flytanium ball cage for manix

[ladybug93]

just wondering if anyone here has an opinion on this mod? i don’t mind the plastic in my lw and i’m not worried about it breaking at all, which i suppose is a good thing since spyderco doesn’t want us to ever take the lw apart. however, when i’ve handled the g10 manix in the past, the contrast between the g10 and plastic cage made the cage seem cheap to me. again, i know it’s perfectly fine... it’s just a tactile thing with the g10 version.

anyway, i’m wondering if there is a difference in the action or feel with the ball bearing rolling around against a metal cage. i’m thinking there shouldn’t be since it already rides against the steel on the knife, but i’d like to hear from the community. i found nothing in forums and only found two videos even mentioning this mod. the people in the videos gave glowing reviews, but there are almost never negative reviews, which makes me skeptical.

thanks in advance!

[bearfacedkiller]

I put a copper cage in one of mine. In use it feels just like the plastic one to me. It looks cool but I don’t know if I see any real benefit. I guess that it should be more durable but I haven’t seen very many reports of broken plastic cages.

I purchased two. They are an intricate part and they are a tad pricey. I don’t regret buying the two I have but I won’t be buying any more.

[Pancake]

On paper titanium should be more durable then plastic, but in real world.....hard to say, it´s not like every other Manix has broken ball cage.
Manix XL is on my wishlist and I will be buying metal cage along with it, just for the lols.

[koenigsegg]

I haven't seen it yet but sliceydicey put out a video about his experience

[zhyla]

If you have the clear cage that originally shipped on the Manix 2 then it will eventually break. Spyderco can replace them with the more durable black versions. I’m not aware of any reports of broken black cages.

I’ve “made” (3D printed) cages in both brass and steel/bronze. The (highly polished) brass one I have might be an improvement over plastic in terms of smoothness.

Personally... I think the metal cages are a nice way to future-proof the earlier specimens with the clear cages. And they have more contrast than the black cage on black G-10.

[ladybug93]

i’m not worried about the cage breaking at all. i think the titanium would be a nicer feel than the plastic.if there’s no difference in action, i think i’ll pull the trigger on one of these when i get a g10 manix.