Introduction
A while back my lovely wife found me one of the last remaining Spyderco Dialex Junior's available on-line from within Canada. The design of this knife had intrigued me for some time, I really liked the knuckle clearance and grip-security that the handle offered, and I liked the ratio of cutting-edge length to handle length in a non-threatening looking package.
Handle Design
The Junior features flow through construction which facilitates cleaning quickly and drying fully without potentially trapping water inside the pivot. The most striking aspect of the Junior's design is the deep knuckle recess which also serves a solid finger guard providing excellent indexing and security against slipping forward onto the blade in most grips, particularly sabre and reverse edge-out. While I am not a big believer in using knifes for self defence, I can still appreciate the incredible grip-security this design provides.
The pocket clip design is worth noting as it appears odd at first glance that the Junior features a wire pocket-clip of similar design to that on the Caly and a few other models, but that it is not a looped deep carry clip as found on other wire clip Spyderco models. I figured out the apparent reasoning as soon as I tried the knife with a looped wire clip from one of my Caly's: The looped section at the end of the clip will hot-spot badly on the inside of your pinky knuckle, and that hot-spotting is eliminated by the shape of wire clip actually used.
One great feature the Junior has is that the balance point of the knife is right on the index finger in a sabre or hammer grip. I hadn't really put much thought into the balance point of my folding knives previously, but the excellent in-hand feeling and controllability provided by the perfectly neutral front-to-back balance was such a positive experience that I began noticing its absence on other small folding and fixed-blade knives.
It is important to note that this handle is only suitable for those with small to medium sized hands as there is only 3.5" from the inside of the knuckle recess to the back of the handle. This fits my small hands quite easily, but it will be a major issue for those with large hands. With that caveat noted, the handle design worked extremely well for me in the grips I typically use: Sabre and paring. I've taken photos to show that the handle appears to also work well in pinch, reverse edge-out, and hammer grips. Probably hammer least of all of those, but I basically never use that grip so I cannot say with any confidence.
Finally, the G10 liners on the Junior are the highest traction I've felt on any Spyderco I've handled (all non-US), the G10 liners are also chamfered to improve comfort, though the insides of the steel liners are not, which could present an issue of hot-spotting in hard use. My typical uses, and blade grinds, tend to obviate needing to use much force, so it hasn't been an issue for me.
Blade Design
One of the stand out features of the blade design of the Junior is that it yields what is probably the best cutting-edge length to blade and handle length ratio of any Spyderco model. It packs 3.125" of cutting-edge into a 3.218" blade length and 4.125" handle length, and because of the relatively non-aggressive blade shape, this means you get a 3.125" cutting edge in a package that is not likely to scare non-knife people if used in public. By way of comparison, a PM2 has a 3.078" cutting edge in a 3.438" blade length and 4.812" handle length.
The Junior features a compression lock design. This style of lock is apparently significantly more resistant to failure than a liner lock, and has the convenience and safety of being able to be used without ever putting your hands in the blade's closure path, and allowing the knife to be closed without moving one's hands from opening it. While this is the same type of lock as that found on a Paramilitary 2, it lacks the PM2's liner recess that allows the blade to swing freely while the lock is pressed in.
This design choice was apparently made deliberately by the designer as a safety feature given the originally targeted audience. Even so, if you keep the stop-bar slightly loose and you use good lube on the plastic washers and the ball-bearing, it is quite possible to have the blade flick fully closed one-handed. Also, because the stop-bar has more of an influence on opening and closing speed than the pivot, the pivot can be kept fairly tight without impeding one's ability to fidget by flicking the knife open and closed repeatedly.
The blade is 3mm at the spine, but is relatively tall, yielding a fairly low primary bevel angle of ~3.75 degrees per side (DPS}. It features a limited distal taper beginning about half-way down the spine towards the tip, and a moderately sturdy tip. Moderately sturdy in the sense of a little sturdier than a Delica, about the same as a Caly 3.5, and weak compared to "hard-use" Spydercos. The blade arrived at 0.030" thick at the shoulder of the transition between the primary grind and the edge-bevel, which was at ~20 DPS, but ground perfectly even side-to-side (i.e. the primary and edge bevel grinds match on both sides of the blade very well). Blade centring was also perfect.
The blade is made of VG-10 steel, which Spyderco has a well established history of using to good effect, and should work reasonably well for anyone not looking for extremely high or low carbide steel for some specific reason. I'll simply note that I sharpen my EDC knives well before they get dull enough that the wear resistance of the steel would make a significant difference, and leave it at that. While VG-10 is reasonably easy to sharpen, it should be noted that the deeply and continuously curved blade shape of the Junior could make it a pain to sharpen, depending on your technique. As I use a heel-to-tip stroke when I sharpen, it hasn't really bothered me.
Another thing worth noting from a sharpening perspective is that the Junior actually comes with a sharpening notch at the heel of the blade. This is excellent for making it easier to sharpen the heel of the blade and preventing the formation of a re-curve directly in front of the ricasso. Unfortunately, as pictured below, the factory grind of the knife sort of nullified that advantage for most purchasers by including a re-curve at the heel of the blade right from the factory. As I have very coarse benchstones (including my trusty Norton Crystolon coarse), it wasn't a problem for me to grind out that re-curve, but it could be a real pain for someone without very coarse benchstones and the comfort to alter the geometry to eliminate the issue.
In Use
I've been using the Junior as my EDC knife on and off for over a month now, and including it in comparisons with other knives I own or currently have on loan to me. Initially the Junior arrived quite dull, particularly by comparison to the typical level of sharpness of NIB Spyderco knives. I would have sharpened it immediately anyway, so it wasn't an issue for me.
To contextualize my comments of this knife in use it is important to understand that my EDC tasks typically include food prep, slicing cardboard, opening clamshell packaging, and other similar tasks. I don't even whittle, much less do anything that could be construed as hard-use. Based on this use pattern, I tend to prefer, and modify my knives to have, fairly high performance cutting geometries that minimize the force necessary to complete cuts. This should be obvious based on the near full-zero grind on my Caly 3.5 and the 1/16" at the spine custom Joe Calton 1095 Carter Pattern Necker included as size references above, and the scandi/ffg hybrid I've turned my Junior into.
Basically, this means I am not the person to ask about whether this knife is suitable for hard-use, or to complain to that my review is biased towards cutting performance versus utility as a prying instrument.
With the fairly obtuse geometry the knife arrived with, it's performance in EDC tasks was a contrast between loving the handle, blade shape, and overall balance of the knife, but being frustrated by the thickness behind the edge. Based on stock geometries, you can basically expect the Junior to outperform a Caly 3.5 as it has the same thickness at the spine, but a taller blade profile, and a more deeply curved cutting-edge.
After playing around with the Junior a bit at the stock geometry, I decided I had better lower it if I was going to be able to evaluate the knife by comparison to others I already have. I re-profiled my Junior using a Norton Crystolon coarse (~500 passes per side), then cleaned up the new bevel with the Crystolon fine, before moving to a Naniwa Chosera 400 waterstone and a Naniwa Aotoshi 2000 waterstone, both were used very muddy to avoid burr formation. The resulting geometry is a ~7.5 DPS edge bevel that is at 0.032" at the shoulder, but of course that shoulder is much higher than stock. It is closer to ~0.010" thick where the stock transition to the primary grind was.
Finally, I applied a micro-bevel using the Spyderco Sharpmaker F rods on the 15 DPS setting making ~10 very light pps, 1 de-burring pps at 30 dps, and then ~5 very very light pps on the F rods again. At that point it was push cutting newsprint across the grain at 90 degrees trivially from any point on the edge, causing leg-hair to leap off the skin on contact, etc.
The deep and deeply curved belly of the blade allow it to be used to chop narrower items against a cutting board due to the knuckle clearance, and easily allow slicing against a cutting board without any knuckle clearance issues, and the comparatively generous cutting-edge length combined with the high tip, allow clearance for slicing through relatively thick material.
That curve also allows the Junior to be utilized as a paring knife much more easily than you would expect as it allows peeling in narrower and shallower strips than you would anticipate based on looking at the blade-height. The blade aligning with he top of the spine facilitates a paring grip with the index finger curled onto the blade and the thumb not too far from the edge, aiding control in paring use.
One of my major initial concerns with the blade design for this knife was that the tip would not have sufficient piercing ability for my use, but I didn't find that to be an issue even with dual layered clamshell packaging. Of course it doesn't have quite the piercing ability of a Caly 3.5, but it hasn't proved to be an issue for me.
Otherwise, the knife excels in use on clamshell packaging, cardboard, etc. due to excellent ergonomics, balance, and the low primary grind angle resulting from the relatively tall blade. Here again the deep curve of the blade is advantageous it increases the slicing action when the knife is pulled straight down through a material at 45 degrees by presenting a significant curve to the material. The effect was quite noticeable when used side by side with a less curved blade.
As I noted earlier, I don't use my knives with a lot of force (and, if fact, my geometry and edge-finishes are chosen specifically to minimize the force necessary to make cuts), so I can't really provide much useful commentary on how comfortable the handle would be in extended use with a lot of force. My assumption based on most folders I've seen is that if you chamfered the inside corners of the liners you'd have as comfortable a flow-through construction handle as you are going to get (since the G10 is already chamfered).
Value
Here we come to my primary criticism of this knife. For all the positives going for it, it's pricing and limited availability present significant drawbacks. For it's originally specified target audience of being a first knife for young people, the pricing was going to immediately preclude it from consideration. For the rest of us, when you look at what you could buy a VG-10 Caly 3.5 for even before they were put on sale this year, it is going to be hard to convince people to spend the extra on the Junior.
Conclusion
Quite simply, the Junior is my current favourite folding knife design. It's a design shows the kind of functionality that is possible when utility and ergonomics rather than aesthetics are the focus of a folding knife design, and is only let by being hand-size dependent, being marketed to a demographic that would never be given a knife costing nearly this much, and still being expensive for adult folding knife buyers likely to be turned off by the marketing and overtly non-threatening appearance.
Basically, if you are lucky enough to have hands that will fit the handle of the Junior and can stomach the price, I strongly recommend taking a serious look at it while you can still get one. This model is so underrated that on a 7 page thread on the Spyderco forum (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67529) about the most-underrated models it was mentioned by one member. That does not bode well for its continuing availability.
I've owned and used some of Brother Dialex's designs before>> one I particularly liked was his great recurve model the "Adventura". And I liked it a lot but did end up trading it because I became rather fond of another recurve Spyder known as the SPYKER model which ended up suiting me better for what I was using it for. 