines really help break up the large flat plane of the blade. A full flat grind I think would look too plain on the Native (especially on the Native II). I think the full flat grind works better on narrow blades (The Delica and Endura I think would look great). Suffice it to say we all have different tastes and as long as someone like a design it's still worth something if you ask me.

[OuchThatsSharp]

I agree with dedguy. Part of the appeal of the Native to me is the swedge. If it were a flat grind I probably wouldn't have considered buying one or fifteen. Overall size, blade configuration and blade steels, well I just gotta have more than one Native.