Wooden Dragonfly kit

[Woodpuppy]

My 3 year old son has been obsessed with my pocket knife lately. He always wants to hold it. But with an axis lock, the blade will easily open and that would be bad. So since I have a new spyderco inbound (due Monday), I ordered him the dragonfly kit knife. We put it together tonight, and it works quite well, but I’m thinking of making some wax paper bushings for it, putting a semblance of an edge on it, maybe a light chamfer on the scales, and a drop of glue on each pin end. The pivot will drop out if you just press the lock so the blade swings freely. The rest of the pins stay put, but I’m sure he could manage to lose them. I could always go pick up some tiny hardware and bolt it together I suppose!

Anyway, it’s a fun little quick project to do and now he can hold his own knife and Dad gets to keep his :spyder:

[Woodpuppy]

Well that was short-lived. Handed it to my wife and she promptly opened it then tried to close it without depressing the lock.

:eek:

[Evil D]

Be careful with the lock, it's VERY easy to round off the corner of the lock bar and turn it into a slip joint.

[RickC27]

Ugh!! Bet your 3 year old son would have known better! The idea certainly had good intentions. I'd give it another whirl...just keep her hands off of it haha!

[Woodpuppy]

The tab on the back of the blade is busted off, and the blade sags until it makes contact with the lock bar. I might be able to glue something up. My son sat in my lap and we worked the knife together. He was fine. Mom just yonked on it like you’d expect a kid to... smh... there go any thoughts of ordering her a real dragonfly!!

[wrdwrght]

My grandson, aged seven, has a Wooden Dragonfly kit waiting for him when he visits at the end of July.

His mother said he wants to learn how to whittle. Understanding a knife’s construction seems a good place to start, then we can graduate to my DF2 under close supervision.

[Woodpuppy]

Fixed it, judicious use of some gorilla superglue and a clothespin. A little sanding and wax paper washers, all better now. For now!

[JonLeBlanc]

That’s cute that he wants to hold his daddy’s knife and really sweet that y’all made the dfly together. Sorry, I don’t know why, but that made a grown man all melty inside

[Doc Dan]

Perhaps the plastic glow in the dark Delica kit would be better?

[Frozenspyder]

Those wooden dragonflies are great. Not super durable but definitely a fun project for the price. Good way to teach kids about knives and knife safety too. My kid loves his.

[Woodpuppy]

Perhaps the plastic glow in the dark Delica kit would be better?

I figured if it’s to scale, it was way too big. But might be more durable.

[Woodpuppy]

That’s cute that he wants to hold his daddy’s knife and really sweet that y’all made the dfly together. Sorry, I don’t know why, but that made a grown man all melty inside

He wants to help do everything, including cooking. Just allow extra time.... it turns the most mundane and quick things into a bit of a process. But that’s how they learn!

[SpyderScout]

Well that was short-lived. Handed it to my wife and she promptly opened it then tried to close it without depressing the lock.

:eek:

UKPK for her! :mad:

[Evil D]

I got my son his first knife when he turned 10. Since then he's shot up to a 6'3'' monster (he's now 15), so he can use pretty much any sized knife now but when he was 9-10 he really liked my old ZDP Delica and my Dragonfly. At the time it turned out he wanted to carve on literally everything he owned so he proved to be too young to have free reign over a knife, and I was/am always afraid he might accidentally take it to school and get himself (and me) in loads of trouble so it stays with my knives. The coolest thing about the Dragonfly as a choice for kids is that it doesn't stop being a usable knife for adults, so a kid can grow up using the knife and carry it right on into adulthood and it isn't like a smaller/cheaper child's version of something.

[Woodpuppy]

Well that was short-lived. Handed it to my wife and she promptly opened it then tried to close it without depressing the lock.

:eek:

UKPK for her! :mad:

I got her the 2016 “orchid violet” edition of the Victorinox Classic Alox for her birthday last year. I’m thinking that’s enough for her unless she actually shows an interest in something more on-body edc as opposed to living in the grunge in the bottom of the purse...

[SpyderScout]

Thatll work.

[murphjd25]

I will probably get this kit for my son first once he gets a little older. He’s 8 months old now so still a way to go. I can tell he’s going to be a knife guy though, he pulled himself up on the couch last night and tried to reach for my CRK all with a huge grin on his face.

[Woodpuppy]

I’m finding the dull edge is promoting a full hand grasp in the blade to close it. I think I’m going to paint the edge red to help remind him not to touch that. Otherwise he’s doing fine opening and closing. I let him open and close the Pm3 while controlling the handle and guiding his hand on the blade. Made me nervous but he’s doing good. Gotta learn sometime! And it’s not like I haven’t cut myself...

[Woodpuppy]

So I got the plastic Delica kit too. It stays together MUCH better with a tighter fit of pins to scales, while the blade and backlock are narrower than the back spacer so everything functions very well. Feels more like a working knife, where the wooden one would need a lot of model building attention to get the same feel. Looks like I’ll be getting each kid their own kit!