Byrd Gooney

[jasonstone20]

Well, beaten to the punch twice! This is the blade shape I was wanting to make, something like the reverse-S but a little less of a radius wave to it, and also what I noticed with the hawksbill and reverse-S knives is that the first part of the knife to go dull is the point, at least how I use the blades, so I wanted less of a claw point and more closer to a normal knife/Wharncliffe style point. The first time is I was chatting with Sal on another forum about a knife I wanted to design, and it was basically a PM2 or Military but with an Opinel style handle, a more full Coke-bottle handle like on nice fixed blades, but on a folder. Well, Sal said that that would be too bulky for most people to carry in their pocket, people usually want a folder to have flatter sides. So I went to my knife collection, and I found a liner-lock Portugese knife that my friend from that country sent me, and it was like an Opinel, but had flat sides, and the handle looked just like the Shaman. Now the Shaman had been out for some time, and I don't know why I didn't see the resemblance, LOL. Guess this is why I stick to sharpening knives and collecting them, with the occasional regrind, instead of designing knives!! ;-)

[sal]

Hi Jason,

Good to see you here. One of these days we'll have to talk abut a design.

sal

[jasonstone20]

sal,
I'd love to. Thank you! Looks like I need to get busy doing some research and study and get some sketches done. Happy Birthday BTW, I know it is a few days late, but as they say, better late than never!

[Quailbert]

I am a long-time Spyderco fan. I have been buying and carrying Spyderco for at least twenty years now and I wear that as a sign of pride. I have finally made an account JUST for this specific knife.

It is so unlike anything else on Spyderco's roster and I mean that in a very, very good way. My faithful Cricket and Delica have served me well through thick and thin, but I am looking to branch out to other designs more specific to gardening and yard work, which led me to hawkbill and S-curve designs, which quickly led me to the Gooney and this thread. I actually pulled the trigger on a Matriarch 2 already for gardening purposes, and I may either end up returning it or delegating it to self-defense only. It's a very fine design, but sheepsfoot blades are great, S-curves are even better, so this design was a dream come true. Upon hearing that a serrated Gooney model is in the works in this thread, I got VERY excited!

Thank you all for sharing your personal anecdotes about the performance of this knife, and thank you Sal for listening to the community. Spyderco's function-first mentality combined with its openness to its fanbase are exactly why I have remained such a dedicated fan through the decades.

[sal]

Hi Quailbert, Graceanderson,

Welcome to our forum and thanx for the kind words.

sal

[jasonstone20]

Hi Jason,

Good to see you here. One of these days we'll have to talk abut a design.

sal

Sal,

I sent you an email with a blade design, along with one of my favorite handles and actions. When you have the free time, could you please give me some feedback on them?

Thank you!

[GarageBoy]

Is this shape sharpenable on 6x1" stones?

[Enactive]

I have a Gooney on the way, I'm keen to check it out. The design, size, and materials look good.

The 2.7mm blade thickness is nice and looks thinly ground too.

[Jim Malone]

I just bought the Gooney. I will use and carry it as my daily knife as a nurse in Nuclear Medicine (mainly opening cardboard boxes) in scrubs. I´m not a huge fan of the comet hole but i´ll give it a try again.
Blade style looks weird but i get the shape. I carry a Spyderco Efficient now as a trial but it´s a little bit on the heavy side as a pocket knife. The Gooney is a few grams lighter.
I once had to use my Spyderco to cut a patients bandage because i forgot my scissor so the fact that it doesn´t gave a sharp stabby weird blade might make it patient friendly.

[Manixguy@1994]

I’m going to be patient and wait for the SE version in the future . I thinks it will do vey well cutting vines during Fall cleanup . I also want my wife to try it out . MG2

[Jim Malone]

Initial impression.
Well made for a Byrd knife. I think the quality is about 90% of a Spyderco knife. Some small things still i noticed.
A very small flat spot on the grey g10 (due to it being grey it´s pretty noticable)
One of the drilled holes on the front left side handle is not perfectly in line with the steel liner. Moving the clip to left hand carry tip down would need tinkering.
The Comet hole on the blade had sharp edges. I had to take of the edge off with some 600 grit sandpaper so it wouldn´t "cut" my thumb.
The lockback is heavy to operate, it needs considerable force and the lockback bar also has a sharp edge so it needs some softening too.
I really like the G10 colour. It´s a soft, non agressive colour. The grippyness is nice, not overly agressive like the Yojimbo.
There seem to be half steel liners in the knife wich is nice to see.
Blade centering was ok. I could tweek the blade side to side a little bit due to the thin blade at the front and the fact that i loosened the center pin a bit so the blade closes when you pinch the lockback.
I like the flat ground blade. It´s flat ground to the knife edge but also toward the tip of the blade making a pretty thin blade at the front. This will make it a nice slicer and it doesn´t feel flimsy but the blade is pretty thin at the tip. People should know that this isn´t a sharpened prybar.
There is a weird R on the blade on the right side in front of the comet shaped hole. I don´t know why? Registered trademark?
The clip is a nice highly polished hourglas clip.
One of the benefits of the bladeshape is that it has a generous place to pinch the blade on the front of the blade so you can easely open it two handed in a non threathening manner. The top serrations on the blade are ok. Not the best defined but the bottom serrations could be better executed.
The handle fits my XL hands nicely. It´s perfect to choke on the blade with your first finger and thumb.
The blade feels really sharp (haven´t cut anything with it). I can put my first finger on the top of the blade so precise cutting with the thin tip can be achieved.
My wife handled the knife as well. She disliked the sharp edges of the boye dent and hated the blade shape and comet hole. She said it looks like an evil bird looking at her and wasn´t convinced!
With serrations i think the profile will become even more unusual so the girls might not like it. I also doubt there is enough meat on the tip of the blade to have serrations on the front of the blade.
All in all i like the knife. Pleased i bought it.
I will tweak a little to take of the sharp edges of the back lock and put it to use at the hospital opening boxes with nuclear medicine in it and general light cutting.
It´s a quirky knife, the bladeshape makes it look like an evil bird so maybe a round eye might soften the evil looking bird profile.
The bladeshapes feels really usefull, even as a low profile slasher for civilian type "get off me" slashing.
I like it. I´m not a steel afficianado so the steel might suit my daily cutting needs. I have no idea about the Rc of the blade.
The knife still needs some tweeking to get it perfect but for the price it´s hard to beat.

[Jim Malone]

Some pictures i took

[Enactive]

Thanks, Jim!