Shaman SPY27 nearly protruding tip

[Wallach]

There seems to be more knives from Golden missing good QC these days?
The recent threads here of the Native salt and 15v para 3 are just two examples.

The Shaman in particular is an expensive knife and perhaps a higher standard of care before it reaches the customer could be applied?

The old an often used adage of “but we’re getting high end steel at a low cost” starts to wear thin after yet another is released from the factory with sub-par QC.

Anyway, I hope it gets sorted. Both the Shaman and the other problems coming out of Golden.

I ran into this problem on my Manix 2 also. Today I also got in a Sage 5 Salt that looks like this:



It's barely enough to keep it safe when closed right now, which means I basically can't sharpen the knife maybe once before it's unsafe to carry. And this is from Taichung.

[sovereign]

@Wallach I have 6 Sage 5, including that SALT. None look like that.

[Wallach]

@Wallach I have 6 Sage 5, including that SALT. None look like that.

Yeah, I don't recall my SPY27 Sage 5 LW having such a shallow seat either.

[Guts]

I had the issue from the factory with my 15V Shaman which I addressed myself by removing material from the spine at the tip, and most recently my Centofante 3 Cruwear exclusive that I got a couple weeks ago also has a tip very close to the handle. I don't have the FRN Centofante to compare if that's a normal thing for the model though.

I'll probably take some material off the spine on the Centofante as well next time I sharpen it, but I wish I didn't have to. One of the things I like about the PM2 and similar is the handle is thicker at the bottom and the blade tip rests deep in the handle so this issue is essentially non-existent.

[Flash]

There seems to be more knives from Golden missing good QC these days?
The recent threads here of the Native salt and 15v para 3 are just two examples.

The Shaman in particular is an expensive knife and perhaps a higher standard of care before it reaches the customer could be applied?

The old an often used adage of “but we’re getting high end steel at a low cost” starts to wear thin after yet another is released from the factory with sub-par QC.

Anyway, I hope it gets sorted. Both the Shaman and the other problems coming out of Golden.

I ran into this problem on my Manix 2 also. Today I also got in a Sage 5 Salt that looks like this:



It's barely enough to keep it safe when closed right now, which means I basically can't sharpen the knife maybe once before it's unsafe to carry. And this is from Taichung.

Oh no not Taichung too!?

It must be spreading? First there was Maniago with its poor jimping and finishing, then to Seki with copious lock rock, blade play and wildly ground edges. Then onto Golden with the aforementioned problems… and now our beloved Taichung!? (…and no one particularly cares about The China knives, so not even worth a mention.)

I thought if ever there was a factory that could turn out a consistently well done knife, it was Taichung… The last bastion of constantly well-executed, expertly assured Spyderco knives - now gone. RIP Taichung.
Another Spyderco factory with sub-adequate quality control. Please nip this nonsense in bud Spyderco.

[Mat_ski]

I had the issue from the factory with my 15V Shaman which I addressed myself by removing material from the spine at the tip, and most recently my Centofante 3 Cruwear exclusive that I got a couple weeks ago also has a tip very close to the handle. I don't have the FRN Centofante to compare if that's a normal thing for the model though.

I'll probably take some material off the spine on the Centofante as well next time I sharpen it, but I wish I didn't have to. One of the things I like about the PM2 and similar is the handle is thicker at the bottom and the blade tip rests deep in the handle so this issue is essentially non-existent.

I recently bought a centofante frn that looks just like this. I was not sure if it is normal. I’ll post a pic in the evening.

[WilliamMunny]

I wanted to share my Shaman XHP micarta. The tip does not protrude but it’s close. I would say it sits about 1/8” under the scales, you can just see the start of the edge grind when closed.

No issue right now but as others have said a bit of sharpening and it might become an issue. Sorry for the poor picture, still working with an iPhone 13 that does poor macros.

[ejames13]

I checked the DLC Shaman display model the other day at Smokey Mountain Knife Works, and it had the same issue.

[horzuff]

I wanted to share my Shaman XHP micarta. The tip does not protrude but it’s close. I would say it sits about 1/8” under the scales, you can just see the start of the edge grind when closed.

No issue right now but as others have said a bit of sharpening and it might become an issue. Sorry for the poor picture, still working with an iPhone 13 that does poor macros.

IMG_6718.jpeg

Not a comment on the issue but a tip for closeup photos - hold the knife at similar depth to the object You want to capture so that You cover up the background (as much as possible) and the camera pulls focus at the correct distance. The pic quality is good but the focus is on fingers in the background :)

[Guts]

I wanted to share my Shaman XHP micarta. The tip does not protrude but it’s close. I would say it sits about 1/8” under the scales, you can just see the start of the edge grind when closed.

No issue right now but as others have said a bit of sharpening and it might become an issue. Sorry for the poor picture, still working with an iPhone 13 that does poor macros.

IMG_6718.jpeg

Not a comment on the issue but a tip for closeup photos - hold the knife at similar depth to the object You want to capture so that You cover up the background (as much as possible) and the camera pulls focus at the correct distance. The pic quality is good but the focus is on fingers in the background :)

Just another tip to add, but you can tap on the screen to manually focus on a certain area within the viewfinder as well. Make sure the little "flower" icon is enabled to confirm it's in Macro mode. Then just give it a second or two after tapping to focus and you should see the subject become clearer in the viewfinder. If it won't focus, you just have to readjust the distance/framing/angle a bit and try again. Lighting is more important than anything before all that though.

[Jeb]

I know I have shared this before here but, in case you missed it, this knife point sticking out of the grip a little when folded is an easy fix fellows.

All you need to do is hone this area on most of our Spyderco knifes. I have this pointed out in a pic. I doesn't take much either. Your up close to the Axle point, so a little goes a long way.

Little time and effort on your hone and check as you proceed and you can drop the point down within the knife grip as it should be.

[ejames13]

That's a good tip. However, not something I want to have to do on a brand new knife.

[horzuff]

I know I have shared this before here but, in case you missed it, this knife point sticking out of the grip a little when folded is an easy fix fellows.

All you need to do is hone this area on most of our Spyderco knifes. I have this pointed out in a pic. I doesn't take much either. Your up close to the Axle point, so a little goes a long way.

Little time and effort on your hone and check as you proceed and you can drop the point down within the knife grip as it should be.

But the Shaman doesn't use the nub as a blade stop, so that wouldn't help hide the blade in the handles deeper

[Jeb]

Well the principle is the same, it does have a blade stop of some area around this same area, and it will not take much honing to drop the point into the grip of the knife.

If not you, someone will fit the blade the same way for you, or you live with the tip like it is. Personally it's way to easy for me to fix that sort of small adjustment myself.

Otherwise if I was you, then send it to Spyderco for them to adjust this for you. It will take them longer to do their paperwork on this, than it will take to adjust your knife.

[horzuff]

With detent ball/hole based locks changing the depth to which the blade closes might make the detent ball become misaligned with the detent hole which could lead to detent lash or lack of detent, I wouldn't risk it personally

[Jeb]

I don't have a Shaman but even with the detent, I just bet this knife has a hard stop point on the blade, I would be checking mine and I would be surprised if it was different than the pic I tacked up above.

The knife looks just like the others I do have some of and they all do this and the same place. That's just me though, I like to adjust my own stuff as opposed to sending it off.

[SpeedHoles]

I don't have a Shaman but even with the detent, I just bet this knife has a hard stop point on the blade, I would be checking mine and I would be surprised if it was different than the pic I tacked up above.

The knife looks just like the others I do have some of and they all do this and the same place. That's just me though, I like to adjust my own stuff as opposed to sending it off.

The Shaman contacts the stop pin at a point on the blade behind the finger choil.

But what horzuff is explaining is that the detent position is what keeps the knife closed, it is a predetermined spot, and matches the factory determined stop point. If you grind the stop to be a different location deeper inwards, then you'll just have slop back and forth as the blade clicks back and forth between the detent and the altered stop point. It won't hold the blade tip any deeper into the handle...

[Guts]

With detent ball/hole based locks changing the depth to which the blade closes might make the detent ball become misaligned with the detent hole which could lead to detent lash or lack of detent, I wouldn't risk it personally

Yep, was going to post the exact same thing. It technically would fix the protruding tip problem, but as you mentioned it'll just introduce a new problem with detent lash or lack of detent. I had a separate problem on a few knives where the detent ball wasn't fully engaging so the detent force was very weak and unsafe imo. I removed a tiny amount of material where the stop pin interfaces with the tang of the blade to fix that issue. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless you know what you're doing because we're talking thousandths of an inch too much removed and you'll get detent lash. I just happened to have prior experience hand fitting small metal parts so this wasn't a problem for me.

It's also very time consuming because at least with the PM2 and similar for example, you can't fit a stone in between the scales to access the tang, which means you need to disassemble every time. Definitely easier to do on a Manix since you don't have to disassemble it at all.

Here's the area in question on a Shaman. You can see what I mean about having to disassemble it every time to even get access to that area. Should be reiterated, but I don't recommend removing material here just to fix the tip position.


Here's a PM2 I removed material to fix the detent engagement. I did fix the detent engagement, but did introduce an almost unnoticeable hint of detent lash because I started to get impatient after maybe the 10-15th disassembly/reassembly and removed a hint too much. Only noticeable if you very very slow roll the knife open, but at least the detent force is much stronger now since the ball fully engages the detent hole. It was a seconds model and a user so whatever.


Here's the detent ball track of the same PM2 and hopefully it illustrates why it's possible to get detent lash after removing too much material from the area in the photos above. Liner locks work the same way. The detent ball hole on the blade is generally much larger than the actual detent ball, so removing more material than necessary means the detent ball can travel too far back and essentially have free movement (the "lash"). In normal operation the detent ball should be fully seated, yet kissing the edge of the detent hole so there shouldn't be any play.



All that said, I'd just recommend removing material from the spine to fix the protruding tip personally. Not the best looking fix but at least then one won't run the risk of any potential functional issues afterwards.

[cabfrank]

So much more than meets the eye for these types of things. I don't doubt it can be remedied without much effort, but I also agree that one shouldn't have to on this grade of knife. I'd send mine back if I got one like that.

[Skylark427]

I'm relatively new to this community, and Spyderco as a whole, but I was very impressed with my 15V Shaman.
I am however not new to knives, and have been a member on reddit for quite a while, part of its knife community.
My specific Shaman does not have this issue, but someone recently shared theirs, also the SPY27 model, and many people commented that this specific one has this issue. One person said they had to switch to tip down carry because the factory edge was pointing out enough to poke him if he grabbed it from his pocket wrong, another user said he bought 6 Shamans, and 5 out of them were like this, 3 being the SPY27 varient. There's close to a dozen people saying the same issue, primarily on the SPY27 Shaman.

Is there something done differently with this specific model? I've compared pictures of mine with the factory G10 scales against other's pictures with the G10 scales, and it's almost as if the blade is tilted 2-4° more "up" as their finger hole is completely visible, while mine is slightly hidden.

Was something changed with this model? I thought it was excessive grinding of the main bevel at first but looking at all the pictures it appears more than that. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link the thread or not, but there's a bunch of good comparison pictures in it that show the difference.