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It’s the Swayback for me. It’s one of the most uncomfortable knives to use that I own and one of the most disappointing Spydies that I have, but every time that I start to get rid of it I end up holding off and putting it back in the drawer. It’s a very attractive knife.

Native 5. I love the looks of the knife, but it never fit my hand. The Paramilitary 2 would be next on the list.

Ok, I´ll give it a try... not easy at all, cause I really love all of the Spydies that I currently still own...
So after some thought: The least favorites of those (but still real favorites) for rather opposite reasons (true for both though: Just a bit small for my liking):

1.) Delica combo edge sabre grind:

My very first Spyderco, so also of substantial nostalgic value. But I happen to also really like the Delica ergos (despite having L to XL hands) and overall design (a lot of space on the actual handle, ricasso perfectly suited for choking up on it, backlock is my favorite anyway and so on).
This one though has the very thick, not really slicey sabre grind blade and its very short serrated section not the kind of teeth I prefer. I clearly favor the ffg Delica (for me performancewise clearly superior to Native 5 and Para 3 (tried those too)).
Though: That sabre grind actually makes it my "hard use folder" - very stout tip, strong blade,linered construction - itś just that I rarley need that level of robustness and prefer cutting performance over it.
Let´s put it this way: If I lost that beat up and seasoned companion, I would certainly not buy another exact same model to replace it (but an ffg Delica... with brown FRN handle... )

2.) Salt 2 ffg SE

This might surprise some who read one or more of the several threads I started about this great little folder (see here viewtopic.php?t=89256#p1508736 for example or here viewtopic.php?f=2&t=89256&start=40#p1614903 or here viewtopic.php?f=2&t=88925#p1496689) - and I still absolutely love it for a superlight hiking and mountaineering option...
though mostly (and very much so!!) for practical and performance reasons.
Why then one of the "least favorites"? Well, quite the opposite to the sabre grind Delica, the Salt 2 ffg is a great performer, but it does not "speak" too much to the "emotional knife guy" in me. I love to use it, but it is really very much "only" a tool. With other Spydies it is the case, that I sometimes /often just grab them and play around a bit without having to do a real cutting task. I don´t feel like doing so with the Salt

Doc Dan wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:02 am

Native 5. I love the looks of the knife, but it never fit my hand. The Paramilitary 2 would be next on the list.

Same here! Looks jusat amazing, but ergos are better on other similarly small Spydies for me (I don´t own a Native anymore, and it never was one of my true favorites anyway - so can´t technically be the "least favorite of my favorites")

The K390 Urban.

Its iffy control against lateral blade-play (the spinning-pivot problem, resulting from a distorted D-hole in the FRN) caused me to lose faith in it and the two other Maniago models (Elmax and AEB-L) I had acquired.

These last two (still functioning properly) I’ve sold, but I’ve kept the K390 chiefly because of the money I spent on Cuscadi scales (to replace the ruined FRN) coupled to the thought I might find a compatible sex-bolt to serve as a new pivot that will be always tightenable.

I love it that much.

So much so that I have acquired the two Urban models made first in Golden and, in consequence, now wonder if CQI is always just that.

My first UKPK, another favorite, is Golden-made and is not likely to be joined by any from Maniago until the CQI I question has been returned to Golden’s way.

Bolster wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 06, 2023 9:52 pm

Tristan_david2001 wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 06, 2023 7:49 pm

My ranking of current owned collection of spydercos from least favorite favorite to most favorite favorites:
calypso g10
Caly 3 vg10
Caly 3 superblue
Caly 3.5 zdp 189
Kopa tiger coral
Kopa stainless
Manbug g10
Ss delica

Clarification: Did you rank most favored @ top or @ bottom? Your intro could be read least ff @ top, but having read your posts for awhile, I'm guessing your most ff is @ top?

you know me bolster, always praising those delicas and manbugs and hating on those dang calys! jk
No you’re correct, I accidentally did flop the order of least fav to fav. And to extra clarify I don’t hate the delica or the manbug, currently they just sit at my least favorite in my current owned collection of spydies, I have actually sold off a bunch of spyderco knives I like way more than the delica & manbug just to help fund my Calys and kopa. So I wasn’t really quite sure how to answer the op’s question. Could we answer with our least favorite favorite models even out of the ones we don’t/haven’t owned? (That would be the knives at the bottom of my signature) Or is it only the least loved one out of what we own currently.

My least favorite could also be my most favorite, depending on POV.

TKJ Shaman CPM CRU-WEAR DLC PE G10

This one started off rough, with blade play, lock rock, and a tendency to disassemble itself. It took a good long while to get it dialed in, but has since performed admirably in its role as a go to for those tasks where you might do some damage with a lighter blade. It is functioning flawlessly at this point, gets used every day for something or other.

The other is a relative: the Native 5 LW.

This one is more of a perception issue. Just looking at pictures this did not look like something I would want. A deal came along, and now there are Four, in the house, with the Magnacut Salt on preorder.

The choil looks like it would get in the way in power cuts. It does not. I’ve always liked the spyder hump. The Shaman showed me I also like not having the spyder hump sometimes.

Both of these knives are exceptionally safe in hand. It’s quite hard to get it wrong and cut yourself with either. That’s a winning trait in a work knife.

Neither knife has anything that bugs me.

So why are these least favorite favorites?

They just work. They don’t get in my head the way some knives do. You know, those knives you fidget with or think about modding or whatever? These are not those.

They don’t trigger my knife OCD, or my knife FOMO, or any of that stuff we all suffer from to one degree or another.

The Shaman sits in a kitchen drawer.

I usually have a Native 5 LW in the back pocket.

Some knives you look at and think, “Oh, that’s nice.. I want one of those, or maybe Five..” Sort of like girlfriends.. o:

These two are the kind of knives you settle down and get stuff done with, knives you can live with.

jwbnyc wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 07, 2023 11:58 am

My least favorite could also be my most favorite, depending on POV.....

Excellent post, informative, thanks.

Probably my 2 Yojimbo2's. They don't fit well with the self defense style I practice, and they don't make great utility knives, they tend to bind on the flat part of the blade cutting thick material. If you only have to cut the surface of something about 2 inches deep it cuts amazing. But if you're cutting through long pieces of cardboard I'd rather have one of my thinner full flat grind blades.

My Para2's and Kapara also probably make the bottom tier. Absolutely nothing wrong with them. I just always reach for something else. Been a year since I carried a Native5, but I still really like that model.

Just one word:

BlackHawk

My Caribbean Salt SE with leaf blade - I dislike the colour scheme, the squidgy detent (which I’ve fixed myself), the handle shape and the stiff-even-after-a-full-teardown action…and yet I carry and use it literally every day paired with my Magnacut mule and a third knife from my rotated selection. It is just that darned good, but it is by far and away my least favourite favourite.

My least favorite Spydie is the Police models.

I love my police 3 SE but it is a specialty live for outdoors and hunting.

My favorite shorts knife is my para3 lw. My least favorite is everything else. I realize it is mostly because of the wire clip I love it. With jeans all my other Spyderco’s are in play. What is the most like a wire clip that isn’t one.

Dnwrghtsr wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 08, 2023 9:49 am

I love my police 3 SE but it is a specialty live for outdoors and hunting.

My reasons are a bit goofy for most to understand. I don't buy or collect Police, Marine, recon, Swat, Search and rescue, or Seal knives. I just feel like a poseur and disrespectful of those in specialty professions who served and earned the right to carry those knives meant specifically for their profession.
Considering I am none of the above. I don't deserve it. Just my pet peeve. I even gave my dead fathers Vietnam era USMC Kabar away to a young Marine as I felt it should be in the hands of a Marine.
I did own the Police a few years ago. Nice knife. Just not for me.

When I look through the Spyderco catalog, there are plenty of knives that don't appeal to me. But of the knives I THOUGHT I'd like, there's only one that I really don't want to carry. It's the Manix 2 XL in CPM-M4. It's not that there's anything inherently wrong with the knife, but for me the height is excessive. It just takes up so much space in the pocket that it seems absurd. There are other models that give a longer blade that take up less space.

Dragonfly - It's not terribly uncomfortable, but a bit odd. I love the way the knife looks, blade design...but, I think if it were to have a more subtle thumb ramp, or none at all, it would be a more comfortable knife. I keep it around because it's my only Dragonfly and only flavor of Vtoku-2, plus I like the patina I've got going on at the laminate line.

Delica - Comfortable knife, but seems like there's many other knives in this size category that I would prefer for one reason or another. I keep this one around because again, my only Delica and I like the particular model (OD green scales/Ticn Cruwear) color scheme, I've also put a pretty nice 13dps edge on it and it's a slicing beast.

Native - I've got the fluted carbon fiber version with S90V, and honestly...that's about all I like about it. I think the scales are waaaaaaaaaay too thick for the knife, it's kind of blocky. Even though the scales LOOK great, I think they honestly feel a little cheap in hand. Quite the looker with a great steel, but just not very comfortable in hand.

TkoK83Spy wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 08, 2023 10:22 am

Dragonfly - It's not terribly uncomfortable, but a bit odd. I love the way the knife looks, blade design...but, I think if it were to have a more subtle thumb ramp, or none at all, it would be a more comfortable knife. I keep it around because it's my only Dragonfly and only flavor of Vtoku-2, plus I like the patina I've got going on at the laminate line.

Delica - Comfortable knife, but seems like there's many other knives in this size category that I would prefer for one reason or another. I keep this one around because again, my only Delica and I like the particular model (OD green scales/Ticn Cruwear) color scheme, I've also put a pretty nice 13dps edge on it and it's a slicing beast.

Native - I've got the fluted carbon fiber version with S90V, and honestly...that's about all I like about it. I think the scales are waaaaaaaaaay too thick for the knife, it's kind of blocky. Even though the scales LOOK great, I think they honestly feel a little cheap in hand. Quite the looker with a great steel, but just not very comfortable in hand.

If the Maniago-made Urban were not my least favorite favorite, my DF2s would have to be for reasons of discomfort.

I think my Spin in blue Nishijin glass fiber might qualify. Every time I open up my knife chest I look at the thing and say "why are you still here?" But there's something likable about it, and it manages to squeak by without being sold.

Bet Sal and Eric are reading these and texting each...."WHAT", bunch of ungrateful AH's!! Sorry sir, even the ones I deemed least favorable (to me) are still phenomenal knives, their sales records proves it time and time again!