Hey guys, I guess I’ll offer my 2 cents since everybody else is doing it, haha.
First of all, I chose to stay on the sidelines of this discussion from the beginning. I did so because I thought it was most appropriate to let Spyderco handle this with their customers as they see fit without me inserting myself in the middle and I remain confident that they will resolve this to everyone’s best interest.
Given that the conversation has turned to the safety of the existing lock though, I thought I would give my input as a hard user of the knife. I am certainly biased about certain characteristics of this design but this performance input is completely unbiased and is no different than what I would give for any model.
This is my current Spyderco Siren.
It is over a year old and has a LOT of miles on it. I take this knife in the ocean everyday on my kayak and it does all of the daily work a saltwater fisherman encounters. In addition, I use this knife to clean almost every fish I catch…some of them are on the “largish” side and many are species with heavy scales and bones. Today’s catch was this Cubera Snapper…I get quite a few of these and they are heavy boned, heavy scaled and rough on a knife.
I use the Siren on these because it is small and compact enough to carry in my waistband but still capable enough to dismantle big fish. I like to clean these guys at the beach when I get in because I have friends who take the heads and carcass to make soup from. It also keeps me from having to drag out cleaning gear and table at the house.
I probably clean four or five fish like that a week. Hands are slippery, lock bar and blade are soaked with saltwater, blood and slippery fish goo. I use the knife in multiple grips including hammer, edge out and choked up. Some of the cuts (like behind the gill) require a good deal of downward force to cut through rib bones. Other cuts are “semi blind” like when I have my hand up under a big fillet popping over the last few vertebrae. I would say that my use is fairly likely to expose any safety issues in a folding knife or its lock. I have been aware of the lock pop issue for the last year but I have experienced zero issues that lead me to believe that it is a safety issue for any of the work I do. I continue to use my knife everyday and it functions great at what I use it for and I give exactly zero worry to the lock failing in a way that could put my fingers in danger. I think if this lock presented a a safety issue, I would already be missing some fingers.
That doesn’t mean I don’t notice the lock pop on mine (I do). It doesn’t meant that I like it when I feel the blade move on heavy downward cuts (I don’t). It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be happier with a Siren that locked up as solid as a Native or a Chief (I would). It just means that I beat mine like a rented mule day after day after day and it has not presented any safety issues and I don’t expect it to.
Nobody would like a quick and perfect resolution to this issue more than I would but there is nothing to do at this point but be patient. The Golden facility was already struggling to keep up with demand before this “pandemic” hit and now I can only imagine. I will continue to put my confidence in Sal, Eric and Spyderco to get us all some flawless Sirens as soon as is possible under the current circumstances so that we can all get busy having some big adventures. All I’m saying is I haven’t put any adventures on hold because of this annoyance and I don’t see any “safety” reason for anyone else to either. Thank you everyone for your support of the design and your patience.
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