The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

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demoncase
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#21

Post by demoncase »

The Mastiff wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2019 4:58 pm
I'm not entirely sure about powder steels but there are very few non recycled ingot steels. I can only think of a couple used in knives like some of Hitachi's. White steel? Maybe. Most every steel manufacturer uses recycled steel to some degree. Some blend recycled with new steel made from ore. Isn't steel the most recycled product of all?

I'd be out if Aluminum is used. I hate it on knife handles.
Yep, apart from very select grades of materials for special applications, all steel has some recycled steel added early in the process.
Typically it's about 20-25% recycled.....But my point was to go for as-close-to-100% recycled as possible- to show it is possible.

Looks like I was right and the handle scale material seems to be the most straightforward.

The comments about upcycling of old materials (as opposed to recycled materials) made me think: A lot of proper hand-made kurkris use Mercedes truck leaf springs as barstock in Nepal.....The challenge would be finding enough good non-degraded material to select to make the usual 600-1200 sprint run (including a sensible amount of QC drop outs)

Something like that might be very interesting as a special sprint run of carbon steel.
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#22

Post by spyderg »

I think the leaf spring blade makes sense. Any number of choices for handles, recycled rubber, micarta, reclaimed wood, plastics...or any assortment of them as options like GEC does when they put out a knife.
I think a fixed blade could keep costs reasonable and more likely to be a 100% recycled material knife. They could even make sheaths out of recycled plastic, reclaimed leather or leather scraps, (of course wouldnt be as purdy but If im using a knife or carrying a sheath it’s going to get marked up in no time anyway).
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#23

Post by bearfacedkiller »

Leaf springs are tough as they do not come in the correct thickness and they might be hard to work with.

Using repurposed materials for knife blades is not new. It was common in the past to use old saw blades to make knives. I think they mostly used the blades from very large band saws from saw mills.
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#24

Post by Fred Sanford »

Cool idea. I think it would be neat.
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#25

Post by steelcity16 »

bearfacedkiller wrote:
Fri Jun 07, 2019 10:17 am
Leaf springs are tough as they do not come in the correct thickness and they might be hard to work with.

Using repurposed materials for knife blades is not new. It was common in the past to use old saw blades to make knives. I think they mostly used the blades from very large band saws from saw mills.

I have some garden hoes (Rogue Hoes) made from old agricultural disc blades and they are amazing. I know some people make knives out of old hand files as well since they are typically made from hard tool steels.
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#26

Post by Ruudr »

Really cool idea. There should be options Spyderco!😃
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#27

Post by SpyderEdgeForever »

Focusing on the handle, would Spyderco somehow get scrap FRN and scrap G10 and recycle that into the handle or how would the handle be made? Buck used that stuff called "paperstone". I don't know much about it. Perhaps Spyderco could use a tough grade of ABS plastic?

Paperstone:

https://paperstoneproducts.net/wordpress/

Here is the discontinued Buck 110 with Paperstone handle:

https://www.knifecenter.com/item/BU110R ... ne-Handles

The Spyderco "Eco" series. Imagine it folks: Military, Paramilitary, Native, Endura, Delica, and other models.
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#28

Post by Stuart Ackerman »

What happens when you melt and cast 440C steel... :D
The ultimate recycling... :)
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#29

Post by Bloke »

SpyderEdgeForever wrote:
Fri Jun 07, 2019 4:44 pm
Focusing on the handle
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#30

Post by Doc Dan »

As I said earlier, paperstone is a nice recycled material and we have good color choices. But, old linen or blue jean micarta is good, too.

The big question would be: What knife?

It would make more sense to do a knife that Spyderco already makes, such as the UKPK (so our UK brothers and sisters can join in), or Lil Native back lock, or something.
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#31

Post by archangel »

Love the idea. Hope Sal will chime in what he thinks about it. :rolleyes:
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#32

Post by ferider »

Bloke wrote:
Fri Jun 07, 2019 7:44 am
ferider wrote:
Thu Jun 06, 2019 8:03 am
or wind-power.
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#33

Post by bearrowland »

Nooooo...
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#34

Post by navin johnson »

What would the footprint be to achieve this? What would the cost be? Raise prices on other products to make the new product sellable? To what end? This seems like the "drive my Prius to the airport to get in my private jet" syndrome.

From a manufacturing standpoint one would need the down stream suppliers on board first and unless they are earth worshipers that means $$. Then the R&D to turn a corn cob or cow feces into a handle that will work in all climates.

Yes it would be "neat" but who would buy it? Would your average feller going into Cabelas pay 50% more for a recycled Native because the handle is made out of straws?

Sorry for the rant but this type of thinking is how people vote to regulate business without regard to its effects or if would help anything.....but it makes them feel good.
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#35

Post by SpyderEdgeForever »

navin johnson wrote:
Sat Jun 08, 2019 7:51 am
What would the footprint be to achieve this? What would the cost be? Raise prices on other products to make the new product sellable? To what end? This seems like the "drive my Prius to the airport to get in my private jet" syndrome.

From a manufacturing standpoint one would need the down stream suppliers on board first and unless they are earth worshipers that means $$. Then the R&D to turn a corn cob or cow feces into a handle that will work in all climates.

Yes it would be "neat" but who would buy it? Would your average feller going into Cabelas pay 50% more for a recycled Native because the handle is made out of straws?

Sorry for the rant but this type of thinking is how people vote to regulate business without regard to its effects or if would help anything.....but it makes them feel good.
I respect your opinion and it is a good idea to look at the economics of it, but, don't you think there are two good reasons for the original idea?

1 Spyderco users who are already familiar with the brand would be into it, as we have been reading here.
2 New potential Spyderco customers could be drawn in by clever marketing of "eco friendly" and "recyclable" and perhaps this could set off more people to be pro knife.

What do you think of those ideas?

Imagine if Spyderco could be *the* brand that people around the world associate with "enviromentally friendly knives" and "Buy a Spyderco, help the earth."
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#36

Post by demoncase »

SpyderEdgeForever wrote:
Sat Jun 08, 2019 11:55 am
navin johnson wrote:
Sat Jun 08, 2019 7:51 am
What would the footprint be to achieve this? What would the cost be? Raise prices on other products to make the new product sellable? To what end? This seems like the "drive my Prius to the airport to get in my private jet" syndrome.

From a manufacturing standpoint one would need the down stream suppliers on board first and unless they are earth worshipers that means $$. Then the R&D to turn a corn cob or cow feces into a handle that will work in all climates.

Yes it would be "neat" but who would buy it? Would your average feller going into Cabelas pay 50% more for a recycled Native because the handle is made out of straws?

Sorry for the rant but this type of thinking is how people vote to regulate business without regard to its effects or if would help anything.....but it makes them feel good.
I respect your opinion and it is a good idea to look at the economics of it, but, don't you think there are two good reasons for the original idea?

1 Spyderco users who are already familiar with the brand would be into it, as we have been reading here.
2 New potential Spyderco customers could be drawn in by clever marketing of "eco friendly" and "recyclable" and perhaps this could set off more people to be pro knife.

What do you think of those ideas?

Imagine if Spyderco could be *the* brand that people around the world associate with "enviromentally friendly knives" and "Buy a Spyderco, help the earth."
To take the point made: The 'Average Cabelas Feller' is already going to pass over sprint runs and paying more for boutique steels....the ones we all lust after. This idea isn't for them.

My original post gives my reasons why:
1. Spyderco is all about pushing the limits of materials in knives- this is a limit that has largely not been explored deliberately or explicitly
2. Spyderco already makes knives with some specific charity attachment (go read the catalogue!) including for whale preservation- so this could be a nice synergy in their line up
3. Knives- and knife makers- get enough negative press. Why not do something that will get positive press?
4. Knife Knuts do love new, fun and interesting sprint runs- this would amply fit into that.
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Re: The Spyderco Earth- a knife made from 100% recycled materials

#37

Post by Woodpuppy »

Interesting idea, I think it would be a very expensive thing to produce. It’s an economy of scale issue. Recycled material faces an uphill battle, primarily due to the customers. People don’t want recycled content. It’s also often more expensive to refine recycled material into a consistent raw material. And factory production requires uniform raw materials.
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