Griptilian program on our D4/E4

[zinczinc]

Wont that be awesome?

you can pick your own color
possible handle material

actually, I wish spyderco can be a "DEll" in knife business.

[yablanowitz]

I don't know what you're talking about, but the idea of a "Spyderco Custom Shop" has been discussed many times. Don't hold your breath. The reasons against it are solid. Of course, you can probably overcome them with an anonymous donation in the $50,000,000 range.

[Blerv]

They frequently come out with crazy sprints. That doesn't even take into account the 10 or so versions that are normal production.

I wouldn't fight the idea but variety is seldom a problem :) .

[Buendia518]

As far as I can tell the griptilians just come in a lot of different varieties, scale color options, black bladed or satin, combo edge or plain, and with a few steels to choose.
It seems to me that Spyderco;s D4 and E4 offerings are themselves pretty diverse, but yes if you pick zdp you're stuck with racing green, or super blue in grey. But Vg10 has many to choose from and you could easily grab a saber grind, I think on second hand market only but they're afforable and available.

I'm not sure what the real difference is. Would Benchmade be assembling these after the order is taken? Otherwise it seems comparable but I could be missing something.
It woud be really cool to do this on some upper end models like that yellow Military that's been discussed, or a cross pattern green Caly 3.5. If scales were the only variable it might actually be a little simpler than that 50 million yablanowitz suggested :) , but still not gonna happen.

[GoodEyeSniper]

bm does a custom shop with their grips. choose handle color, three blade profiles, combo or plain edge, clip style/finish, etc...

[GoodEyeSniper]

oh, and last time I checked you can get two Delicas and a six pack of craft beer for the same price as a "custom" grip.

[Buendia518]

bm does a custom shop with their grips. choose handle color, three blade profiles, combo or plain edge, clip style/finish, etc...

I see they are adding a few variables to the mix. It still doesn't interest me because of the handle and the conspicuous lack of proper grip (in my case).
The craft beer would help too pull me toward the Delica.

[Cheddarnut]

Imo the custom grips are benchmades reply to all the spyderco options. No doubt they saw people selling white ladybugs on the bay for 200$ and thought "s@it, how can we capitalize on the freaks that would pay X amount more for the exact same thing but in aquamarine"
That said that lime green was realllly calling my name. Minis are to small and full size grips feel cheap, so my buisness remains here.

[The Deacon]

I don't see much chance of it happening. As others have noted, Sal has always expressed a lack of interest in creating a "custom shop", citing lack of both space and manpower as the reasons. Even if the expansion of the Golden plant changed his position on that were to change, the logical choices for a "build to order" model would be one of the models that are made in Golden. Doing it with a knife made anywhere overseas would be considerably more problematic.

[Buendia518]

I also think personalization would make sprint runs less special and unique.

[Blerv]

The Endura/Delica is available in:
* black and a number of ffg pastel offerings
* saber ground normal (including foliage green)
* saber ground wave
* ZDP ffg
* superblue sprint
* Salt versions which are quite similar
* Matriarch versions (including one wave)
* Rescue versions

I like the idea of custom, I love modded cars :D . The number of variants at the moment though is staggering. Some steels you don't find anywhere else let alone for $75. With a torx driver you can frankenspider further or even pay someone for modding.

[Evil D]

Just buy the Delica with the blade type you want and order some custom scales. There are several people making very high quality scales for them these days in whatever color you want.

[ASmitty]

I collect Spyderco Delicas. When I see an old variant that I don't have up for sale on eBay I jump on it. Same thing happens when a new variant comes out. Speaking as someone who is dedicated to solely collecting that model, I am against a Custom Shop for Delicas (I'm ambivalent about the idea if it were dedicated to a different model). A Delica custom shop would just add too much variability into the Delica market for my tastes and would also make it a lot of work to discern between customs, franken-Delicas using parts from customs, and the real thing. As others said above, it would rain on the Sprint Run parade, and I love the Delica sprints.

[hiredgun]

That said that lime green was realllly calling my name. Minis are to small and full size grips feel cheap, so my buisness remains here.

Calls my name too Cheddarnut. Lime green fan here as you may know. I once had a purple grip but I gave it to a friend who wanted it more than I did. I liked it, but that was the last Benchmade I had in my collection. I'm a Spyderco man through and through, dyed in the wool, true blue, however, Spyderco has yet to satisfy my desire for lime green scales in some of their regular line up. One day I'll get my wish right Sal?

Wouldn't a Spyderco knife be a hit if it had this color? =>

[GoodEyeSniper]

I don't see how it takes away from those who like their sprint models. does it change what you have? not at all. I can only imagine it taking away from sprint flippers, but they can all rot anyways IMO. and I can sort of understand it affecting people with hard core collections, but it's once again just a mental thing for that tiny handful of people to get over. spyderco knives IMO should ALWAYS cater to the user, not the collector. an easy solution would be a custom shop stamp on both the blade and scales, so collectors would know.

that said, I have no interest in a custom Delica, or any other spyderco really. all my spyderco knives are black, except for the one that's half black, half ti :P

and I also agree it will probably never happen, I would much rather Sal keep his energy in other places.

[twinboysdad]

another difference to consider is the Oregon vs Seki logistics costs. I asked this question on the USN a few years ago after playing with a bunch mini grip configurations but now I see why it would not work.

[Fresh Eddie Fresh]

I would imagine it is a logistical nightmare to do that. I am amazed sneaker companies do it as well.

I think a lot of people have done what I do and design a super cool custom Griptillian, and then look at the price and go buy something else (or two stock Griptillians.)

[ASmitty]

spyderco knives IMO should ALWAYS cater to the user, not the collector.

While Spyderco, IMO, nearly universally puts functionality above looks in their product design, they certainly have catered to both groups in the past and will continue to do so in the future. However, creating a "custom shop" within a knife company such as Buck and Benchmade (and probably others) have done almost certainly caters to the collector far more than the user. The consumer who looks to buy a knife as simply a user generally doesn't have a strong opinion on blade steel, handle color, clip style, etc. All of us here certainly have opinions on those options of our knives, but I wouldn't call anyone here merely a knife user. I've heard many members here over the years proclaim that they won't own any knives they don't use and carry, and most of those users have preferences on all of the design factors mentioned above. But, all of these individuals own a wide assortment of knives that they rotate in and out of the EDC role on a periodic basis. To me, that level of refinement in their EDC choice and the multiple options they retain makes them collectors and not users. In my opinion, a collection does not need to sit pristine on a shelf to be worthy of the name. I have a large collection of DVDs and Blu-rays in which I take a lot of pride. They don't sit idly on the shelf in their shrink wrap, I watch them (some of them many, many times).

This point is, if Spyderco ALWAY and ONLY catered to the "user," they'd only need to make 5-10 models tops. Sprint runs, exotic blade steels, and interesting handle materials are the high-end touches that appeal the collectors in all of us here whether we choose to put our collection to use or display it on a shelf.

[TomAiello]

I like the BM custom shop options.

I like my Spyderco knives.

I think it's great to have choices, and even better when I can take advantage of them.

Spyderco sprints, BM customs...two good companies making good knives...what's not to like?

[noddy]

rather fancy a grip with one black scale and one white ... very Ska :)