Spyderco Forums

The Swick looks nice. But I prefer satin finish.

sal wrote: I'm not opposed to tumbling as long as the blade is full flat grind, no grindlines. It's very difficult to achieve sharp grindlines and tumbling just softens them. Frank Centofante tumbled a Military blade for me. I've had the blade on my desk for 10 years. Frank doesn't remember how he did it and 3 companies have tried, but could not duplicate the finish.

I understand this. One doesn't see so much properly done grinds to allow himself to spoil the good ones.

Do you have any picture of the Military? I'd love to see it.
3 companies failed to reproduce it :eek: . It must be really interesting.

P.S.: It's half past midnight :eek: , good night everyone, see you tommorow.

Is a black-coated blade all that expensive or difficult--thus "quality"? What does it do to accenuate grind lines? My stance is purely utilitarian--I like the look of steel, actually spend a lot of time just staring at the blades of some knives (much like you might a campfire)... but I do not care much for a shiny blade, and like a black blade even less.

Coatings vary from cheap to expensive depending on the coating.

The purpose of the coating also varies from corrosion resistance to glare removal.

We try to use DLC where possible. It is the most expensive coating we've found, but generally holds up the best and serves to be both corrosion resitant and reduce glare.

sal

sal wrote:Has the arts and crafts part been eliminated? Is the definition of quality changing?

It is just my opinion, so don't flame me, but I believe that quality comes from skill and effort. The greater the skill, the better the quality.

An ever decreasing number of people in our parts of the world has knowledge about how to make things, of craftmanship.
So the idea of what is quality may indeed be changing.
Not knowing or understanding doesn't keep people from having an idea of what a quality knife is.
It may just not be the same idea.

Skill and effort, yes I like to see it that way too.
But is quality what you put into it or is it the outcome.
Is a hand-filed blade of higher quality then one lasered and ground with CNC technology.
The latter one is likely to be of closer tolerences but has little to admire about.

Piet.S wrote:
An ever decreasing number of people in our parts of the world has knowledge about how to make things, of craftmanship.
So the idea of what is quality may indeed be changing.
Not knowing or understanding doesn't keep people from having an idea of what a quality knife is.
It may just not be the same idea.

Skill and effort, yes I like to see it that way too.
But is quality what you put into it or is it the outcome.
Is a hand-filed blade of higher quality then one lasered and ground with CNC technology.
The latter one is likely to be of closer tolerences but has little to admire about.

Hi Piet.S,

That is exactly the conversation that Eric and I have daily.

sal

I just would like to add my 2 cents for just a minute....I voted for Stonewashed blade...because....kydex sheath scuff marks don't occur on the blade when this type of finish is used...I can't tell you how upset I get when knives like the Kumo and Ronin get all marred up...not from use...but from insertion and drawing these knives from Kydex sheaths...I think the stonewashed blade would make a nice addition to the spyderco line...specially if the blade bevel was made with a satin finish giving it a two-tone effect...would make the knife look gorgeous, so I really vote for the combination of the two finishes together....Doc :D