I'll start on the inside. Here's what it looks like. It's a very simple design because so much of the complexity is baked into the scales. I think much was made of this when the Native 5 LW launched but it's still impressive. I can't think of anyone else that does plastic handled knives with this much thought.
One thing I really like about this knife is the loud "clack" when you close the knife. Lots of tension from the lockbar closing it.
Now, let's look at the star of the show, that magnificent blade:
The blade is amazing. Slicy, perfectly sharpened, nicely finished. The only nitpick I can find on the blade itself is the transition from SE to PE is just a little bit wonky looking (but works just fine):
I like combo edge in a blade this size.
Next up: grip and ergos.
Ok here is the deal. And I know all the Native fans out there know that Natives have finger choils. I accepted that as gospel when I saw the first Chief prototype. I bought this knife assuming that the finger choil was a good idea. In general I place a lot of faith in Spyderco around the design of a knife.
My observation/complaint is that on a knife this size the unused handle length scales up to something significant. With my index finger in the choil (forward grip) I have over 1.5" of unused handle. With index finger behind the choil I still have 0.75" unused handle. With that rearward grip the blade feels really far forward of my hand, awkwardly so. I have large hands btw -- but nobody with small hands is buying this knife.
My conclusion is that the finger choil design doesn't scale up this big very well. It's functional but never feels quite right. My index finger really wants to be at the point where the choil and the main handle curve meet.
Btw the reverse hammer grip feels great.
Ok, I'm going to address a few things in this picture, all of which are subjective:
1. The little bit of jimping on the lock bar never looks right. I think it's there to cover a cosmetic issue with the lockbar never quite matching the elevation of the spine where they meet. Maybe it would look worse without it. I mainly point this out to warn the OCD people. Not a functional issue.
2. As I mentioned in the Native 5 LW thread I linked above, I want more of a radius of chamfer around the edges of the scales. I'm somehow less bothered by it than with the smaller Native 5. Maybe they upped the radius a little? Maybe I just got used to it?
3. I think I'm in the minority but the scale texturing is way too aggressive. I know this is standard Spyderco texture design but it feels like an aggressively textured polymer handgun frame. I prefer the Chaparral LW texture by far. I just don't know that anything I do with a knife needs that much friction to maintain control of the knife. It hurts to squeeze the knife firmly!
Ok the criticisms get harsher from here on so stop reading if that's not your thing.
This was covered extensively in the mega thread. The clip lands on the edge of the logo oval. This means it is snag city. I won't belabor the point: this is just bad design. Spyderco should CQI this. I replaced it with an inexpensive MXG clip that lands where it should:
Next I will circle round to the first image I posted. Why did I take a brand new knife apart? Well, because I literally could not open it one handed. It came so stiff out of the box I thought something was wrong. I futzed with the pivot a lot and "cleaned" it (there was nothing to clean inside) and lubed it and it got better but not great. Someone posted in a Native 5 thread that the middle screw being over tightened exerts a lot of pressure on the lockbar and makes it stiff to open. With that sorted out it opens/closes ok but not as good as something with washers. My conclusion is the final assembly people are torquing these down too much. It would be obvious if there was QC at the end of the line making sure the knife opened acceptably. It was unusable out of the box without a set of torx bits handy.
I think the last thing is the clip screws are too long to mount the clip for tip down carry. It makes no sense. If you screw the clip onto the other side the knife simply will not open because the screws but up against the blade like brake calipers.
Conclusion
My recommendation is if you have a (healthy) irrational desire to own a Native Chief then don't let the (mostly) fixable issues keep you from doing so. It's a gorgeous knife.
If you think you just want a larger Native and this knife looks cool... be cautious. This knife isn't a home run in my assessment. Consider getting a Stretch instead.
