Spyderco Forums

Has there ever been an FRN knife with the jade handle / DLC M4 blade combo? I really like that combination of color but I prefer lightweight knives over the G10 models.

I dont know if the color (or technically lack of color) would work in frn. In case you didn't know, the 'Jade' is just undyed g-10. Problem 1, frn isnt translucent. I suppose they could find something close to it in color. Might look alright.

Jade FRCP is likely a possibility, however.

Natural FRCP would be clear. Still hopeful for the clear or 'smoke" Manix2 LW :)

Glass is as clear as it gets. Fiberglass is glass and resin. Resin can be clear upon desire. Nylon can be any color. This is beyond possible.

embry386 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 01, 2019 1:40 pm

Has there ever been an FRN knife with the jade handle / DLC M4 blade combo? I really like that combination of color but I prefer lightweight knives over the G10 models.

No, but Ive said before many times that BHQ needs to do this with the Native LW and Manix LW. And now the Para 3 LW is surely a good candidate for this treatment!

Yeah, I wasn't thinking so much of a clear FRN knife but rather something that's about the same shade of grayish light green as the G-10 jade knives. But clear would be pretty epic -- unlimited dyeing potential, or just leave it clear to have a super cool clear knife that lets you see all the inner workings and such :) And yeah, the para 3 LW would be awesome to see in this combo!

Thanks for the answers everyone!

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen translucent nylon in any application. I think it’s naturally an opaque off white right?

This would be possible. It could still be translucent and dyed any color desired.

I have long hoped for a translucent orange of some tint. Emerald green might be okay, as well.

zhyla wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 01, 2019 9:25 pm

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen translucent nylon in any application. I think it’s naturally an opaque off white right?

I'm not sure. A lot of toothbrush handles and other brush handles are nylon. I've seen brushes with clear and transparent colored handles, just don't know whether or not the plastic they were made from was nylon. Definitely can't recall ever seeing a clear or transparent colored FRN knife handle.

Closest thing to Jade FRN might be that glow in the dark stuff Spyderco used for the Plastic Delica Kit.

Did a little searching for nylon (polyamide) blocks and what not. I don’t know what those old toothbrushes were made of but I’m guessing not nylon. The raw PA blocks look like bone — off white and opaque.

If nylon could be translucent we’d probably have translucent glock frames by now.

The classical guitar uses nylon strings; if unwound the string is transparent.

I would buy a Jade LW.

Pelagic wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 01, 2019 7:15 pm

Glass is as clear as it gets. Fiberglass is glass and resin. Resin can be clear upon desire. Nylon can be any color. This is beyond possible.

Not really. Look at glass on edge and it'll have a green tint to it. Plexiglass (aka: Acrylic, PMMA, Poly(methyl methacrylate)) more "clear" then glass. They actually add green dye to Plexiglass to make it look like real glass.

Bdubs808 wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 02, 2019 7:41 pm

The classical guitar uses nylon strings; if unwound the string is transparent.

I would buy a Jade LW.

Whether some plastics are clear or not has to do with the crystallinity. In general, the more amorphous (opposite of crystalline) a plastic is, the clearer it is. Crystals, tend to refract light so it appears opaque. Glass is amorphous. PMMA (acrylic) is very amorphous so it's clear. Nylon is a highly crystalline polymer, so consequently it's opaque

Monofilament fishing line is made of nylon and it's clear. But that's a special case where the preferential stretching to align the polymer molecules. So while technically it's not amorphous, it's not really crystalline either. If you were to heat up nylon fishing line, the molecules would form crystals and it would go opaque.

atv223 wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 02, 2019 8:23 pm

Pelagic wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 01, 2019 7:15 pm

Glass is as clear as it gets. Fiberglass is glass and resin. Resin can be clear upon desire. Nylon can be any color. This is beyond possible.

Not really. Look at glass on edge and it'll have a green tint to it. Plexiglass (aka: Acrylic, PMMA, Poly(methyl methacrylate)) more "clear" then glass. They actually add green dye to Plexiglass to make it look like real glass.

When it's extremely thin (as it is in fiberglass), you'll have a lot of trouble convincing someone that it's green. Very transparent.

Pelagic wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:40 am

When it's extremely thin (as in fiberglass), you'll have a lot of trouble convincing someone that it's green. Very transparent.

And yet, I can't recall ever seeing transparent fiberglass fibers. I've seen white, which I've always assumed to be its natural color, pink, blue, green, and a number of other colors, which I've always assumed were tinted, but never clear.

The Deacon wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:49 am

Pelagic wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:40 am

When it's extremely thin (as in fiberglass), you'll have a lot of trouble convincing someone that it's green. Very transparent.

And yet, I can't recall ever seeing transparent fiberglass fibers. I've seen white, which I've always assumed to be its natural color, pink, blue, green, and a number of other colors, which I've always assumed were tinted, but never clear.

Meant to say, when it's thin as IT IS in fiberglass. Just woke up before posting. You don't see the green tint in extremely thin glass. Fiberglass is white because you're looking at the sides of rough fibers from different perspectives. When looking through a window you're only looking from one perspective relative to the glass itself. Some fiberglass DOES become translucent however after resin is applied. Ever reinforced anything wooden? Once resin is applied, you can hardly see the fiberglass until you get close. It just looks like wet, shiny wood.

Pelagic wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 03, 2019 6:03 am

The Deacon wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:49 am

Pelagic wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:40 am

When it's extremely thin (as in fiberglass), you'll have a lot of trouble convincing someone that it's green. Very transparent.

And yet, I can't recall ever seeing transparent fiberglass fibers. I've seen white, which I've always assumed to be its natural color, pink, blue, green, and a number of other colors, which I've always assumed were tinted, but never clear.

Meant to say, when it's thin as IT IS in fiberglass. Just woke up before posting. You don't see the green tint in extremely thin glass. Fiberglass is white because you're looking at the sides of rough fibers from different perspectives. When looking through a window you're only looking from one perspective relative to the glass itself. Some fiberglass DOES become translucent however after resin is applied. Ever reinforced anything wooden? Once resin is applied, you can hardly see the fiberglass until you get close. It just looks like wet, shiny wood.

Yes, I've reinforced things with fiberglass and epoxy resin, mostly when I was building R/C airplanes and boats. Granted, the resin by itself was clear, but adding the chopped fiberglass flock made it look milky. When I used fiberglass cloth, the white fiberglass was visible through the resin, just like the black carbon fiber rods were visible when I used them for reinforcement. It almost sounds like you're confusing the glass fibers with the polymer/epoxy resin in a fiberglass composite like G-10.

The Deacon wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 03, 2019 9:30 am

Pelagic wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 03, 2019 6:03 am

The Deacon wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:49 am

Pelagic wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:40 am

When it's extremely thin (as in fiberglass), you'll have a lot of trouble convincing someone that it's green. Very transparent.

And yet, I can't recall ever seeing transparent fiberglass fibers. I've seen white, which I've always assumed to be its natural color, pink, blue, green, and a number of other colors, which I've always assumed were tinted, but never clear.

Meant to say, when it's thin as IT IS in fiberglass. Just woke up before posting. You don't see the green tint in extremely thin glass. Fiberglass is white because you're looking at the sides of rough fibers from different perspectives. When looking through a window you're only looking from one perspective relative to the glass itself. Some fiberglass DOES become translucent however after resin is applied. Ever reinforced anything wooden? Once resin is applied, you can hardly see the fiberglass until you get close. It just looks like wet, shiny wood.

Yes, I've reinforced things with fiberglass and epoxy resin, mostly when I was building R/C airplanes and boats. Granted, the resin by itself was clear, but adding the chopped fiberglass flock made it look milky. When I used fiberglass cloth, the white fiberglass was visible through the resin, just like the black carbon fiber rods were visible when I used them for reinforcement. It almost sounds like you're confusing the glass fibers with the polymer/epoxy resin in a fiberglass composite like G-10.

So FRN truly isn't FRN? I figured they called it what it was. It's actually not (fiber)glass? Within nylon of course.

I've helped with boat building myself, and even a wooden supercar called the splinter. Some fiberglass can look milky after resin is applied, some is virtually clear. The resin has a clearing effect similar to clear coat when you restore headlights: the 5000grit wet/dry sandpaper leaves a foggy looking finish, and the clear coat makes the headlight look brand new by filling in the contour of the scratch pattern fully so that all the various nooks, crannies, and angles no longer reflect light. Just as there's no such thing as a clear powder (because you're viewing reflecting light from countless perspectives), there's no such thing as clear fiberglass. Until you add resin.