Spyderco Forums

Hi all, I'm new here. Although a lurker for a while, and contributor on other boards I've never created a profile here before. I wanted to post some thoughts on what Spyderco has done for my knife use, collecting, buying and selling.

I have had just about every folder imaginable, from cheap chinese Kershaw's from the 2000's to high end folders like CRKs, etc. Recently I have had an epiphany of very directed, use specific needs. Instead of having 20 knives including fixed blades, slipjoints, folders etc, I've moved to a philosophy of one knife for each need (one large folder, one small, one fixed, etc.) Inevitably I'll end up in the same position as before by justifying a *different* need for a small folder but I digress.

I recently have gone down more of a Spyderco rabbit hole after having my last one in about 2009-10 with a standard Delica. And holy cow, what have I been doing these years I think to myself.

I have sold off all of my large CRKs, and recently gotten a Shaman in. This thing feels just as solid, locks up better, and is the same use case knife for less than half the price. It's incredible to me, and this provides so much value and quality it's unbelievable.

I'm also a huge fan of Taichung made knives after having a few come through the last several months and finally settled on the Spydiechef (see what I mean - a *different* use large folder ) which I think offers something utterly unique and extraordinarily high quality.

Just wanted to drop a hello post and offer my enthusiastic thoughts for Spydies in general. Thanks all!

Hi SnackPack,

Welcome to our forum. Hope you enjoy your time spent here.

sal

Tough to follow a welcome from The Man himself, but…

Welcome to the forum!

Jim

Welcome SnackPack.

In my opinion, no one makes a better user-centric pocket knife than Sal Glesser. You can see his passion in the user-side of things with his most prolific designs. Eric is doing great things as well.

I sometimes carry a "fancy" slip joint because I have some that make me very happy for various reasons. But it's a little here and there and then a Spydie is right back in my pocket. And there has been a simple, standard BD1 M2LW sitting on the table beside my chair for years that is my "chore" knife. From cardboard to tree branches, that knife has cut a lot of it. It is all scratched and marred from thinning the primary grind but it just keeps right on going.

Value is a funny thing. You don't have to look far on the internet to find debates about value in the knife world, especially with say, the Spydie back locks. Sure, the price has increased on them and people will start pointing at fancy, inexpensive Chinese offerings, and that discussion aside, if you think about a Delica or an Endura as a one-knife solution, there is a ton of value in it. We knife nuts will scoff at prices largely because we want to own a whole bunch of knives with most of them just sitting around.

But a person could easily buy one, two, or even three Spydies and be set for many, many years. That's value as far as I'm concerned.

Your thoughts on the Shaman vs CRK were the same as mine when I got my PM2. I loved my Umnumzaan, but haven't bought anything other than Spydercos since.

cabfrank wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 30, 2021 4:45 pm

Your thoughts on the Shaman vs CRK were the same as mine when I got my PM2. I loved my Umnumzaan, but haven't bought anything other than Spydercos since.

Same here, the umnumzaan is excellent but ostensibly I can’t justify that after handling the shaman.

The shaman is great. Its kind of the ultimate evolution of the hand spear. At least thats what it always looks like to my eyes, a hand spear. Ergos are great, super hard use knife, its just good.

Welcome SnackPack! Unfortunately, I discovered Spyderco late and missed out on many years of having one in my pocket. I spent most my life having only one knife at a time with backups scattered about. Now I spend a few minutes each morning trying to decide which model will suit the day best. It's a really great problem to have.

I'm glad you rediscovered Spyderco, and enjoy your time on the forum. I know I have, and there are so many members willing and able to help!

Welcome to the forum!

Since you like the Shaman so much, perhaps it is of interest to you that Sal said he'd be working on a choil-less and a (FRN?) lightweight version with a high hollow grind... perhaps you'll manage to define a "need" for one of these when they'll come our...

I started off very firmly of a "I only need one knife" mentality. I am NOT a knife collector, I didn't find myself in this hobby with the intention of having every variant of a particular model, etc. But, over the years I've fallen victim to that "ok, I'll just buy one for each different need or situation" mentality, which has basically resulted in owning about 60 or so Spydercos.

What I've realized in the last few years is that (*for me*) all of that is nonsense, and it's just a method of justifying purchases to myself, because the right model/design can do everything I need of a knife in almost every situation, or so much so that I only realistically need maybe two knives at the most (and I'm not talking about kitchen knives here, just pocket knives or "hobby knives"). I think I could get by with one darn near perfect folder and one equally perfect fixed blade. There is such a combo out there for me and at this point a lot of my purchases are just feeling out what that combo is going to look like. The funny part is how I keep buying and building the "collection" all despite my best efforts to keep it small. The best part though is that I'm finding that I do keep circling around to the same models year after year, and my sample size is always getting bigger and more diverse and of better quality so it says a lot about what I keep coming back to.

David, I started with something similar. I had a knife I pocketed for several years. I wanted something lighter and easy to open and found Spyderco. Now I have purchased more in the last few years than the previous years of my life in total. I mostly buy knives I am going to use which could mean I only need a couple, but man I enjoy finding the next good user and trying it out.

Hello & welcome!

What they said…

Interesting thread. Too bad I’m on my phone, but I’ll give it a shot.
I identify with so much about what has been said already.
I was a one (small) fixed blade for everything (I considered knife tasks) for most of my adult life. For borderline cases and everything beyond there was multi tools. Dedicated folding knives didn’t exist in my world until 2016.
Even after discovering the world of folding knives, I was intrigued by all the options out there, yet reserved with regards to how they could serve me in a useful way.

After a very slow start trying to find ONE EDC folder that worked for me, I got sucked into the rotation concept. The accumulation started, but the focus was much more on appearance and what’s hot than what actually worked for me. I also dabbled a bit with the idea of a mini collection that should represent the common variables like lock type, materials, blade shapes as well as some of the classic designs.

At some point I realized that I had a drawer filled with knives, but whenever I was heading out to do knife related activities/chores, I was scratching my head to find anything suitable.
This realization changed my focus slightly.
The next evolution came through a slight shift in YouTube watching habits, that skewed more towards watching hard working knife enthusiasts like Farmer E. I realized that while I definitely had moved in a direction of more useful designs, there was too much identity/fashion aspects baked into my choices, so from there I switched to more of a pure tool mentality.

I’ve definitely evolved to a more functional and reasonable mode of acquiring knives, and always with the famous and not very effective use case barrier to justify new knives, but I of course still have a hard time avoiding accumulation.
It’s weird. I really like simplicity. I would probably be just as satisfied, maybe even more so, if I managed to limit my selection to just couple of highly functional and complementary knives.
I see this with other hobbies as well, so it’s definitively a personality trait, and it probably boils down to something as unflattering as uncertainty/compensation. Not sure how that works out with knives, but either way I’ve been more aware of this possibility lately and as a result I’m more actively trying to reduce the size of my collection of users.

I don’t want to touch the value equation of each specific knife, it’s so complex and subjective, but on a collection level it’s my (learned the hard way) belief that a few well chosen users are better value than a bunch of too nice/special/rare/expensive to use drawer fillers.

Welcome! I haven’t been knife-buying as much lately, but I want to get a Taichung model next.

I've also cut back on my Spyderco purchases over the last few years. I ordered a Gayle Bradley 2 recently. I've wanted one for awhile but they were always sold out. Dealers finally got a new run in and it was buy now or wait to pay more with the 2022 price increase.

Dear SnackPack:

Welcome to the Spyderco Forum.

Stay safe,

Mike

Wartstein wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 31, 2021 12:04 am

Welcome to the forum!

Since you like the Shaman so much, perhaps it is of interest to you that Sal said he'd be working on a choil-less and a (FRN?) lightweight version with a high hollow grind... perhaps you'll manage to define a "need" for one of these when they'll come our...

I know the message wasn't addressed to me but it feels like it was Made for me !
I love the native line (I know, you know ). Though, I couldn't bring myself to buy the Shaman cause I don't need that beefy of a blade (I have moras and other fixed blades if I want to have fun).

Same lines but different cutting performance is something I'd be easily into, even more in FRN !

Welcome to the forums! Great first post!

Shaman and Spyderchef are hard to beat.

May I also recommend the Hawkbill Dragonfly for a Small Knife. Zipties, opening boxes, cutting string, rope, etc. It's small serrated and hawkbill shaped, making it a justifiable special use case.

Thanks for all the great responses all, I very much appreciate it! Looking forward to fun conversations here.