Spyderco Forums

IMHO, the Spyderco flagship is the Military, with the Police, Endura, Delica and Native models close behind.

I think the Top three "flagship models" would be Military, Police, Delica

Honorable mention (iconic models) goes to:
Caly (Jr, 3, 3.5)
Manix 2
Stretch
Native

The Deacon wrote:Worker - Sal's first design and Spyderco's first knife
Police - longest in continuous production
C15 Terzuola - Spyderco's first collaboration model
Stretch - my personal choice as Spyderco's best EDC carry design

Out of curiosity Deacon, can you describe what it is about the Stretch that makes it tops on your EDC list?

Thanks,
JD

Ladybugs are definitely iconic models.

What, no Bradley Folder??

Tod

tr4022 wrote:What, no Bradley Folder??

Tod

AS nice as the Bradley is it's just not one of the old school icons unfortunately. My C-60 Ayoob comes a lot closer to being an "ICONIC SPYDER" than many of the newer ones.

I still say don't overlook the Catcherman, Renegade, Blackhawk and Worker models. And you certainly can't overlook any of Spyderco's great Hawkbills and particularly the HARPY that has withstood the test of time. Albeit I don't see any models that are really more iconic than the POLICE, Military or even the Endura for that matter. Those models are still timeless and in demand and probably will be for some time to come. The ones that came out of the gate early are the ones that will always tattoo my memory.

To me, flagship means the best, most-expensive model. Eg, gold-ring lenses for Nikon (red-ring for Canon) would be their flagship lenses. I'm not sure how that translates to Spyderco's knife models. On the other hand, iconic, to me, suggests the models that are most closely associated with the brand. Those would basically be the knives that people not overly familiar with Spyderco could be expected to recognize (as spydercos, if not by name): Police, Military, Endura, Delica, Ladybug ... and I guess the Harpy and Civilian/Matriarch ... maybe the Dragonfly and Native.

shimage wrote:To me, flagship means the best, most-expensive model. Eg, gold-ring lenses for Nikon (red-ring for Canon) would be their flagship lenses. I'm not sure how that translates to Spyderco's knife models. On the other hand, iconic, to me, suggests the models that are most closely associated with the brand. Those would basically be the knives that people not overly familiar with Spyderco could be expected to recognize (as spydercos, if not by name): Police, Military, Endura, Delica, Ladybug ... and I guess the Harpy and Civilian/Matriarch ... maybe the Dragonfly and Native.

I'm not necessarily arguing the point you made because in many ways you did make a couple of good points to consider. But I think what they mean by "ICONIC SPYDER" are the ones that were mainly responsible for putting Spyderco in the mainstream of the market to begin with. The Police, Military and Harpy are all 3 very much time tested.

Now as far as expensive models go the one model I would vote for to be in the ICONIC group would be the elusive and rare Spyderco Titanium ATR model. To me everything on that model just radiates Spyderco's product evolution. I also think to some degree the Dodo and the original fixed blade Temperance really define Spyderco's uniqueness and functionality.

I guess this is one of those deals where it's more or less in the eye of the beholder as to what each person thinks is the ICONIC SPYDER that made them a fan of Spyderco in the first place. But the 2 that immediately attracted me from the beginning of my interest in Spyderco knives was the serrated Police model and the Spyderedged Mariner>> those are truly ICONIC in my opinion and they are what comes to mind when I think of Spyderco's trademark and logo.

I guess the reason I specified "people not overly familiar with Spyderco" is that they outnumbered the rest of us by a significant margin. To the extent that Spyderco can be represented by a set of knives, I think its representation is defined by the knives that the majority of people who know anything about Spyderco associate with the brand. Note that none of the knives I listed are models that made me a fan of the brand; they are just the models that fit my definition of "iconic". I thought about including the mariner, and I probably should have.

shimage wrote:I guess the reason I specified "people not overly familiar with Spyderco" is that they outnumbered the rest of us by a significant margin. To the extent that Spyderco can be represented by a set of knives, I think its representation is defined by the knives that the majority of people who know anything about Spyderco associate with the brand. Note that none of the knives I listed are models that made me a fan of the brand; they are just the models that fit my definition of "iconic". I thought about including the mariner, and I probably should have.

Agreed 100%.

It should be noted that the title of the thread says 'iconic' and the body of the first post says 'flagship'. That's where I think some of the confusion came in. Those two aren't always interchangeable and don't always mean the same thing.

Personally when I think of Spyderco the models that come to mind first are the Delica/Endura...

I'm shocked that no one has said it, C46 Bob Lum tanto. It is the first interpretation of traditional Japanese cutlery that truly bridged the gap between Japanese and American ideals. I look at the blade on it and see clean, precision bevels and feel as if the steel has a spirit. I would empty my savings account for a tamahagane blade with a hamon on a Lum folder!

Dodge wrote:I'm shocked that no one has said it, C46 Bob Lum tanto. It is the first interpretation of traditional Japanese cutlery that truly bridged the gap between Japanese and American ideals. I look at the blade on it and see clean, precision bevels and feel as if the steel has a spirit. I would empty my savings account for a tamahagane blade with a hamon on a Lum folder!

I'm sure that the Lum Tanto was a groundbreaking knife but not very representative of Spyderco as an icon. Just IMHO, of course.

I actually started my Spyderco collection based on what I viewed as the "flagship" or most popular models, I started with the Native, which is gone unfortunatly, I miss that knife about every day then the Tenacious, which I gifted to a friend so I feel good about that one :D now I'm down to these:

the worker was my first.
police
military
paramilitary 2

for me the Military tops them all, after that Endura or Delica.

I think you've just got to focus most of all on the "IN HOUSE" designs. Another IN HOUSE design that comes to mind that really stood out in the "Spyderco Story" book is the Civilian model. That model spawned the Cricket and Matriarch and really gave Spyderco a place on the corner so to speak with those great "Reverse S" designs which I know of no other knife company that does those.

Spyderco's fixed blades that really bare the company's identity are the 2 Temperance models ( 1 & 2)

chuck_roxas45 wrote:I'm sure that the Lum Tanto was a groundbreaking knife but not very representative of Spyderco as an icon. Just IMHO, of course.

I could be wrong on this, but The folding Lum tanto was made in 1997/98 ish. Could this be the first venture into ethnic interpretive cutlery for Spyderco? If this where the case then it is indeed iconic as Spyderco is known for its experimentation with steels and cultural designs.

Endura, Delica, PM2, Manix, Tenacious, Police