First time you saw a Sypderco?

Discuss Spyderco's products and history.
samdasnake
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First time you saw a Sypderco?

#1

Post by samdasnake »

I was just sharpening and reminiscing and thought I'd share a fun memory with y'all. For some reason I can very clearly remember the first time I saw a Spyderco knife. I must have only been 9 or 10 in the really early 90s. I remember my best friend's older brother came home from going to get arrows for a bow hunt at Alabama Outdoors in Homewood, AL. He came into my buddy's bedroom to show use this cool knife his dad had bought him. It was a super early gen Ladybug and I remember him telling me a little about Spyderco at the time and I remember really wanting one of those knives. Weird thing to remember :) So I'm curious - do any of y'all have memories like this?
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#2

Post by Evil D »

I was browsing the knife case at Walmart back when they sold the original Native LW. I was sold by the ergonomics and the "Glock like handle material". That was back around '05 or so. It wasn't until 2010 that I bought a Delica and my first post here was asking if it was a fake or not because I thought all Spyderco's were made in Golden (after only having owned the Native).
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#3

Post by Naperville »

In almost everything that I take up, I study fist. For edged tools, I started reading and lurking at all of the forums that I did not have to join. I also got a Blade Magazine subscription. Then I discovered Knife Center's "Find It" tab that allows you to search via an attribute. I poured over thousands of knives in the first few months.

Within a few months I was coming up to speed. The effort is what led me to Spyderco.
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#4

Post by Knaf »

Mid 90s... I thought it was a dumb looking knife. Ugly blade shape with a hole in it... But then I grew up and became a knife collector.
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#5

Post by Halfneck »

I was visiting High School friends back in California around 1987 or '88. Went into a Pipe/Tobacco store in Carmel that had a knife display. Saw something other than the usual Buck 110s and Puma lockbacks. It had a stainless handle, pocketclip, and a serrated hawkbill blade with an opening hole. Bought it because it was just so different from anything else I'd ever seen. Couple years later I got a Delica & I've been a fan since.
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#6

Post by soc_monki »

When I first got into knives I was reading about what knives are most recommended. I had 3 Kershaws because everyone knows Kershaw, but people were talking about spyderco (tenacious) and benchmades Griptilian. Well, the grip was too much, but the tenacious was affordable. I was hooked after that.

Now I have a Griptilian as well... And it also has a hole in the blade lol!
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#7

Post by abbazaba »

My brother had an OG Delica that was probably the first Spyderco I saw, but when I held the Sage1 for the first time that moment ignited a knife hobby. I had been carrying a knife since I was single digits, but that experience threw me down the rabbit hole.
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#8

Post by Tgmr05 »

First time I saw a spyderco was in a gunshop in the early 90s. SE Looked ferocious and odd. Took a year or so, but finally bought one. Then it clicked. Had a very very slim wenger or victorinox knife from the 80s that was pretty much worn out, and that first dragonfly took its spot and then some.
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The Mastiff
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#9

Post by The Mastiff »

Back in the early 80's I used to see a Spyderco ad in most of the gun magazines I'd read. I recall the Worker and thought " Where is the wood for the grips?" The blade shape was pretty cool though unusual and I remember being intrigued by the opening hole . I recall seeing them in magazine ads for years before I actually got to pick one up and hold it in my hand. When I did see one in person I bought it on the spot ( $32 at a gunshow) and have had a Spyderco of one kind or another in my pocket ever since. That had to be 1992 as that was the year I bought my first Endura which was also my first Spyderco. An FRN G2 ( Gin 1 steel) model which I still have and is still carry able though the FRN clip is no longer usable.
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JonLeBlanc
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#10

Post by JonLeBlanc »

Fire the time I saw one in person was at a gun show as well. Bought a stainless Jester for like 30 bucks lol. That was about 2005 or 06.
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#11

Post by sal »

Hi Knaf,

Welcome to our forum.

sal
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#12

Post by Doc Dan »

I saw my first one in the late 80’s in Decatur or Huntsville, Alabama. It had a weird hole in the funky blade and a metal handle. It wasn’t cheap. I did not buy one until the mid 90s. I got it in the Birmingham area while in grad school.
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embry386
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#13

Post by embry386 »

Went looking online for a serrated knife because serrated knives are epic, and also I knew I liked knives but really wasn't feeling the Benchmade my Dad had bought me a few years back. Read lots of reviews, discovered Spyderco, decided on the full-serrated blackout lightweight Native, traded the Benchmade back to my Dad in exchange for the Native. When it arrived, the lock ws so stiff I had trouble operating the thing, but with time and love, it broke in well enough.

These days I carry the Amalgam and the '98 Rescue because I've discovered that they work better for me in a lot of ways. Still love teeth and full blackout blades though.
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#14

Post by ladybug93 »

the first time i saw a spyderco was a ladybug in the early 90s, hence the name. it became my first knife as a kid. i remember seeing an endura in cliffhanger that year and thinking it was cool that i had a knife like they used in the movie. i wish i still had that knife. my first spyderco homecoming knife (after years of other brands) was my pacific salt, which i’ve always thought of as kind of a grown up version of my first knife.
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#15

Post by BLJace »

Heh, I've actually looked back on this moment and laughed.

I remember when I was in high school. My Dad came and had shown me a knife. I had considered myself a "knife collector" at that point, and pretty much based my stance on the heavier they are, the better they are.

What he had actually shown me was a delica, I wish I had paid enough attention to know exactly what model (this was late 90s early 2000s). I brushed it off as a cheap knife because it was light weight. After all, my knife had a dragon on it and weighed four times as much. The things you learn right?

A few years later I slowly enter the knife world. I start with the basic Kershaws. Looking for something a little better it lead me to the Delica. Realizing what my dad had shown me years ago and never appreciating what it was. I found many of my favorite models. Now I tend to carry a Manix 2 or Shaman with an endura as a back up.

That first Spyderco though? It was a black Delica, texture on the scales was entirely different than the Delica 4s now. Pocket clip too. I didn't get why my Dad was so impressed by it.... I do now.

(to brag a little, Now my dad carries an M390 manix, with micarta wood scales, a ceramic ball bearing, and a deep carry clip reading "POPS") I can't let the guy who lead me to my biggest hobby run around with something basic can I?
:spyder: I used to collect a lot of knives... I still do, but i used to too. :spyder:
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#16

Post by The Deacon »

Been carrying a knife since the mid 1950's, but I didn't discover Spyderco knives until 2003, so I was fairly late to the party. Might still be carrying a Buck Prince, but I was reading Hannibal and came across a reference to several Spyderco knives. Wasn't sure if they were something real, or just a brand Thomas Harris made up. Got on my computer and Googled the name, and the rest is history.
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#17

Post by FeistyKat »

Sometime in the early 1980's at the Del Mar Fair in San Diego, CA.

I think I bought my first Spyderco at the fair.

I do remember someone, who I'm pretty sure was Sal, giving my Spyderco a touch up on a Sharpmaker at the fair a year or two later.

That was probably when I bought my first Sharpmaker.
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#18

Post by archangel »

I've first seen a Spydie maybe around 2014 when I was browsing through the Böker webshop, and believe it or not, I thought it looked ugly! :eek: It wasn't love at first sight. Eventually I purchased my first spydie, a pre-owned Pacific Salt, and came to prefer the spydiehole over thumb studs. The spydiehole was what bit me. :)
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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#19

Post by Cambertree »

It was one of the Q variants at a gunshow.

In my ignorance at the time, I thought it looked cheap and gimmicky.

I wanted a single folding knife for hunting bunnies and foxes with and had heard good things about the ZDP189 Delica, but when I looked at that, it also looked overpriced at well over $100 for what seemed like plasticky handles.

It took a while longer - and after being disappointed by a couple of semi worthless knives from another US knife company - before I decided to try a VG10 Delica with grey FRN handles from a gunstore because it had the same steel as some of my Japanese kitchen knives.

That knife was a revelation to me - the first time I had experienced a tool that could be set up for left handers, the clip carry, the light weight, the one hand opening and closing, the great ergonomics and steel. I was hooked!

I still have that knife although it looks a little different these days:

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Re: First time you saw a Sypderco?

#20

Post by kennethsime »

I got a job at a small specialty cutlery store while I was in college. We sold more Benchmade and Kershaw than Spydercos, and I thought my first knife would be a BM 940. I won't lie, I initially thought Spydercos looked fugly. The more I played with the Spydercos the more and more attracted I became to the round hole, thinly-ground blades, and lightweight handles of the Seki line. I ended up with a ZDP-189 Stretch, perhaps the fugliest of the standard Spydercos. I still haven't purchased a folding knife from another manufacturer since (ok, maybe a Swiss Army Knife).
I'm happiest with Micarta and Tool Steel.

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