sal wrote: ↑Sun May 04, 2025 8:13 pm
Hi SocksWithSandals,
Talkin' Story; Para deveopment.
Part one.
It all began when a customer asked me, what type of folding knife design would I make for my child if they were going off to war? I believe the customer asked a number of companies, as a few did respond with "new models" that answered the question, though the questions was never discussed, so it is only a thought of mine. This was in the mid '90's. Eric was a teenager at the time.
I thought that the duty knife provided by the Military, (built by the lowest bidder), would probably serve for digging, prying and possibly even combat, so my focus was to be on a large, light, easily carried, folding knife to serve at the job of "cutting".
On size, I opted for a 4" blade, which will handle most cutting tasks, and on a folder, when the blade gets much over 4", the handle bulk in the pocket becomes an issue. I decided to add a finger choil, which offers more versatility in fine cutting, which also add to the handle volume.
I decided to use a "Walker Linerlock" which, because it came in from the side and wasn't in the plane of the blade, I could make the blade wider. The Linerlock would also be lighter than a back-lock. Those were the only two locks we were using at the time. The Linerlock was not really strong enough, in my opinion, for a "fighting knife", but the knife design wasn't planned for combat, and I thought the lock would serve the mission..
The blade steel was a major question, as a military person may not have the privilege of being able to sharpen conveniently, and the blade needed to be able to get, and stay very sharp. It also needed to be a stainless steel for the obvious reasons. At the time, I was a member of the US Custom knifemakers Guild and I had much respect for the knowledge of the makers and their willingness to share knowledge. It really was a great club back then with many very bright makers. Most of the makers were using ATS-34, which was the "choice" blade steel at the time, but there were a few of the makers that were playing with Powdered Metals. I got quite an education on blade steels from the Guild makers.
I contacted Crucible Foundry, told them who I was and that my staff and I would be there to visit them the following week. We showed up on their doorstep the following week. While they were surprised, and had not thought of their steels for blade steels, they were very friendly and informative. We were the first group to actually watch the making of Powdered metals. After much discussion, we decided on CPM-440V as the steel to use and I promised them I would use their name and blade steel name in our advertising. (which we did).
We introduced the "Military Model" with full page ads, offering two different steels; ATS-34, which was accepted as a good blade steel and the "New" Crucible CPM-440V. This was in our "New" US factory, which still had many teething problems. The first model had a number of improvements necessary, which revealed themselves in use. So we made the necessary changes and re-introduced the New and improved Military Model shortly later, explaining the changes made.
Part two.
Changed my mind about sharing this part of the story. My apologies to those involved.
I had a few weeks to come up with a solution. I invented the "Compression Lock" to sort out the problem for the lock needed for the Frank design. I showed it to our factory manager at the time (Vince Ford) and Frank Centofante, who was our Manufacturing and Quality Control consultant and they felt it would work.
We decided to make the Frank design with the new Compression Lock and we also decided to make the new Paramilitary design with the same lock. The new Paramilitary design was to be the smaller Military model and both the Frank design and the Paramilitary design were to be made with 3" blades to meet most city ordinances. We patented the lock and began making them.
Part three. By now, Eric was more involved in the company and was helping with the factory (he was in his early 20's). He had already designed a few knives and decided to upgrade the Paramilitary design which needed one. The Lock was OK, but he wanted to redesign the handle and add length to the blade, which he did, which became the Paramilitary 2. That's how the design had both of us involved.
Since then, we've worked on designs together like the Tenacious, which we worked on for a long time to compete with the "Vex" being made by Benchmade. Also, Eric had updated a number of my older designs as well as a number of his own. Of the designs of mine that he updated, both sigs were added. That's how we ended up with two sigs on the models. I hope that answers your question?
sal
) That would be really cool. And it would match my old Caly jr!
Open even to we from from the "Colonies".
) I really didn't know how large the market would be, but thought to try to honor the requests. One of the Sakai boys had recently invented the Power Lock, which was patented, so I saw an opportunity to serve two concepts. They did a nice job building it and I'm glad we made it. Part of the Spyderco history that became extinct, like; Dodo's, Q's, Renches, Jumpers, Solo's, etc.
