The Spyderco Story is now available at the Internet Archive

[spoonrobot]

Please forgive me if this is a duplicate notification, I performed a quick search and did not find this information had already been posted.

The Spyderco Story by Kenneth T. Delavigne has been uploaded to the Internet Archive and is available for viewing.

https://archive.org/details/the-spyderc ... din-press/

[Bolster]

Thanks for the link, man!

[Naperville]

Thanks for the link. Downloading the PDF!

[mikey177]

Thank you for the link. I downloaded the PDF as well.

[Paul Ardbeg]

Thanks for posting! Will make for a nice read!

[Paul Ardbeg]

So we have to thank Sal's little frog for the pocketclip Love details like this!

[wrdwrght]

Thank you, thank you.

[Marco72]

thanks !!

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Thank you for posting this. Look at those original Enduras.

[RustyIron]

Very cool! I just downloaded the pdf.
Interesting that this was published by Paladin Press. They were a great resource for folks who wanted to learn about guns, knives, fighting, explosives, warfare, surveillance, and other fun stuff. First Amendment or not, there's NO WAY they could exercise their freedom of the press in 2024.

[apollo]

Maybe its just me but i like the old Spyderco advertisements way better then those of today…

[RustyIron]

Crabco?
Clipiteers?
I've only read a few pages, and am already enjoying the book more than I expected.

[nerdlock]

A few chapters in. Forgot to give thanks. Grateful for the effort to digitize and make this available for all. I remembered a year or two back that I asked for a republication of this book... although it is a digital copy only, it's everything I could hope for.

[Mr Blonde]

This is great, thanks for sharing the link!

[JD Spydo]

I've owned a hard cover version of "The Spyderco Story" for many years now. I feel like I literally stole it for $22 when I got it many years ago. It is now one of my most treasured possessions. I've turned down some pretty lofty offers for it in the past 5 years. The information in "The Spyderco Story" is almost priceless to a serious Spyderco collector or avid fan.

I find myself doing some reading in mine about every 40 to 60 days it seems. It's a crying shame that it can't be re-printed with Paladin Press being out of business. I would like to know if there is really a sequel in the works? I heard that there was a few months back.

Thanks a lot for making this new information available to us.

[Michael Janich]

Hey, All:

This is a cool find, indeed. When this project originally came up, I was the Video Production Manager for Paladin and had just started teaching MBC under Spyderco's auspices. Sal mentioned Ken's project to me and asked if Paladin would be interested in publishing it. I pitched it to Peder Lund, Paladin's owner and the driving force behind the company, and got him to embrace the project. Peder was actually an avid knife guy and had driven Paladin to do some landmark book and video projects with Bob Loveless, Jim Hrisoulas, and Robert Gaddis (one of the leading Randall knives historians).

Peder was also friends with Frank Centofante and Bill Harsey and commissioned gentlemen's folders from both. On several occasions, he stopped in my office and randomly gifted me his "retired" folders, which I still have in my collection. He also had a standing order with Bill Harsey that whenever he made a prototype knife for Colonel Applegate, Bill was to make a "002" version for him. I purchased that collection from Peder as well.

Paladin's business model for books like the Spyderco story was different than many of its titles. Their historical hardcover books sold well, but mostly through dealers who cultivated specialized audiences. Sadly, that never happened with "The Spyderco Story," and it went from a classic hardcover book to a softcover to out of print. Even when Paladin invested in a print-on-demand setup, "The Spyderco Story," to my knowledge, never "made the cut" to be digitized from the original old-school negatives.

I was the only customer-turned-author-turned-employee that Paladin ever hired. I established their in-house video production department in 1994 and ran it until my departure in 2004. I even continued to teach my local MBC classes out of Paladin's basement for several years afterward, until my successor, whom I trained, turned Peder against me with false accusations that I was shooting commercial videos there. He was later fired for cause, but Peder wasn't the apologizing type.

Ultimately, the internet killed Paladin and Peder and his Editorial Director were not savvy enough to change with the times. When the business was "circling the drain," their last videographer contacted me and gave me a head's up. I reached out to the friends I had left in the Editorial Department to request PDF files of all the books I had written or co-written for them. I also made sure I had archival DVD copies of all my videos. Many other authors either did not have that opportunity or failed to seize upon it, so they never had the digital files to bring their titles back into print.

Technically, this digital version of the book is a violation of Ken Delavigne's copyright rights. I recently confirmed he is still alive and will reach out to him to see if he's interested in reprinting the book through Amazon. I've done that with a few of my Paladin titles and it's not difficult.

As for an updated version, there was a plan for Jim Phillips--founder and former head of Phillips Publications--to do that. Sadly, shortly after he and Sal crafted a plan, Jim passed away. The information to support such a project certainly exists, but I don't think the drive is there.

I am very proud of my time and accomplishments with "The World's Most Dangerous Publisher." Peder was certainly one of a kind and truly pushed the envelope of First Amendment rights. It was very cool to be part of their heyday.

Stay safe,

Mike

[RustyIron]

Technically, this digital version of the book is a violation of Ken Delavigne's copyright rights. I recently confirmed he is still alive and will reach out to him to see if he's interested in reprinting the book through Amazon. I've done that with a few of my Paladin titles and it's not difficult.

That's quite the cool story, Mike. Paladin and Lindsay were my source of written entertainment long before Algore invented the internet. For small printing jobs, I've found Staples to be a GREAT resource. You can lay out your job easily on their web page, their prices are cheap, there's no minimum order, and the quality of their work far exceeded my expectations.

[ekastanis]

"The World's Most Dangerous Publisher."

Good memories from a different time

[Ramonade]

Thanks much ! I had it in a weird format which needed another software to run it. Already read it a couple of times but in PDF it will be way more easier to read !

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Hey, All:

This is a cool find, indeed. When this project originally came up, I was the Video Production Manager for Paladin and had just started teaching MBC under Spyderco's auspices. Sal mentioned Ken's project to me and asked if Paladin would be interested in publishing it. I pitched it to Peder Lund, Paladin's owner and the driving force behind the company, and got him to embrace the project. Peder was actually an avid knife guy and had driven Paladin to do some landmark book and video projects with Bob Loveless, Jim Hrisoulas, and Robert Gaddis (one of the leading Randall knives historians).

Peder was also friends with Frank Centofante and Bill Harsey and commissioned gentlemen's folders from both. On several occasions, he stopped in my office and randomly gifted me his "retired" folders, which I still have in my collection. He also had a standing order with Bill Harsey that whenever he made a prototype knife for Colonel Applegate, Bill was to make a "002" version for him. I purchased that collection from Peder as well.

Paladin's business model for books like the Spyderco story was different than many of its titles. Their historical hardcover books sold well, but mostly through dealers who cultivated specialized audiences. Sadly, that never happened with "The Spyderco Story," and it went from a classic hardcover book to a softcover to out of print. Even when Paladin invested in a print-on-demand setup, "The Spyderco Story," to my knowledge, never "made the cut" to be digitized from the original old-school negatives.

I was the only customer-turned-author-turned-employee that Paladin ever hired. I established their in-house video production department in 1994 and ran it until my departure in 2004. I even continued to teach my local MBC classes out of Paladin's basement for several years afterward, until my successor, whom I trained, turned Peder against me with false accusations that I was shooting commercial videos there. He was later fired for cause, but Peder wasn't the apologizing type.

Ultimately, the internet killed Paladin and Peder and his Editorial Director were not savvy enough to change with the times. When the business was "circling the drain," their last videographer contacted me and gave me a head's up. I reached out to the friends I had left in the Editorial Department to request PDF files of all the books I had written or co-written for them. I also made sure I had archival DVD copies of all my videos. Many other authors either did not have that opportunity or failed to seize upon it, so they never had the digital files to bring their titles back into print.

Technically, this digital version of the book is a violation of Ken Delavigne's copyright rights. I recently confirmed he is still alive and will reach out to him to see if he's interested in reprinting the book through Amazon. I've done that with a few of my Paladin titles and it's not difficult.

As for an updated version, there was a plan for Jim Phillips--founder and former head of Phillips Publications--to do that. Sadly, shortly after he and Sal crafted a plan, Jim passed away. The information to support such a project certainly exists, but I don't think the drive is there.

I am very proud of my time and accomplishments with "The World's Most Dangerous Publisher." Peder was certainly one of a kind and truly pushed the envelope of First Amendment rights. It was very cool to be part of their heyday.

Stay safe,

Mike

Michael this is very cool. I want to remain on topic but do you remember "Modern Combat Blades" by author Duncan Long, published by Paladin Press? It has images of some early Spyderco models and good data on knives and knife defense in general.