The Waterway Will Be Mine...

[SpyderSeth]

Mine is now in the kitchen rotation.

[vivi]

Jealous. Mine is still in the mail.

[Calicoast]

Jealous. Mine is still in the mail.

Think your going to like it Vivi.
Looking forward to your review.
C

[Spyderman91]

Not going to lie, the Waterway was off my radar for 2019.

I planned on picking up a Shaman exclusive (was thinking Micarta but now BladeHQ has to come in and tempt me), and pm2 maxamet forsure.
But then I saw the thread on here, and realized this baby was being made in Golden Colorado... sold.

After carrying the Spydiechef for over the past few months I can honestly say I love LC200N, and know it's popularity is only going to explode with time/ more exposure in the marketplace. My Spydiechef is the only knife I have that I use and don't worry about. I clean it when I get to it, but my other blades will see a light rinse and a wipe with the jeans after use depending. Not to say that neglect it, but I do use it in more exposed situations and the steel performs every time no matter the task. Cutting zipties, cardboard, gotta cut fruit, sharpening sticks outside, wet, or dry doesn't matter to the Chef. Not only that but it; followed by my Shaman, have the most solid lockup out of my 3 main users (third being a pm2 of course).

I have a Tahoe trip coming up in the next 3 weeks, and I plan to bring the waterway with me... Might just be a prick and leave it packed in snow when not in use... just for fun.

[Brock O Lee]

The Waterway looks great! It’s been ages since I wanted another FB, but this one is on the list.

[Surfingringo]

Hey, Lance:

From he self-defense/tactical side of things, I think the Waterway has a lot to offer. The handle is very comfortable, offers a great grip, and is flat and broad enough to allow easy tactile edge orientation. That's important for ballistic cuts, as it allows you to align the plane of the blade with the plane of motion of your hand. The lower guard is also great insurance against your hand sliding forward on impact.

The edge geometry is excellent and the well-centered point "drops" the edge enough for aggressive cutting performance and instinctive indexing of the point during thrusts.

One of my favorite things about this knife is the fact that the handle was designed to work with the retention of the Boltaron sheath from the get-go. Many fixed blades have great designs, but are not optimized to be "sheath-friendly." The forward portion of the Waterway's handle is contoured to provide the "ramp-in/ramp-out" wedging that is necessary for proper function with a Boltaron sheath. The foldover sheath design is considerable narrower than sandwich-style sheaths, yet still offers a subtle spine rib if you like the thumb push-off style of draw.

Fighting fish or foe, this design has a lot to offer.

Stay safe,

Mike

Hey Michael, thanks for the post. I designed and use the Waterway daily to poke, stab, slice and generally dismantle large predators. I always felt that the design characteristics that make it efficient at those tasks would also translate into a viable SD knife but I don’t have the knowledge in that field to state that opinion as fact. Thanks for taking the time to come and share your experience and thoughts!

[RazorSharp86]

Anybody else’s Waterway came as dull as a butter knife?
I’m going to resharpen and test it- might be the sheath.
I tested the edge after taking it in and out of the sheath.

Otherwise, it’s nearly perfect.

What’s holding the G10? No hardware to speak of.

[Woodpuppy]

What’s holding the G10? No hardware to speak of.

Spyder web :p

[captnvegtble]

What’s holding the G10? No hardware to speak of.

Internal pins and glue.

[Tdog]

Mine won't get in until Tuesday or Wednesday, no matter. Cool and blustery today in St. Augustine. Steady 15 with patches of light rain. Only bluefish and ladyfish, no need for the Waterway. Cant wait to use this knife.

[RazorSharp86]

What’s holding the G10? No hardware to speak of.

Spyder web :p

Lmao! I asked for it..!

[RazorSharp86]

What’s holding the G10? No hardware to speak of.

Internal pins and glue.

Right! I really like that clean, hardware-free look.
Hope it holds up well over the years.

Gonna put a 13-14 degree convex edge on that sucker and see how it does.

[vivi]

What’s holding the G10? No hardware to speak of.

Internal pins and glue.

Right! I really like that clean, hardware-free look.
Hope it holds up well over the years.

Gonna put a 13-14 degree convex edge on that sucker and see how it does.

I'll be shooting for a similar angle with a V edge. It'll be fun comparing our results.

[MeatTrapper]

Mine arrived and I am blown away. This is an awesome blade. As trapper, I skin more animals in a season than most people skin in a lifetime. This blade was designed by someone who actually uses knives to make meat, and it shows. This one is a winner through and through. This is my first spyderco fixed blade, as I've always used the Delica folders. I am thinking I might need to pair the waterway with a Moran fixed blade. Five stars. If you are on the fence about this knife - I recommend it without reservation.

[Calicoast]

Lance, how have you been maintaining this edge?
Are you adding in a micro bevel?
C

[Surfingringo]

Lance, how have you been maintaining this edge?
Are you adding in a micro bevel?
C

I still don’t have one of the final production pieces. I’ll pick mine up when I visit Louisiana next week. On my prototype though I use a 25-30 degree edge with a tiny 40 degree microbevel. I tried running this steel at about 25 degrees with no microbevel and though it cut very well, I found that for my hard use on the kayak the edge tended to show some premature dulling due to plastic deformation. I have had better success using a slightly more obtuse edge. As usual though it depends on what you are using the edge for. Were I doing more “bushcraft” or carving type work (or even just cutting cardboard and other daily tasks) I might find I preferred that 25degrees.

My general advice for finding the best performing edge for any steel is to incrementally lower the edge angle with each sharpening until you find the point where you start to show some issues at the apex. Once that happens just back up a couple of degrees and you should have your optimal edge angle.

[RazorSharp86]

What’s holding the G10? No hardware to speak of.

Internal pins and glue.

Right! I really like that clean, hardware-free look.
Hope it holds up well over the years.

Gonna put a 13-14 degree convex edge on that sucker and see how it does.

I'll be shooting for a similar angle with a V edge. It'll be fun comparing our results.

**** yes. I just finished reprofiling it this morning.
I found it to be ground pretty thick behind the edge. I used a 320 Cerax stone to reprofile, 800 Chosera, 3000 Chosera, Spyderco UltraFine bench stone, then 4, 1, .5 micron on the strop.

The edge came out scary sharp, at about 13-14 convex per side. Lets see how it holds up. I’m not retty rough on my knives, so should be interesting.

[Accutronman]

Anybody else’s Waterway came as dull as a butter knife?
I’m going to resharpen and test it- might be the sheath.
I tested the edge after taking it in and out of the sheath

It’s not the sheath. Mine was also dull straight out of the box. QC needed to be better on this one.

[RazorSharp86]

Anybody else’s Waterway came as dull as a butter knife?
I’m going to resharpen and test it- might be the sheath.
I tested the edge after taking it in and out of the sheath

It’s not the sheath. Mine was also dull straight out of the box. QC needed to be better on this one.

Yeah. I reprofiled and sharpened mine the next morning. Cannot stand a dull knife, and it’s a real shocker coming from Spyderco’s Golden plant.

I do believe, however, that most (if not all) sheaths dull the knife a tiny bit. Just the nature of sheaths and the edge touching and rubbing on materials.

[Bloke]

Unless you're running the knife's edge into the sheath when you un sheath and re sheath it, you shouldn't have a problem. :)