Things I love:
- The streamlined handle coupled with the wide and tall blade. After a passenger ‘what am I supposed to do with this folding kitchen knife’ thought upon opening the package, usage ideas started pouring in, revealing what an excellent all-rounder the Junior really is. The tip is moderately pointy and the blade may not be your regular slicing machine, but it really shines as a general utility folder to have at hand. Oh yeah, and it really excels at spreading PB&J :D
- Exquisite balance: much like the Street Beat, the Junior perches on your finger
- Dialex’s logo, incorporating the Neolithic Romanian “thinker of Hamangia” figurine
- Open back construction
- Compression lock
Neutral:
- Really tight wire clip. Exceeds the comfort zone, but no big deal otherwise
Room for improvement:
- Larger size. A 4” blade would serve, a 5” one would be even better. As the unique handle offers an error-free, natural grip, and you can use the blade for cutting, slicing, whittling (courtesy of the negative angle near the Spanish notch) and even digging (the wide blade helps a lot), this could be the ultimate backpacking folder to have on track.
- “Friendlier” handles color. In Alex’s initial design the black handles are in line with the need to point out the “knife, beware!” message to kids. However, I feel that the omnipresent and ominous black may well have been replaced with some other non-flashy color, like dark blue or desert tan with little to no impact on the initial message, but with a measurable effect on increasing the target group for this knife.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way Spyderco managed to stay true to Alex's design. Now if only Battlestation would be the next colab ....
