Spyderco Forums

So I've recently started using the Spyder-edged Tasman Salt 2 as my primary work knife. I find the combination of the hawkbill blade & serrations to be especially useful for cutting pallet straps, nylon rope, netting, and other cordage (which is probably 80% of what I need to do with a knife at work), and the corrosion-resistance & toughness of H1 steel are great additional features. I think it may finally displace the Native & Delica as my go-to work knife.

It's made me curious about the plain edge version of the knife, though: Do any of you out there prefer it over the Spyder edge model outside of, say, aesthetic or ease of sharpening reasons? Does anyone here have any experience using it for cutting fibrous materials & if so, how does it compare to the Spyder edge model? (I'm sure it doesn't cut nearly as well, but I'm wondering if the difference is as pronounced as the Knife Internet would lead me to believe).

I greatly prefer the SE. I tried the plain edge and for the stuff I wanted to cut with it (mostly wet, fibrous stuff), the PE just worked better.

SE

Can't speak to the Tasman, but I have the Spyderhawk in both SE and PE. The PE version gets more use because I don't mind beating the cr*p out of it but, if I was buying one today, I would only buy the SE. There really is no comparison in terms of cutting power.

TomAiello wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 23, 2019 4:14 pm

I greatly prefer the SE. I tried the plain edge and for the stuff I wanted to cut with it (mostly wet, fibrous stuff), the PE just worked better.

I also find the SE Tasman or any other SE Hawkbill for that matter to be far more useful than I do the PE versions. I'm still asking every one I know that uses Hawkbill blades to tell me the advantages of PE Hawkbills :confused: And I get very few answers unfortunately.

Every Spyderco Hawkbill I own as a user ( about 8 of them total) are mostly SE. Again I just can't find hardly any advantages in a PE Hawkbill blade.

In a small knife like the lady bug or dragonfly I’d like to try a “super steel” PE. I enjoy my SE dragonfly And lady bug HB... but I wouldn’t mind a PE in something like k390, m4, s90v, 20cv, something odd... just to try it.

For the Tasman and spyderhawk, no thanks. I’ll keep the SE H1. They go together like pb&j

Also, don’t be afraid to beat the **** out of a SE knife.

I can’t help you with any personal experiences with PE Spyderco hawkbills, but the only PE hawkbill I do own, a DKD Shark Tooth CA-legal auto, while a good quality knife, does not cut anywhere near as efficiently as any of my SE Spyderco hawkbills. As was already mentioned, hawkbills and SE just go together. On my DKD, in spite of the hawkbill shape, some things I’m cutting will slide off. Admittedly, its hawkbill shape is less pronounced than a Spyderco’s, and I could imagine that a PE Tasman would have more “grab” than the DKD, but I would still prefer SE over PE.

Jim

Thanks for all the replies guys. I do have one Spyderco hawkbill in PE—a Karahawk—but I don't want to extrapolate its work performance to that of the PE Tasman Salt 2 too much given the differences in steel (VG-10 vs. H1) & philosophy of design/use.

That said, I did find the Karahawk to be a decent "user" for the purposes I mentioned in my initial post but it just looked too "weapon-y" for it to be my primary work knife.

zuludelta wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 23, 2019 7:28 pm

Thanks for all the replies guys. I do have one Spyderco hawkbill in PE—a Karahawk—but I don't want to extrapolate its work performance to that of the PE Tasman Salt 2 too much given the differences in steel (VG-10 vs. H1) & philosophy of design/use.

That said, I did find the Karahawk to be a decent "user" for the purposes I mentioned in my initial post but it just looked too "weapon-y" for it to be my primary work knife.

Any SE hawkbill like the Tasman or larger looks pretty intense... cuz they are. there’s no way around that!

I really love the SE Tasman Salt. I wouldn't try this one in PE. Often I have to talk myself out of carrying mine for a long time, because I assume there must be a reason a hawkbill doesn't work for EDC, but it really does. You can do a lot of stuff with it, and it cuts like a beast.