A month ago I got me my first Spyderco, the Lil' Native Back Lock C230MGPB, and I really, really enjoy this knife.
As a left handed person which is used to traditional designs, theres two types of knives I love the most - backlocks and slipjoints. Being happy with my purchase I immediately started to look into the non-locking folders offered by Spyderco. Since the Lil Native SLIPIT™ is not available at my trusted dealer at the moment I had to look for alternatives.
For some irrational reason I prefer a knife to have an enclosed spine, so the UK PK was not an option. With the Lil' Native Slipit unavailable I've ordered the Urban, more or less just to check out how the mechanism feels on a Spyderco and how the FRN feels and holds up.
I wasn't expecting too much, and I was more than pleasantly surprised when it arrived 10 days ago.
Surprise No. 1 - FRN scales:
I was a bit sceptical about linerless FRN scales - I don't know anything, so linerless FRN to me sounded like it might bend or even feel unsafe while using it. I was proven wrong - it seems like professional knife deisgners do actually know more than I do, who would have thought? The Urban, though not as tanky as my G10 Lil' Native, feels both sturdy and lighweight. Bending the scales is possible by applying force, but I don't think that there will ever be a situation in regular use where I will even come close to stressing the material, especially on a non-locking knife. Ergonomics are - as on the Lil' Native - perfectly on point. Now that I've overcome my scepticism towards FRN a whole new world of options opens up, Lil' Native LW - I can't wait for you!
Surprise No. 2 - the SLIPIT™ mechanism:
Contrary to a lot of other things I feel confident talking about slipjoints. I have experience with slipjoints from quite a variety of manufacturers for close to 30 years now - Otter, Antonini, Böker, Nontron, Case - so I think I'm able to identify a good slipjoint. Again, the Urban does not disappoint. The spring tension is just right, operating the knife feels great and closing it by accident should be impossible, if the knife is used in a proper manner. I've heard from slipjoints closing on their users fingers a few times, it never happened to me and I won't comment on that here, but due to the handle design and the strong pressure that needs to be applied to close the blade - especially after the half stop - this might be one of the safest slipjoints I have ever used. 10 out of 10 points. If the mechanism feels as good on the Lil' Native SLIPIT™ as it does here, I have to get one as well.
Surprise No. 3 - the WIRE CLIP
I never expected something looking this flimsy being that strong. I reversed it to left hand carry on this knife (took me 2 minutes, nice). I'm confident this clip will keep the knife in place even during an accidential visit to the washing machine - something that seems to be within the realm of possibilities considering how light and small the Urban is.
Conclusion:
I'm not touching topics like size or looks. If someone wants a bigger knife he won't look at this model anyways, and if I wouldn't have liked it's looks I wouldn't have bought it.
To me personally the Urban is an excellent small folder that seems to be capable of taking on all the regular EDC tasks realistically coming up, and most likely a lot more.
Blade centering on mine is close to perfect, build quality nearly as good as on the Lil' Native, there is no blade play at all and the cutting performance out of the box hair shaving sharp. But I guess most of you expected this anyways.
Thank you for your attention.
Greetings from Austria,
Bernhard
