Project: Ultimate EDC Rotation...

Discuss Spyderco's products and history.
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gbelleh
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Project: Ultimate EDC Rotation...

#1

Post by gbelleh »

I'm realizing that I have far more Spydies than I will likely ever get around to using. They're all appreciated, but I've decided to carry a wider variety of knives more regularly. So, why not just carry them all? :D

Over the next 5 months or so, I plan to carry a different Spyderco from my collection every single day. Each will be carried and used as my main knife for that day. I'll try to plan ahead for any anticipated yard work, or hard tasks and choose an appropriate knife.

I also plan to post impressions as I go, and announce what will be carried the following day. Anyone else is welcome to post your impressions of the knife of the day, or carry it too if you have one.

I know it's a pretty big commitment, and it might not be possible to keep up every single day, but I'll try my best! We'll see how this goes.

I plan to use them all, even rare, NIB, and discontinued models.
Day 1 - Tomorrow, the knife of the day will be one I've never really used before:

The C57 Toad (plain edge).

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SpyderNut
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#2

Post by SpyderNut »

Excellent idea, gbelleh! The Toad is a fine "starter knife" for your quest. I am very interested to hear your thoughts on the EDC capabilities of the Toad. I'll stay tuned in for the upcoming reports!
:spyder: -Michael

"...as I said before, 'the edge is a wondrous thing', [but] in all of it's qualities, it is still a ghost." - sal
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Holland
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#3

Post by Holland »

awesome idea for a thread! cant wait to see all your posts
-Spencer

Rotation:
Gayle Bradley 2 | Mantra 1 | Watu | Chaparral 1 | Dragonfly 2 Salt SE
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#4

Post by DeathBySnooSnoo »

Should be interesting...I'm looking forward to this thread. The Toad is probably enough for about 99% of EDC tasks...thats my guess.

I've long wanted one, so I'm looking forward to your thoughts.
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donutsrule
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#5

Post by donutsrule »

Neat idea. I hope you don't have to do too much food prep with the Toad, but I still want to read about it if you do. :)
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#6

Post by Invective »

This got me thinking, whatever happened to Grail Saturdays? Anybody still do that? I think all my knives have seen use (except my backups) so I don't have any that sit in the safe, but I do have some I prefer that I carry more often. Try to get them all in at some point, which admittedly is easy since I have a relatively small collection compared to some here :p
GoodEyeSniper
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#7

Post by GoodEyeSniper »

good idea for a thread. I'm more inclined to carry my favorite spyderco for 2.5 years straight, but then again my collection is rather small. never even knew of the Toad, looks neat.

I will be following this thread.
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D1omedes
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#8

Post by D1omedes »

This sounds really cool. I look forward to reading your impressions. ;)
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EDCs are now a necessity with me

#9

Post by JD Spydo »

I used to rotate my Spyders all the time but I've slowed down a bit here in the past 2 to 3 years. It has to be one very impressive model to take the place of what I'm currently carrying and using.

Ideally I carry one conventional blade and one Hawkbill ( usually a serrated Hawkbill) and in the evenings when I'm out and about I will add a premium self defense folder or a concealable small fixed blade like the Street Beat. They have the knife laws fairly lenient here in Missouri and I've not been bothered by anyone about it.

I was carrying my full sized SE, H-1 Spyderhawk for most of the summer but now I'm back to using one of my Tasmans while I search and beg for another G-10 Harpy ( a folder that must come back to the line up at some point)

I truly feel naked without at least one of Spyderco's conventional folders with me. If I'm in a situation to where I can only carry one knife I usually pack my Sprint G-10 Massad Ayoob model>> it's one of my very favorite EDC folders.

I also usually carry one of my Spyderco 303 Doublestuff stones with me and many times it's a life saver>> because a dull knife is truly a useless tool. I have a pretty broad based "user arsenal" of Spyders and here lately I've been carrying a used Captain model that I scored last spring. I find the Captain to be quite handy for many jobs not to mention it's SD potential.

I truly don't think I could function very well without at least 2 folders and a Surefire flashlight.
Long Live the SPYDEREDGE Spyderco Hawkbills RULE!!
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bh49
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#10

Post by bh49 »

Interesting idea. I am looking forward to read about your experience.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf"

My top choices Natives5, Calys, C83 Persian
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#11

Post by xceptnl »

Invective wrote:This got me thinking, whatever happened to Grail Saturdays? Anybody still do that? I think all my knives have seen use (except my backups) so I don't have any that sit in the safe, but I do have some I prefer that I carry more often. Try to get them all in at some point, which admittedly is easy since I have a relatively small collection compared to some here :p
I believe member Clip had the brilliant idea to do Grail Saturdays. He has been really busy with his new stones I guess, but I would expect to see some more soon. I've got a few new to add to my grail carry possibilities.

Back on topic I think this is a terrific idea gbelleh. This is but one reason I carry multiple blades daily. It allows me to always have ol' reliable while still trying something new. The hard part will come when you have that perfect knife (Caly for example) and it serves you well on a Tuesday and on Wednesday you choose another that doesn't perform as the previous day's carry did. As the days continue to pass you will be compairing all knives back to that famed Tuesday. This could be overcome with focus, but it won't be easy, I know it wasn't for me. This is why I have been carrying the Caly SB & Military as of late. They keep coming up in my rotation and I can't take them out of the pocket for the next day. Good Luck.
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sal wrote: .... even today, we design a knife from the edge out!
*Landon*
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#12

Post by jackknifeh »

gbellah, I think this is a great idea since I am a user and not a collector. It bugs me to have knives I never use. I would like you to consider something for the future, after this project is complete.

1. If you are going to keep notes I would like you to note any desires to continue carrying any knife you previously hadn't carried enough to really know if you liked it or what you liked/disliked it for.

2. The knives you find you are more inclined to carry than you realized in the past put through another test. Instead of one day, make it for one week per knife. Since a lot of our lives are based on weekly behaviour it should give you a much more accurate opinion of each knife, hopefully. Of course you should limit this second round to a certain number of knives. IMO four would be perfect so round two can be completed in one month.

I've participated in "only LBK knife carry" experiments on this forum and found most of my needs can be covered with a Manbug. However I always carried another, larger knife for when a Manbug obviously wasn't the tool for a job. But for every average need I disciplined myself to use the Manbug. You said you will try to schedule knives based on the planned activity. So, if you pick your knife of the day are you going to limit your carry to that knife or will you also carry something else for the times the knife of the day obviously isn't the proper tool. Example: If you only have a ladybug and you need to cut tons of cardboard or cut a small limb (thumb size) are you going to risk damaging a small knife doing something it is obviously not designed for? I'd hate for that to happen. OTOH, are you going to whip out your military to cut the stray thread from the dress of the CEO of the company you work for? I don't mean to be sexist but if your CEO is wearing a dress I assume the CEO is a female. :D

I decided to buy ONE knife, ONE good knife I would love and cherish as my only EDC knife a few years ago. You can guess the rest of the story. Many of us have found we ONLY bought THIRTY knives instead of ONE. :) So this quest is a nice one to get an idea of what would be the closest knife to fill this desire. I still have the desire to have only ONE pocket knife that I love and cherish. Reality however shows I'm much more prepared to have TWO or even THREE pocket knives for EDC at the same time. So an experiment like this could also be broadened into a TWO knife experiment. A small and a big knife. Once your experimenting is done you could have an idea of this. For me one example is a Manbug and a Sage4.
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gbelleh
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#13

Post by gbelleh »

Good questions Jack. This project is about using my collection to its full potential and learning more about rarely used knives. I recently rediscovered my Junior, and found I liked it much more now than I did initially. That was the inspiration for this. Rest assured, no knife will be abused during this experiment (I'll usually keep a 2nd knife with me to cover any unforeseen tasks that would be inappropriate or abusive to the knife of the day).

I expect to discover a lot, good or bad, and it should be fun.
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#14

Post by gbelleh »

Ok, an interesting and informative day 1 is complete. I can tell this is going to be fun.

First of all, the Toad is small, really small. The cutting edge is less than 1.5 inches. Here it is next to a Ladybug for comparison.

Image

I don't have large hands, but I found the Toad so small that manipulating it was a little tricky. The Spydie hole is small, and the small handle and smooth finish made holding onto it when opening and closing, a bit difficult. Once open, it locks up solid with no play, and considering its size, is quite comfortable in the hand during use. But be careful not to let your finger slide onto the blade!!

I didn't use the Toad extensively, but I did use it around the house today for light tasks: cutting loose threads, opening mail (which it did very well), and cutting some lightweight cardboard. The main problem with cardboard cutting is keeping the extremely short blade in the material. I also found it almost impossible to keep the spydie hole from kind of catching and dragging through the cardboard. Overall, that didn't really cause any problems, and the thin hollow grind did slice very nicely and easily. The factory edge was very sharp.

The other unexpected quirk I noticed was when clipping it to the pocket. The clip is almost as long as the handle, and I found that getting it clipped to the pocket was surprisingly difficult without some handle already in the pocket.

Image

Overall, carrying and using the Toad was a completely different experience from what I've become accustomed to with the Para 2, Caly 3.5, etc. The Toad is a unique and interesting design that will remain in my collection, but will not likely find its way into my regular rotation.

The knife of the day tomorrow will be:

C85GBL - Blue Yojimbo

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#15

Post by xceptnl »

Nice first day thoughts and way to change it up for tomorrow.
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sal wrote: .... even today, we design a knife from the edge out!
*Landon*
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#16

Post by D1omedes »

I'm eager to hear your thoughts on EDC'ing a wharncliffe blade. As my own personal EDC choices have narrowed quite a bit, I have been curious about testing out a wharnie. Wouter's picture of the revised Kiwi concept really caught my attention. Your experience should help me decide if a wharncliffe model is worth waiting for.
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#17

Post by 3rdGenRigger »

I do this with all of my Spydercos, except my FRN native, which is lost somewhere in the vast swirling unending vortex that is my closet.
All Glory To The Hypno-Toad

---> Branden
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#18

Post by bh49 »

xceptnl wrote: The hard part will come when you have that perfect knife (Caly for example) and it serves you well on a Tuesday and on Wednesday you choose another that doesn't perform as the previous day's carry did. As the days continue to pass you will be compairing all knives back to that famed Tuesday. This could be overcome with focus, but it won't be easy, I know it wasn't for me. This is why I have been carrying the Caly SB & Military as of late. They keep coming up in my rotation and I can't take them out of the pocket for the next day.
+1
In general I do not have rotation, unless you would call rotation between Forum Native5 and regular N5 or Kopa vs Moki. In august 2006, when I bought my first Persian I fall in love with this knife so much that I wanted to use right away, but it was beautiful, so I decided to make it weekend carry. IIRC I carried Adventura and Delica on weekdays. But after a little while I realized that I am enjoying Persian so much, that there is no reason not to carry it every day. So Delica completely resigned. :eek: Adventura was given away to the friend two month later after Caly3 moved in. and so on. When I am finding the knife, which is better than my current EDC, current EDC is getting replaced. I have few dozens of safe queens, which I never tried and most like never will for variety of reasons either legal, ergos or something else.
I will be reading this thread daily, may be I will change my mind or may be not.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf"

My top choices Natives5, Calys, C83 Persian
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Blerv
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#19

Post by Blerv »

Great idea for a thread :) . The Toad has always been a curious one (in a good way) but before my time.

Looking forward to your other reflections.
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#20

Post by DeathBySnooSnoo »

Interesting thoughts on the Toad. I had thought that it was slightly larger. Seeing it next to the LB actually makes it more interesting to me. Though I can see what you are referring to about the slipperiness. My Walker in Almite can be a little slippery too.

Thanks for your thoughts I look forward to more.
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