Spyderco Waterway Impressions

[Cscottsss]

Can't wait to get mine! Thanks for the review.

[kelpie]

Great review thank you. mine arrived today, first look I am very impressed

[vivi]

Hi Vivi,

Very nice review. Thanx much.

Also like to thank Lance for his participation. Spyderco afi's are really design conscious and love communicating with designers on the purpose and features of their designs.

I'd also like to put n a good word for Christina at SheathPro. She really labored with this design for a while. She really likes to add a TPO (Thumb Push Off) which is really a useful feature for a sheath, but very difficult on a "taco" sheath.

sal

The sheath is perfect in my opinion. It is one of the best sheaths I've seen on any production fixed blade. The thumb push off is a great touch.

[CoolBreeze135]

You forgot to mention something important... at least for me : thickness behind the edge !

I, too, am interested to hear this metric. I'm intrigued by the Waterway, but would like to know a little more before I consider buying one. I really hope that it is as thin behind the edge as the Spydiechef (or at least close to it). Under 0.02'' would make me happy.

[ZMW]

Got my waterway today! Impressions - The handle is a little thinner then I expected, but still fills the hand is super grippy. You can tell this is made for water/bloody slippery conditions. I love the blade size, handle, overall length, and holster. Stud of a knife! I will play with the steel in the coming weeks, but I love it!

[Extra330SC]

https://youtu.be/g5J3DFyeWbM

Congratulations Lance!


James

[James Y]

https://youtu.be/g5J3DFyeWbM

Congratulations Lance!


James

Thanks for posting that, James!

That is one great and practical design. It's one fixed blade knife I'm certainly interested in.

Jim

[Bloke]

Congratulations Lance!

James

Exceptional knife! :cool:

“So you can see here the hole in the Delica is much, much larger.”

Painful review! :eek:

[koenigsegg]

You forgot to mention something important... at least for me : thickness behind the edge !

I, too, am interested to hear this metric. I'm intrigued by the Waterway, but would like to know a little more before I consider buying one. I really hope that it is as thin behind the edge as the Spydiechef (or at least close to it). Under 0.02'' would make me happy.

Mine is 0.022''

[Bloke]

Not quite the Waterway’s intended use and the knife still had its factory edge. I’ve been using it for mundane stuff, even ate a couple of steak meals with it and I’ve touched it up once with a few passes on Medium stones at 40degs a few weeks ago.



This likely doesn’t look like much whittling to most and I s’pose it’s not but that’s a pretty dry, hard and brittle bit of hardwood and the intent was solely to give me an impression of how LC200N may hold up given “a bit of stick”.



The blade with its factory grind performed like a pig on hardwood. I found it taxing on my wrist and the spine ground just sharp enough to make pushing with my thumb uncomfortable. Either ways it doesn’t matter as I’m fairly sure Gringo didn’t design the knife to whittle Aussie Hardwood.

I’m however, pleasantly surprised by LC200N as for whatever reason I thought it may loose it’s edge fairly quickly and perhaps I may see some edge deformation which was not the case and the same section of blade used on hardwood freely cut paper afterward. :cool:

[Wartstein]

The blade with its factory grind performed like a pig on hardwood. I found it taxing on my wrist and the spine ground just sharp enough to make pushing with my thumb uncomfortable. Either ways it doesn’t matter as I’m fairly sure Gringo didn’t design the knife to whittle Aussie Hardwood.

I don't have a Waterway, but just generally:

Quite thin stocked ffg blades are often not the best whittlers just due to the geometry:

When the primary bevel already is quite acute (the more so the thinner and/or the taller a blade is), the secondary bevel / apex will not go high up the blade just by geometry (unless you do something very acute like 20 inklusive).
That means, in the quite special task of whittling ("cutting" rather shallow into the wood when shaving of material), the wood will hit the "shoulders" of the apex quite soon and be "stopped" there a bit.

That's why for example my Endura sabre grind is a worse cutter, but better whittler (a bit like a "little scandi") than my ffg Enduras (given the edge of both is profiled in the same angle).

[Bloke]

I don't have a Waterway, but just generally:

Quite thin stocked ffg blades are often not the best whittlers just due to the geometry:

When the primary bevel already is quite acute (the more so the thinner and/or the taller a blade is), the secondary bevel / apex will not go high up the blade just by geometry (unless you do something very acute like 20 inklusive).
That means, in the quite special task of whittling ("cutting" rather shallow into the wood when shaving of material), the wood will hit the "shoulders" of the apex quite soon and be "stopped" there a bit.

That's why for example my Endura sabre grind is a worse cutter, but better whittler (a bit like a "little scandi") than my ffg Enduras (given the edge of both is profiled in the same angle).

The Waterway’s factory edge is no better or worse than any other factory FFG blade that comes with a micro bevel and the knife performed as expected. I probably should have stated that in the initial post. :)

Anyhow, LC200N certainly seems to have better edge retention and stability than I expected so I’ll re profile it to 28deg inclusive and call it good I reckon.

[Wartstein]

I don't have a Waterway, but just generally:

Quite thin stocked ffg blades are often not the best whittlers just due to the geometry:

When the primary bevel already is quite acute (the more so the thinner and/or the taller a blade is), the secondary bevel / apex will not go high up the blade just by geometry (unless you do something very acute like 20 inklusive).
That means, in the quite special task of whittling ("cutting" rather shallow into the wood when shaving of material), the wood will hit the "shoulders" of the apex quite soon and be "stopped" there a bit.

That's why for example my Endura sabre grind is a worse cutter, but better whittler (a bit like a "little scandi") than my ffg Enduras (given the edge of both is profiled in the same angle).

The Waterway’s factory edge is no better or worse than any other factory FFG blade that comes with a micro bevel and the knife performed as expected. I probably should have stated that in the initial post. :)

Anyhow, LC200N certainly seems to have better edge retention and stability than I expected so I’ll re profile it to 28deg inclusive and call it good I reckon.

Bloke, my friend, I know that there´s nothing I could teach YOU.

But I have a feeling, that there are quite some people who don´t realize, that (rather shallow) whittling on a stick is a quite special task, in which of two blades of the exact same height and the exact same edge angle (let´s say 40 inclusive) for example a sabre grind actually can do better than an ffg, while being a worse cutter generally. Just because the cutting edge/ secondary bevel goes higher up the blade, and so its "shoulders" are higher up also consequently.

Probably a topic for another thread... :rolleyes:

[Bloke]

Bloke, my friend, I know that there´s nothing I could teach YOU.

Not too sure how much truth is in that but I apologise if I came across as dismissive for that was not my intention. :o

I just find dry hardwood to be a great equaliser. Quickly highlighting deficiencies in edge retention and stability of any given blade and of course edge geometry.

I feel it’s easy to become complacent slicing paper, shaving arm hair and whittling hair without regard to edge geometry.

Anyhow, here’s a thread I started a couple of weeks ago. :rolleyes:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=84316