What did you use your Spyderco for last?

[SG89]

Snowed in, having fun

:D

[vivi]

Used my Street Beat to open a package that had its brother inside :D

[TenGrainBread]

Used my Street Beat to open a package that had its brother inside :D

Interesting. Is that 440C one? How does the spine thickness compare to the Street Beat?
I'm also curious as to your perception of the round/smooth FRN handle of the Street Beat vs the slimmer textured G10 of the Le Bowie. From what I can see, the way the scales are done on the Max Knives version is close to what Perrin does on his customs.

[vivi]

https://forum.spyderco.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=88909

There's some more photos there.

I think I'm going to end up preferring this one if the steel performs well. I've never had any issues with 440C with a good heat treat, so everything should be good.

The blade is thicker so the handle doesn't feel skinny. It is a little short though. The scales are contoured along the edges and feel great in my hand. Not hotspots or sharp areas in the contoured G10.

[TkoK83Spy]

https://forum.spyderco.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=88909

There's some more photos there.

I think I'm going to end up preferring this one if the steel performs well. I've never had any issues with 440C with a good heat treat, so everything should be good.

The blade is thicker so the handle doesn't feel skinny. It is a little short though. The scales are contoured along the edges and feel great in my hand. Not hotspots or sharp areas in the contoured G10.

Looking at those, and knowing you have bear paws for hands, I was wondering what you thought of that shorter handle and if that slight hook at the butt worked for you, or made it worse.

[vivi]

https://forum.spyderco.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=88909

There's some more photos there.

I think I'm going to end up preferring this one if the steel performs well. I've never had any issues with 440C with a good heat treat, so everything should be good.

The blade is thicker so the handle doesn't feel skinny. It is a little short though. The scales are contoured along the edges and feel great in my hand. Not hotspots or sharp areas in the contoured G10.

Looking at those, and knowing you have bear paws for hands, I was wondering what you thought of that shorter handle and if that slight hook at the butt worked for you, or made it worse.

I find it very comfortable. There's just enough handle that I can get a good hold around the end with my pinky. Probably will only get a three finger grip when wearing gloves though.

I'm real excited to use it and see how the blade shape works compared to the one I'm used to.

[wrdwrght]

[TkoK83Spy]

The past 2 days have been pretty crazy at work, glad I've been carrying this beast. If there were ever a Spyderco folder that wants to be a fixed blade, the Shaman has to rank towards the top. Very thick double walled cardboard boxes containing air purifier units stood no chance. Probably close to 50 heavy duty stapping bands holding gutter guards in place for transportation popped with ease. This knife was my introduction to the Shaman, as well as 4V steel. One heck of a combination to make this beast of a knife. I love this thing! It's been used pretty hard ever since I bought it, I'm still impressed that it never needs anything more than a 10 minute touch up on the brown rods.

[VashHash]

Cut open a pallet with my Kris.

[vivi]

Used my Spin to cut some kydex off of a sheath.

[RLR]

Packages and boxes cut to size for recycling with Harpy

[PaperKnife]

[Pattadese] Doing what it does best.... slicing thin pieces of Italian salami for my tummy.

[The Meat man]

Been doing duty as a steak knife.

[Wartstein]

Sometimes (or actually often) it's just the simple things where a knife comes in handy.
Like when that packaging of your new toothbrush does resist even the brutal force of your ultrastrong climber-fingers... :p :p :p

[Wartstein]

The past 2 days have been pretty crazy at work, glad I've been carrying this beast. If there were ever a Spyderco folder that wants to be a fixed blade, the Shaman has to rank towards the top. Very thick double walled cardboard boxes containing air purifier units stood no chance. Probably close to 50 heavy duty stapping bands holding gutter guards in place for transportation popped with ease. This knife was my introduction to the Shaman, as well as 4V steel. One heck of a combination to make this beast of a knife. I love this thing! It's been used pretty hard ever since I bought it, I'm still impressed that it never needs anything more than a 10 minute touch up on the brown rods.


Resized_20210219_121138.jpeg

Man, you really make me want a Shaman even more... :o despite this is not the kind of knife where I prefer a comp.lock.

Actually, I am currently in negotiations concerning a secondary market, used, serrated S30V Shaman.. pretty perfect for me, since I really like S30V, love SE, plus never had the former in the latter... :rolleyes:

[JMM]

I used my 4V Para3 to open my new Brown Urban (my first AEB-L steel) -- I'm really interested to see what this steel is like...

:)

[TkoK83Spy]

Man, you really make me want a Shaman even more... :o despite this is not the kind of knife where I prefer a comp.lock.

Actually, I am currently in negotiations concerning a secondary market, used, serrated S30V Shaman.. pretty perfect for me, since I really like S30V, love SE, plus never had the former in the latter... :rolleyes:

Nice! Interested to see what you think. I know the thick blade stock and comp lock aren't usually your cup of tea, but I really think you'll end up liking it, mainly because of the comfortable handle and feeling of confidence in anything you throw at it...that will win you over!

[bearrowland]

My PM2 to cut open instant coffee packets this morning. One just isn't enough...

[Wartstein]

Nice! Interested to see what you think. I know the thick blade stock and comp lock aren't usually your cup of tea, but I really think you'll end up liking it, mainly because of the comfortable handle and feeling of confidence in anything you throw at it...that will win you over!

Hey Rick, the Shaman HAS already won me over. I could handle one once, and it felt just so perfect in hand that I almost could not put it down anymore... :)

And you´re right, I am generally really not into blade stocks thicker than 3mm (ok, the 3.2mm of the Manix are perfect too, since it has a quite tall blade).
But, like most here, I have of course a very detailed view on folders: And for me the Shaman does almost everything right for a folder that has a thick blade stock anyway, it is through and through coherent concerning that. Why?

- Tip:
The Shaman has a stout tip, concerning both tapering (not too much of it!) and the wide blade profile in the tip area.
So one can potentially and actually really make use of the thick bladestock, really beat on it, since the tip will take it.
What I don´t care for is the combo "thick stock" but rather "fine tip". If a folder blade ever snaps at all, it will at the tip in the vast majority of cases, and so the "thick stock/thin tip" combo does not make too much sense to me.

- Size
The Shaman has the perfect edge and blade length for a thick bladed, stout folder imho:
- I don´t care too much for small EDC folders that have overly thick blades (again, even less so when the tip is fine on the other hand) like in the Para 3
- And I think on the other hand really long and slender folders, that lend themselves almost to "kitchen-knife-like" slicing tasks through wider objects profit from a thinner stock (Police being the perfect example)
- But the (in my personal categorization) small to medium Shaman (concerning cutting edge) has the perfect size for a stout, thicker bladed working knife!!

What remains though: Comp. lock would be not my choice for a stout, outdoorsy folder. Much rather a backlock or CBBL.

[TkoK83Spy]

I used the Mule in PMA11 all this week, what a different and fun experience for me! I told Larry it wouldn't go to waste, so here we are! Though it did come with those stunning Red Pearl Kirinite scales, I opted to switch to the Halperin scales he also so generously included. They have a great grip to them, also less flashy in the work place. I used it with the typical, daily warehouse duties throughout the week with the coarse, yet very sharp edge I received it with. It really never lost its sharpness throughout the week, but for the heck of it on Thursday night I gave it a couple passes on the brown rods and it brought it back to that sticky sharpness that I love.

At the end of the day Friday, I decided it was time to give it a bit of a test like I have with many of my folders. I cut 310ft of cardboard effortlessly. It was so easy I actually double up the cardboard instead of individual slabs at a time. After that I hunted down a couple different types of rope that we use here. I cut approximately 20ft of each type of rope, again with ease. That's really where I could feel the coarse finish shine! I feel like I could have cut 500ft with the same results haha. I looked around and found a crate I haven't gotten into yet and popped the straps and decided to cut those down a bit too. Grabbed a piece of printer paper and it easily sliced through along the entire edge.

Though carrying the Mule at times was uncomfortable, trying to find the perfect placement for it in the sheath...using it was a blast and a pleasure! Such a different experience, but it's going make me look into other smaller fixed blades here in the future. Not that any of my Spyderco folders feel flimsy in hand, this is just a different feel. Like nothing can stop it. I could have kept going with the testing, but honestly my hand that wasn't using the knife began to tire from gripping all this stuff while my right hand with the Mule just breezed through material. This won't be the last time you'll be seeing this knife on the forum! :D

*I tried to take a picture of the edge after all this, but my hands were shaky and none of the pics came out clear haha!*