Need some input

[ChrisinHove]

Not quite answering the question but what about interchangeable, heat sensitive or glow-in-the-dark options? They can be a *lot* of fun.

[aicolainen]

I'm not sure I understand the question, or what the "answer" to the question is looking to solve.
Anyhow, the way I interpret it, it seems quite difficult to answer.
While colors can be a way to express ones personality or mood, knives are a bit different than say watch bands for an Apple watch or a phone cover.
Most (I assume) who carries knives, don't want the knife to attract attention, except for outdoor use and some professions where bright or contrasting colors make sense.

My wife and son mostly wear black pants, and would in most situations prefer black (dark hue) handled knife.
My daughter and myself usually wear blue jeans or grey pants of some sort, so I prefer my EDC folders to be in a similar color so it doesn't stand out. Grey works in most materials, with Chap LW FRN, Maxamet G-10 and Cru-wear S2XL being good examples. Black micarta is also a good one and I was thrilled to read that Spyderco/Sal is looking into blue denim micarta. Some solid blues work pretty well too, e.g. the k390 blue.
My daughter only carry knives for outdoor use, so I don't think she'll care about colors that much. If that were to change and she started to EDC a knife, the only preference I can predict with 100% certainty is that she would not want pink handles.

[Bill1170]

In my experience women are much more fond of lavender and purple than men. Men seem to prefer deeper colors, whether blues or reds. My father loved green; I’m more of a blue person myself.

[bobnikon]

Sal,

I am thinking of a "two-piece" setup like the sun and moon but across two knives. One knife has a predominant colour with an accent, be it an inlaid shape (spider would be cool) or a bolster of a second colour, and then the other flips that so the main colour is the accent from the first and the accent is the main colour...

The added benefit is people would buy the set because it is cool.

You can send my royalty checks quarterly if that is easiest

Hands down my wife is in the robins egg to teal camp. You just have to look at her sweater/jacket collection.

Cheers
Erik

[Red Leader]

Jade, 100% jade for the handle color for the ladies. At the seconds sale, we had our basket knives all spread out and a lady and her spouse came by and were chatting with us, and then the lady asked us ‘Are you guys going to get that one?’ referring to the jade/M4 DLC Para 3 LW. I said ‘Nope, wanna take it?’ and she said ‘Yeah, I really like that one.’ And then I smiled and said ‘It’s the color, isn’t it…’ and she laughed and said ‘Yep!’


And then later that night, after we got home…completely unrelated, my wife took another look at that picture of all those knives and said ‘I like the color of that jade one’. Which is really saying something because she thinks most knives look ugly lol.


Two different ladies, two completely unique lives and experiences, and they both loved that color.






Jade for the ladies and orange for the dudes - because we are always losing stuff and orange would help us find it - I know it would have helped my 10 yr old self, who lost my first pocket knife and couldn’t find it in the grass. Orange is a bright safe color. The jade is bright too. They look nice. I think kids would like them. I will confirm with the fam when I am home.

[cjk]

Stainless steel handles engraved "Hers" and "also hers" .

I prefer forest green. I am fine with black, OD green, kelly green, blues, browns, khakis, etc. I really don't like orange except for high visibility situations.

When my wife wanted an OTF, her detailed specifications were "a purple one, or maybe red if they don't have purple". So she got a purple Kershaw Livewire and and red Native 5 lightweight.
My teenage daughter (then 13) wanted purple, so that was a purple Delica 4.
My son wanted blue at about the same age, so that was a blue Delica 4.

[JayHenMac]

I asked my ex-girlfriend and she asked me to stop calling her that. Ever since we got married 15 years ago, she prefers to be called my wife.
Anyways, she said that a Forrest Green and Mint Green in the same hue pallet would be nice. It doesn't assume gender preference, and keeping both in the same hue pallet makes them match.

[jymset]

As per Sal's requests, I asked my wife (non-knife person) and she suggested turquoise and either orange or red.

That's inadvertedly in the vicinity of this prior suggestion:

Another way to go is with what color theory calls "complementary" color. These are colors that are 180 degrees opposed on the wheel. Very popular in the film industry with a Teal & Orange combo in particular.

[TimButterfield]

I asked my wife about this. She mentioned a gold tone for girls and a silver for boys. She also likes a slight texture for a little tactile feedback, not as aggressive as a molded LW, but more subtle like a jigged bone traditional scale.

[da1cyclist]

I work in the outdoor industry, where it’s become a bit of a faux pas to “pink and shrink” women’s gear. There’s some interesting U.S. military research suggesting that, proportionally, men and women aren’t as different as people assume. For example, a man with smaller hands will generally be similar to an average woman’s hand size, and a woman with larger hands will be similar to an average man’s. That’s not to discount functional differences like strength or body composition, but those factors don’t feel very relevant to this particular discussion.

The idea of selling them as a matched boxed set is intriguing. I carried the Sage 6 most of the summer because its smaller size and lighter weight work better with gym shorts. Now that winter is back, I find myself reaching for the Manix 2 more often.

On the color topic, I can see the case for matching, complementary, or contrasting. As I’ve gotten more into Spyderco, I’ve come to appreciate how handle colors often designate steel type or intended use. From a consumer clarity standpoint, I’d assume you’d want to maintain some continuity around handle colors.