Problems with k390 Spyderco knives

[RamZar]

The biggest problem with the K390 Spyderco knives is that so many have been revealed but not yet released:

1. Delica4 LightWeight K390 Wharncliffe Blade Blue FRN C11FPWK390 (Japan)
2. Delica4 LightWeight K390 SpyderEdge Blade Blue FRN C11FSK390 (Japan)
3. Dragonfly2 LightWeight K390 Wharncliffe Blade Blue FRN C28FP2WK390 (Japan)
4. Endela LightWeight K390 SpyderEdge Blade Blue FRN C243FSK390 (Japan)
5. Endura4 LightWeight K390 SpyderEdge Blade Blue FRN C10FSK390 (Japan)
6. Police4 Lightweight SpyderEdge K390 Blue FRN C07FS4K390 (Japan)

[Ranger000]

Some people would whinge about a roll of toilet paper not being wound even !

Do you pay $135 for a roll of toilet paper !!??

[Max]

Holding my Endela right now, the right side grind is >slightly< smaller / shallower than the left side. I wouldn't have even noticed it if I hadn't read this post! It's perfectly fine and cuts like crazy!

Same here (and blade a little off center) but will not touch it until necessary as it slices through cardboard as if it was butter...

[KnifusMaximus]

How is it "straight", if all of the distal taper is on one side? Also, saying that the Japanese value asymetry is irrelevent if the design specs are for a symetrical blade. Stop trying to make excuses for unacceptable craftmanship. It costed me over $180 each for my Police 4's, and for that price, any design flaws or craftsmanship errors are completely unacceptable. I don't know about you, but I work very hard for my money, and I don't enjoy getting ripped off becuase some lazy knife maker is skimping on quality and slacking off, and I find it offensive that you just dismiss these huge major flaws as " Japanese value asymmetry, that is a B.S. excuse for garbage quality control over manufactureing.

Looks like spyderco is falling into the trap of raising prices and lowering quality... I bet they all gave themselves fat raises this year also,.. all while the quality is going to ****.

Step up your game spyderco. Stop selling us sub-par garbage and stop ripping us off.

Aww man. I think you forgot to sign into your troll account, because just earlier in this thread you posted under this account and didn't really have much of a complaint. See here:

My Police 4's both have even blades and came with a very nice edges, but the spines were very rough and unfinished. I had to sand them down with sand paper on a flat surface for a while to make them acceptable.

My Endela has a bit of a rough spine also, but not nearly as bad as the police 4's... The Endels blade is evenly ground, but the handle scale on the right hand side moves and shifts up and down about 1/32 inch,.. its kinda annoying.

Both knives are great,.. just not perfect,.. the Police 4 rough spines is my biggest complaint.

Don't know what delusional world you live in where complaining about having to sand down the rough spine of a brand new knife is not a complaint... Maybe you forgot to use your troll account....

[TkoK83Spy]

How is it "straight", if all of the distal taper is on one side? Also, saying that the Japanese value asymetry is irrelevent if the design specs are for a symetrical blade. Stop trying to make excuses for unacceptable craftmanship. It costed me over $180 each for my Police 4's, and for that price, any design flaws or craftsmanship errors are completely unacceptable. I don't know about you, but I work very hard for my money, and I don't enjoy getting ripped off becuase some lazy knife maker is skimping on quality and slacking off, and I find it offensive that you just dismiss these huge major flaws as " Japanese value asymmetry, that is a B.S. excuse for garbage quality control over manufactureing.

Looks like spyderco is falling into the trap of raising prices and lowering quality... I bet they all gave themselves fat raises this year also,.. all while the quality is going to ****.

Step up your game spyderco. Stop selling us sub-par garbage and stop ripping us off.

Aww man. I think you forgot to sign into your troll account, because just earlier in this thread you posted under this account and didn't really have much of a complaint. See here:

My Police 4's both have even blades and came with a very nice edges, but the spines were very rough and unfinished. I had to sand them down with sand paper on a flat surface for a while to make them acceptable.

My Endela has a bit of a rough spine also, but not nearly as bad as the police 4's... The Endels blade is evenly ground, but the handle scale on the right hand side moves and shifts up and down about 1/32 inch,.. its kinda annoying.

Both knives are great,.. just not perfect,.. the Police 4 rough spines is my biggest complaint.

Don't know what delusional world you live in where complaining about having to sand down the rough spine of a brand new knife is not a complaint... Maybe you forgot to use your troll account....

Why don't you just put your big boy pants on and fix it yourself, really not that difficult. Probably wouldn't take much longer than it did to spew that garbage.

[KnifusMaximus]

How is it "straight", if all of the distal taper is on one side? Also, saying that the Japanese value asymetry is irrelevent if the design specs are for a symetrical blade. Stop trying to make excuses for unacceptable craftmanship. It costed me over $180 each for my Police 4's, and for that price, any design flaws or craftsmanship errors are completely unacceptable. I don't know about you, but I work very hard for my money, and I don't enjoy getting ripped off becuase some lazy knife maker is skimping on quality and slacking off, and I find it offensive that you just dismiss these huge major flaws as " Japanese value asymmetry, that is a B.S. excuse for garbage quality control over manufactureing.

Looks like spyderco is falling into the trap of raising prices and lowering quality... I bet they all gave themselves fat raises this year also,.. all while the quality is going to ****.

Step up your game spyderco. Stop selling us sub-par garbage and stop ripping us off.

Aww man. I think you forgot to sign into your troll account, because just earlier in this thread you posted under this account and didn't really have much of a complaint. See here:

My Police 4's both have even blades and came with a very nice edges, but the spines were very rough and unfinished. I had to sand them down with sand paper on a flat surface for a while to make them acceptable.

My Endela has a bit of a rough spine also, but not nearly as bad as the police 4's... The Endels blade is evenly ground, but the handle scale on the right hand side moves and shifts up and down about 1/32 inch,.. its kinda annoying.

Both knives are great,.. just not perfect,.. the Police 4 rough spines is my biggest complaint.

Don't know what delusional world you live in where complaining about having to sand down the rough spine of a brand new knife is not a complaint... Maybe you forgot to use your troll account....

Why don't you just put your big boy pants on and fix it yourself, really not that difficult. Probably wouldn't take much longer than it did to spew that garbage.

Hey, Mr. Genius, If you had any sort of reading comprehension skills, you would know that I have already fixed the problem myself. My point is that for $180, I should get a complete finished knife, not a halfway finished project knife that I have to complete myself. It would be like Ford selling a car that you need to paint yourself, it's not that difficult, right?

[Oloung1]

How is it "straight", if all of the distal taper is on one side? Also, saying that the Japanese value asymetry is irrelevent if the design specs are for a symetrical blade. Stop trying to make excuses for unacceptable craftmanship. It costed me over $180 each for my Police 4's, and for that price, any design flaws or craftsmanship errors are completely unacceptable. I don't know about you, but I work very hard for my money, and I don't enjoy getting ripped off becuase some lazy knife maker is skimping on quality and slacking off, and I find it offensive that you just dismiss these huge major flaws as " Japanese value asymmetry, that is a B.S. excuse for garbage quality control over manufactureing.

Looks like spyderco is falling into the trap of raising prices and lowering quality... I bet they all gave themselves fat raises this year also,.. all while the quality is going to ****.

Step up your game spyderco. Stop selling us sub-par garbage and stop ripping us off.

Do you have any pre-correction photos? Almost all of my Seki knives are either coated or non-k390 so I am wondering if the spine issue is k390 specific.

Regarding Seki fit and finish, I have more Seki knives than any other manufacturer. While their initial finishes seem to be crude and un-refined to other current Asian manufacturers, I am finding that the Seki surface textures and coats seem to be more wear resistant in the long run. But blade steel material aside, yea, I agree that Seki knives aren't as polished out of the box as other Asian manufacturers. For me it's a trade off for the blade steel.

[JRinFL]

Things made in Japan are expensive these days and I think some finishing steps are left out in order to meet a price point. I'm afraid that in order to get the quality up where many expect it to be, it will drive the price of Seki made knives too high for the market. Japan has an aging and shrinking workforce combined with a younger population who does not want to do manual labor. It just like every other first world nation, but more acute in Japan.

[benben]

I always weigh out any particular knife model I'm thinking about ordering.....self proclaimed professional internet research junky here!

When the K390 Endela was first announced, it immediately went on my "to purchase next list!" I absolutely love mine, it's been in my pocket 5 or 6 days out of the week for months now, fantastic knife!!

[aaronkb]

I’ll be honest, I’ll never understand why people care about this. All my knives have uneven grinds because that’s a major weak area in my sharpening skills.

[TkoK83Spy]

I’ll be honest, I’ll never understand why people care about this. All my knives have uneven grinds because that’s a major weak area in my sharpening skills.

Haha, nice! I like that, learn to adapt

[sal]

Hi Cutter, Dragoon,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

[z1r]

I always weigh out any particular knife model I'm thinking about ordering.....self proclaimed professional internet research junky here!

When the K390 Endela was first announced, it immediately went on my "to purchase next list!" I absolutely love mine, it's been in my pocket 5 or 6 days out of the week for months now, fantastic knife!!

This is my experience exactly. My only problem with K390 is that, since getting my Endela, it's hard to justify needing anymore knives, lol! Ok, I will have to cave and find myself a K390 DF2!

[lilshaver]

I always weigh out any particular knife model I'm thinking about ordering.....self proclaimed professional internet research junky here!

When the K390 Endela was first announced, it immediately went on my "to purchase next list!" I absolutely love mine, it's been in my pocket 5 or 6 days out of the week for months now, fantastic knife!!

This is my experience exactly. My only problem with K390 is that, since getting my Endela, it's hard to justify needing anymore knives, lol! Ok, I will have to cave and find myself a K390 DF2!

Hmmmmm........ there seems to be a problem with word selection here. We don't buy more knives because we need them but because we want them.

[z1r]

I always weigh out any particular knife model I'm thinking about ordering.....self proclaimed professional internet research junky here!

When the K390 Endela was first announced, it immediately went on my "to purchase next list!" I absolutely love mine, it's been in my pocket 5 or 6 days out of the week for months now, fantastic knife!!

This is my experience exactly. My only problem with K390 is that, since getting my Endela, it's hard to justify needing anymore knives, lol! Ok, I will have to cave and find myself a K390 DF2!

Hmmmmm........ there seems to be a problem with word selection here. We don't buy more knives because we need them but because we want them.

Agreed, but I used to find a way to include many into my EDC rotation. Problem is, I I like the Endela so much, I no longer rotate. Much easier to justify wants, when you can find a way to occasionally use them. Doubt this will stop me however, lol.

[benben]

I always weigh out any particular knife model I'm thinking about ordering.....self proclaimed professional internet research junky here!

When the K390 Endela was first announced, it immediately went on my "to purchase next list!" I absolutely love mine, it's been in my pocket 5 or 6 days out of the week for months now, fantastic knife!!

This is my experience exactly. My only problem with K390 is that, since getting my Endela, it's hard to justify needing anymore knives, lol! Ok, I will have to cave and find myself a K390 DF2!

Hmmmmm........ there seems to be a problem with word selection here. We don't buy more knives because we need them but because we want them.

Agreed, but I used to find a way to include many into my EDC rotation. Problem is, I I like the Endela so much, I no longer rotate. Much easier to justify wants, when you can find a way to occasionally use them. Doubt this will stop me however, lol.

I've given away probably 5 or 6 knives before, but I've only ever sold one knife, a BNIB Captain. This K390 Endela has made me start thinking about finally selling 8 or 10 knives that I know I'll never use, and probably use that money for more knives, or guns? With handles like the Endela, Stretch, and the Rockjumper, the Japanese knives are killing it right now!

[dodgie02]

So, after reading all pages I see a lot of people dismissing the so called problematic issue brought up by the opening post because sharpening this and it works fine that to which camp I also belong in. Might as well throw all my sharpening gear in the trash if I can't get a bevel set to my own standards.

BUT

let us not forget that Spyderco's bread and butter is building knives, and even some of their claims specifically talk about the various elements of the edge, where the magic is.

Therefor, I think it is valuable feedback as I can imagine someone buying a spyderco, which they heard so much about and all that I, only to get a unit which has 2 different grinds. Leaving behind all the tech babble how this influences edge geometry and following use, I could imagine a person raising their eyebrows on it.
I've had quite some spydies come with awkward angles, earliest I recall was a s110v pm2 when it was just out with a difference of 2 degrees on each side. 15 and 17 degrees on either side, from a company taking pride in their products (Cleary) is definitely not as a knife at this price range should come. There have been quite a few more but seeing as I put my own edge on knives pretty much out of the the box I never thought much about it.

A good point has been made earlier somewhere in this thread, how knives of other brands (though most of the time not holding up compared to my spydies in the long run), and in my case this is true as well, came perfectly ground out of the the box. All my zero tolerances, or even my random explorations of Chinese origin with we, civivi and kizer. All perfectly ground out of the box.

This might be a point to look into internally, as your edge is literally your selling point and it's hard to change people's first impressions!

Now if only I could get back 2 lightweight manix 2s I've lend but ended up being loved and used so much by said people I think it gets better milage and use then in my current collection. These are people who never carried a real edc blade and got interested due to my passion, only to suddenly swearing by the manix to the point I heard my manix randomly being referenced when showing a native or something as 'Daniel's spyderco' having their pref, followed up by Talk of the ergos and whatnot! So yeah you guys make great knives for sure. However I could imagine if those super steel manix' came unevenly ground, there is no chance in **** they could even regrind it.

Ideally it would come uniform out of the box, so new folks can easily make a small investment in a sharpmaker and be good for years.

I think there is merit to the argument, and to dismiss it because of personal reasons is all fine and dandy but let's not forget that companies love and pay top dollar for honest feedback, it benefits all of us from the first hands touching a product in house to the end user.

**** I miss my manix 2 lw now.

[Dusty Cliff]

So, after reading all pages I see a lot of people dismissing the so called problematic issue brought up by the opening post because sharpening this and it works fine that to which camp I also belong in. Might as well throw all my sharpening gear in the trash if I can't get a bevel set to my own standards.

BUT

let us not forget that Spyderco's bread and butter is building knives, and even some of their claims specifically talk about the various elements of the edge, where the magic is.

Therefor, I think it is valuable feedback as I can imagine someone buying a spyderco, which they heard so much about and all that I, only to get a unit which has 2 different grinds. Leaving behind all the tech babble how this influences edge geometry and following use, I could imagine a person raising their eyebrows on it.
I've had quite some spydies come with awkward angles, earliest I recall was a s110v pm2 when it was just out with a difference of 2 degrees on each side. 15 and 17 degrees on either side, from a company taking pride in their products (Cleary) is definitely not as a knife at this price range should come. There have been quite a few more but seeing as I put my own edge on knives pretty much out of the the box I never thought much about it.

A good point has been made earlier somewhere in this thread, how knives of other brands (though most of the time not holding up compared to my spydies in the long run), and in my case this is true as well, came perfectly ground out of the the box. All my zero tolerances, or even my random explorations of Chinese origin with we, civivi and kizer. All perfectly ground out of the box.

This might be a point to look into internally, as your edge is literally your selling point and it's hard to change people's first impressions!

Now if only I could get back 2 lightweight manix 2s I've lend but ended up being loved and used so much by said people I think it gets better milage and use then in my current collection. These are people who never carried a real edc blade and got interested due to my passion, only to suddenly swearing by the manix to the point I heard my manix randomly being referenced when showing a native or something as 'Daniel's spyderco' having their pref, followed up by Talk of the ergos and whatnot! So yeah you guys make great knives for sure. However I could imagine if those super steel manix' came unevenly ground, there is no chance in **** they could even regrind it.

Ideally it would come uniform out of the box, so new folks can easily make a small investment in a sharpmaker and be good for years.

I think there is merit to the argument, and to dismiss it because of personal reasons is all fine and dandy but let's not forget that companies love and pay top dollar for honest feedback, it benefits all of us from the first hands touching a product in house to the end user.

**** I miss my manix 2 lw now.

I think it comes down to personal differences.

Some of us buy knives as pocket bling, others as a utilitarian tool. We all like them to look perfect! That said although the tool maybe $200, if it costs a good chuck to send it in and be without the tool for a period of time for cosmetic reasons... you make up your own conclusions.

For me k390 is a tool steel. Not pocket bling. The blade on mine is not perfect. That said the edge is straight and sharp so I can live with that.

As I said, personal differences.

I emailed spyderco about my police to see there responce. They said to send it in. I don't know why e would bash online about it when spyderco is reasonable to deal with and warranty will make it right.

Regards,
Dusty

[Pokey]

I've got quite a few of the K390 models and I'm happy to say that the grind on mine are pretty even. Some of the more recent ones were a bit off, (just throwing numbers out here,) the grind on one side might have been 15° and the other was 17°, but I usually reprofile them to 15° using the Sharp Maker, so it wasn't a big deal.

I really like K390 steel, too. It's not that hard to get a very sharp edge on it.

[araneae]

They ought to come out of the factory evenly ground and well finished. I can't see Spyderco wanting to set any other goal. If they are falling short, they need to catch up. My K390 sample size is small, a Dragonfly and SS Stretch. Dragonfly is good. My Stretch is ever so slightly off toward the tip, not enough to send in, but noticeable. It is a tool, but at that price range, I can buy a lot of other knives that I know will meet the mark...

If you think it's cool to have uneven grinds and warping from the factory, that's cool, but it is not what I expect from Spyderco. I am sure they are listening.