Spyderco Forums

This question got me thinking, and I want to know what you guys have to say. Say you have $500 only to spend on knives (mainly concerning Spydies).

Would you rather:

A.) Spend everything on one very nice midtech

B.) Buy two of the highest end Spydies

C.) Buy three of the $100-200 Spydies

D.) Buy many cheaper Spydies under $100

Please explain why you would as well.


For me personally, a scenario quite like this actually happened a few years ago. I chose to buy a few knives in Spyderco's $100-200 dollar range (GB, Vallotton, etc.). Today, I would definitely take either the midtech or buy two of Spyderco's highest end knives like the K2 and the Slysz Bowie. However, back when I did buy those, Spyderco didn't have many knives over $200 and none that really interested me.

I could get by on a really nice 3-ish" blade and am really liking my CR TiLock right now.

That said, I would probably prefer to pick my favorite models per category. A Stretch, Delica, Ladybug, and a G10 "tougher" folder and a classy gents Spydie.

$500 bucks could buy one nice spydie and a couple nice users. I could get a fluted ti military, a zdp delica, a s110v Native5 LW and a h1 dragonfly. All knives on my wish list. There are many more combos I could think of but in the end you should be able to get something a little higher end and some excellent high quality users.

Buy once.

Would this $500 be the only knives (spydies) the person owns and therefore the choices would need to cover all bases, or is this just a $500 indulgence?

xceptnl wrote:Would this $500 be the only knives (spydies) the person owns and therefore the choices would need to cover all bases, or is this just a $500 indulgence?

Just indulgence

That's easy.
If I would have 500$ to spend, I would buy the C27 Jess Horn, that's in the showcase of my favorite brick-and-mortar store.

Strong-Dog wrote:

xceptnl wrote:Would this $500 be the only knives (spydies) the person owns and therefore the choices would need to cover all bases, or is this just a $500 indulgence?

Just indulgence

In that case I would choose "B" for my tastes and uses. Some variety and still near top quality.

For my examples, Fluted Ti Military and Temperance 2 FB!

I've done all of the above. I have great mid-techs, high end production knives, midrange production knives, and lower end production knives (lowest being SRM, next being Delica 4 FFG).

If I were to spend a finite amount of money, how would I do it? Honestly, I don't know. I go back and forth. At one point I considered just having one great all-around folder and selling everything else off. But then I realized there is no one all-around knife.

What I do like is having a few inexpensive custom fixed blades around the house for breaking down boxes and some food prep, my Spyderco Techno, my small Sebenza Insingo, and the Yo2. I'm hoping the Slysz Bowie will replace the Sebenza as it's not really a great user (it's just fun to play with, as I always say).

I don't really like the less expensive Spydies because I don't care for VG-10 or even really S30V. And I really dislike any knife with an exposed blade tang when closed (pet peeve).

For $500, I would probably say Techno, hopefully the Bowie, and a fixed blade/kitchen knife to round it out. Would I be satisfied? Yes, but I'd want more still just because.

MarcusH wrote:That's easy.
If I would have 500$ to spend, I would buy the C27 Jess Horn, that's in the showcase of my favorite brick-and-mortar store.

+1
I do not care about microtech. There are not many current or discontinued Spydies on my list, so with $500 budget I would chase down jess Horn PE.

"C" has been my normal pattern, but "B" has become my pattern when a promising new-to-me steel has made a model I like more expensive: e.g. Cruwear Manix2 and CF Native5). $250 (street) is about the most I'd ever pay for a knife.

I'm totally hooked on the Spyderhole opener, 50/50 choils, and the midlock is the only lock I really like. Can't say I've ever seen a custom or mid-tech like that. At the same time, I'm not the least be averse to spending whatever it takes to get what I want. So, if I had Sal's permission and could find someone capable of doing the work, I would not hesitate to spend three times that $500 figure or more to have them take a CF Stretch of mine, toss out everything except the liners, spring, and backspacer, duplicate the blade in Odin's Eye Damasteel, make a new lockbar with no Boye dent, then put the whole thing together with ivory scales between smooth front and rear bolsters. And, when I got it, it would definitely get carried and used. As things stand, among the Kiwis that I carry from time to time, there are several that, between the original cost of the knife and the cost of the embellishments, i have about $500 invested in.

I would stay in the mid range and buy three or four of the very best knives I could for $100 to $150. There are some good knives in that price range and they are easier to sell which is something I always consider. I'm getting away from frame locks and that's usually where the higher end knives are in the Titanium frame locks. I don't want anything that has to have an over travel screw or something to keep you from over extending the lock bar and ruining the knife. Also I just saw in a you tube video where the lock bar on a very high end knife went all the way across to the other side and he almost didn't get it closed

I go with two or three of the mid range Spydies. Mainly because I see no loss in quality and I have different blades for different applications.

It's kind of a loaded question. I have some of the higher costing models and they are nice, but I wouldn't say they're the best models or even on a linear scale that is based on the price.

Just because it takes the factory twice the amount of labor or higher cost of materials, it doesn't mean that it's twice as good to me.

I don't really care about quality all that much. It needs to open, lock, and close reliably. Im happy with nearly any blade steel (w/ proper heat treat). Every Spyderco meets my quality bar. What I care about is design.

I like cheap-and-funky knives. My Pinterest knife-drool page is full of Boker Plus colabs. Fun designs that may not be as practical as, say, a Delica. I'd like to see cool knives like the Techno in the sub-$60 range (with lesser materials), that would open my wallet about once a month instead of twice a year.

I also like mid-tier users. There's very little practical reason not to replace all my knives with a few Manix 2 copies. You could insert any of dozens of Spydies in place of that knife (PM2, Endura, etc).

RanCoWeAla wrote:I would stay in the mid range and buy three or four of the very best knives I could for $100 to $150. There are some good knives in that price range and they are easier to sell which is something I always consider. I'm getting away from frame locks and that's usually where the higher end knives are in the Titanium frame locks. I don't want anything that has to have an over travel screw or something to keep you from over extending the lock bar and ruining the knife. Also I just saw in a you tube video where the lock bar on a very high end knife went all the way across to the other side and he almost didn't get it closed

Titanium frame locks suffer from some inconsistencies at the custom level, but it's not overly common, either. Usually, that comes from makers new to making them or those who rush through making knives (from what I can tell). CRK has been making frame locks for a long time and haven't really had issues that I've seen. They don't even use overtravel stops or lock-bar inserts. Overextending a lock bar is rather difficult to do unless it's really thin (or poorly designed). I could overextend the Techno's lock bar but only because it's thin. It would also take some foolishness on my part.

I'd go for option B as well

I'd rather have a lot of high end knives....:D

If you didn't have any spydercos then I would go with option C and get a few $100-$200 spydies. You can really get a lot of bang for your buck in that price range, even more so if you can pick some up second hand.

If you already have a few spydies then I'd lean towards option B and go for a couple of really nice ones.