Pocket Clip Sets and Handle Scale Sets : Would it be worth it for Spyderco and would you want them?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

What do you all think about this idea for Spyderco to make available? I notice that people have difference preferences of pocket clips for their knives. What if Spyderco were to offer pre-packaged clip sets, with three or more clips for you the customer to trade off on your knives? What would the main hardships be with such a task and would it be worth it for Spyderco to do this?

Another idea would be Handle Scale Packs, where you can purchase pre-packaged sets of handle scales that you can trade back and forth on your knives.

The main problems I see with it would be:

1 This starts to get too close to the idea of a "Spyderco Custom Shop" .

2 Would it possibly void the warranty because now the customer would be assembling and disassembling components of their knife?

[The Deacon]

At the end of the day, Spyderco is in business to make money. Both of those ideas have been suggested, in one form or another, since at least 2003 when I began visiting this forum. I strongly suspect that, if they have not seen implemented one or both of them by now, it's because they feel there would be none.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

At the end of the day, Spyderco is in business to make money. Both of those ideas have been suggested, in one form or another, since at least 2003 when I began visiting this forum. I strongly suspect that, if they have not seen implemented one or both of them by now, it's because they feel there would be none.

Thank you for pointing this out, Deacon. Then what are the available alternatives for Spyderco customers who desire the above concepts? Either to have aftermarket modifiers adjust the knives, who know what they are doing, or, purchase the other knives with those other clips and scales?

For example: Let's say there is a Spyderco user who wants a Stretch but with a Wire Clip instead of the current pocket clip. What are his or her alternatives to have such a thing?

[TomAiello]

I think the aftermarket is doing a great job on those things, and it makes more sense for them to be done by small aftermarket producers.

[Albatross]

Sal has said before that he prefers to leave those things up to the end users; whether that's aftermarket scales or a swap with another knife. I'm sure it actually helps sales in a way. If someone wants orange scales, they might be more inclined to buy a sprint or exclusive, for a scale swap, instead of gambling with aftermarket scales. I've seen plenty of aftermarket scales that require extra drilling or filing.

[The Deacon]

Thank you for pointing this out, Deacon. Then what are the available alternatives for Spyderco customers who desire the above concepts? Either to have aftermarket modifiers adjust the knives, who know what they are doing, or, purchase the other knives with those other clips and scales?

For example: Let's say there is a Spyderco user who wants a Stretch but with a Wire Clip instead of the current pocket clip. What are his or her alternatives to have such a thing?

And therein lies the rub. If Spyderco offered low rider three screw flat metal clips, folks who prefer wire clips would still complain. Problem is, changing from flat metal to wire isn't just a matter of changing clips you'd have to change scales, liners and, in the case of a knife like the Stretch, backspacers as well. If they offer replacement scales , folks will complain about their selection of colors, materials, finishes, etc. I love Spydercos, but I have particular tastes, so I've paid what I refer to as "the My Way tax" to third party customizers many, many times. :D

[Evil D]

Selling parts encourages disassembly, and even though they may be ok with disassembly now I doubt it's something they want to encourage. Then again they did sell a hardware kit for the Delica/Endura but it also got discontinued which usually suggests poor sales.

[rabbitanarchy14]

What do you all think about this idea for Spyderco to make available? I notice that people have difference preferences of pocket clips for their knives. What if Spyderco were to offer pre-packaged clip sets, with three or more clips for you the customer to trade off on your knives? What would the main hardships be with such a task and would it be worth it for Spyderco to do this?

Another idea would be Handle Scale Packs, where you can purchase pre-packaged sets of handle scales that you can trade back and forth on your knives.

The main problems I see with it would be:

1 This starts to get too close to the idea of a "Spyderco Custom Shop" .

2 Would it possibly void the warranty because now the customer would be assembling and disassembling components of their knife?

benchmade has a custom shop, and as i feel as many others than spyderco is better why cant spyderco make a custom shop for the ppl that drop hundreds if not thousands on their knives all we ask if for different color scales that we can choose. not too hard. clips the same way. wire clip with 2 screws and reg/deep carry clip 2 screws, no more getting stuck with a wire clip on a really nice knife.
the third party/ aftermarket is actually killing me wanting to do this because for some unkown reason they think that there scales are worth almost as much as the whole knife is absolutely absurd, 90$ for scales for a para 3 when a new para 3 is 120$. not even worth bothering with unless spyderco made and sold them at a respectable 50$.

[The Deacon]

benchmade has a custom shop, and as i feel as many others than spyderco is better why cant spyderco make a custom shop

Short simple answer is that Benchmade is considerably larger than Spyderco. Same is true of Buck, which also has a custom shop.

[youmakemehole]

The thing is that a third party would never be able to have the means to push out custom parts as easily as Spyderco. Companies such as these have a minuscule amount of sales volume compared to Spyderco, and are often just one person running everything. With such low throughput there is no reason to invest in tooling or scale any other manufacturing processes. So then there is absolutely no way anyone or any company that could provide parts as available, cheap, AND high quality as Spyderco could make them... its likely a very large difference I'm talking about here. Of all the aftermarket parts I've ordered, I don't believe any of them have ever been as precise as OEM, in the off chance they were, it still means the consistency is dramatically worse. A little bit ironic as most of are made by or at the very least pass thru human hands and eyes. If you want something similar to OEM quality you will be paying absurd prices for high end work, and even then, OEM consistency and availability will never be matched.

Precision is fine for certain parts of knives such as scales for the Delica, this is an example where tight tolerances for the scales don't really affect the utility of the knife too significantly. On something like the PM2 though, it can make a huge difference, a few thousanths of an inch is probably enough to turn perfect action into barely being able to both open/close the knife and also have no slop/play anywhere. I think it would be impractical to offer such an extra for every single model, as even the clips tend to differ between models slightly for the most part, but maybe a combo clip pack for the most popular/adaptable size could be a very safe and feasible idea for Spyderco and at the same time make a lot of loyal customers extremely happy without having to void their warrantee. It might even encourage more knife sales as people desire more knives to utilize their new extra clips . It could maybe come with a polished silver, polished black, matte black, and then maybe something special like that cool metallicy oil-spill black on the Dice or titanium or an understated blue jean blue! I believe the P2/P3/Delica clips are very similar, if not same, or there may be more knives that could use the same size clip. Maybe there could even be sprint runs of one-of-a kind finishes. I think I'm getting a little to ahead of myself here though~~

[anycal]

I have had good luck with third party pocket clips.

I have tried several third party scales for my PM2s, and always reverted back to the :spyder: scales. For me, nothing beats the stock peal ply G10 and CF. I wish Spyderco would sell these.

That said, I realize this would take away from the exclusivity of sprints/exclusives. And probably for other reasons, it will never happen.

Screw kits? Blacked out kits of screws and stand offs? That awesome coated (Golden type, not the Seki painted type) black clip? At minimum, for their Golden models? That should be the 'easiest' to implement. That would be awesome, but I accept that this is also not likely to happen.

[TomAiello]

I have had good luck with third party pocket clips.

I have tried several third party scales for my PM2s, and always reverted back to the :spyder: scales. For me, nothing beats the stock peal ply G10 and CF. I wish Spyderco would sell these.

You can often find the stock parts on eBay, after people swap them out.

[ferider]

I think the aftermarket is doing a great job on those things, and it makes more sense for them to be done by small aftermarket producers.

Agree.

Plus, any kind of factory knife customization would obviously take business away from the limited editions that sometimes sell out in < 15'. More work, less money/ROI for the main business.

[anycal]

You can often find the stock parts on eBay, after people swap them out.

Somehow I doubt I will be able to find a pair in any of these options - CF, gray, or dark green. Especially the gray and CF.

[missouried]

Scales are a lot about what I buy a knife for. I almost always change out the clips on my EDC, except for the Spidies with wire clips. I’ve settled on collecting mostly Para 2 and Manix 2. I may from time to time buy something else in the Spidie line.

Don’t see where clip sets or scale sets would appeal to Spyderco customer set.

[Albatross]

Scales are a lot about what I buy a knife for...

...Don’t see where clip sets or scale sets would appeal to Spyderco customer set.

For someone who may not be able to afford buying a new knife, specifically for the color/blade combo they want, the ability to buy a specific color scale set would be appealing, and more cost effective.

Maybe someone wants an S30V blade, tan scales, and a deep carry clip. Or maybe an S110V blade, CF scales, and a black clip. Sure, Ebay listings for scales pop up every so often, but the interesting, and desirable colors get snatched up quickly. Obviously, where there's a will, there's a way, but convenience has it's appeal.

Sal said Spyderco isn't going to offer these items, but I can't blame them. Look at the forum, everyone wants hyper-specific knives. Sales for these sets would be too low, unless Spyderco only offered 1 or 2 colors per knife, for 5 models or so.

As far as standard clips go, that wouldn't be an issue. Not one I can see. If coated and non-coated clips were offered for purchase, any unsold units could be sent to the factories, to be used on new models as needed. These clips would be handy for replacing lost clips, or swapping to polished or black clips, depending on preference.

Deep carry clips would need to fit the standard pattern for knives like the PM2 or Delica. Military models, Native 5 LW, or others with more unique clips wouldn't make sense to stock deep carry for, since they can't be used on many models.

[foofie]

I would love more scale options. CQI would likely prevent this from happening. For instance, I remember a custom scale maker posting here asking about changes to the native 5? - the contours changed slightly from an older build to the current build. As such, the scales he made fit the original version, but not the current version. This is similar to the discussion on shipping hardware - depending on the specific generation (native 5.0, native 5.1, native 5.2 etc).