Well, I've been wanting to try S110V, and Spyderco is obviously the easiest way to get S110V. I spent the past month trying to decide which blurple model to buy, but couldn't quite pull the trigger. Last week my wife asked me what I wanted for Father's Day. I blurted out "a Spyderco Native 5 with S110V and G-10 scales!" She just said "OK." It arrived yesterday from BHQ, and I finally "get" why so many people love Spyderco. The action is extremely solid, the lockup is perfect, there's no wiggle whatsoever despite it being a lockback, and the blade symmetry is the best I've seen so far. Everything is fitted properly and the jimping actually works. It has quickly become my favorite folding knife, above and beyond some much more expensive models I've purchased.
I chose the Native over the PM2 or Manix for a couple reasons. First, I like the humpless drop point and the choil, which are very similar to my Bradford Guardian4. I'm not as averse to the Spyderco hump as I was six months ago, but I haven't quite cast my aesthetic prejudices aside entirely. Second, I heard that the G-10 models are all going linerless, and I was hoping to get one with liners before the older stock ran out. Lucky for me, BHQ is still selling the S110V model with liners. I'm sure the linerless design is a quality product, but I will always compulsively select the "more metal" option, and carry weight is not a major concern for me.
Now I'm trying to convince my oldest son of the merits of Spyderco before his next birthday. He recently bought himself a Kershaw Link, and he constantly lusts after my similarly shaped ZT 0801. I plan on getting him a PM3 for his 16th birthday, if I can convince him in the next few months that flippers on bearings aren't the only kind of folding knife.
And now for some mediocre photos of a knife everybody's seen a million times already...
