Is anyone else completely in love with the Dragonfly?

[Wartstein]

You and I have talked about this a bit So I went back and compared the chaparral to the DF2 in hand. I think the difference for me is that the chaparral handle fills my palm and I use less wrist when using it. The dragonfly only touches my palm on the aft end - leaving much more finger and wrist flexibility and making it more intuitive to maneuver the knife for reverse cuts or other grip changes.

I have smaller hands so that might be where our preferences are coming from. Anyway - fascinating that two similarly sized knives can have very different ergos.

Also - I always get a kick out of the “misnamed” chaparral. Chaparral veg is short, stubby, thick, and tough. Totally should have been the name for the lil’ native.

It could totally be that the Chap for me indeed feels a lot like the DFly does for you.

You say, you have smaller hands, while I have rather large ones (or lets say just regularly sized for an almost 6.2" male person).
The Chap has a closed length (=handle length) only 3mm (0.12") longer than the DFly, so proportionally the Chap might be as small for me as the DFly is for you (of course then they have a different handle shape too).

What you say about the DFly being "more intuitive to maneuver", cause it fills your palm LESS than the Chap does, is interesting. I always saw it as an advantage when a knife fills the palm better/more, I´ll have to try to look at this under the aspect you brought up! :)

Anyway, it is really not as if I would not like the DFly: If there was no Chaparral, I´d certainly own an orange Dfly!

/ Did never look up how "Chaparral veg" does actually look like... but "stubby, thick, short" does sound like a Lil Native indeed... (My least favorite small Spydie, functionally speaking)

[Wartstein]

I wouldn't say completely in love, but I do think it's a model every Spyderco fan needs at least one of. .....

Rick, don´t do this to me... I begin to think that you (and the DFly folks here) could be right, and my wallet and approach of "owning only ten Spydies at any point in time" do not like that...

/ Out of interest: Have you ever tried to (only) use the Dfly in your typical work day knife tasks? Could it handle this, or would it be too small / awkward to use? From how I imagine how you (have to) use knives in your job, it is about frequent and a lot of cutting, but not too much cutting of stuff with larger diameters and not much cutting continuously for a longer period of time, so the DFly actually could work for you?

[Hobnob]

Hey z1r, I would hold onto that Black FRN SE. It has been discontinued. You made a good choice.

[z1r]

Hey z1r, I would hold onto that Black FRN SE. It has been discontinued. You made a good choice.

Love when I do something right! Thanks!

[kobold]

My Chaps always stop me. The only possibility is a SE hawkbill, but I already have a Tasman Salt in that configuration and I would like to go up in size, not down.

[Doc Dan]

Today, I'm carrying my foliage green G10 Dragonfly. I used that thing a lot in years past. I got some chips in the blade from cutting open a cardboard box with metal wires in it, or something. Still, it was pretty sharp. Anyway, I got it out today and put it to the Sharpmaker until it was sharp enough that it screamed "Cut something, already!" It is in my pocket, ready for whatever the day brings.

[TkoK83Spy]

I wouldn't say completely in love, but I do think it's a model every Spyderco fan needs at least one of. .....

Rick, don´t do this to me... I begin to think that you (and the DFly folks here) could be right, and my wallet and approach of "owning only ten Spydies at any point in time" do not like that...

/ Out of interest: Have you ever tried to (only) use the Dfly in your typical work day knife tasks? Could it handle this, or would it be too small / awkward to use? From how I imagine how you (have to) use knives in your job, it is about frequent and a lot of cutting, but not too much cutting of stuff with larger diameters and not much cutting continuously for a longer period of time, so the DFly actually could work for you?

Yep, I've used it at work quite a few times. Never for a week straight where I've done those comparison tests though (for some odd reason, maybe I should??). I think 9 times out of 10, it most likely could handle the materials I cut on a regular basis though. When I get some of the thicker double walled cardboard, some of the larger diameter rope or when I cut into 1" thick rubbing matting used for eliminating shock/vibrations to put on the feet of our high horsepower motors...it would struggle, or at least not feel as capable in hand or at the pivot as a larger knife, particularly a knife with G10 and liners.

[Wartstein]

...

Yep, I've used it at work quite a few times. Never for a week straight where I've done those comparison tests though (for some odd reason, maybe I should??). I think 9 times out of 10, it most likely could handle the materials I cut on a regular basis though. When I get some of the thicker double walled cardboard, some of the larger diameter rope or when I cut into 1" thick rubbing matting used for eliminating shock/vibrations to put on the feet of our high horsepower motors...it would struggle, or at least not feel as capable in hand or at the pivot as a larger knife, particularly a knife with G10 and liners.

Thanks! :)

It is really nice that you always can provide real-life and real-use impressions of almost any Spydie you own just over a even rather short time, where others would need like ten years of carry to collect that "data".
AND that you actually can compare a particular model to many others!

/ I thought that the DFly should be capable enough in many typical warehouse tasks - but (for me!) not universally enough so for a general single carry EDC knife.
But for folks who like to carry two Spydies: The DFly is probably the most perfect 5th pocket carry second knife ever.
(I myself don´t like to carry two or more Spydies normally. I find it enjoyable and interesting to see how the one knife I carry will handle any task that might occur).

[tonijedi]

Lately, the PE Salt is my most carried knife.
I prefer the Salt 2, but because of my job I mainly carry the dragonfly. It is a great design.

[z1r]

Hey z1r, I would hold onto that Black FRN SE. It has been discontinued. You made a good choice.

Well, I liked the British racing green enough that I drove back out to Golden this morning and brought the ZDP-189 home with me. I needed a PE anyway. Wish a non-H1 Hawkbill version was available.

[M Sea]

...

Yep, I've used it at work quite a few times. Never for a week straight where I've done those comparison tests though (for some odd reason, maybe I should??). I think 9 times out of 10, it most likely could handle the materials I cut on a regular basis though. When I get some of the thicker double walled cardboard, some of the larger diameter rope or when I cut into 1" thick rubbing matting used for eliminating shock/vibrations to put on the feet of our high horsepower motors...it would struggle, or at least not feel as capable in hand or at the pivot as a larger knife, particularly a knife with G10 and liners.

Thanks! :)

It is really nice that you always can provide real-life and real-use impressions of almost any Spydie you own just over a even rather short time, where others would need like ten years of carry to collect that "data".
AND that you actually can compare a particular model to many others!

/ I thought that the DFly should be capable enough in many typical warehouse tasks - but (for me!) not universally enough so for a general single carry EDC knife.
But for folks who like to carry two Spydies: The DFly is probably the most perfect 5th pocket carry second knife ever.
(I myself don´t like to carry two or more Spydies normally. I find it enjoyable and interesting to see how the one knife I carry will handle any task that might occur).

Agree 100% my friend!!

[40mm]

Going on 6 months straight of carrying a serrated edge salt Dragonfly. It's currently my only knife. It has shown me that a small knife is all I really need and has me thinking about dropping down even smaller to a ladybug for edc. Only reason I haven't is because of the lack of a clip on the ladybug. Dragonfly is great.

[z1r]

Going on 6 months straight of carrying a serrated edge salt Dragonfly. It's currently my only knife. It has shown me that a small knife is all I really need and has me thinking about dropping down even smaller to a ladybug for edc. Only reason I haven't is because of the lack of a clip on the ladybug. Dragonfly is great.

I carry the PE Ladybug in my 5th pocket and the DF with clip prevents it from getting lost in my regular pocket. This allows me to carry a SE DF and PE LB. Love it.

[Blnd]

Going on 6 months straight of carrying a serrated edge salt Dragonfly. It's currently my only knife. It has shown me that a small knife is all I really need and has me thinking about dropping down even smaller to a ladybug for edc. Only reason I haven't is because of the lack of a clip on the ladybug. Dragonfly is great.

Exactly this. Before I started carrying the DF2 as my only knife I had a ladybug on my keys. I never really had any issues with even the ladybug as my only EDC - I just needed to be able to separate it from my keys and the DF2 does that better with the clip.

[ABX2011]

I love the Wharnie Dragonfly 2. Really looking forward to the K390 version.

[ZrowsN1s]

..... I needed a PE anyway. Wish a non-H1 Hawkbill version was available.

You keep saying things like that people will think we're the same guy :D

[z1r]

..... I needed a PE anyway. Wish a non-H1 Hawkbill version was available.

You keep saying things like that people will think we're the same guy :D

Lol, Gonna say it again. Me Want!

Gotta say, I'm beginning to think the zdp-189 was a mistake. I'm thinking I would have liked a PE VG-10 better, or perhaps even an s30v if I could find one. The edge on the ZDP leaves a lot to be desired, no where near as sharp as either my VG-10 Ladybug or S35VN Native. Maybe it just needs a new edge? Under a loupe it appears to have several angles. Using the search function, it seems zdp-189 has two camps, those that love it and those that hate it. I want to be in the former but think I may end up in the later.

[tonijedi]

..... I needed a PE anyway. Wish a non-H1 Hawkbill version was available.

You keep saying things like that people will think we're the same guy :D

Lol, Gonna say it again. Me Want!

Gotta say, I'm beginning to think the zdp-189 was a mistake. I'm thinking I would have liked a PE VG-10 better, or perhaps even an s30v if I could find one. The edge on the ZDP leaves a lot to be desired, no where near as sharp as either my VG-10 Ladybug or S35VN Native. Maybe it just needs a new edge? Under a loupe it appears to have several angles. Using the search function, it seems zdp-189 has two camps, those that love it and those that hate it. I want to be in the former but think I may end up in the later.

You may find ZDP more difficult to sharpen (because it is) but it takes very nice edges.

[z1r]

Tonijedi,

What do you use? Assuming you sharpen ZDP.

[tonijedi]

Tonijedi,

What do you use? Assuming you sharpen ZDP.

I use the sharpmaker, starting with the diamond rods.
Make sure you are hitting the apex on each type of rods before switching to the next grit.