I got a very long love story with the Lil' Temperance and almost 25 years after it first production, I really thought it would the time to test and review the LT3 Lightweight in K390.
This reviews are in progress, part 3 and 4 will come later this summer and hard chores and camping uses will come in the next chapters.
But I really think this dwarf of a knife is a work of love from Sal, and hidden gem and the K390 edition is really proposing something different and unique in the cutlery world.
As much as I am in love with my Sage 5 Salt, this Lil'Temp is taking a very big place in my heart.
I have the LT3 K390, and it shares about equal duty time strong side carry w/ the 15V Para 3 LW.
The lock on the LT3 is stout, and lockup is early, full and solid. Disengaging it is probably easier than any other compression lock I have. Lockbar access is also really great. Because the blade is so tall, the full flat grind can still get slicey, and then you've got some added toughness due to how thick it gets at the spine. If a PM2/Para 3 blade were that tall, it would probably be 4mm+ thick as well.
I think the handle needs to be about 1/8" longer, that way you don't lose the ability to close the ricasso onto your finger (if anything, you might get a little more) but still have it align better with the grind bevel for more easily getting through cardboard and stuff.
In my example, tolerances have been 'loose'. I have vertical play aka 'pivot lash' and will be hand fitting a new hardened pivot for it. The thinness of the FRN scales behind that super strong compression lock bar isn't strong enough to keep the scale aligned when it is all together, so my example has suffered from centerness issues. The pivot screw also comes loose with some frequency, although in the knife's defense, I have completely disassembled it about 4-5 times and not used any locktite. The metal liners also sink into the blue FRN scales just a couple thou too far, so that the blade flats scrape on them during opening/closing, even though in theory the bronze bushing should keep the blade from making contact.
The biggest issue I have had is that the detent is slightly weak and contacts the blade's detent hole a little early, so that you can ever so slightly push the blade in a tiny bit further before contacting the stop pin, and by doing that, you can see it pushing the detent/lockbar back up again slightly. It is very slight, but there. The detent is also a bit weak. So, I do believe Sal was right in that this is a difficult knife for Seki to get right. I don't think any of these issues are dealbreakers, although the detent issue is close - it may also be exacerbated by the pivot lash, and I'm curious how much of the detent issue goes away with a new pivot. I'm going to be building some new scales for it, and while I may not really be able to change the location of the stop pin by much at all due to the metal liners, I may be able to 'nudge' those tolerances closer and further eliminate the issue.
For a tinkerer, it is a fun 'not boring' knife to play around with. If you are a perfectionist, I highly recommend getting your hands on one before buying, just to make sure it meets your expectation. The design of the knife is quite brilliant, and I do love the way it feels in the hand. Probably one of the highest ratios of 'hated it, then loved it' of any Spyderco out there, especially the look. I thought it looked goofy at first, especially when compared to a sleeker knife like a newer ZT or a Shiro, but now, it looks awesome to me. My favorite knife in K390, right in front of my LJ SE.
@Red Leader.
Looking forward to seeing your new scales ! How you gonna do them ? In what material ?
Will you use some scanning and 3D printing ?
Because you'll need some micro tolerance for this Lil' Temperance. ;-)
@Red Leader.
Looking forward to seeing your new scales ! How you gonna do them ? In what material ?
Will you use some scanning and 3D printing ?
Because you'll need some micro tolerance for this Lil' Temperance. ;-)
I'm a bit old school, meaning that I don't have expensive tooling and such haha. So no 3D printing for me, although that sounds cool as well!
I will probably route out the G10 using my small router and some sort of a micro milling bit, for the inset metal liners. The tricky part will be drilling the hole for the pivot on the scale side that has the D-hole, because you either have to drill it out of the metal liner or drill with a smaller bit and hand fit. Hand-fitting is probably the route I will go, because I want to keep the captive pivot option. Either of those materials will have less flex than the FRN, so the bending of the scales will be negated.
I have both aluminum and G10, so either can work for the handle. I do think the undersized pivot is the source for many of the nagging issues I've noticed. And just to be clear, even w/ these little annoyances, the knife does lock up like a bank vault, so the most important aspect is there.
