Spyderco Forums

Thank you, Sal and company for this great and affordable work

That's a nice looking knife. I like my Raven and Crow with the BD1.

Is it Persistence sized or Tenacious sized?

It really is gorgeous, but I dislike linerlocks.

If this knife were made with high end materials and Golden made I'd pay the premium for it. It's an excellent design.

I definitely like the looks of the Alcyone. I may have to pick one of those up!

Here's a good reason to pull the trigger. https://www.bladehq.com/item--Spyderco- ... EDC--78225

Hi Jousmit,

Welcome to our forum.

Thanx much for the pics and kind words. It's funny, I spent more than a year refining the Polestar and Alcyone designs. Nice designs, nice materials, USA made steel, affordable price, and yet, little traction?

sal

sal wrote:Hi Jousmit,

Welcome to our forum.

Thanx much for the pics and kind words. It's funny, I spent more than a year refining the Polestar and Alcyone designs. Nice designs, nice materials, USA made steel, affordable price, and yet, little traction?

sal

Really? Little traction? I thought this would have been a hit with so many.

sal wrote:Hi Jousmit,

Welcome to our forum.

Thanx much for the pics and kind words. It's funny, I spent more than a year refining the Polestar and Alcyone designs. Nice designs, nice materials, USA made steel, affordable price, and yet, little traction?

sal

Hi Sal,

A good design is one element in having good reception. The rest I guess would be marketing, and the value it’s being perceived, at the price range.

Not saying I know better but several observations:
- BD1 is ranked lowest in Ankerson’s test, it won’t help in forums, but not sure how it affects non forums buyer
- At the price range, probably people more used to Tenacious or Persistence more, or probably because they have been available longer. One example is Stretch, it’s priced higher, but one gets shorter blade, a lot of people (who goes by pictures, specs) will jump for Endura instead, see next point
- Not able to hold a knife before purchasing is not helping either, it might be fantastic but people won’t know until they get it in their hands.

Personally:
- I have not used BD1 often enough (CS XL), so can only say it comes very sharp. Probably can try other smaller models.
- Lock: I prefer lockback. The only liner lock I still keep is GB1 (and some old CRKT, Enlan, but I don’t EDC them)
Probably if all these good designs are lockback I might give it a try (Raven, Crow, Polestar, Alcyone). They look good and likely feel good but for the lock ... and ...
- Having liner lock release cutout doesn’t help to convince me buying but you know that already
- Cost, which hinders tryouts, if I buy one, shipping and FX conversion making trying expensive if I ended up not liking it.

Just some thoughts, both general and my preference/situation specifically.

sal wrote:Hi Jousmit,

Welcome to our forum.

Thanx much for the pics and kind words. It's funny, I spent more than a year refining the Polestar and Alcyone designs. Nice designs, nice materials, USA made steel, affordable price, and yet, little traction?

sal

If it makes you feel any better, the Alcyone and Polestar are the two newer models that I am drawn to the most and I really would like to purchase them. I very much like the looks and materials. Unfortunately, I've decided to forgo any new knife purchases because I decided to retire early. I see all these new knives in forums and on Youtube and then I ask myself what these new knives will do for me that the 150+ knives that I already own will not. I don't know why I torture myself by studying up on these new knives.

I personally think the knife manufacturers have created a bit of a monster with the continuous push to bring new steels to the market. One one hand, you get people to buy multiple versions of the same knife just because it is in a different steel and you also get them to buy expensive knives that they don't really need. Good job on the marketing BTW :) . The flip side is that there are the "steel snobs" that won't touch a knife because it doesn't have a certain steel, even if they otherwise like the design. I've seen plenty of posts in forums to the effect "I'd be all over that knife if it only came in XXXX steel". Even the budget knives have steel that performs as well or better than anything that was offered 25-30 years ago.

I was around during that time and I don't recall anyone ever having any problems cutting stuff with a knife. The manufacturers didn't even tell you what kind of steel a knife had and no one really seemed to care. A knife was just a tool back then. They didn't tell you what kind of steel a hammer or chisel was made of either. It's a shame that some people have convinced themselves that unless a knife has a certain steel, the knife is basically useless and would barely cut anything. I do get it that the knife manufacturers are just giving their customers what they want, even if what they want is not always rational.

Although I'm not a fan of linerlocks I'm very happy to have both the Alcyone and the Polestar and with a choice of over 100 blades (mostly Spydies) these actually get used quite a bit.
The G10 is great on these, very good structure to get some decent grip but not eat up your pockets and also quite well 'camouflaged' in jeans.
If these would be available with backlock they could be all time favourites for me, if you don't mind linerlocks too much you're missing out not trying these. If you do mind them you might still want to try one just to make sure..

Btw, I think these are way better quality & design than the Tenacious.

sal wrote:Hi Jousmit,

Welcome to our forum.

Thanx much for the pics and kind words. It's funny, I spent more than a year refining the Polestar and Alcyone designs. Nice designs, nice materials, USA made steel, affordable price, and yet, little traction?

sal

You've run into a similar problem that Ford had back around 2005 when the introduced the Ford Five Hundred, which was brought out to replace the Crown Vic and Taurus/Sable (two models that had a cult following). Sales were crap initially and never did surpass what the CV/Taurus did, so Ford decided to do a little styling tweak and in 2008 change the name back to Taurus/Sable, and of course sales blew up. I wonder if you had done the same, and called these new knives the new Tenacious/etc and discontinued the old design if you would have better luck.

Thanx Hmr,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

I think evil d is onto something there about the name...

I'm sure that with a little bit of promotion, sales would go up a lot, it cost me to find out about their existence, if it's not because I saw it in the catalog, I suggest that you make a couple of videos for youtube, or be lent to the last boy scoyt or tactical gideon, so that they judge them, a lot of people do not know these jewels, I buy my other Spyderco paying attention to favorable opinions.
Thanks

so many budget Spyderco folders get overlooked and ignored because of lack of advertise and because of the Tenacious' massive success

The Alcyone looks great, but I went with the Polestar instead. Was looking for a budget g10 folder to carry out during errands and such that I wouldn't feel bad if it got lost. I prefer blades over 3 inches so was originally looking at the Tenacious or Byrd Raven II. I will probably still purchase this one though. My only smaller g10 folder is my Sage 5 but that is my office carry. I must say I like the Polestar and Alcyone line alot.

Hi JDennis,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

When I first saw them in pictures, it looked really cheap (in a bad way) just because of the handle material. I know it's G10, but it looks in pictures like some kind of weird (and to be honest, ugly) plastic to me. Maybe it's just me, but if not, maybe that has something to do with the sales.

Not trying to be a jerk or anything like that. Just..for what it might be worth

I would wager that to the average knife buyer, a US made steel like bd-1 is somewhat of an unknown and wouldn't be a big selling point. For me, its in the same class as 8Cr more or less performance wise and I don't see it as a real premium. I grabbed a Polestar at the SFO sale and don't see it as much better than the already very nice Raven 2. If i was comparing them in store, I'd almost surely take the $15 cheaper Raven. Not that the Polestar is bad in any respect, just hard to say the materials are worth $15 more to me as a knife user.