Spydeco takes Folders to the Next Level

Spyderco Knives, (http://spyderco.com) to the best of my knowledge was the first to include a pocket clip. They were definitely the first to have a thumbhole in the blade to enable it to be opened with one hand. The first Spyderco knife I purchased, if I recall correctly was the Police model. The only problem I had with it was its smooth, stainless steel handle, which made it difficult to hold onto if your hands are damp with sweat, water or whatever. I don’t know what happened to it, but I assume I sold it.




In 1990, Spyderco began selling the Endura and Delica. The Endura and Delica had a 3 ¾ “ and 2 7/8” long blade respectively. They came with either a plain edge, or serrated edged blade. Rather than having a smooth stainless steel handle, the handle was plastic and was checkered. These first models had a pocket clip molded out of the plastic handle. It was also cheaper (in price, not quality) and lighter. For several years it became my main carry knife.



The Endura on the top is the latest model, on the bottom is the oldest





The same knives, showing their pocket clips.


Several years later, new models of the Endura and Delica were sold. They had a metal pocket clip, held onto the handle by a screw and could be placed on either side of the butt of the handle. My only complaint against them was the handles were a bit too slim.

The latest version of the Endura and Delica came out several years ago and in my opinion, they are the best. The blades are made from VG-10 (I believe the first blades were made from 440 steel) and are a bit heavier than the original blade. The metal clips can be reversed to either side of the handles or to the top or bottom of the handles.

Personally, I think they’re as good as or better than the more expensive knives.

Me, My Knives and I: Fischbach, Germany

During the rest of my time at Ft Bliss, my collection of knives increased. However, my main two carry knives were the Buck 110 and Gerber Folding Sportsman II. (FSII) After Bliss, I was sent to Germany. After being bounced around several processing stations, I was assigned to Fischbach. Fischbach is where bad MPs go when they die and where the living ones go if they’re extremely unlucky.

On my very first day at Fischbach, we had a health and welfare inspection. For the non-military, a “health and welfare” inspection is a search for drugs and other contraband. We were gathered together and searched by Military Police Investigators (MPI). As usual, I had my FSII in my in my pocket. (I had stopped my folders in a sheath) I assumed a knife that size was legal and was a bit surprised when the MPI oinker told me it was contraband. A bigger surprise was when he told me the knife on my keychain, an Urban Pal, made by Cold Steel was also illegal. The Urban Pal has a blade only an 1 ½” long! I pointed out the small size of the blade to him and he said, “It can be concealed”. Duh! The blades an 1 ½” long, of course it can be concealed! Regardless, the Urban Pal was confiscated along with the FSII and I was facing an Article 15.

The health and welfare also included a room search, which was done by regular MPs and MP dogs. Being as it was my first day, I hadn’t unpacked my duffel bag yet. My duffel bag contained my Buck 110 and a pellet gun. (Webly/Beeman .22 Tempest) When the MPs came to my room, they told me I didn’t need to empty my duffel bag.

It may have been several weeks or maybe even several months before I got the nerve to carry the 110 again. But I eventually did. I even managed to get my FSII back. Several months later, I was friends with one of the armorers, who returned the knife to me. I asked him if I should give him a knife to replace it for inventory purposes. He told me no and returned the knife. It was several weeks or months later, that either he or one of the other armorers told me the company commander wanted to know where the knife was. They added that she didn’t care what kind of knife, she just wanted a replacement knife in the arms room. (Giving this some thought in hindsight, it probably wasn’t the commander at all, just the armorers wanting a replacement knife to keep their inventory logs straight.)

I replaced the FSII with my 110. The FSII was smaller and easier to conceal than the 110 anyway. Also, I later bought another 110. (In fact, during my time in the Army I’ve had probably 3 or four 110s, to include a plastic-handled model or two.

While I relied on a Flicket attached to my folders to open them one-handed, I met a person who didn’t need one to open his 110. Tom amazed me. He could draw his knife from his pocket and open it in about half the time it took me. He told me in high school he raced people who carried switchblades and always beat them in drawing and opening his knife. He said it took some practice and a sliced thumb before he was able to attain that talent.

While at Fischbach, I obtained several more knives, one of the most interesting (To me anyway) was a NATO switchblade.

It was mentioned in a CIA weapons issue of the late Pistolero magazine. (An excellent magazine by the way) the NATO switchblade had an olive green handle and the blade came out from the top of the handle, rather than from the side like most switchblades. Like nearly all switchblades twenty years ago, it was weak where it attached to the handle. (Switchblades made today are much stronger. I’ll go into detail about them in later posts.)

During another health and welfare inspection, I stuffed it into a box of soap powder to hide it. Much to me disappointment and pleasure, the searchers didn’t look in the place where I originally had it hidden. Nevertheless, I asked a friend who lived off-base to keep it, along with my pellet gun.. I never saw it again. My “friend” claimed the blade broke and shot across the room when he tried to open it. The clown also left my Tempest cocked, which broke it too.

After leaving Fischbach, I went to Ft Ord, and after that Frankfurt, acquiring various knives along the way. In later posts, I will get into more detail about particular knives, rather than boring you all with my autobiography.


***Next, Spyderco Takes Folders to a New Level***

Me, My Knives and I: The Army years

When I joined the Army, I assumed correctly that I wouldn’t be able to take the Gerbers with me to basic training. My time in basic was one of the longest times I had spent without a defense knife since carrying one in high school. I did carry a Swiss Army pocket knife, but that was far from being practical as a defense knife.

It was either during basic or during my first duty station at Ft Bliss Texas when I began reading about the carry of lock blade knives as defense weapons. Until that time, I had shunned them as a knife only a farmer would carry. I found out shortly after arriving at Bliss the Army isn’t as supportive of personal weapons as I assumed. When I was being processed into the unit, the personnel sergeant asked if I had any weapons. I replied honestly, “only a few knives and BB gun” The sergeant told me I would have to keep them in arms room. I don’t know if the surprise showed on my face, but I was amazed that even a BB GUN had to be kept in the arms room.

When turning in the Gerbers into the arms room, I found, that just because a person is in the military doesn’t mean they know crap about weapons. The armorer (a lying, back-stabbing worthless puke, who’s name isn’t worthy of mention) called my Gerber Guardian a “throwing” knife. I corrected him and told him it was NOT a “throwing’ knife, and that a throwing knife has a heavier and sturdier blade. (The Guardian’s blade and indeed most Gerber boot knives have weak, brittle blades) the dumbfounded dunce insisted it was a “throwing” knife and listed it as such in the inventory.



It wasn’t too long afterward that I bought a new Mark I. Once on a field training exercise, I had it clipped to the strap of my LBE. A lieutenant (who else) asked in a somewhat irritated voice what I used the knife for. I told him I used it for cutting rope and he replied, “Hopefully you don’t use it for anything”. While I’m generally disgusted by people who don’t want me to carry a weapon, knowing there were people in the military like that really disgusted me.

A year later when my knives were returned to me, I saw they had fingerprints on them. When I mentioned that to the armorer, he told me to just wipe them off. The prints had been on the blades for several months and wouldn’t just “wipe off”. (I’ll get into blade types and blade care in a later post) I promised myself from then on, unless I had no other choice I would NEVER keep a weapon (and especially not a pellet gun) in an arms room.

Anyway, it was during my time at Ft Bliss I purchased my first lock blade. I don’t remember for sure but I think it was a Buck 110. The down side to folding knives at that time was they’re slow to open and get into action. (This was in the pre-Spyderco years) I tried to follow the law and kept the knife in a sheath.



I had one particular incident where I didn’t do that. I was walking home from a shopping center with my roommate (An even bigger dunce that the armorer, and a snitch to boot) at night. Taking into consideration it was at night and getting out the knife fast was a bigger concern, I took the 110 from the sheath and carried it in my pocket. My roommate (Remember, I told you he was a dunce?) grew wide-eyed and told me I was violating the law, that a knife can’t be carried concealed in a pocket. I argued it was perfectly legal. A police car was making its way through the parking lot and the dunce threatened to alert the officer. I told him to go right a head as the knife was legal. The cruiser passed us and the dunce remained silent. Needless to say, it was the last time I went anywhere with the punk.
While reading Soldier of Fortune (SOF) magazine I saw an ad for the solution to my problem with folders. The answer was a device called a Flicket, a metal device which clipped onto the blade and provided a stud for the thumb to push the blade open. I purchased one and put it on my 110. I later bought a Gerber Folding Sportsman II (FSII) and a Flicket for it as well. Filing down the Flickets to make them flush with the knives handles made them near perfect. The FSII had a blade nearly as long as the 110, but was about half as thick.

I bought several knives of various makes and models during my time at Ft Bliss, but those two became my favorites and my constant companions.


****Next, Me My Knives and I, Fischbach Germany****

Me, My Knives and I

I first started carrying a knife (or two) during my junior year of high school. Prior to that, I was carrying improvised weapons. One was a scratch awl, which I kept in a homemade ankle sheath and a section of water hose, about a foot long that I’d stuffed marbles into. It wasn’t a particularly dangerous school, and by today’s standards it was pretty peaceful. My main concern was the low-level dope dealers who hung out at the school’s rear entrance. There had never been an instance of them attacking people but I hated dope with a passion and thought dopers should be shot. (I still do) When they offered to sell me dope, I would either ignore them, or (under my breath) tell them to stick it up their ***. My concern was the possibility of them taking offense and attacking me.

The first knife I carried was a generic double-edged boot knife with a 5” blade. I carried it clipped to the inside of my waistband. Several months later, I bought another boot knife called a G96 and made by Jet-Aer. (I don’t know if the company still exists) the G96 had a black, plastic handle with a metal butt. It was more comfortable to carry than the other knife as the metal, rounded butt wasn’t as irritating when it poked into my stomach.



Some time after that, I saw movie Nighthawks, featuring Sylvester Stallone and Billy Dee Williams as NYPD narcs chasing after a free-lance terrorist played by Rutger Hauer. In the film, Hauer used a Gerber Mark 1 to take a hostage and escape Stallone and Williams after his Walther P-38 was empty. The Mark 1 is a boot knife similar to the G96 and the previous boot knife I carried. I had also seen the knife advertised in a Soldier of Fortune magazine. Several Burger King paychecks later, I purchased and began carrying a Mark 1. Later on, I purchased a Gerber Guardian, a double-edged boot knife with a 3” blade. I also bought a Gerber ankle sheath for it and began carrying the two Gerbers together. Granted, I was over doing it a bit. I also purchased a Gerber Mark 2 with a 6-7” blade and carried it for a while, but concealing it was difficult (I cut a hole in the pocket of one pair of my pants, so the end of the knife could be hidden) and carrying it openly was impractical.

So the Gerbers became my constant companions until I joined the Army, and during my remaining time in high school, I never had to waste a single drug dealer.

****Next, Me My knives and I, the Army years.****