UKPK 2004 backspring color?

[jackknife]

Hello,

After lurking for quite some time on this forum, I'd like to start with big fat THANK YOU to all of you guys. This is a great community and the information posted here has been quite helpful for me. It is quite astonishing to witness not only the community of customers and aficionados, but the founder of the company himself being so active around here.

I somehow feel ashamed of subscribing only now that I have a question to ask to which I didn't find the answer for by my usual searching/lurking. I hope you will kindly excuse this behaviour and hopefully, if my question is answered, it can be useful to others as well.

Like perhaps many of you I have been looking for a black G10/S30V UKPK for quite a while and I finally seem to have found an offer at a reasonable price. The knife comes with the original black box and the code suggests it was manufactured in November 2004 and seems to be in great condition after 11+ years. There is only one thing bothering me: on the inside, the backspring is of a reddish, bronze-like colour (see picture). A little bit of the same is on the inside of the spydiehole and smallish traces of it between the thumb-chimpings on the back of the blade also. It looks like rust, but I am told it is not...

On a german forum I read that the 1st generation UKPKs were manufactured like that. Around here I found a thread mentioning something similar as a discolouration issue, i.e. not rust, but something that might appear after some time: //forum.spyderco.com/viewto ... ust+inside That last thread also mentioned another thread in which the issue was discussed, but I wasn't able to find that one.

So I would be really grateful if someone could quickly (re-)summarize for me what this is all about. Is it rust? Did some of the UKPKs come from the factory like that? Is it a defect that should influence the price or might it even be better not to buy? Or is it OK and I should better stop bothering?

Thank you very much for your kind help,

jack

[JAfromMN]

If it's cheap I'd buy it.

If it's not you might be better off getting a brand new from a reliable seller.

Best of luck with it.

[jackknife]

Hi,

Thanks for your kind reply. I actually already have one of the new lightweight UKPKs and love it :-)

It is not really cheap - about what's still listed as MSRP here https://www.spyderco.com/catalog/detail ... roduct=243 which is of course more than the 2004 MSRP.

So, do you think it is rust?

[JAfromMN]

Yeah I kinda do.

Sorry to say.

A little oil and it would "probably " wipe right off

[akaAK]

That looks like rust to me.

[The Deacon]

Hi,

Thanks for your kind reply. I actually already have one of the new lightweight UKPKs and love it :-)

It is not really cheap - about what's still listed as MSRP here https://www.spyderco.com/catalog/detail ... roduct=243 which is of course more than the 2004 MSRP.

So, do you think it is rust?

Actually, the 2004 MSRP was probably higher. Can't say for sure because, for some strange reason, the first year it appears on a retail price list or in a catalog is 2007, but MSRP is $139.95 on that one.

[Liquid Cobra]

I've owned two black G10 UKPK's and I'm pretty sure at least one of them was like that. I still own one of them and it has a collector club number on it. I'll check it tonight for you. I'm pretty sure the knife you posted is legit. I'd buy it.

[MarcusH]

If my memory serves me right, the biggest challenge while designing the UKPK was the material of the backspring.
CPM-S30V is pretty hard stuff and it was difficult to find the right material.
Almost all UKPKs of the first production year, that I have ever seen, had this discoloration in various degrees, it's definitely not rust.
Maybe Sal can chime in and tell us about the technical details.

[jackknife]

Hi,

Thanks for your kind reply. I actually already have one of the new lightweight UKPKs and love it :-)

It is not really cheap - about what's still listed as MSRP here https://www.spyderco.com/catalog/detail ... roduct=243 which is of course more than the 2004 MSRP.

So, do you think it is rust?

Actually, the 2004 MSRP was probably higher. Can't say for sure because, for some strange reason, the first year it appears on a retail price list or in a catalog is 2007, but MSRP is $139.95 on that one.

You are of course right. That's what you get from skimming the spydiewiki pages too superficially... I just saw the 56.95£ ? (the question mark is there, too) for the 2004 models, which would have been around 85 US$. Maybe it was available in the UK only before 2007?

[jackknife]

I've owned two black G10 UKPK's and I'm pretty sure at least one of them was like that. I still own one of them and it has a collector club number on it. I'll check it tonight for you. I'm pretty sure the knife you posted is legit. I'd buy it.

Thanks a lot. Yeah, it would be great if you could check...

[jackknife]

If my memory serves me right, the biggest challenge while designing the UKPK was the material of the backspring.
CPM-S30V is pretty hard stuff and it was difficult to find the right material.
Almost all UKPKs of the first production year, that I have ever seen, had this discoloration in various degrees, it's definitely not rust.
Maybe Sal can chime in and tell us about the technical details.

That sounds like some interesting piece of information, thank you very much. The plot seems to thicken... ;-)

[Liquid Cobra]

Sorry it took me so long to get these pictures up. So my UKPK with a collector club number has the same discolouration as the one you posted. Because mine has a CC number you can be sure it is one of the earliest UKPK's made. I hope you can see the colour in these pictures.

[Stuart Ackerman]

I have three and all are the same colour as yours...
No worries... :)

[Doc Dan]

I have three and all are the same colour as yours...
No worries... :)

So, Stuart, are you the designer of the Serrata?

[Stuart Ackerman]

Yes

[jackknife]

Sorry it took me so long to get these pictures up. So my UKPK with a collector club number has the same discolouration as the one you posted. Because mine has a CC number you can be sure it is one of the earliest UKPK's made. I hope you can see the colour in these pictures.

Late, are you kidding? I am really thankful for your effort!

Wow, that looks exactly like (not) mine (yet)... in the hole and chimping, too. The colour is actually quite beautiful, more bronze than rust and it is distributed equally, not spots.

Would be nice to have a confirmation for the technical/engineering reasons behind that.

"Man, that bladesteel is so **** hard, the backspring got red just by looking at it!" sounds really cool,
"Rust? These are LASER BURNS!" even more so B-)

Thanks a lot to all of you guys for your help so far!