LC200N / Caribbean SE torture test gauntlet of death

[ladybug93]

Between this and the pics of the modded wharncliffe versions, I like what I see. I want to be able to grind the nub off the bottom so it’s shaped more like a native when closed. But the liners are nested, yes?

you can certainly do that. i planned on removing the pinky bump. there's plenty of g10 there and the liners don't follow the contour of the handle, so you don't even have to worry about that.

i will say this though... i bought my caribbean fully intending to grind down the blade to a point, remove the pinky bump, and dye the scales. i've done none of the above. the blade shape is better for emergencies as a sheepsfoot and still pointy enough to do anything else i need to do. the pinky bump doesn't bother me as much as i expected it to. and the color doesn't really bother me either, once i got it in hand.

i still may mod it, but it's a great knife exactly how it comes. another consideration for me is that the laws seem a little bit nebulous when it comes to knives here and i feel like i can justify carrying a knife that looks like a rescue tool easier than if i made it pointy and dyed it a darker color.

[Woodpuppy]

Between this and the pics of the modded wharncliffe versions, I like what I see. I want to be able to grind the nub off the bottom so it’s shaped more like a native when closed. But the liners are nested, yes?

you can certainly do that. i planned on removing the pinky bump. there's plenty of g10 there and the liners don't follow the contour of the handle, so you don't even have to worry about that.

i will say this though... i bought my caribbean fully intending to grind down the blade to a point, remove the pinky bump, and dye the scales. i've done none of the above. the blade shape is better for emergencies as a sheepsfoot and still pointy enough to do anything else i need to do. the pinky bump doesn't bother me as much as i expected it to. and the color doesn't really bother me either, once i got it in hand.

i still may mod it, but it's a great knife exactly how it comes. another consideration for me is that the laws seem a little bit nebulous when it comes to knives here and i feel like i can justify carrying a knife that looks like a rescue tool easier than if i made it pointy and dyed it a darker color.

Thanks for that, Ladybug! I don’t know what I’ll do. Wish there was a solid knife shop in my town, but there just isn’t.

Knife laws are insane aren’t they? I’m pretty lucky in FL overall. Thank goodness for https://kniferights.org/about/

[ladybug93]

Between this and the pics of the modded wharncliffe versions, I like what I see. I want to be able to grind the nub off the bottom so it’s shaped more like a native when closed. But the liners are nested, yes?

you can certainly do that. i planned on removing the pinky bump. there's plenty of g10 there and the liners don't follow the contour of the handle, so you don't even have to worry about that.

i will say this though... i bought my caribbean fully intending to grind down the blade to a point, remove the pinky bump, and dye the scales. i've done none of the above. the blade shape is better for emergencies as a sheepsfoot and still pointy enough to do anything else i need to do. the pinky bump doesn't bother me as much as i expected it to. and the color doesn't really bother me either, once i got it in hand.

i still may mod it, but it's a great knife exactly how it comes. another consideration for me is that the laws seem a little bit nebulous when it comes to knives here and i feel like i can justify carrying a knife that looks like a rescue tool easier than if i made it pointy and dyed it a darker color.

Thanks for that, Ladybug! I don’t know what I’ll do. Wish there was a solid knife shop in my town, but there just isn’t.

Knife laws are insane aren’t they? I’m pretty lucky in FL overall. Thank goodness for https://kniferights.org/about/

i grew up in fl. i remember not being able to believe that i was allowed to carry a 3.5" assisted folder, but it was illegal to carry an esee izula in my pocket or backpack without a concealed carry license. some laws just don't make sense.

[Evil D]

Between this and the pics of the modded wharncliffe versions, I like what I see. I want to be able to grind the nub off the bottom so it’s shaped more like a native when closed. But the liners are nested, yes?

They are but they don't extend all the way to the edge, you can't totally get rid of the nub but you can round it off quite a lot before you hit the liners.

[Woodpuppy]

That would be about perfect!

[ladybug93]

That would be about perfect!

i found a picture of one that was trimmed down like this on instagram. they also shaved down the finger guard in the front a little and dyed the handle a brownish color. if you look for spydercocaribbean there, you should find it.

[Evil D]

That would be about perfect!

My little sketch is also keeping an even amount of G10 around the liner, but you could grind it down much closer to the liner and almost straighten that hump out with the rest of the grip. I do this with my Para 2s.

[Woodpuppy]

That would be about perfect!

My little sketch is also keeping an even amount of G10 around the liner, but you could grind it down much closer to the liner and almost straighten that hump out with the rest of the grip. I do this with my Para 2s.

I actually like the butt curve on the PM2

[Evil D]

So if you guys didn't catch it in the "what's your occupation" thread, I'm a tow truck driver. It's a weird job in that I almost never need a knife until OMG I NEED A KNIFE and then it's either in self defense against a dog or person or it's to cut a person out of a car or to cut something off a car, a tie down strap or something like that. One thing I encounter a lot is wrecked cars with bumper covers hanging off, and instead of letting them drag the ground or trying to zip tie them up, I usually just cut them off. This is usually quite easy, as urethane or polyethylene is usually pretty easy to cut...usually. Turns out I brought home the thickest and toughest bumper I've encountered, so this test didn't go quite as smoothly as I anticipated.

My goal was to whittle this up like you would a branch:




Well, that didn't go very well because this thing is around 5mm thick:



Anyway I made a bunch of cuts through it, probably 50 or so before my hand and arm were absolutely wore out:










This got me wondering if it was difficult to cut because of the serrations or blade thickness so I got out a few other knives of various types that I thought might do well at this:



First up was the Nilakka, which I had very high expectations for because of the zero grind. However, the blade is also something like 5.5mm so it's a bit of a door stop once the whole blade gets wedged in. It was great for making very thin slices but once it got deep into the material it was far worse than the Caribbean, which I would say is a good example of blade stock thickness effecting slicing action.





Next up was my S110V Military with a Big Chris regrind which measures in at around 0.010 behind the edge. Again, I had high expectations because this knife goes through boxes like nothing else I own but yet again it tended to wedge far more than the Caribbean for some reason. It was better than the Nilakka but not by much.




Lastly we have the Autonomy just so I can give you some kind of H1 vs LC comparison even though the blades are so different from each other. The Autonomy did quite well, but not quite as good as the Caribbean. It did far better than I expected though considering the serrations aren't as rounded or as blended/reprofiled as my Caribbean. It also has the thinnest blade stock of the bunch though so it wedged far less even being a low hollow grind. I only got one pic of it though.





In the end I didn't make nearly as many cuts as I wanted to, but my hand was bordering on blisters even with a light glove on.

[Evil D]

So what I suspect was going on there vs the plain edge blades is some kind of reduction in friction from the serrations. It may just be that the serrations have so many continuous edges that the slicing action is just that much more aggressive and this is an example of how they excel over plain edge, but I really did expect the Nilakka and regrind Military to slice better than they did, but it was a wedging nightmare. I tried varying the angle that I made slices in, the same as you would do with thick cardboard to try to let the board separate around the blade but it didn't make a difference.

It may also be that the PE blades were making more of a push cut, while a SE blade almost never does a true PUSH cut because there are so many curves to the edge that it's almost impossible to make a cut without creating some kind of forward or backward slicing motion. All of these knives were as sharp as I can get them and were all sharpened at the same grit (up to ultra fine on the Sharpmaker) so aside from edge type they were as fairly matched as I could make them.

[The Meat man]

WOW! That's crazy stuff right there. Very impressed how the serrations held up!
How did the PE knives compare as far as before-and-after sharpness?

[Evil D]

WOW! That's crazy stuff right there. Very impressed how the serrations held up!
How did the PE knives compare as far as before-and-after sharpness?

To be fair I didn't make near as many cuts so it really wouldn't be even anyway, but I didn't actually think to check. I'll pull them back out and see how they slice.

[VooDooChild]

Would like to see how a shaman, chief, and police 4 do on that bumper as well.

Did you try the sheepsfoot caribbean? I think you should. Something about that tiny amount of belly on that sheepsfoot blade makes it a slicing demon.

[Evil D]

Would like to see how a shaman, chief, and police 4 do on that bumper as well.

Did you try the sheepsfoot caribbean? I think you should. Something about that tiny amount of belly on that sheepsfoot blade makes it a slicing demon.

Unfortunately I don't have a Police 4 or Chief but I can run my Cruwear Shaman through it. I'm pretty sure it won't go well considering the regrind Military didn't, I can't imagine a Shaman will do better considering how much thicker it is behind the edge. I can also try the sheepscliffe but I haven't blended the serrations like I have the leaf blade.


Also I forgot to mention, there is still quite a lot of chisel grind walk action even after trying to blend down the shoulder of the serrations. I really don't notice this in most uses but when cutting something really rigid like this it's very much there. I was actually thinking maybe this was helping to make the cuts wedge less, since the direction of the "walk" would steer the knife out of the cut, while the plain edge knives tended to cut straight into the material and start wedging into it. The last test I did with this knife was cutting up a bunch of double wall corrugated box and I didn't notice any walking action at all in that.


I think I'm gonna get out my Opinel and sharpen it up and see how it cuts. I don't wanna stray away from the point of this thread but the material seems like a good slicing challenge and I think my Opinel is probably the thinnest blade I own, so long as I don't break it. This stuff was incredibly difficult to cut.

[ladybug93]

this kind of thing is why i also carry a box cutter in my bag. we always talk about wanting folders that are robust and can handle tough jobs, but i agree a shaman would be a nightmare in that material. i bet a utility knife would work better than anything else you've used even though they're definitely not robust.

[Woodpuppy]

this kind of thing is why i also carry a box cutter in my bag. we always talk about wanting folders that are robust and can handle tough jobs, but i agree a shaman would be a nightmare in that material. i bet a utility knife would work better than anything else you've used even though they're definitely not robust.

The humble box cutter has its part to play for sure!

[Johnnyh]

I just sat here and read the entire thread in one sitting. Your dedication to torturing this knife for all it’s worth is impressive! Truly remarkable. I just ordered up a Salt 2 SE Wharncliffe in LC200N yesterday. Although it’s definitely not in Caribbean territory, I’m more confident than ever that it will easily withstand the rigors of my not-so-torturous back yard gardening stuff and occasional fishing trip. Thanks!

On a side note, I’ve become a big fan of Spyderco and not just because they make great stuff but also this: Sal Glesser himself reads your thread and offers up two Spydies, one to keep for yourself and one to torture and murder? Wow...

[cyclopsamurai]

this kind of thing is why i also carry a box cutter in my bag. we always talk about wanting folders that are robust and can handle tough jobs, but i agree a shaman would be a nightmare in that material. i bet a utility knife would work better than anything else you've used even though they're definitely not robust.

Is LC200N just too weak for a Shaman's wide, thick blade? Is that what you mean?

[Michael Janich]

Dear cyclopsamurai:

Welcome to the Spyderco Forum.

Stay safe,

Mike

[ladybug93]

this kind of thing is why i also carry a box cutter in my bag. we always talk about wanting folders that are robust and can handle tough jobs, but i agree a shaman would be a nightmare in that material. i bet a utility knife would work better than anything else you've used even though they're definitely not robust.

Is LC200N just too weak for a Shaman's wide, thick blade? Is that what you mean?

i mean that a thick blade like the shaman has would be a nightmare to use when cutting the material evil d was cutting. i wasn't referring to the blade material.