Milkman wrote:What are people's thoughts on the Ulize?
That one's been on my wishlist for awhile and I may have to pick one up when it goes on closeout.
I haven't had the Ulize for long, but I am a long-time knife guy and Spyderco collector, so take this for what it's worth:
1) The Ulize is a big, aggressive-looking, cutting machine. :cool: The lines are graceful and stylish. It is awesome to behold. :spyder:
2) If you work around a bunch of knife-hating wussies, their eyes will probably pop right out of their heads when you whip out the Ulize. I happen to enjoy it when this happens. :D
3) The blade shape will be useful for many tasks. It has lots of belly area, it will pull-cut into the recurve and the tip is nice-n-stabby for puncturing. Of course, this blade shape is probably best sharpened with a Sharpmaker rather than a flat stone.
4) Most surprisingly, this knife absolutely disappears in your pocket despite its length. It is thinner than a Delica or a linerless Pacific Salt and much thinner than a PM2. It is about as wide as a Delica, less wide than a PM2 or endura and way less wide than a Pacific Salt. The only thing you need is some pocket depth, because the Ulize is pretty long. My jeans have plenty of pocket depth for the Ulize. It has a longer blade than the Military, but the handle is noticeably smaller, so I would describe the blade to handle ratio as very good. It has some weight to it (4.8 oz), so it is better suited to jeans than flimsy dress pants.
5) Since it is a backlock, it is stiffer opening than something like a compression lock or liner-lock; however, it is more ambidextrous. Although mine is new, I can flick it open but only with wrist action. Of course, the normal thumb sweep works just fine and dandy. If your primary desire it to flick your knife, there are other Spyderco models that will suit you better. One-hand closing is, of course, no problem.
The bottom line: The Ulize is a very sweet knife, and if you're looking for a 4"+ folder it would be a great option, especially since it carries so much smaller than its blade size would indicate.
