Paramilitary 2 lemon

[toomzz]

The etching of the Spyder looks odd....

[Soakedntorment]

Sorry for the late pic uploads been little busy at work. But here are a few. I got a conformation that the knife was 100 percent purchased through blade HQ.

[Soakedntorment]

Hey soaked, welcome to the forum! I am a fellow HvAC tech too, and I have not had any problems with any of my knives for this job. I'm going to be willing to bet it was the factory sharpening and angle, once you get your own edge on there after a few good sharpenings and get into the "good" steel again I'd be willing to bet you'd be hard pressed to roll or chip the edge doing anything we do. The factory edge is all done by robot and on a belt grinder so that heat doesn't do to well for the "initial" edge, as others have stated.

A couple things are throwing me for a loop here though.. the etching of the bug almost looks like the etching from taichung, golden uses a laser now, and that jimping on the thumb ramp looks a little off to my eye..

Right on man, yeah my endura held up well but after a few insulated sound boots that I cut through the blade got dull. I've been taking it easy on the pm2. My teammate got new torch set and I was helping him take it apart so I was using the pm2 cutting the zip ties and the plastic around the regulators. That's when I noticed the chips, usually I use side cutters but I don't always have them on me. Somebody mentioned cutting at a downward angle on zip ties well if I'm cutting them off hoses or wires on a electrical circuit last thing I want is a slice in them. When I sharpen them I just hit it with a 40 degree or use the 30. I've been sharpening my endura like jdavis88 on YouTube does it going down and up few times on each side of the blade and only using the flat parts, not starting with the edge of the stones.

[Soakedntorment]

A couple things are throwing me for a loop here though.. the etching of the bug almost looks like the etching from taichung, golden uses a laser now, and that jimping on the thumb ramp looks a little off to my eye..

I have to agree with Murph, you may have a fake. I'll post some pics of my PM2 so you can see for comparison. If you run your fingernail over the makers marks and the Golden Colorado U.S.A. Earth logo can you feel it? Is it engraved into the blade or just etched on the surface?
*ignore the edge, that's my sharpening, not the factories.

The jimping on the bottom of mine looks the same as yours the top though is hard to tell. I do feel it a little bit.

[ZrowsN1s]

The jimping on the bottom of mine looks the same as yours the top though is hard to tell. I do feel it a little bit.

After looking at those other pics you posted, as much as I can tell from a pic, yours looks like the real deal. I can't imagine BHQ letting a fake get past them either if that's where it came from (I buy from them often) so, I'm still not sure what the issue is, but I do Not think it is fake based on your new pics. Maybe Sal or someone else will chime back in with some guidance. But barring that I would recommend a good sharpening and some flitz metal polish. Than maybe wipe the blade down with an oil cloth to prevent future corrosion.

[fivesense]

Those chips, while annoying, will easily come out with a good sharpening (Sharpmaker, whetstone, or what have you). As to whether or not it's fake, it looks authentic enough even if the top jimping does seem a tad unusual. I'd like to see another image of the compression lock, about a 1/4 inch lower to see the notch.

[The Mastiff]

Right on man, yeah my endura held up well but after a few insulated sound boots that I cut through the blade got dull. I've been taking it easy on the pm2. My teammate got new torch set and I was helping him take it apart so I was using the pm2 cutting the zip ties and the plastic around the regulators. That's when I noticed the chips, usually I use side cutters but I don't always have them on me. Somebody mentioned cutting at a downward angle on zip ties well if I'm cutting them off hoses or wires on a electrical circuit last thing I want is a slice in them. When I sharpen them I just hit it with a 40 degree or use the 30. I've been sharpening my endura like jdavis88 on YouTube does it going down and up few times on each side of the blade and only using the flat parts, not starting with the edge of the stones.

So now you know you can get what you did from cutting zip ties even with super premium powder steels like S30V. There are much less tough stainless steels than S30V out there so you came out better than you might have with some other knives.

At some point you will need to do more than you have been when it comes to sharpening. Free hand sharpening doesn't come easy and needs learning and experience but when it comes to re profiling super steel blades silicone carbide or diamonds are your friends. I'd suggest a system that locks in the right angles. Something like a Lansky system if you don't want to spend the money on the better Edge pro and Wicked edge systems. The good thing about those systems is that resharpening isn't a problem to worry about and the edges that you can put on your knives is amazing. Once reset then the Sharpmaker again takes over until the next time you need to re profile the edge.

You can tailor your edges to your use. If you need stronger, tougher edges you can just put them on and aren't dependent on whatever the factory set the bevels at.

joe

[murphjd25]

Looks legit to me man! Now sharpen that sucker up and use it!

[kelpie]

I've had s30v develop rust spots similar, in my case they were pretty superficial and use/cleaning in sink fixed it right up.

[toomzz]

I am still in doubt......can you make a picture of the cutout in the G10 where the lock is? Show us please. Is the knife really fully flat ground or is there curve when reflecting light?

[Soakedntorment]

[ZrowsN1s]

:) Still looks good to me.

[Soakedntorment]

I am still in doubt......can you make a picture of the cutout in the G10 where the lock is? Show us please. Is the knife really fully flat ground or is there curve when reflecting light?

Looks fully flat to me.

[Soakedntorment]

:) Still looks good to me.

Yeah I appreciate your guys inputs, I'm going to sharpen it a little later.

[toomzz]

Thanks, it appears to be genuine as far as I can tell/know. I first look at the heap in the G10 handle on the Para models. It is assymetrical with rounded corners. Fake ones often have a symmetrical heap with sharp corners. Indeed the blade looks FFG as well.

[Cujobob]

Zip Ties can vary in how soft they are and some can do damage to knife blades, but it will also depend on how thin the blade is (including if there's weakened metal at the cutting edge). The thinner the blade, the better the slicer, but there are some jobs that having a thicker/tougher edge can come in handy.

[JRinFL]

I have a S110V Native G10 that chipped in that same manner while cutting a thick cardboard box down for recycling. I was very much disappointed in the steel at that point as my Cru-wear PM2 sailed through the remaining ~50% or so with no issues. I later did a diamond rod only sharpening on the SM and have not noticed any further issues. This thread has helped me further understand what was going on with the blade. I do think I had a straight burr on the edge that started to fracture and tear away and when I resharpened I removed that burr.

[Bodog]

Looks legitimate. S30V chips pretty easily compared to some other steel. It's not bad but for rough work some other steels are better. It's also not terribly corrosion resistant. Coming from the same manufacturer it could be more corrosion resistant than another blade from the same company. Spyderco is usually pretty good about this stuff but they're not totally immune from botching something. They're also usually really good about fixing something if it was botched. I think you said you live in southern CA. If that's the case I'd step it up to a steel meant more for rough work. Try cruwear.

In any case i don't think the knife you have is a fake.

[greencobra]

while were on the subject.....i picked up a paramilitary 2 black blade a few weeks ago. the only other golden knives i have to compare it with are a para 3 and a manix 2 xl and the quality is identical between all, super nice knives. my concern with the pm 2 is the blade markings, they appear to be gold in color. is this correct? cause every photo i see, including the spyderco catalog and several you tube reviews, the marks look a silver color. it could be the angle of the light, mine will look silver if i move it around the light and angle it different ways. what do you think? i'm getting para-noid...pun intended.

[ZrowsN1s]

I believe Gold is correct.