Simple Endura Mod

[Doc Dan]

I finally got around to modifying the handle on my teal Endura. It’s not really tell by the way it’s Aqua. Anyway there is no reason to ever get rid of any Endura or be unhappy with it. This modification is so simple it only takes about five minutes.

Here is before. The grey had already been done and you can see the difference,


Here is after taking down the first hump.


After the mod there is a flat spot that sits good in the hand.


This modification, though it’s very small, makes a huge difference in the way it feels in my big hand. I took a diamond sharpening stone because that’s what I happen to have at hand and proceeded to file away the part I didn’t want. It was a medium grit. Then I flipped it over to the fine grit and touched it up. It turned out pretty good and it certainly is usable and comfortable. Now I recommend taking the pocket clip off. That way you can tell how it feels in your hand. Go slow take a little bit off and then put it in your hand and see how it feels. Remember you can always take off more but you can’t put more back on.

As a safety note, I wore a mask and I wet the stone with water so that I could minimize that glass dust. I don’t really wanna breathe that in to my lungs and I’m sure you don’t either.

[VooDooChild]

I hate the first point on the endura and I know a lot of other people do as well.

It bothers me a little that spyderco will entertain all sorts of (sometimes ridiculous) requests but refuses to give us a second handle option for the endura and delica.

The endura 4 would be perfect for me if the handle were different.

[Wartstein]

Nice work, Doc, though I personally don't mind the "first bump" or even like it (but my hands are not "big" as yours, but just on the lower end of XL)

You'll like the Endela-handle, less material to file down when modding like that, and the handle will remain a tad wider after the mod than the Enduras.

/ How much did your sharpening stones clog up? Easy to clean again?

[Doc Dan]

Nice work, Doc, though I personally don't mind the "first bump" or even like it (but my hands are not "big" as yours, but just on the lower end of XL)

You'll like the Endela-handle, less material to file down when modding like that, and the handle will remain a tad wider after the mod than the Enduras.

/ How much did your sharpening stones clog up? Easy to clean again?

I just rinse them under the water and that was it and wipe them off with my fingers a little bit and made sure that there was no more gunk on there and then let it dry.

[Doc Dan]

I hate the first point on the endura and I know a lot of other people do as well.

It bothers me a little that spyderco will entertain all sorts of (sometimes ridiculous) requests but refuses to give us a second handle option for the endura and delica.

The endura 4 would be perfect for me if the handle were different.

Well try this mud because I think it will solve your problems for you. It certainly did for me and I love love this knife all over again.

[Pokey]

I hate the first point on the endura and I know a lot of other people do as well.

It bothers me a little that spyderco will entertain all sorts of (sometimes ridiculous) requests but refuses to give us a second handle option for the endura and delica.

The endura 4 would be perfect for me if the handle were different.

VooDoo,

I’ve read on the Forum somewhere that it’s a huge up front cost for Spyderco to make the molds for the polymer handles. The problem with making a second variant is it won’t fit everyone’s else's’ hand either.

My first two fingers fall into the first groove fine, my ring finger fits in the second groove, but look where my little finger lands. (See the picture below.) My solution would be do the Doc Dan Mod on the 2nd finger groove. (Or the little finger :eek: , paging Doc Dan to the emergency room.)

I think I’ve read here that Sal has said Spyderco is shying away from distinct finger grooves. Until then all we can do is the Doc Dan Mod to make them fit the mitts.

Going off on a tangent, a certain polymer firearm manufacturer, (I'll call them "G" so they remain anonymous :rolleyes: ,) made the grips on their 3rd & 4th Gen pistols with finger grooves. (I spoke to a company rep years ago who said Mr. G's hands were the model for where the finger grooves should go.) Tons of people hated them. On Gs' Gen5 pistols they did away with the finger grooves, but reprised a feature from their Gen1 & 2 pistols. Now a lot of people love the lack of finger grooves, but hate the feature on the front of the grip. People's solution, abrasive power tools.

[StuntZombie]

I'm lucky that the Endura handle fits me perfectly, but if I were to ever end up with a Police LWT, I'd have to do the same mod. I got to handle one recently, and hated the way the handle felt, regardless of which choil I used.

[Pancake]

Nice mod.
I did take sandpaper a few times to my Spydercos, most notable was the Chief, I round the corners off.
Moral of the story, don't be affrayd to mod your knife, if you know you are not going to sell it.

Always wanted to try the Endura, maybe next year. I think I spend enough money this year on knives.

[u.w.]

I've been doing this "mod" to my Enduras, and Delicas for years. To me, it greatly improves the "in hand feel/use" of the knife, having a more neutral handle shape (i.e. without the bumps).
Though, I just use a bit of sand paper when I do it.

ETA: I'm fine with doing this "mod" myself, personally.
Or get in touch with any of the after market handle/scale makers, and work something out.
If Spyderco were to do it, then I think the price of these knives would go higher yet.

Respectfully, I feel the price of these knives is high enough already (maybe even a tad TOO high now). I'll happily mod it how I see fit, and not have everyone pay more.
Just my personal opinion, worth the value you ascribe it, potentially worthless.

u.w.

[MFlovejp]

I don’t have an Endura, but do have a Pac Salt 2... do they have the same handle?

[vivi]

I don’t have an Endura, but do have a Pac Salt 2... do they have the same handle?

I've done this mod to an Endura and IIRC it has more clearance for this mod than the Pacific 2. The outside of the handle is essentially the same, but the amount of solid FRN between the edge of the scale and where the liner is skeletonized is different I believe.

[MFlovejp]

Interesting. I compared the Pac Salt to the Endela and noticed that the forward finger area are the same size, but that the Endela already has that little hump smoothed out. The Salt handle doesn’t really bother me that much but the Endela still feels better in hand.

[Doc Dan]

Looking at it, I still think the Endela needs to be flattened just a tad more for me; but that is for me.

Does anyone have a picture of a disassembled Pac Salt so we can see if there is enough room for the mod?

[derangedhermit]

Me too. Every time I sharpen my Endura 4s, Pac Salt 2, Police 4 LW, (linerless) G10 Native and Native Chief, I spend a few minutes filing some more on those two points. I can go further on the G10 Native and Chief since they are slabsided, not skeletonized. My new-to-me Yojumbo shows a lot of promise, but I'm tempted to take a jigsaw to it since filing G10 is slow work and I'm not enthusiastic about starting in on yet another Spyderco grip.

It seems to me that the more opinionated the grip styling, the smaller percentage of people it will be useful for, and for a smaller percentage of use cases. Hands and cutting tasks simply vary too much. I think opinionated handle design is largely a marketing/brand identity thing.

[kennethsime]

Great mod, Dan. I always liked the Stretch handle better than the Endura for this reason. Swell over points, all day every day.

I took the jimping off of the handle of my Manix 2 LW with just a bit of sandpaper wrapped around a drill bit (didn't have a power sander at the time). Much more comfortable for me to use without gloves now.

[Eee]

Great mod, Dan. I always liked the Stretch handle better than the Endura for this reason. Swell over points, all day every day.

I took the jimping off of the handle of my Manix 2 LW with just a bit of sandpaper wrapped around a drill bit (didn't have a power sander at the time). Much more comfortable for me to use without gloves now.

Overdone jimping is a bit of a dealbreaker for me which has kept me away from the newer Manixes. The LWs look far easier to mod though.

[vivi]

Great mod, Dan. I always liked the Stretch handle better than the Endura for this reason. Swell over points, all day every day.

I took the jimping off of the handle of my Manix 2 LW with just a bit of sandpaper wrapped around a drill bit (didn't have a power sander at the time). Much more comfortable for me to use without gloves now.

Overdone jimping is a bit of a dealbreaker for me which has kept me away from the newer Manixes. The LWs look far easier to mod though.

The G10 version only takes about 10 minutes to "fix" if you have powered equipment:



Makes a bigger difference than I expected.

[TomAiello]

I hate the first point on the endura and I know a lot of other people do as well.

It's easy to take it off, and hard to put it back on.

I'm not an Endura guy at this point, but I've recently been carrying the LC200n Pac salt, and I actually like the forward point in slippery conditions (which is where I use this kind of knife).

I'd rather see it stay, because it's so easy for the end user to remove it if they want to.

[bruce91748]

It's easy to take it off, and hard to put it back on.

I'm not an Endura guy at this point, but I've recently been carrying the LC200n Pac salt, and I actually like the forward point in slippery conditions (which is where I use this kind of knife).

I'd rather see it stay, because it's so easy for the end user to remove it if they want to.

+1 here, I wear somewhere between a medium and large gloves and find the hump on my Pac Salt 2 perfectly hold my index and middle fingers. So I'd say keep the hump. Love the Pac Salt 2's reach BTW as I can choke down (not up) when I need to fillet larger fish and keep the hand away from the fins and thorns of certain fish as I don't always have gloves with me when I fish. Having the index and middle fingers gripping the higher hump gives me a better purchase than having a smaller or no hump. But I definitely can see larger hands wouldn't fit as good.

[JRinFL]

I never noticed it as a problem until others started to complain about it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss!
Thanks to Doc for posting up a simple work around to apply if you need it.