Your best example of a Spyderco

[toml4185]

I am curious what folks best fit and finish and overall quality Spyderco is.

For me, it is my Para 3 CruCarta. This thing came to me absolutely perfect and has remained that way.

No lock stick, perfect and solid lock up.

Micarta is perfectly aligned with the liners. Blade perfectly centered. It's fantastic.

To be clear, I am not a stickler for aesthetics and all of my knives are "users" but I am curious to hear thoughts from others on this. It's still fun to appreciate this kind of stuff, I think.

Closely behind the Para 3 would be my Sage 5 (CF/G-10 S30V - discontinued model).

[Red Leader]

The PM2 / Para 3 crucartas are typically (from my experience) one of the consistently nicest knives that Spyderco makes. Every PM2 crucarta I held at the Seconds Sale was fabulous, and one was the best feeling knife that I held all day, and I probably held in excess of 200+ knives.

Shoulda picked that one up just because.

[abbazaba]

Sage1 is super underrated in this regard

[Doc Dan]

The Spyderco One Eyed Jack is to me the knife that is the best example of their work. This is is simply a beautiful knife and looks as custom as the original. The Spyderco Chaparral with the stepped and stealth titanium are some others.

[mikey177]

For me it's the Drunken. I love the milling on the scales and the mirror stonewash on the blade.

[TkoK83Spy]

Right out of the box, for me it's got to be the KW Exclusive Military. You get one side Carbon Fiber, the other Ti, with an RIL and nice piece of S90V steel. Fantastic knife!

[Fharing45]

CF Subvert

[Actinolite]

For a long time, my Para 3 Crucarta was easily the best made Spyderco I had, a prime example of how good modern production can be. It is still a close second, beaten out only by the Kapara S90V/burlap micarta that I picked up a few months ago. Both are near perfect, but the one thing that makes the Kapara stand out is the finish on the liner edges. On the Para 3, the liners line up perfectly with the micarta, but the edges retain faint machining marks perpendicular to the edges. I didn't notice this before getting the Kapara, which has beautiful, satin finish on the edges.

Considering fit and finish and not including lightweights, my top 5 Spyderco examples are:
Kapara, S90V burlap micarta
Para 3, Crucarta
Sage 1, Maxamet
Manix 2, Crucarta
Byrd Raven, BD1 G10 (yes, it is beautifully made, nearly perfectly centered blade and all).

[Evil D]

I've had plenty of "lower end" models that were downright perfect in fit and finish, so it's not always the high end stuff. That said, the one that always comes to mind for this topic is the Vallotton. So many pieces, so much machining and finishing, there are a lot of opportunities to screw up the fit and finish. If you didn't know better this could pass off as a custom made knife.

[benben]

Right out of the box, for me it's got to be the KW Exclusive Military. You get one side Carbon Fiber, the other Ti, with an RIL and nice piece of S90V steel. Fantastic knife!

Very cool knife, I've never owned a Military before (yeah I know)....I'd happily own that one!

[benben]

I've had manyyy examples of what I'd call the perfect Spyderco knife!

Today I'm carrying my KW Forest Green 204P Manix 2, it's definitely one, I love that knife!
Also my Crucarta Manix 2, perfect example.
My G-10 S35VN Native 5 that I made my "pick a fight" post on last week, it's one indestructible, super well made little tank!
And I have a plain Jane S30V Black G-10 Yojimbo that's perfect in every way, the action is impossible to describe!

[Skywalker]

I'd say all of the Taichung models I've owned have been very good but the Sage 5 (CF/G10 and LW w/SPY27) and Chaparral (CF/G10) have been standout 10/10s.

For Golden, an original Native 5 G10 (full liners, S35VN, big flat lock bar pivot pin), a Para 3 with red G10/M390, and a Manix 2 with brown G10/M390 are the exemplars.

[elena86]

Right out of the box, for me it's got to be the KW Exclusive Military. You get one side Carbon Fiber, the other Ti, with an RIL and nice piece of S90V steel. Fantastic knife!

^^ That ! No competition here ! Second close is the Slysz Bowie

[benben]

Right out of the box, for me it's got to be the KW Exclusive Military. You get one side Carbon Fiber, the other Ti, with an RIL and nice piece of S90V steel. Fantastic knife!

^^ That ! No competition here ! Second close is the Slysz Bowie

No idea why, but the Slysz Bowie has just never interested me? My paint rep bought a LNIB second hand last week and brought it in for me to check out....man that knife is insanely nice, I bet I held on to it for 20 minutes, very impressive!

It was the Blue Knifejoy exclusive!

[Wowbagger]

For me it's the Drunken. I love the milling on the scales and the mirror stonewash on the blade.
drunken 13.jpg

When I first read the title of this threaad before getting to the nitygritty I thought the OP ment : If one wanted to show a Spyderco to a nonknife person and wanted the most visual information of what a Spydereco was (light , strong , versatile grip, great steel and great heat treat , singularly easy to use opener (spyder hole), great traction when wet , very practical pocket clip , about the best / strongest blade shape around without being stupid thick , made in the US , sharp . . . to name just a few high points . . . )
I was goiing to say the Native 5 Light Weight .

But
now that I understand the intent of this thread I would have to say I agree with many of the other previous posts and have nothing to add except that I could never make up my mind a hierarchy between my Drunken (my 65th birthday knife) and the Vallotton Sub-Hilts . . . even the very recent Slym . . .
My gosh great knives ALL !

And I have to say , way back in the day I looked at the Spyderco One Eyed Jack but not being a card player I reluctantly moved on but if I had seen the "filing" on the spine I would have made that one a priority and snagged it for sure . Photographers / marketers of knives seem to be limited in their abilities / foresight if you asked me . I never knew about the filed spine until this year .
GREAT THREAD !
PS : nice to see the Drunken ! in the forums before I bought one I just never saw one posted and it is rare of late .

[apollo]

Plain and simple the craftmanship gone in the Nirvana surpases every Spydie todate for me.

[silver & black]

Plain and simple the craftmanship gone in the Nirvana surpases every Spydie todate for me.

That's a very cool knife. I've never seen that one before.

[zuludelta]

I am curious what folks best fit and finish and overall quality Spyderco is.

There's variance, I'm sure, across all the factories and model lines, but below are the top three folders I own in terms of fit-and-finish out of the box:

• 1. Kapara (CQI version): It came with a symmetrically ground blade, flawlessly finished carbon fiber scales, a finely tuned detent, and a smoothly actuating Compression Lock. It's one of the most beautiful objects I own and is an excellent example of what Spyderco's Taichung factory is capable of when they're hitting on all cylinders.
• 2. Native 5 in CPM S30V and Black G10 (linerless version): Just perfectly fitted from the backspacer to the lockbar to the scales and hardware. It has the smoothest action of any backlock folder running on PB washers that I've ever handled, even better than the action of the significantly more expensive S90V/CF Native 5. And it still locks up like a bank vault, even after years of use as a work knife.
• 3. Tenacious in CPM M4 and Brown G10: This may come as a bit of a surprise to some, but it really is one of the best linerlocks I've ever owned in terms of overall fit-and-finish. The one I own has a smooth-as-butter "hydraulic" action and makes a very satisfying and authoritative sound when the blade locks into place that I just don't hear from any of my other linerlocks (or framelocks, for that matter).

Honourable mentions: Bodacious, SpydieChef (CQI version), Canis, Gayle Bradley 2, Ikuchi (CQI version)

[kobold]

Fluted Ti Millie and Native are up there for sure.

[8th_Note]

Police 3