How did you get into Spyderco?

Discuss Spyderco's products and history.
User avatar
Pete1977
Member
Posts: 805
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:41 pm
Location: Gloucester, Ma

How did you get into Spyderco?

#1

Post by Pete1977 »

I first saw one in 1993 or ‘94. My father was a police detective and one day he brought home this kind of ugly knife with a molded pocket clip and a humpbacked, serrated blade with a hole in it. It was an Endura, probably with an AUS-8 blade. He loaned it to me my first day commercial fishing as it saved him when his foot got tangled in some rope while he was hauling some recreational lobster pots. At the time the serrated blade wasn’t working for me cutting mainly monofilament fishing line so I gave it back. I think he lost it and eventually he replaced it with a SE Rescue with a barrel bolt clip. I still have that knife.
Fast forward a few years and I was at a knife shop in a local mall. I dont remember which model i bought first but it was either a SE Dragonfly with a Zytel integral clip or a SE SS Police. My dad still has the Dragonfly and it is well used.
As I got more into knives and commercial fishing I bought a couple Militaries, one PE and one SE in 440V I believe. This was around 1999. They proved too big for me and I traded them on Bladeforums. I didnt know much about knives and was looking for a PE police and got talked into a PE, SS Endura and a PE SS Native. By then I was hooked and the rest is history. I bought, traded, carried and used Spyderco knives for over 20 years since then on and (sometimes) off.
I have a preference for saber ground lockbacks as I find them more suitable to heavy cutting work and to FRN handles as I find they take the abuse of hard work.
That is my story what’s yours. How did you get your start with Spyderco knives?
zhyla
Member
Posts: 2190
Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:12 pm

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#2

Post by zhyla »

Had a coworker with a Delica. He would hand me the catalog once in a while. I had cheap $5 gun show knives at the time. Went to the fair and bought a Rescue. This was plastic pocket clip era. Went back another year and bought a Native. Lost the Rescue. Carried the snot out of that GIN-1 Native.
User avatar
Sharp Guy
Member
Posts: 8561
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:19 pm
Location: DFW, TX (orig. from N. IL)

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#3

Post by Sharp Guy »

I traded for a used (like new) Sharpmaker about 30 years ago. I didn't get my first Spyderco knife until almost 6 years ago when a friend learned of my interest in knives and told me to check out the brand. I had seen Spyderco knives before but didn't think much of them. I ordered a Persistence and Dragonfly to get me started. Then that same friend made me a deal on a Sage 1, Sage 2, Manix 2 and a couple others. It's been a fun ride ever since
Of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the most!
The Meat man
Member
Posts: 5856
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 8:01 pm
Location: Missouri, USA

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#4

Post by The Meat man »

I always was interested in knife steels and the different properties. Naturally, this interest led me to Spyderco. My first was a Dragonfly Salt SE.
- Connor

"What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Demon85z
Member
Posts: 214
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2017 6:28 pm
Location: Indiana

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#5

Post by Demon85z »

While deployed in the Army in Iraq in 2009, a group of special forces guys gifted a blacked out combo edge saber grind delica to me. I put that knife through everything I could possibly think of. Things a knife was never intended to do. Things I'm positive any other blade would have failed me or snapped the tip off.(learned what not to do at a young age haha) I'm a firm believer in right tool for the job but sometimes mission dictated and I didn't always have the proper tool. I put that knife through its paces. Its one of my most prized possessions. I had a scare a few years after I got home and thought I lost it! I found it but from that moment on I realized how much this brand meant to me and I've been collecting ever since. I've managed to put a knife in all my friends and families pockets over the years and I wouldn't have them carry anything else! When you need a knife and you need it now(no matter what the purpose is) and you need absolute faith in that blade to do what you need it to do right then and there, without question. Spyderco!
:bug-red-white I collect them all, and use them all! I use the excuse, "I'm trying to find the perfect one", but in reality, they are all perfect in their own way!
User avatar
phaust
Member
Posts: 1114
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:20 pm

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#6

Post by phaust »

Needed a new knife, searched and found reviews of Spyderco and then the forum. I remembered a kid in scouts having one and saying they were amazing, so between the two, ended up with an Endura...and stuck around here and bought many more
User avatar
Mushroom
Member
Posts: 7297
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2015 2:45 pm
Location: Boston, Ma. U.S.A. Earth

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#7

Post by Mushroom »

I was in design school and had a humble collection of knives that I liked from various brands. As my collection grew, my tastes evolved and I became enamored with a few of Spyderco's designs. After eventually buying my first Spyderco, I was thoroughly impressed with the knife and wanted to learn more about the company. I found this forum and was astonished to see Sal Glesser himself posting here and interacting with a passionate customer base. It was something I knew I wanted to be a part of.

In short, my fascination with industrial design is what lead me to Spyderco and Spyderco's dedication to their customers and integrity is what made me stay!

A funny story, to me at least - My roommate at the time was a big fan of Benchmade knives. So much so that he convinced me to buy one before I had even considered a Spyderco. When I told him I was thinking about buying a Spyderco, he said "don't buy a Spyderco." I asked "why?" and was expecting to hear some sort of egregious reason as to why I shouldn't buy one. His reason was "he just doesn't like their designs." Well, luckily for me I loved their designs and ended up finding myself the greatest cutlery company of all time and now own many of their great designs. :beaming-face
-Nick :bug-red
Image
User avatar
standy99
Member
Posts: 2205
Joined: Sat Jul 22, 2017 11:07 am
Location: Between Broome and Cairns somewhere

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#8

Post by standy99 »

Had various knives being a fishing nut. Lucky to last a year due to rust, would get one for Christmas nearly every year of someone in the family.
Found the Catcherman at a tackle shop and was done for a few years as H1 was revolutionary. Lost a few off the back of the bait board when myself or deckies would leave them there when moving spots.
No more catchermans around so went to the Pacific Salt.
Im a vegetarian as technically cows are made of grass and water.
soc_monki
Member
Posts: 1114
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:54 am

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#9

Post by soc_monki »

Was starting to get into knives a few years ago, and had a cheap Milwaukee fastback. Decided to go to academy and see what they had. Picked up a Kershaw Tone (academy exclusive) and thought that was a high quality knife! Got a cryo and cryo 2 and was in heaven. Then I read about the spyderco tenacious and ordered one. Then a Resilience.

Now I own more spydercos than any other brand. Mostly Golden models, a few Taichung, and my 3 Tenacious line (Resilience, Tenacious, Persistence). Oh, and a few Sekis for good measure! Love my Spydies!
:respect Spyderco : Resilience, Tenacious, Persistence, Manix 2 G10, Para 3 G10, Para 3 LW, Paramilitary 2,
BBS Paramilitary 2, Amalgam, Native Chief, Blade HQ Manix 2 XL, S30V Shaman, Gayle Bradley 2, DLC M4 Shaman, Magnitude, Z Wear Shaman, DLC S30V Shaman, Stretch 2, Kapara, CF/S90V Native Chief, Endela, K390 Endura, DLT 20cv Zome Endela x 2, Police 4 LW K390, SNK Native Chief, SNK Manix 2 XL, K390 Stretch 2, Stretch 2 XL, K390 Endela
User avatar
Evil D
Member
Posts: 27147
Joined: Sat Jun 26, 2010 9:48 pm
Location: Northern KY

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#10

Post by Evil D »

Always have been a knife guy, but never put much more thought into it than just what looked cool, and funny enough that's what first caught my eye when I passed the knife case at Walmart one day and saw a Native LW. The thumb hole immediately made sense to me and the rest is history. At the time I had been carrying a Gerber EAB utility knife for a long time and got sick of changing blades all the time and I wanted something a bit more robust for outdoor use.

Those old Walmart Natives didn't have the Bug logo etched in the blade, and I got paranoid that it might somehow be a fake so I returned it to Walmart and went to Bass Pro Shop, who only had the SE Native in stock. After reading the bit on the Spyderco website explaining how serrations have infinite cutting angles (what a piece of marketing gold that was lol) I was sold on serrations and ended up paying 2x as much for that Native as the one from Walmart.
All SE all the time since 2017
~David
User avatar
Cheddarnut
Member
Posts: 1393
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 12:14 am
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#11

Post by Cheddarnut »

Great thread.

I was working in my fathers workshop in Montreal and was thinking about getting a multitool, so i started researching them online when i saw a photo of a victorinox multitool that happened to have a well worn benchmade emerson CQC 7 beside it. I was so stricken with the beauty of that angular beadblasted blade that i started investigating the knife world. At some point shortly thereafter my memory was niggling at me about a knife i had seen in an army surplus store years prior, i couldnt quite remember the brand but i vaguely recalled a web on the handle, so i tried ‘Spider knives’ in google hoping something would pop up and id find the knife i had seen all those years ago. Well, the brand turned out to be “Spyderco” and they still existed! I looked through a bunch of models on their website, but it wasnt until i clicked a model called the Native that I found what i was searching for. There it was. Much forum ghosting ensued and I was convinced that S30V was a steel I would not regret, holding and edge a long time according to the all knowing forum members. This was important to me, having never sharpened a knife successfully (i had taken a gerber gator to a bench grinder years earlier in my hasty youth, with predictably devastating results). So after the most researching I had ever done in my life, i ordered the native. What happened next was interesting…i kind of …hated it. Specifically the rough lasered spine really turned me off, i was expecting a finely finished masterpiece, having been indoctrinated by the forum fanboys to expect the moon. This was not the moon, i thought, disappointedly putting it in my pocket because i didn’t couldn’t dnt afford another knife at the time. What I would only realize years later was the privilege of not being afraid to use a knife because of being in love with how perfect it is. I wasnt afraid of using the native, and subsequently put it through its paces, as a tool not a talisman. And it ended up becoming an extension of myself, rough spine and all, and we became inseparable.
These days i mostly dream of being that careless with my knives, buying beautiful perfectly finished models that make me cringe to get a scratch on, lmao.
James Y
Member
Posts: 7994
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:33 am
Location: Southern CA

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#12

Post by James Y »

My story isn’t much of a story.

In 1997, I received an unsolicited knife catalog in the mail from some knife business based in Washington state. It was a glossy, high-quality catalog that had a variety of brands I’d never heard of before: Spyderco, Kershaw, Benchmade, Case (I’d never even heard of Case before 1997j, and several other brands. I was fascinated by the variety and the manual one-hand opening features of the modern designs.

I HAD seen Spyderco folders in movies before that, but hadn’t known the name of the company that made them. Seeing the folders in the movies with the round opening holes, I had thought they were either prop knives, or some type of knives intended for military use, not civilian use. I remember thinking, “So the maker of those round-holed knives is called Spyderco.”

I’ve been carrying pocketknives since the 1970s. Schrade, Camillus, Ka-Bar, and Buck. And from the ‘80s, when I moved overseas for nearly a decade and after I came back, the knife I carried was a Victorinox SAK, up into the time I received that catalog in the mail. My first modern one-hand opening folder (besides some old switchblades) was a Kershaw Liner Action that was shown in the catalog, and that I found at a local shop. That opened the floodgates to modern designs for me. But a Spyderco kept calling to me. I started calling local sporting goods stores to see if they carried Spyderco knives. That’s how I bought my first Delica, for around $40 brand new. Now I own more Spydercos than any other knife brand; Victorinox comes in second.

I still have no idea how or why I received that catalog in the mail that started it all. Divine intervention? :thinking That was before I was on the Internet, and before knife-related forums were even a thing.

Jim
FK
Member
Posts: 630
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:33 am
Location: CT USA

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#13

Post by FK »

I believe it was in the mid 1980's when attending a woodworking show in Springfield, MA, spotted a guy doing a demo with a sharpener having two sticks of ceramic in a plastic base. He asked for anyone to loan him their pocket knife and he would sharpen it. My dirty Buck slip joint was sharpened up quickly by Sal. I returned the next day and purchased a Sharpmaker. I believe he had some very early Spyderco knives also for sale however, at the time they did not interest me.

Approx. 10 years later some local firemen were raving about the Spyderco SE Delica and Endura and how they always carried them in their turn out gear. Picked up one of each and that started my interest in working knives from Spyderco.

Regards,
FK
User avatar
wrdwrght
Member
Posts: 5078
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:35 am

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#14

Post by wrdwrght »

Must have been a Nutnfancy video I came upon while following my nose into YouTube’s prepping world around 2008. Found this forum and, while lurking for a year or two, was struck both by Sal’s modesty and by the wide range of enthusiasm about “Spydies”. Having carried some kind of folder for five decades (SAKs and Opinels most recently), I was fertile ground. Bought a Tenacious to see what the fuss was all about, and so began my journey down the Spyderhole.
Last edited by wrdwrght on Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-Marc (pocketing an M4 Sage5 today)

“When science changes its opinion, it didn’t lie to you. It learned more.”
User avatar
Pete1977
Member
Posts: 805
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:41 pm
Location: Gloucester, Ma

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#15

Post by Pete1977 »

FK I remember in the late 1980s, maybe 1987 or 88 that there was a guy at a boat show in Boston demonstrating a sharpening tool, which my dad bought. I’m not sure if it was Sal but I still have most of that Sharpmaker.
User avatar
RustyIron
Member
Posts: 2376
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2019 9:01 pm
Location: La Habra, CA
Contact:

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#16

Post by RustyIron »

Cheddarnut wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 6:48 am
a well worn benchmade emerson CQC 7 beside it. I was so stricken with the beauty of that angular beadblasted blade that i started investigating the knife world.
My first good knife was a Benchmade CQC7 that I bought because Dick Marcinko carried one. It's a great knife, and although I no longer use it, it's in a drawer right next to me as I type. Interestingly, it was years later that I ordered up a REAL Emerson, a left handed model that I had to way well over a year for. That monstrosity was a huge disappointment. But it was that first Benchmade that got me to try one of their Axis Locks, which was a brilliant design. Eventually their patent ran out, or they licensed the design, and I was looking for one of those. That led me to the Spyderco caged ball bearing lock and the Manix 2. And that led me to learn about how Spyderco likes to use all sorts of fancy-pants steels. I'm a hobbyist machinist and enjoy working with different materials and cutting tools (see screen name). So Spyderco allows me to have useful knife designs, using intriguing metals, in pretty packages. Sometimes I'll look at what other knife makers have to offer, and most of the time their "special" knives are nothing more exciting than Spyderco's regular production knives.
User avatar
SpyderNut
Member
Posts: 8431
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:33 am
Location: Hoosier Country, USA
Contact:

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#17

Post by SpyderNut »

The first time I ever saw a Spyderco knife was in the mid-90’s while at a home-school convention down in Knoxville, TN. (Think Boy Scouts, but for home-schoolers). Long story short, one of my troop leaders had a Benchmade CQC-7 and the other troop leader had a Spyderco Endura. I immediately fell in love with both knives, but I knew I couldn’t afford them. So I purchased a Gerber LST and used the heck out of it for a couple of years. (I even used it to skin out a 12-point buck, but that’s another story). A few years later, when I was about 16-17 years old, I received a Cutlery Shoppe and an A.G. Russell catalog in the mail. My mind was blown when I “re-discovered” Spyderco Knives. I thumbed through both of those catalogs until they were all dog-eared. I eventually ordered my first Spyderco—a Ladybug around 2001. A Spyder-Card CE came next, a Pink Cricket, and then it all went downhill from there. ;)
:spyder: -Michael

"...as I said before, 'the edge is a wondrous thing', [but] in all of it's qualities, it is still a ghost." - sal
cycleguy
Member
Posts: 1487
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:46 pm
Location: Arvada, coloRADo

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#18

Post by cycleguy »

Thru the Delica door!

CG
So many knives - so little funds!!!
Wandering_About
Member
Posts: 1384
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2021 10:06 am
Location: Earth probably?

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#19

Post by Wandering_About »

A college friend showed me some of his Spydies and pointed out they were lefty friendly. Few knives had lefty options available back then, so I got a Delica. Then I descended down the steel nerd spiral and have been there ever since.
Because desolate places allow us to breathe. And most people don't even know they're out of breath.

MNOSD member #0035
mmadison
Member
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 3:27 pm

Re: How did you get into Spyderco?

#20

Post by mmadison »

I stopped into a surplus store in 2006. I knew nothing of pocket knives at the time. The gentleman behind the counter noticed me looking at the knives on display. He pointed to a Delica with the Emerson Opening feature and said, "Have you seen this one"? I said, "Yes, looks like it has a bottle-opener on it." He said, "It can open bottles but watch this..".

He showed me how the Emerson Opener worked, and I thought it was awesome. I didn't buy it, but the next time I was working with drywall on a ceiling I realized the Emerson Opener feature would be incredibly useful.

I bought one (Combo-Edge) and (although losing a few over the years) have had one in my pocket until the laws in my area changed and I switched from a Delica to an Endela.

I really miss the partial serrations on the CE. For me PE and SE both have a use in my edc. I scan Ebay (although somewhat sketchy) frequently, but I have not seen a Combo-Edge with Emerson Opener in years.
Post Reply