I'm a product of the 80's...
As a kid I grew up with Chuck Norris kicking ***, Rambo taking on a entire army of cops with a combat knife, and 100's of badly dubbed Ninja movies fresh from Hong Kong. Even all the cartoons like Gi Joe, and Transformers had tons of action in them that sadly Dora the Explorer never will despite how awesome that would be.
My inner child has been brain washed by the 80's to be a Communist crushing ninja, and he wants his tactical ninja knife!!! :rolleyes:
I'm relatively new to Spyderco in all honesty and I've been trying to learn as much as I can. One day I came across a pic of the Bob T designed C15/C19.
(Pic borrowed from google...www.cuttingedge.com)
I instantly fell in love with the basic shape of the handle. IMHO it feels like the in thing these days for knife manufactures is to be different for simply different sake, and have as many weird lines as possible. The clean minimalist lines of this handle was like a breath of fresh air to me.
But I wasn't exactly fond of the blade shape and I couldn't help but think a tanto blade would look better. I went about making suggestions on threads on here and facebook about "Your perfect knife" etc being completely unaware of the C174GP.
That all changed this boxing day when I checked a online retailer for Spyderco's and not only did they have the Double Bevel it was on SALE for $105 US.!!!
Finally I had found my perfect grail knife that had the handle and the blade I so desperately wanted...Err kind of.
The double bevel where this knife gets it's name...It looks weird.
In-fact when I asked if I should get the DB or the Starmate I didn't get a single vote on the DB.
But there was just something about the double bevel that was calling out to my heart and I placed my order.**Graphic Pic Warning***
(Sorry to who's ever pic I borrowed.)Well I immediately thought the Double Bevel "It must be to make the Spyder hole stronger" As Bob Terzula being the father of the tactical knife must have a reason for such a bold design choice...Right?
Wrong!! Turns out he just obviously thought it looked cool, and to me IMHO that's as good as any reason. But that wasn't the biggest surprise waiting for me yet...
I'm a bit dyslexic so numbers don't always add up for me and I need comparisons to understand the size of things. So when my knife finally showed up.
Yes it's kinda tiny...My mall ninja dreams were crushed! :D
Here's a comparison to my PM3 and my Native 5 LW.
*** Warning this is a huge amount of speculation on my part***
I can't help but wonder if there's an explanation for both the double bevel and the size.
There's another Spyderco out there that's awfully similar that was ironically designed by a another guy named Bob...The C46 by Bob Lum.
(Pic borrowed from google.)I can't help but think that to make sure the designs were not to too similar that they were infringing on each other. The decision was made to make it look different and smaller. I also can't help think that because the Starmate was also being released Spyderco also wanted a smaller knife to suite everyone's EDC needs.
Conclusion
After my initial disappointment, well frankly I fell in love with this knife all over again. I've grown and matured since the 80's, and my needs have also grown and matured. This knife surprisingly fills both needs. It has the tactical looks that I crave, but at the same time there is a refined and sleek feeling I get when I hold this knife in my hand. To me it's the modern urban Gentleman's knife. It's light, it cuts surprisingly well, and thanks to the walker liner lock it's a work horse in disguise. Simply it's sophisticated.
