Blade Show Sunday is the finish line. Most of the pressure is off, sales made, promises
swapped, and bargains available, if you can recognize a bargain.
It’s a good time to talk to vendors about knives and the
industry. I stopped at Spyderco to talk
with Joyce. Long ago Joyce sent me a congratulations
note on my first article which was about Spyderco’s Bob Lum with the anodized
green handle. We think of her as a
friend.
Spyderco is one of my favorite companies, along with Shadow
Tech, Benchmade and Böker.
So what new is with Spyderco? The answer is lots.
Remember the H1 steel. Rust proof in salt water. I ran my own test by slathering a salt paste
on the blade and keeping it in a moist warm environment overnight. No rust.
H1 steel has some hardenable issues but the steel can be worked hardened. Every time you sharpen it, the edge gets a
little harder. Now they are using LC200N
as is many other blade makers. Oh, yes,
did I mention they have altered the Caribbean Salt so it has the 4-position
clip?
LC200N is low carbon, high chromium with enough nitrogen to
give you RC values of 60. This should be
a very rust resistant steel. They are
releasing it mid-year as their Caribbean series, a yellow and black alternating
striped handled knife with a flat grind blade.
It will be Endura size, but way cooler.
The Military with Spyderco’s patented top compression lock
is very popular, but big. So several
years ago they released the Para Military, but even that was large. So get ready for Para 3. It’s about Delica size but with the same wide
flat ground blade.
For mid-season they are introducing 30 new products. Add that to their already expansive product
line and you have a shop keeper’s nightmare.
Which do you stock? How many of
which? Which one or two are just there
to draw customers over to the counter, but aren’t expected to sell?
I got a silent agreement that Spyderco has too many SKUs for
most vendors. I found out that every
year they have an SKU meeting and they decide which SKU will go to make room
for new ones. People get passionate
about this. “Which child will you kick
out to bring in a new one?” They ask.
I’m glad I don’t have to make these decisions.
Sharpening is always controversial and the show has many
systems ranging from simple Arkansas stones to sharpening systems that suggest
a degree in engineering is required. As steel
blades increase in hardness more sophistical materials are needed. Cubic boron nitride? Industrial sintered diamond? Recrystallized
unobtanium? These are the sharpening
material of today and tomorrow. But
these are still challenged by the water stones of Japan, the fossil clay of
Italy and the slabs of soapstone.
Google search for edges.
How many will you find? Flat
grind, secondary bevel, hollow, apple seed, chisel, chisel with back bevel? Now let’s consider angle. The smaller the
angle the sharper it is. It’s also more
delicate. A stout angle may work fine on
an axe, but not so good for filleting trout for dinner. Most of us expect to have to resharpen a
shallow angle more often regardless of the super steel or secret heat treatment.
Angle leads us to blade thickness. You can find Tou-tube videos of people
attempting to chop through a branch with a blade only a 16th of an
inch thick and people attempting to carve tinder with what can only be
described as an edged car leaf spring.
Somewhere in the middle are the compromisers trying to create one edge
with two different profiles. They
attempt to make the front half of the blade eye surgery sharp and the back edge
coconut cracking dull. Most of the time,
they fail. I would suggest setting your
edge geometry and sharpness to your average cutting expectations.
And you know what?
It’s all wonderful. Let me
suggest that through exploring edges, sharpening and sharpening, whatever your
final edge is you will create new appreciation for the humble knife.
Enjoy.
Here's a few more images from the Blade Show:
You can always find raw material to make the knife you want!
I wish I had bought a few of the screw pins used to hold handles together!
It's Buck's 75th anniversary and the Buck clubs went all out!
Let's end with fireworks!
