First contact

[spyderwolf]

I'm curious how where you guys first bitten by the :spyder: bug :)
For me it was the the movie Clifhanger,i think in '93 or '94.I saw a serated Endura and i was hooked.

[ChrisinHove]

I loved that film! The least realistic climbing/mountaineering film ever!

Spydie bug? Chronic disappointment in the quality of another brand leading to the purchase of a Delica.

[adam569]

The catalog I requested it and I bought a tenacious Soon after.

[Joris Mo]

Having always seen Spyderco's with the other fancy expensive blades in stores (in Europe US blades are rather expensive and internet wasn't much of an option back then) I finally bought a Native around '99/'00. (age 24/25)
After spending a year traveling in '06/'07 with a Benchmade Griptilian (first stop was USA, so I could buy something cheap for the trip) I started getting on the web and finding out about more blades and having an option of ordering abroad as well, my first order was the foliage green Endura & Delica.
The collection has been growing ever since. Traveling for 7 months in '09/'10 edc was a PM with CPM D2 blade, edc's have mainly been Spydies since '07..

[tvenuto]

Early 2012 I was looking for an EDC knife, and internet searches had it narrowed down to the CS Voyager or the Delica. I believe the voyager was cheaper and I liked the stonewashed finish, so I went with that. After a week or so of it just not really feeling right I decided to get the Delica, and that Gray FRN Delica 4 is still part of my regular carry rotation. The irony is that, even though the D4 remains one of my favorite designs, and even though it is all the knife I really ever need to EDC, it spawned a whole collection of Spydies.

[dubya3]

Early 2012 I was looking for an EDC knife, and internet searches had it narrowed down to the CS Voyager or the Delica. I believe the voyager was cheaper and I liked the stonewashed finish, so I went with that. After a week or so of it just not really feeling right I decided to get the Delica, and that Gray FRN Delica 4 is still part of my regular carry rotation. The irony is that, even though the D4 remains one of my favorite designs, and even though it is all the knife I really ever need to EDC, it spawned a whole collection of Spydies.

Isn't it funny how that works? I could get by for 10+ years with just my new Endura 4 but have a dozen or so spydies that cost from $50-$500, some users some queens but realistically my Manbug, Delica and Endura are all I really *need*

I have been fascinated with knives since I was old enough to know what one was and saw my grandpa's Victornox swiss army knife he always has. At around 7 or 8 he bought me my own mini swiss army knife and I treasured that thing like it had magical powers. Unfortunately it was lost somewhere along the way.
At 12 I actually found a Benchmade Panther at Circus Pizza in the the pool of plastic balls with an OPEN blade. I stuck that thing in my pocket as fast as i could because I knew my dad would confiscate a blade that big (3.5" lol)! From then on for the next 16 or so years I only had eyes for Benchmade. I had seen Spydies but when the first one I handled was "made in Japan" it really turned me off as a young adult, I know better now. It wasn't until this past April at 28 that I gave Spydies a good long look when a buddy brought over a PM2 and said it was only $110. G10 and S30V for only $110 plus it's made in USA?! That's way cheaper than a BM with similar materials I was thinking about buying. Liking the Axis lock though I was very hesitant about the compression so I still decided to buy that BM. It wasn't until a couple weeks later that I realized the Manix had a similar lock as the Axis and I ordered a XL right away. It snowballed from there and I have now sold every BM I owned (about 15), including that original one I found that got me into quality folders, and have bought Spydies made in Golden, Taichung, Seki, Italy and China and I'm happy with every one of them. There's one Spydie made in Taiwan that shares a name with a rock band I like that I'm really hoping I can get my hands on now :D

Edit to add: I forgot to mention that I bought my grandpa a Manbug vg10 for his Keychain and he loves it. It's replaced the last swiss army I bought for him but he says he wishes it had a built in toothpick haha!
My fiancée picked out a Byrd hawkbill and surprisingly uses it quite often so that was a well spent $20.

[spyderwolf]

Well,a dude who use to make knife reviews said that all you realy need is a Delica and a Endura,and the rest is just gravy.Thing is i rely like the gravy.
@Joris Mo:in the early '90 getting a US knife in Romania was completely out of the question so i waited more the 10 years to get my first spyderco from a flea market in Heidelberg,Germany.

[awa54]

First contact was not first bitten for me... back in the early 90s a friend was quite fanatical about his original Delica. I wasn't all that impressed; the one-hand opening was cool, but I had yet to appreciate the clipit concept or serrated blades, my buddy's had a few broken tips, I'm pretty sure the blade was GIN-1 and might have been run a bit harder than was ideal for a serrated blade.

Later in that decade I had an unknowing brush with Spyderco; I got a few Solo 3s and Moki Zephyrs when they were being liquidated by one of those Outdoor/Mil-surp catalogs. The Solo wasn't very rugged, but I loved the shape of the knife, The Moki is still one of my all-time favorite mid sized folders and now I even have a beater since I discovered that Klein tools sells both sizes in plain edge, with rubber overmold handle inserts.

I'm not sure when the bite happened and I got hooked, it was probably seeing the Toad a friend owned, right around that same time (2001?) my first actual purchase was an ATS-55 Stainless Dragonfly 2 that I got for my ex-wife, it was still quite a while before I got one for myself though; a Ladybug in 2009 that I reground for work at a grocery store, where I had to open lots of taped boxes. The turning point to an addict came last year with my Purchase of a Jester Sprint, closely followed by a Sage 3... it's all been downhill since then!

The only Spyderco I don't have anymore is a Stainless Ladybug that I traded to my ex for the SS Dragonfly, she wasn't using the Dragonfly but wanted a keychain knife, suited me fine!

[HarleyXJGuy]

I was bored with the CRKT M16 that I had been carrying for many years while deployed to Afghanistan last year. Went on the internet looking for a knife and as I like to do started lurking various knife forums. One of the best was right here and someone told me about the Military and that was all she wrote.

Here is the first picture I could find of it.

[greatscott]

It's been 30+ years for me. My first Spydie was a slab sided SS worker (which I still have and use regularly).

[Joris Mo]

Well,a dude who use to make knife reviews said that all you realy need is a Delica and a Endura,and the rest is just gravy.Thing is i rely like the gravy.
@Joris Mo:in the early '90 getting a US knife in Romania was completely out of the question so i waited more the 10 years to get my first spyderco from a flea market in Heidelberg,Germany.

Yeah I recon it was a lot harder and took longer in Romania, here in Amsterdam I could at least see them for sale at 1-2 stores but the prices were insane compared to the Victorinox and Opinel folders I used and could afford.
First 'fancy' folder was a Fox one hand opening folder about the size of a Native and probably half the price of a Native that I got in '94 before going on a 6 week hitchhiking trip through Spain/Portugal/France.

By now it's a big open world on the web, just a shame $ rates are really bad for me now and import taxes are huge when I buy something Stateside..

[Drahkis]

My dad bought me a serrated delica 1 back in like '93 or so. Carried it with me constantly even through high school. Years later all of my early spydies were lost in an apartment robbery. One day I saw a ladybug hawkbill after the sprint had already happened, tracked one down on ebay, and was re-bitten.

[spydieh0le]

The year was 2012..I remember it like it was yesterday, lol. Started with a blue tenacious and a orange delica 4 which have since been gifted to a friend and replaced by 39 other spydies..whoops.

[Evil D]

Random encounter with the Walmart Native. I was just poking around not looking for anything in particular and it caught my eye. Like most new products or brands that I buy I looked it up and liked what I saw. It wasn't for another 5 years later I bought my second and really got hooked. That knife was a Delica.

[Jmotley]

First contact for me was in an Avail song. A few years later I ended up with a combo edge pro-grip. Carried it for 6-7 years never really thinking it was anything too special. When I lost it and had to try and find a replacement...that's when the bug bit!

[Mic1]

We sold Spyderco at family gun store but I always turned up my nose at "plastic" handles and not made in the U.S.A. So after years of many many different knives many of various levels of quality and price tags. Mostly preferred Chris Reeve. Just recently I was just looking for different locks and lock strengths. I decided to buy a Para 2 and Manix 2 they were cheap compared to A new Chris Reeve. I fell in love with the para 2 at first but the Manix 2 has taken over as my edc and all time favorite knife ergonomics. I put an S110V blade in my G10 I'm hooked. Since I have bought a standard Manix 2 black blade, Manix 2 XL S90v, Frn, Manix 2 plain Jane. **** I love this knife. I did buy an M4 but I had to return it. It was damaged.

[rodloos]

I've always been interested in knives since I was a kid.

In the mid-1980's I saw an article in some gun magazine about Spyderco's and the hole-opener. Found them on display at the knife store in the local mall (this was pre-internet days :) ). I was working security at the time, and I *really* wanted the Police model, but couldn't afford it, so bought the Economy/Standard. A couple of years later I bought an SE Endura in Gin1, but never really carried it much.

It wasn't until around 2009 I started researching Spyderco's online, intending to maybe purchase *one* Military or similar. Now here I am 250+ Spyderco's later :). I don't think there is a cure for the disease.

[toxophilus]

I started by buying a couple of different knives and gave away a Resilience to my son this past year... that started the addiction. Now I'm up to 7; mixture of Endura & Delicas + my first PM2 PE, plus a brand spanking new Street Beat, don't know what took me so long but better late than never.

I know it pales in comparison to other collections that I've seen posted here & there along with some of beautiful blades y'all have, I've really taken a liking to the FFG blades.