In 1986 or 1987 Officer Paul V. from my department saw an advertisement for a Spyderco knife in a Police magazine. He and some of the guys liked the idea behind having a knife clipped to your pocket capable of being opened by one hand with a serrated edge. The old standby at the time in my neck of the woods was almost exclusively a Buck 110 or knock off of similar design worn in a pouch on the duty belt. It was heavy and almost always took two hands to open. Officer Paul also owned a smoke shop in town and through his business applied for and became a Spyderco dealer.
Fast forward to January 1996 when I was hired. Almost every officer was carrying a Spyderco in my department. Almost everyone carried the serrated Endura. A couple of officers did have Police models but I only recall one officer carrying it on or off duty. When I came on the scene Sergeant Tom C. was carrying a serrated Endura. In recent conversations with him, he recalls that he purchased it in 1990 or 1991. Now that would not be very spectacular because just like I said, almost every officer was carrying one. However most of those officers either damaged the knife, broke the plastic clip, bought a newer “better” knife (maybe one with G-10 handles or a liner lock they have to be better right?), or upgraded to a newer Spyderco. I must confess that I myself have bought and carried the newest generation every time a new FRN Endura version came out. Not so Sergeant, then Lieutenant, now Deputy Chief Tom. Deputy Chief Tom prefers to spend his hard earned money on golf clubs (weird right?). However if he was like me then you would not be reading this long narrative. You see Deputy Chief Tom has been carrying this same first Generation Endura for 20 years every day both on and off duty and it is his ONLY pocketknife!!
This came to my notice lately because I heard that another officer who forgot his knife had borrowed Deputy Chief Tom's to actually cut open property on the witness stand. Apparently it was not very sharp so I went to make fun of the Deputy Chief. I then learned that he had lost the knife for about a month* and was almost ready to order a new one when the snow melted where he parks his car at home. It seems that it came unclipped and fell in the snow and he had only found it days before the witness stand incident. He claimed that the exposure to the elements must have caused the dullness. I let that one slide and offered to sharpen it for him and he accepted.
I noticed that after all those years and being buried in the snow for a week that there was almost no rust anywhere in the lock. Here are some pics of the 20 year old Every Day Carry Endura after I sharpened it. Oh yeah, I almost forgot…..he thinks he paid $25 for it and agrees that he has gotten his money’s worth. Thanks Spyderco for making knives that stand the test of time.
*Edit 2/25: DC Tom read this today and corrected me. It had been in the snow and the gutter for a MONTH not a week!
Messer454/SpyderNation #19
