Spyderco Forums

The tenacious is my normal value line knife that I give as gifts. It’s a good gateway into the Spyderco world. But up until this past week, I had never owned a value line Spyderco myself.

My wife bought be the Astute, and I’m blown away by the quality for the price. So far anyone I’ve shown it to that isn’t a Spyderco person, has thought it to be a much more expensive knife.

It’s hard to believe they can pack an edge that is as long as the PM2 into a handle smaller than the delica.

I polished the G10 on mine, as well as smoothed over the liner lock bar a little. I’m loving it, and it makes a really nice dress knife, for very little money.

I know the tenacious gets a lot of love, but there are a lot more value series knives out there that don’t get a lot of publicity. Thought it might be neat to have some pictures and thoughts on your favorites. Maybe some mods as well. So what are your favorite value knives, and why?

And a few pics:







PM2 and delica comparison:

The Astute looks incredible. My surprise value line has been the Polestar. It has morphed into my go to outdoor folder. Edge all the way to the handle. Great linerlock and just a bit more edge than the PM2. Great designs by the man himself.

i have an astute and a resilience. they're both wonderful knives. i really need to get that s35vn resilience, but other knives keep cutting in line.

JSumm wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 28, 2022 1:21 pm

The Astute looks incredible. My surprise value line has been the Polestar. It has morphed into my go to outdoor folder. Edge all the way to the handle. Great linerlock and just a bit more edge than the PM2. Great designs by the man himself.

I’m gonna have to order a Polestar before too long. Want to make sure it’s the new gray color before I order. It looks great and I’d like to try out BD1N.

ladybug93 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 28, 2022 1:40 pm

i have an astute and a resilience. they're both wonderful knives. i really need to get that s35vn resilience, but other knives keep cutting in line.

I have been back and forth on the resilience. I like the blue on the s35vn, but the price of the 8cr makes me hesitate. So I haven’t ever gotten either

Sometimes options can be a bad thing for me.

Looking at the Polestar pic again makes me wonder if that is close to how the leaf jumper would look. The handle kinda has that Rockjumper shape.

Ranger_Ike wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 28, 2022 2:03 pm

Looking at the Polestar pic again makes me wonder if that is close to how the leaf jumper would look. The handle kinda has that Rockjumper shape.

Funny you should ask. I posted this on another thread saying it was probably close to the leaf Jumper.

I have a RockJumper and 2 Polestars and yes they feel almost the same. The Leafjumper will be as close to a backlock Polestar as you can get.

Resilience is it for me.



I slept on this model for a while, not expecting it to beat out my Military, Police etc. for carry. But it does exactly that.

I love not having a choil. More cutting edge and less snag points.

Big fan of the tall blade paired with full flat grind. Does a lot better than my Pacific Salts in certain materials.

This isn't my favorite value Spyderco. It's my favorite Spyderco in general.

I carry this one or my FRN Resilience just about every day.

The ergonomics fit my hand exceptionally well.

Personally 8Cr works just fine for me. I don't plan to get the S35VN version at the moment. I'm going to order another blacked out FRN and do another scale swap. Planning to do it with PE this time.

I'm also a big fan of the Cara Caras. I gift them in CE often.

I really enjoy my Bow River.
It’s been great in the kitchen.

I don't think that it's officially in the value line but I love the Cat. For my tastes and needs I can't think of a better value in the Spyderco line up at any price point.

First off how did you polish those scales? That looks amazing!

About the value line there are a few in my collection. Those are my work carry’s and i use them very hard. Scratches,chips, once or twice even a broken tip are what they go true.
And they take it very well and i love them for it.
Then when i get home they can rest and my Manixes can take over.

My last purchase was a secondhand Resilience. Now its far to big for work but at home he seems like a magnificent addition to my collection.

I can only hope Spyderco can keep on growing the value line even more.
They are to important in the line up.

I only have the Polestar, the UpTern, and the Tenacious LW. I guess the Cat is part of the value line up as well. My favorites are the Polestar and the Cat.

Having a value line is important, but focusing on it can become a race to the bottom.

BLUETYPEII wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 28, 2022 3:09 pm

I really enjoy my Bow River.
It’s been great in the kitchen.

I've been thinking about getting another one to try out for work. Wish they sharpened the full edge on em.

vivi wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 28, 2022 4:32 pm

BLUETYPEII wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 28, 2022 3:09 pm

I really enjoy my Bow River.
It’s been great in the kitchen.

I've been thinking about getting another one to try out for work. Wish they sharpened the full edge on em.

That’s a very easy fix, I did it to mine

But you gotta be careful… I also know why they didn’t!

Hoping to see more fixed blades in the value line. A value line Swick (coated and sans handle scales to keep cost down?) would be awesome! Definitely more interested in fixed blades right now.

It's getting really hard to justify my knife purchases outside of the value line. Splurged on the M4 Dodo this year (love this knife!), but I might be done with the higher end knives for a while.

I've been getting reacquainted with the Resilience for the past few weeks, thanks to Vivi posting about his. It's well made and is a great design. Now I'm considering an Ambitious or something from the Efficient family.

I used to own the Polestar, Alcyone, Cat, & the S35VN Tenacious, but have had them move out of my collection as part of the perpetual churn that is being a knife hobbyist. I'll probably re-acquire at least one of them in the future as space & finances allow.

They're all great knives—the Polestar & Alcyone, especially, I wouldn't hesitate to class alongside main line Spyderco stalwarts such as the PM2, Para 3, Endura 4, Delica 4, Manix 2, & Native 5 as among the company's best conventional work folder options. I'm especially fond of the Alcyone... in many ways, it is very much like a liner-lock version of the Li'l Temperance 3, which is one of my all-time favourite knives as far as ergonomics & form factor go.

My favorite value-line knives are the Astute and the S35VN Resilience.

While not "value-line" knives, per se, the regular base-model Chaparral, Stretch 2 XL, UKPK and Matriarch 2 are excellent values. So are used or NOS Pacific Salts.

vivi wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 28, 2022 2:59 pm

This isn't my favorite value Spyderco. It's my favorite Spyderco in general.

Wow. That’s a big statement. Does the lack of concern because of the price have anything to do with this? Or is it just that good?

I don’t really like slab g10 knives (despite having a ton of them). I adore my FRN Spydies. Delica and Stretch come to mind and while they dont really run “cheap” compared to some higher end knives they are a bargain and perform so much better.