Spyderco Forums

I begged sal and crew for a Hawkbill Dragonfly for a long time, and when my dream came true I couldn't have been happier with it. I'm not privy to sales numbers, but I think the Hawkbill Salt Dfly has been a successful knife.

I see an opportunity for an even better small hawkbill knife. Some of you may know that I've carried hawkbills since I've been carrying knives. My first 'edc', that I used in the stock room to open thousands of boxes and bags of coffee in my barista days, was a little hawkbill I bought for $5 at a gas station. When I worked for the County of San Diego, replacing and upgrading all of the County employees PC's and Monitors; Again in the Warehouse, opening thousands of boxes, cutting plastic wrapped pallets, and packaging..... I used a Spyderco Hawkbill Ladybug more than anything. Even now in the engineering lab I work in I still favor little hawkbills. Though lately the one I carry isn't a Spyderco

I am eternally grateful to Spyderco for the Hawkbill Dragonfly, but I've found that if I'm honest, I could be happier with it.

The hawkbill I'm currently carrying has 3 things going for it that the Hawkbill Dfly does not. It is extremely sturdy, metal liners. It has super steel (M390). And it is PLAIN EDGE.

I've asked for a PE tool steel Hawkbill Dfly for a while. And while I wouldn't say no to that. The Lil Native Platform is much much closer to my ideal little hawkbill than the Dragonfly.

The Lil Native is a Tank of a knife, which is one thing that has always lacked for me with the HBDfly. G-10, Liners, compression lock. It's way more what I'm looking for. And made in Golden is just near to my heart

It is very important to me that it is Plain Edge. Forgive the pun but serrated just doesn't cut it for me. I love the Karahawk but a karambit is a little 'loud' for office carry, and I'm looking for a bit more compact in the pocket.

Next is steel, S30V is wonderful, I'd buy it, love it and use it. Pie in the sky, S90V, K390, 15V, Maxamet. For ease of sharpening 20CV and Cruwear would be good as well.

While I'm dreaming, full flat grind.

So what do you say? Hawkbill Lil Native?

Always thought the Lil Native would be a perfect knife with a recurved Cricket style blade. Never crossed my mind to have a hawkbill blade, I could be into that too. Hawkbill Lil Native with serrated CruWear would be a monster of a little knife.

Something "like" this, best I could do with some quick and dirty photoshop. Maybe I should ask AI to do it

(That's the edge of a Superhawk, shrunk and superimposed over the blade of the Wharncliffe lil native)

This would fit the handle. And you still get some of the nice negative blade angle with the tip. Would be a box/package opener supreme, I'd use it a lot.

That looks great. I'm in for 3 or 4!

I’m a big fan of all the love the Lil Native suddenly seems to be getting but there are too many Lil Natives as it is, in my opinion.

Would this be replacing the Wharncliffe?

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 12:56 am

Before reading my first thought was the blade looking like the Superhawk . Refreshing idea , like it . MG2

Mushroom wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 7:14 am

I’m a big fan of all the love the Lil Native suddenly seems to be getting but there are too many Lil Natives as it is, in my opinion.

Would this be replacing the Wharncliffe?

Only in my Pocket

I don't think there are too many Lil Natives. No more than other popular models. Certainly not as many as the Dragonfly. For a little big knife, which are popular not just for Spyderco but all brands, the lil Native 'Platform' knocks it out of the park. Three lock types, and I'm hoping for three blade shapes, and a salt

I get where you're coming from, if you scoured my old posts you'd find a few of mine complaining that there were too many PM2 sprints and exclusives and they should really give another model time to shine.

Manixguy@1994 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 7:46 am

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 12:56 am

Before reading my first thought was the blade looking like the Superhawk . Refreshing idea , like it . MG2

Thanks!

I love the Superhawk's full flat grind and thick blade stock. When I was thinking of what kind of hawkbill the mini-tank lil native should have, the Superhawk is what came to mind.

Unabashed LN fan here but I think my enthusiasm stops at a hawkbill design. The LN Wharnie already fulfills that for me. But I won't stomp on this idea at all and I'm curious as to where this discussion will lead to.

nerdlock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 11:34 am

Unabashed LN fan here but I think my enthusiasm stops at a hawkbill design. The LN Wharnie already fulfills that for me. But I won't stomp on this idea at all and I'm curious as to where this discussion will lead to.

Admittedly Hawkbill users are an even more niche groupe than Wharncliffe users. I think I'm a little different than most in that I started with a little hawkbill that I carried for years. The Dragonfly was my first step towards EDC'ing a regular shaped blade (if you can call a Dfly 'regular'). Hawkbills perform different than Wharncliffes and leaf blades, and they're my preference. Wharncliffes being my second favorite.

There are things a Wharncliffe or a traditional blade do better. But when I look at, what is the type of cutting I do with my pocket knife 99% of the time. Hawkbills do it best.

With a set of Spyder TEETH I can see that a Native Hawkbill could potentially be a very aggressive tool. Hawkbill blades simply perform in another league all together when they have TEETH.

I'm to a point to where I literally have hardly no use for a plain edged Hawkbill. I can only think of maybe two cutting jobs I've ever encountered where I found a PE Hawkbill to perform well. And believe me I've tried my PE Harpy and PE Spyderhawk on many jobs over the years. I now no longer will even attempt to use PE Hawkbills.

We will have to agree to disagree on serrations. I've used them and tried to love them. I've tried them every way from Davids sharpening methods, extra toothy, to polished to a near plain edge. They do have some real pluses for certain tasks (SE spyderhawk cuts carpet like nothing else). But for my EDC uses PE hands down, it's not even a close contest.

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 2:40 pm

nerdlock wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 11:34 am

Unabashed LN fan here but I think my enthusiasm stops at a hawkbill design. The LN Wharnie already fulfills that for me. But I won't stomp on this idea at all and I'm curious as to where this discussion will lead to.

Admittedly Hawkbill users are an even more niche groupe than Wharncliffe users. I think I'm a little different than most in that I started with a little hawkbill that I carried for years. The Dragonfly was my first step towards EDC'ing a regular shaped blade (if you can call a Dfly 'regular'). Hawkbills perform different than Wharncliffes and leaf blades, and they're my preference. Wharncliffes being my second favorite.

There are things a Wharncliffe or a traditional blade do better. But when I look at, what is the type of cutting I do with my pocket knife 99% of the time. Hawkbills do it best.

That's a nice collection of hawkbills you got there! I must admit that my only experience with a Spyderco hawkbill so far is a Dragonfly 2 Salt Hawkbill SE...I know it's not a good sample size, but based on my experience it's been a hit or miss with the EDC tasks I usually put my knives to. That's why I found more use for wharnies because I find the edge to be most versatile for what I often use blades for.

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 2:40 pm

There are things a Wharncliffe or a traditional blade do better. But when I look at, what is the type of cutting I do with my pocket knife 99% of the time. Hawkbills do it best.

Expand? When are hawkbills best?

nerdlock wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 20, 2024 1:22 pm

That's a nice collection of hawkbills you got there! I must admit that my only experience with a Spyderco hawkbill so far is a Dragonfly 2 Salt Hawkbill SE...I know it's not a good sample size, but based on my experience it's been a hit or miss with the EDC tasks I usually put my knives to. That's why I found more use for wharnies because I find the edge to be most versatile for what I often use blades for.

Out of all of them, the Hawkbill Dragonfly2 is probably the best for EDC. I think you might like it better if it was G-10, PE, flatgrind, and a PM steel. Even better if it was a Hawkbill Lil Native!

For me the SE version of the Hawkbill Dfly takes too much maintenance to keep at the level of sharpness it needs to perform how I like(smooth cuts every time, no snagging or ripping). And I would like it better if it was sturdier than the linerless FRN is.

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 20, 2024 8:20 pm

nerdlock wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 20, 2024 1:22 pm

That's a nice collection of hawkbills you got there! I must admit that my only experience with a Spyderco hawkbill so far is a Dragonfly 2 Salt Hawkbill SE...I know it's not a good sample size, but based on my experience it's been a hit or miss with the EDC tasks I usually put my knives to. That's why I found more use for wharnies because I find the edge to be most versatile for what I often use blades for.

Out of all of them, the Hawkbill Dragonfly2 is probably the best for EDC. I think you might like it better if it was G-10, PE, flatgrind, and a PM steel. Even better if it was a Hawkbill Lil Native!

For me the SE version of the Hawkbill Dfly takes too much maintenance to keep at the level of sharpness it needs to perform how I like(smooth cuts every time, no snagging or ripping). And I would like it better if it was sturdier than the linerless FRN is.

This is probably why my experience with Dfly SE Hawkbill is a bit of a hit or miss...sometimes I feel that I need to cut something at a certain angle just to get a snag-free cutting experience.

nerdlock wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 22, 2024 7:17 am

This is probably why my experience with Dfly SE Hawkbill is a bit of a hit or miss...sometimes I feel that I need to cut something at a certain angle just to get a snag-free cutting experience.

YES!

I know our biggest Hawkbill advocate JD is all about the teeth, and I can 100% respect that preference. I know David our biggest serration advocate has detailed threads on how to get serrations that are screaming sharp.....

But my EDC experience is serrations snag and rip. Only PE consistently gives me those butter smooth cuts I want. It's just a different experience. I think if people could use and sharpen a high end steel (like k390, 20cv, S90V, or S30V) on a sturdy small PE hawkbill, they would understand the appeal of them.

If people can understand why negative blade angles are good, they can start to appreciate hawkbills. Pierce, gather, hold, cut. Yes teeth help hold material better, but the hold you get from the shape of the hawkbill is so much better than other blade shapes. Imho you don't need the teeth, and they take away from the quality of the cut (not cutting ability).




*I say consistently because you can get serrations that cut smooth, it's just a lot of work and maintenance.

Bolster wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 20, 2024 2:02 pm

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 2:40 pm

There are things a Wharncliffe or a traditional blade do better. But when I look at, what is the type of cutting I do with my pocket knife 99% of the time. Hawkbills do it best.

Expand? When are hawkbills best?

This, I'm curious as well. In my experience hawkbills are one of the least versatile blade shapes, so I'm curious what kinds of tasks you run into where the hawkbill works best most of the time.

StuntZombie wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 24, 2024 3:24 pm

Bolster wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 20, 2024 2:02 pm

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 2:40 pm

There are things a Wharncliffe or a traditional blade do better. But when I look at, what is the type of cutting I do with my pocket knife 99% of the time. Hawkbills do it best.

Expand? When are hawkbills best?

This, I'm curious as well. In my experience hawkbills are one of the least versatile blade shapes, so I'm curious what kinds of tasks you run into where the hawkbill works best most of the time.

Sorry Bolster I missed your comment. To both of you I would say, like I touched on a little in my last post...

If people can understand why negative blade angles are good, they can start to appreciate hawkbills. Pierce, gather, hold, cut.

Say I have a package holding some network cables, or some thing like that. I can use a leaf shape blade, a Wharncliffe, or a hawkbill to pierce through the bag then make a 4 inch cut in it to open it. Same with cutting open the tape on a box.

All three blade shapes will do it. With the hawkbill I have the least amount of effort and most economy of motion. No need to angle my wrist for the edge to pierce, gather, hold, and cut the material. It hooks and grabs what you are cutting. When cutting into a box rather than cutting the tape on a box, it gives you more control over depth. For cutting anything bundled by tape or ziptie, the tip can be worked in and under the tie and it can be pull cut without damaging the bundle (Like wires).

I've opened thousands of packages and boxes in warehouses and stockrooms. A small hawkbill beats a boxcutter or regular shaped knife any day of the week for me.


In the warehouse where I used to work we'd get shipments of hundreds of Computers, Monitors, and cables. We'd have to cut open the boxes, cut open the packaging for all the parts, then cut the ties off of the cables. And prep the PC's for installation. We were doing whole office buildings so we didn't want to bring the boxes and trash with us. So all the opening and prepping got done in the warehouse. We were expected to work quickly. The hawkbill ladybug is what I used most often (I don't think the HBdragonfly was a thing yet).