Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

Discuss Spyderco's products and history.
Sumdumguy
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#21

Post by Sumdumguy »

yablanowitz wrote:
Sat Apr 17, 2021 11:00 am
I do have a serious question here. Why spend hundreds of dollars on a well-designed knife with great ergonomics, made from premium materials with a blade of carefully selected high-performance steel honed to a razor edge when you do all the real work with a 5 cent utility knife blade?

I know a lot of you cringe when I use a Sprint Run S90V/CF Military for drywall work. You get the heebie-jeebies when I scrape an old wax ring off a cast iron floor flange with a Maxamet Manix. You'd have had a heart attack seeing me cut steel bands off a bundle of gas pipe with my trusty Cold Steel Tanto. But thats why I spend that much on a knife, so I don't have to baby it. I paid for that performance, and I'm darned well going to use it.
I use my knives to the same extent. But, this is an issue of the "right" tool for a given job.

A razor knife, you buy blades by the hundred, abuse them for a short period of time, throw it away and pop in a new one. For actual construction tasks, a razor is way better than any knife Spyderco makes.

These knives are too thick to do 90% of the jobs I would use my razor knife for. My $200 pocket knife is for the times when I don't have my pouch on and need to cut something at that moment.

Time is money. Stop, go get my pouch on and come back to cut something, or just pull out a pocket knife and slice it right then?

It won't take long for that to add up to a considerable amount of wasted time.
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spoonrobot
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#22

Post by spoonrobot »

I think folding utility knives were a solution searching for a problem. Fortunately that problem ended up being tradesman with too much money so a happy marriage was made :p

Personally, I find replaceable blade utility knives irreplaceable for many of my work tasks, but think Spyderco adding their own high end variant diminishes their product line. There's just something about a knife company making a folding blade holder that rubs me the wrong way.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#23

Post by rangefinder »

Seems like the "Spyderco utility knife" topic comes up pretty regularly, much like the "Spyderco multi-tool" topic. Here's the last thread about utility knives: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=87684

I don't care for folding utility knives. Most of the time when I'm using a utility knife, I'm wearing work gloves. And the traditional out-the-front models are (at least for me) much easier to use when wearing gloves. So a folding model from Spyderco probably wouldn't interest me.

Easy blade changes are nice. But if I know I'm going to be up a ladder or similar situation where changing a blade is difficult, I just use a "New York reload" and carry two utility knives. That also covers the case (that happens often enough) where I drop one. And when you can get a two-pack at Home Depot for $10, having two (or 10) around doesn't cost much.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#24

Post by Fireman »

I have been a proponent of this concept for a while. I would love to see a super steel replacement blade that we would sharpen and reuse. I can see a “Fixed” neck knife and regular size fixes as well as a folder.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#25

Post by yablanowitz »

Super steel blades would be more in Spyderco's philosophy, but they defeat the purpose of utility knives, which is disposable blades that you don't have to sharpen. If you are just going to sharpen it and keep using it, why not just use a real knife?

The edge IS the knife. The rest is user interface. No matter how good that interface is, if the edge is a five cent utility knife blade there won't be high performance, reliable or otherwise.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#26

Post by Bolster »

Maybe the topic of a Spyderco Ute keeps coming up because there's a market for it.

Spyderco makes inexpensive kitchen cutlery like the Counter Puppy for $25, makes inexpensive Byrd folders for $30, makes inexpensive fixed blades like the Bow for $40. Spyderco's reputation would not be tarnished by making a quality $50 utility knife, but they may have no interest in it, in which case, OK, no worries. But Spyderco has made a saw, and several multitools, and a ball point pen, so neither is the idea of a Spyderco Ute from the moons of Neptune.

There *is* a huge market for folding and non-folding utes and a lot of (mediocre) players in the field that are "good enough." There are probably multiples of utes sold for every decent folder sold. I happen to know a lot of contractors who take pride in having the best tools available, and it seems to me the middle-to-high-end market for utes is more or less empty, and up for grabs.

Especially if there were some wedging mechanism for securing the blades, an unusual lock like a CBBL, and nice light G-10 scales in a product category flooded with aluminum or plastic handles--that could really stand out.

The blades for Utes aren't terrible, but neither are they great. All I've found is SK-2 and SK-5. SK-2 is a simple steel with about 1.2 carbon and low amounts of anything else; it's reasonably hard and maintains an edge decently, although I tend to abuse my ute blades (why not?). SK-5 is another simple steel with .9 carbon and is tougher than SK-2. I dunno if there's a market for an upscale Ute steel, but someone needs to ask the carpet guys. They wear blades like nobody's business and would probably appreciate some vanadium!

There's really no substitute for a thin utility blade when that's what the job calls for. My cheapest ute can out-cut cardboard, construction papers, tar-paper, asphalt shingles, and Tyvek compared to my finest Spyderco, which is inevitably thicker and sturdier. Plus, it's a real bonus to have a new sharp thin blade instantly. Time is money and a hustling contractor typically doesn't have time to stop and sharpen.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#27

Post by SpyderGrill »

Utility knives are cheap, razor blade insert.

Only a select few would buy because Spyderco put a name on it.

These knives are abused and abused, lost and dont care what happens to them
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#28

Post by Sonorum »

pantagana23 wrote:
Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:57 am
Why do you buy folding utility knives?

I have the Stanley in the picture below for 12 years, and the sliding opening is very convenient.

Locks in open, locks in closed position.

Changed more than 50 inserts, but the housing itself is almost as good as new
I really like this one but the pocket clip is not great. Way to shallow carry for such a short knife. It can almost rotate out of the pocket. Also tip up only, booo!
/ David
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#29

Post by Joshua J. »

yablanowitz wrote:
Sat Apr 17, 2021 11:00 am
I do have a serious question here. Why spend hundreds of dollars on a well-designed knife with great ergonomics, made from premium materials with a blade of carefully selected high-performance steel honed to a razor edge when you do all the real work with a 5 cent utility knife blade?

I know a lot of you cringe when I use a Sprint Run S90V/CF Military for drywall work. You get the heebie-jeebies when I scrape an old wax ring off a cast iron floor flange with a Maxamet Manix. You'd have had a heart attack seeing me cut steel bands off a bundle of gas pipe with my trusty Cold Steel Tanto. But thats why I spend that much on a knife, so I don't have to baby it. I paid for that performance, and I'm darned well going to use it.

That's why I sold 90% of my collection.

Blade edges in EDC are almost always dulled by destructive contact with hard materials, steel type used is mostly irrelevant, cheap disposable blades are the best solution for most tasks.

"Disposable" also doesn't mean it can't be sharpened, my OLFA blades get sharpened on the belt sander regularly, and it's perfectly fine to sharpen them that way because they're disposable, so you save a ton of time in sharpening as well as not worrying about destructive contact in cutting tasks.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#30

Post by Evil D »

I'd be interested if for no other reason than to have a thumb hole on a utility knife, but ergonomics would be the deciding factor. I carried a Gerber EAB for about 5 years before I joined this forum, it was actually because I got sick of swapping blades that brought me back to the pocket knife world.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#31

Post by Josh Crutchley »

ladybug93 wrote:
Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:53 am
if spyderco could put a utility blade holder in a manix 2 lw handle, it would be a dream. that's the most comfortable handle i can think of that would allow for ambidextrous use, one hand opening and closing, and comfortable use all day. it would be a really great platform to use for a utility knife design. i agree that cost would be a factor here, but i might be willing to pay more for a manix utility knife.
I like the idea of using the cbbl or maybe even a bolt lock. This Sheffield that I have uses something similar to the bolt lock, if you consider all plastic construction similar.
71iodOd0qsL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

I personally would like to get a Squarehead if I could find one at msrp.
Spyderco-Squarehead-Lightweight-black-FRN-satin-BHQ-77308-er-large.jpg
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#32

Post by spoonrobot »

Joshua J. wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 4:01 am
yablanowitz wrote:
Sat Apr 17, 2021 11:00 am
I do have a serious question here. Why spend hundreds of dollars on a well-designed knife with great ergonomics, made from premium materials with a blade of carefully selected high-performance steel honed to a razor edge when you do all the real work with a 5 cent utility knife blade?

I know a lot of you cringe when I use a Sprint Run S90V/CF Military for drywall work. You get the heebie-jeebies when I scrape an old wax ring off a cast iron floor flange with a Maxamet Manix. You'd have had a heart attack seeing me cut steel bands off a bundle of gas pipe with my trusty Cold Steel Tanto. But thats why I spend that much on a knife, so I don't have to baby it. I paid for that performance, and I'm darned well going to use it.
That's why I sold 90% of my collection.

Blade edges in EDC are almost always dulled by destructive contact with hard materials, steel type used is mostly irrelevant, cheap disposable blades are the best solution for most tasks.

"Disposable" also doesn't mean it can't be sharpened, my OLFA blades get sharpened on the belt sander regularly, and it's perfectly fine to sharpen them that way because they're disposable, so you save a ton of time in sharpening as well as not worrying about destructive contact in cutting tasks.
Interesting, I think this is more common than a lot of enthusiasts know. I've come to the same conclusion over the years for much of my tasks. So far I've been able to resist the siren song of using exclusively disposable blades at work but I do use them for anything especially irritating like cutting mastiks or epoxies. Mostly I've moved on from high-wear resistance super steels to lower end steels that are much easier to sharpen and express damage and dulling through rolling v. chipping.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#33

Post by Josh Crutchley »

Joshua J. wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 4:01 am

That's why I sold 90% of my collection.

Blade edges in EDC are almost always dulled by destructive contact with hard materials, steel type used is mostly irrelevant, cheap disposable blades are the best solution for most tasks.

"Disposable" also doesn't mean it can't be sharpened, my OLFA blades get sharpened on the belt sander regularly, and it's perfectly fine to sharpen them that way because they're disposable, so you save a ton of time in sharpening as well as not worrying about destructive contact in cutting tasks.

I did an edge impact test a while back between a few different steels and had a similar conclusion. They all took the same damage except Maxamet but even it would fail at some point. I sharpen all of my Xacto blades, its not hard to get them sharper than from the factory.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#34

Post by Sumdumguy »

Evil D wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 4:17 am
I'd be interested if for no other reason than to have a thumb hole on a utility knife, but ergonomics would be the deciding factor. I carried a Gerber EAB for about 5 years before I joined this forum, it was actually because I got sick of swapping blades that brought me back to the pocket knife world.
Exactly. What's the issue with wanting to see a particular bladed tool, be thoughtfully designed.

Extract performance that wouldn't otherwise be available. Have comfort and ergonomics, in a neat package.

I would buy one. Admittedly, the market would be small, with current channels. To expand the buying pool, it would require marketing through construction supply companies. Not Home Depot. But, local suppliers and chains, like ABC.

ABC would be my focus. Then, after securing ABC, I would start pitching to local suppliers in decent sized markets. The market potential is there, just look at the trucks in the parking lot.

Anyways, I'll go back to my corner. :p
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#35

Post by Joshua J. »

AND if Spyderco did make a disposable blade platform, we could probably get a pack with multiple blades of Maxamet and S110V and Rex121 all for under $20.
It would effectively obsolete the Mule program.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#36

Post by yablanowitz »

Joshua J. wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:50 am
AND if Spyderco did make a disposable blade platform, we could probably get a pack with multiple blades of Maxamet and S110V and Rex121 all for under $20.
It would effectively obsolete the Mule program.
Please step away from the crack pipe.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#37

Post by Sumdumguy »

yablanowitz wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 8:30 am
Joshua J. wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:50 am
AND if Spyderco did make a disposable blade platform, we could probably get a pack with multiple blades of Maxamet and S110V and Rex121 all for under $20.
It would effectively obsolete the Mule program.
Please step away from the crack pipe.
Don't judge me!

*scratch* *scratch*
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#38

Post by spoonrobot »

Wonder how hard it would be to effectively grind a Maxament razor blade that is .9mm thick
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#39

Post by yablanowitz »

I would advise against starting with 4mm stock for that project.
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Re: Spyderco UTILITY Knife...

#40

Post by Bolster »

SpyderGrill wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:16 am
Only a select few would buy because Spyderco put a name on it.
These knives are abused and abused, lost and dont care what happens to them

(1) Might be an accurate guess, but also might not be; we don't know until market research is performed. Elite knife afi's aren't the whole target here. Plus, it would be more than the Spyderco name that sells the product, a SpyderUte would in all likelihood be a superior product, made by people who know ergonomics, steels, lock mechanisms, materials, etc. I'm not expecting a Spyderco Ute to be run-of-the-mill. I've noticed contractors often splurge for upscale tools, they are status-seekers like the rest of us; many of them are proud of their tools.

(2) "Abused, lost and don't care" means they're now in the market for another, doesn't it. Worse things could happen to a manufacturer! Ironically, one of Spyderco's great strengths (quality) also limits demand. My 2005 Caly 3 is still going strong, doesn't need a replacement...in that time I've gone through a half dozen utes and hundreds of blades. Why should I be giving my money to Milwaukee, when I don't even like their Utes and consider them crude and unrefined? I'd like the option to spend my money with Spyderco...

...and it would be easy to out-design the current crop of Utes on the marketplace. So much room for improvement!
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