How are products driven to success? What makes products evolve?
Remember Big Auto? Think back to the day when everyone hated
those cheap Japanese automobiles.
Detroit told the American public, “Don't worry about those small clever Japanese
cars. We're Big Auto, and we know what
you want.”
That wasn’t the case. Detroit was wrong. More than one classic American auto company has
disappeared since the 60’s.
The environment changed, and some
knife companies didn't. All that's left
of them is their name, now owned by someone else. Spyderco and others have managed to evolve
and help change the knife environment.
Let's visit the Native.
C41PBK5 – Native 5
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| Native 5 |
The Native has evolved over the years, reaching its current state of the art in 2012 with the release of the Native 5. Spyderco makes the current Native 5 in Golden, Colorado. It features a spear point blade made from a variety of high-end steels like Cru-Wear, CPM S30V, S110V, as well as Spyderco's proprietary steel, SPY27. Spyderco describes the 3-inch blade as a full-flat grind, distal taper, with a textured index-finger choil and thumb ramp. The Boye Dent is gone. My walk through Spyderco catalogs indicates the Dent disappeared in 2014. So is the deep false edge that characterized the original Native. My Native 5 has a very shallow false edge which ends slightly before the blade's point, putting a little more metal behind the point.
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| Native 5 with hour glass clip |
The opening hole is 13 mm wide and slightly closer to the knife's spine than my older 2002 native. That makes it a little easier to open.
FRN Native 5 lightweight features
Spyderco’s bi-directional handle pattern and has four positions with threaded
stainless steel inserts, allowing you to move the clip where you want it.
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| Native Classic and Native 5. I like the classic form! |
As much as I like the Native 5, it is missing that original, iconic blade. Fortunately, that Native is still available.
C217GP – Caribbean
This is a colorful addition to
Spyderco's growing Salt Series. The
Caribbean is unique in several ways.
It's a full-flat-ground, leaf-shaped blade machined from LC200N. Let's talk chemistry.
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| Caribbean with LC200N steel |
First, the formulation:
0.3% Carbon, 15% Chromium, 1% Manganese,
0.95% Molybdenum, 0.5% Nickel,
and 0.5% Nitrogen.
The first thing I noticed in the
formulation is the relatively low carbon content. In my limited experience, carbon in steel
does two things, it forms iron carbides and chromium carbides (if present) to
increase the strength of the steel. The
second thing it does is determine the cooled steel's final stage: ferrite,
austenite, or martensite.
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| Caribbean with top compression lock |
However, nitrogen could function as a substitute for carbon in forming hard martensite. Nitrogen doesn't form chromium nitride to the same degree as chromium, so more chromium is available for corrosion resistance.
The problem is nitrogen gas isn’t
very soluble in molten steel. This
problem was eventually solved using high, very high-pressure crucibles. The original steel, called Cronidur 30, was
developed for ball bearings.
The high salt /corrosion
resistance sounds great for a saltwater environment. While nothing is perfect, LC200N has a great
many of the qualities we look for in steel.
The leaf-shaped blade is housed
in a bright yellow and black handle, which reminds me of a hornet. The G-10 handle is reinforced with steel
liners and carefully machined to create alternating bands of black and yellow
radiating out from a center black oval.
The yellow bands are caused by a wide groove cut through the alternation
layers of the G-10. They are wide enough
to provide a friction surface. A little
jimping behind the ‘hump ‘formed by the Spyderco hole also adds to the friction
surfaces needed to control the knife.
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| Caribbean tang stamp |
The Caribbean has a top
compression lock, which I like. Unfortunately,
the clip is only left-right reversible.
The clip is Spyderco’s hourglass shape in titanium. They describe it as black. I see it as gray.
I don't know when I bought
it. The box doesn’t have the date on it
as some do, and I neglected to record the date myself.
It's an interesting knife. The friction surfaces work nicely with pull
or push, but my thumb tends to slide sideways, following the circular path.
Personally, I like the bright
colors, a pleasant departure from black, but my experience tells me tactical
black sells.
It’s still in production. If you want one, they’re available.
C64JPBK – Meerkat
The Meerkat was introduced in
2001 and had what Spyderco called the Phantom Lock. Many of us called it "Bet you a beer you
can't close this knife." Word of
advice. Make sure you spring for a beer
after you win a couple. The Internet
claims that the Meerkat is a direct descendant of the C61 Pegasus/C62
Navigator. These claims always bother me
as they suggest companies don't have enough creativity to develop something new
and not, ‘let’s make one like this, but different.”
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| Meerkat |
The Meerkat was made from 2001 to 2003 and released as limited sprint runs. Mine is from 2002 and has the AUS6 drop point blade. The reverse 'S' blade is, in my opinion, icey cool and much more desirable to a collector or user. The reverse blade gives you more cutting power, an essential feature in a small, sub-2-inch blade.
Because of the opening mechanism,
the Meerkat clip could only be located over the blade pivot. It can be changed to right or left
carry. This positions the knife tip down
in your pocket. Perhaps not the optimal
carry position, but the knife has limited tactical applications.
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| Meerkat secret exposed |
For many, the Phantom Lock made the Meerkat so interesting.
To unlock: The right bolster can
be pushed sideways using the depression in the butt end of the knife. The Meerkat operation is well explained with
both the product insert that comes with the knife and the Internet. I’m not rehashing it here.
C119 – Citadel
Sal has always felt that Spyderco
knives should be used for good, not evil purposes. It sounds old-fashioned, but over the years
of visiting their booths at both the SHOT Show and Blade, it is clear that
Spyderco prefers its knives to be used for good.
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| Citadel |
Having said that, Spyderco is a patriotic company, and when the government asked for an automatic knife, Spyderco stepped up. The Citadel is one such knife. It was made originally for the military and law enforcement. When it first came out, not even Spyderco insiders could get one for themselves.
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| The Citadel has a basic black clip USA can be seen on back side of tang |
There’s not a lot of information
on the Citadel. The Citadel was made
from 2008 to 2011. Spyderco described it
as a right-hand automatic blade-opening mechanism, assembled with screws. The knife was made in two sizes, 92- and
83-mm length blades. I have the 83mm
blade. Both blades were made from CPM
S30V steel. The blade has jimping behind
the trademark Spyderco hole and a slight swedge grind to lighten the
blade.
The clip gives it a relatively
deep pocket carry in the tip-up mode.
It's only left-right reversible.
The auto comes with a safety next to the opening button. I prefer this arrangement; your thumb pulls
back to undo the safety and then moves forward to open the knife. While the Spyderco logo is present, the tang
stamp on the left side simply reads USA.
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| the Citadel comes with warning papers |
The interesting thing, and many
other companies still follow this practice, if you send your Citadel back to
Spyderco for any reason, unless there is a note on a department letterhead,
Spyderco isn’t sending it back, nor can you pick it up at the factory in Golden,
Co.
While states are changing their
laws to legalize automatic or switchblade knives, Spyderco has taken a hard
line on them. There is a story behind
this. Joyce Laituri told it to me. As I remember it, there was a time when
Spyderco needed to import one small screw for a balisong-type knife. These knives could only be sold in the USA,
provided they were made in the USA. But the
screw was made only overseas. Everyone
up and down the Justice Department said, sure, it’s just one screw, no
problem. That was everyone but one
customs inspector who seized the shipment, including other legal but
foreign-made knives. The situation
degraded, it took a lot of money, and finally, the Governor and others had to
step in before things cooled off. Company
officials could have gone to jail. Talk
about a screw. Considering the
ramifications, I understand why Spyderco toes the line by several inches on the
conservative side.
