Category Archives: Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Des Horn Imvubu in Nitrobe 77 – Perfection in every way.

2 Comments

This is a sharp turn. A revolution: I have chosen a folder with no hole in the blade and no clip.
But it was love at first sight.
The carbon fiber handle are so smooth and rounded. The balance is perfect, thanks to its titanium liners.
The liners are blued and exquisite BTW. A jewel !
I could not put that folder back on Des Horn table at the FICX 2016. It was this kind of moment when your palm is connected to your heart. This knife will be mine. Period.

I have met Des many times this last decades and even three years ago I have ordered a Nitrobe 77 folder to him after my friend JD has bought one at Paris SICAC. JD loves small blades. I do prefer medium. I was glad a 4mm Nitrobe 77 stock was available since.
Nitrobe 77 is a very special steel with nitrogen instead of carbon. It is a kind of ÜberH1. Those Nitrogen Steel are just amazing.
Also the Nitrobe 77 while impervious to corrosion has the same “behavior” as 52100 which is, thanks to Ray Kirk, one my favorite steel.
To quote Cliff Stamp:
“-higher toughness at the same hardness/wear resistance
-much higher corrosion resistance, especially in extremes
-higher edge stability at the same wear resistance ”

To quote Marthinus (this knife is his grail)
“The original idea was to use NITROBE 77 at motor manufacturing of blades for cutters and blades for kitchen machines type blender. Samples were sent to producers in Europe, which in a few months, almost unanimously said they were extremely impressed with the durability of the blade, and that usually is 3 times higher than that of any stainless steel used in their production today. However, heat treatment is too complicated for them and they also prefer to buy 3 blades of conventional stainless steel than one of NITROBE 77 This steel has virtually no carbon (0.1%), which was replaced with nitrogen at 0.9%. It absolutely does not rust and the knife can be put in the dishwasher! The most impressive feature is the NITROBE 77 is its “superrezuchest” because smaller molecules than in steel RWL-34. The main difficulty in the manufacture of steel NITROBE 77 is its heat treatment, which includes a series of four cryogenic quenching in liquid nitrogen at a heating temperature were 1100 ° C and 3-times at intervals of 1 hour for the holidays began at 480 ° C. NITROBE 77 shows the greatest potential for using it as a knife blade. I used a lot of different steels to produce their knives, but 77 NITROBE much sharper and tougher than any steel I’ve ever used … ”

No hole. So I use my thumb on the talon of the blade to open it gently. It is fast.
No clip. I use a Bali-Song cocoon horizontaly on my belt or directly in my front pocket. No big deal as the knife is really confortable in the hand.

On my Bottle Butt test, it is not my number one cutter. The Nilakka is still the queen in that domain. But the Des Horn is one of my best !! It goes through plastic on a steady pace.

Now The 4mm thickworking Bowie blade is so gorgeous. Everytime I open it I got that “WOW” moment.
The edge is toothy. That the way Des likes it. I have strop it on leather. Now it cuts hairs in flight.
The lock is a Michael Walker liner lock. Falls in perfectly.

Des Horn Imvubu

The full spacer is also in Carbonfiber. Everything is light and strong.
Des Horn is a meticulous maker and every part of the knife is like high horlogery. It is smooth and reliable.
So meticulous that Des Horn’s shop is so clean. You could eat on the wooden floor. 😉
Also, owning a knife made by a true gentleman is a luxury. There is always some spirit of the maker in the tool.

I love also his philosophy: a knife is a tool. Which means: you can use it. Hard.
These are my intentions. To be contined

Folders, Uncategorized

Spyderco Mantra 2 – Pure Flipper Workhorse !

6 Comments

20160806_155644-01_zpssysruzfx
The Mantra 2 is Eric Glesser’s design and is one of a kind Spyderco as its blade’s hole is only here as a trademark. Your only way to flick the knife open is the flipper invented by Kit Carson at the end of the 90’s. There is no hump. It’s a very slick knife.

20160806_155626-01_zpszuhzxtei

There is a lot of edge on this blade/handle ratio as there is no choil too !  Not your typical Spydie huh ? (Apart from the autos destined for Militaries and LEO, you won’t find that in Spyderco Catalog.)
All of these makes the Mantra 2 a compact design with a deep wire pocket carry. A solid R.I.L. lock , an ergonomic handle and a full flat ground CPM M4 blade. This powder metalurgy super tool steel once introduced on Gayle Bradley’s designs has proven to be one of the best in strenght and edge retention.
So the Mantra 2 is a very powerful package which can withstand punishing and be easily washed under tap water thanks to its all open handle design (no back spacer).
Its strange nose seems here to strenghten the tip of the blade. Again with Spyderco, aesthetics come  second in their knives.

20160806_155734-01_zpsi1kcywds

The lock is wearproof and reinforced  with steel. All engineering details has been thought to get to the ELU a reliable heirloom tool.

20160806_160235-01_zps9fy8lwxb

Dwarfed next to my K2, I use my M2 for mondaine chores including eating in a plate. M4 has no stain yet BTW.
It’s not the kind of knives which raise any eyebrows in the sheeple crowd which is good nowadays. It’s low profile apart from its flipping opening. There it could almost look like an auto. There is no way to open it in a softer way but to use both hands. It works also.

The deep carry clip doesn’t make it very fast to draw compared to the Wolfspyder for example. But it disappears in your pocket and is very stealthy, perfect for an EDC.

Edgewise I have found mine a little on the thick side. I will thin it even if CPM M4 can a bear on a stone.  Nothing serious there.

20160806_155658-01_zpssylww13n

All in all the Mantra 2 is a very unique design. A compact tool with a lot of applications.
Again this is a gentleman knife with the power of a much bigger knife.
Eric Glesser has provided another very clever design with the best material available and a great attention to details. This is not a safe queen but a compact and slick workhorse.

And FYI a portion of sales of the Mantra is donated to The National Parkinson Foundation.

 

Folders, Uncategorized

Spyderco Ray Mears WolfSpyder Collaboration

10 Comments

When I’ve heard about the collaboration between Ray Mears and Spyderco, I was really excited. Ray Mears !! I knew his show since the 90’s and his gentle way to walk in the beautiful English countryside and doing a lot of thing with a short fixed blade.

Wait a minute ?! A short fixed blade in the UK ?! Is that forbidden by UK laws ?
But Ray’s knife was a tool to do things, to create shelter, to elaborate traps, a cutting tool used for construction, for cleverness… not for fear and destruction.

20160430_112616_zpskjvvyrq6

At the last Minimeet in Amsterdam I was able to play with a prototype of the coming Wolfspyder. I was not impressed. Almost disappointed : it was a very short knife with a big notch in the handle asking for my thumb to find a linerlock… without any liner lock. Oh yeah, it was a very goofy handle at first sight… And a thick edge on a short blade…

Eric Glesser was hosting the Meet alone for the first time and he was giving a lot of informations about this design : how Ray Mears has contacted Golden and how they have decided to join force. The best ‘in house’ lock being the Compression Lock, it was an immediate choice. Now the folder needed to be used in the way Ray uses his knives, so it needed to be tough, solid, reliable and ergonomic.

Ray Mears Woodlore was his first attempt in the knife designing world. Alan Wood was the maker of his short fixed blade with scandinavian grind. The result was a no non sense design of a versatile tool. (Spyderco also got their own Bushcrafter knife vaguely inspired by the Woodlore craze…)

To my own knowledge the Wolfspyder will be the first folding knife designed by Mears, so I figure this is a very personnal attempt. He had time to think about what he wanted in a folder. So this a knife of maturity.

20160503_222429_zps0o4uqfkl

The result is absolutly fascinating if you know the philosophy behind Woodlore Inc UK’s premier School of Wilderness Bushcraft: using knowledge to live from what the wilderness offers.
In the past years, I had noticed in his TV shows that Ray Mears was often using a Suedish folding knife (a Fallkniven 3 inches folder) instead of his famous Woodlore fixed blade knife. It was funny as I remember how Peter Horstberger (Fallkniven’s CEO) was not advising to use his folding knives for cutting wood… (When his Fallkniven U2 was released…)
Anyway, Ray Mears was counting now on a full flat ground folder as his main EDC in the wild and on the show. But now he was going to Golden: the ‘Temple of Full Flat Ground Folders’ to get his own design refined and produce and we got…. A scandi grind folder !?
20160511_111746_zpsacipnemo
OK. Scandi means hard use for me. The blade offers some thickness to almost its point. Its edge goes deep when push cutting and trimming wood and the cuts can stay shallow for creating feather sticks.
But as much as I love S30V, will the choice of that steel be the best « sharpening friendy » choice ? CPM S30V is one of the rare steel made for knives but Bushcraft tools tend to be more on the “carbon steel” side. O1 is the tool steel found mostly.
Scandy grind, if you don’t create a new bevel, can be a bear to sharpen as S30V a big carbid vanadium steel is very resistant to abrasion and you need to keep the original geometry to remove a lot of metal.
I dont think I will get a good result with my Japanese water stone.
Diamonds will be S30V scandi ground best friend. But then, will the cratches ruin the finish ? Oh well… I’m really looking forward to watch some Woodlore video showing us how to… 😉

fb_img_1462022614451_zpse71cuobd

Back to the Wolfspyder intriguing design. As odd as the handle looks, it is eventually a pleasure to hold. The unusual horns are perfect for a resting thumb, even the pinky got its own place ! The integral guard works great, you can firmly hold your knife, your hand won’t slip on the blade. It works edge down in hammer grip but also it works great edge up.

fb_img_1462306810272_zpsf3eoswb7

The compression lock is hidden/integrated/nested in the G10, this is Spyderco’s usual ‘tour de force’ they know to achieve since 1995 on their C36 Military’s liner lock …
The G10 green colour is dark and perfect for a UK offspring tool. The back of the handle (where the lock is) does not bit your hand when using the knife hard. It was my main concern since the Paramilitary compression lock was sometimes really painful when used hard without gloves on. Which means the Wolfspyder can be used harder, with more power than the Paramillie !

20160503_215802_zpsay6luvfm

For my own confort I have sanded and rounded all the G10 edges. Also the back of the blade as I don’t have plan to make fire this way and my sore thumb was asking for that improvement. Now the edgy back was designed to scratch some ferro rod… I prefer to push cut with my finger on a rounded back blade like on the Sebenza.

The Wolfspyder again oozes quality from all its pore. The action is smooth. There is zero play in any direction. It’s heavy in your hand, well balanced… it screams to be used.

Once clipped to a pocket, the knife rides high compared to my recent wired clipped Spydies… But odd enough, eventually it makes quick draws so easy! The fingers find their way around the handle and the thumb ready to push open the holed blade in the same motion. Easy and fast for tip up carry knife. This is not a southpaw friendly knife BTW.
I close the blade using momentum and inertia. The relatively heavy blade is perfect for that. I release the compression lock and with a quick wrist movement it closes.

20160514_203018_zpsqctcapxg

On my Plastic Bottle Butt test, the Wolfspyder was not the best performer. The grind is a little to « wedgy » for pushcutting through thick plastic. But I was able to pass through. When my Swick, my Manta 2 and of course my Nilakka were able to cut through it easily. Again, that particular grind is primarily made for wood tasks.

20160513_234005_zps7f6zydxq

All in all, I’m very satisfied with that purchase. It’s a very well thought EDC companion imagined by a gentleman who got only two knives designed and made in 30 years, the Wolfspyder being the second to my knowledge. At least Mears is not Bear with a collection of low end tools mass produced for his TV fan. And this UK designed knife is proudly made in the Colonies: Golden, Colorado, Earth !! 😉
So the Wolfspyder is finding its gentle place in my front pocket, easing my craves for new bold designs, asking to be used in the wild even if I carry it in the city. Have a knife, will travel… Chapter II is here !

and her last travel to Norway is here.

20160509_182133_zpsxdfq1bpv

Uncategorized

Patrick Bonetta’s Tactical Paring Knife

1 Comment

Patrick Bonneta

The video can be found here: Patrick Bonetta – Le Coutelier des Grands Chefs

Usually I use my “tactical” knives in the kitchen but this time it is exactly the other way around… This is a kitchen knife ready for “tactical” situations thanks to its great ergos and its kydex sheath worn as a neck sheath.
It was all made by Patrick Bonetta. Patrick is a old friend from Ed Schempp, Fred Perrin and is living the neighborhood!

Patrick Bonetta

He is first known for his incredible skills at sharpening kitchen knives for famous chefs around the world like Alain Ducasse, Jean Louis Nomicos and Palace like Le Bristol, Le Crillon, le Royal Monceau, le Taillevent

He’s also a designer, a blade smith and legendary epicurian.
His first dream was to be a knifemaker then he has found that there was a real lacking in the way knives’s edges were kept. In fact, not many of so called “grinders” are able to understand how to get all blades really keen but Patrick is one of them. This is a rare talent and this is very very special knack.


There is a timeless aura in his workshop which used to be the one of his grand father.


His paring knife is light and razor sharp. To eat a good meat with a blunt knife is blasphemous and a serrated edge will ruined everything!

Patrick’s Commandements are simple: never lend your knife and you don’t break bones with a paring knife.
Now all cooks want everlasting sharp knives and this is not a reality. So, to get them sharp again is mandatory.

My knife is light, well balanced. Its 4 inches very thin blade is tapered, flat ground and comes with a very nice convex edge made of classic knife steel CroMoVa cryo tempered.

The steel used is gentle under the stone and easy to maintain really sharp.

This is a great combo in a very light package. Perfect to snatch in a voyager bag were every grams count !
It’s also easy to carry around the neck in a camp where it will be really useful for every cooking duty.
The handle is in paper micarta, mince is burgundy. Patrick as drill some hole for a better grip when unsheating the knife with wet hands. They work great holding the blade flat on a board.

What a cheer joy to cut vegetables and meat with such a great little buddy. Its polyvalent blade can be used for a wide range of kitchen duties and there is a guilty pleasure to use it also as a steak knife !

Uncategorized

PEKKA TUOMINEN IRON WOOD PUUKKO – A glimpse at the Northern Woodlord.

1 Comment

Pekka Tuominen Spyderco Puukko

Pekka Tuominen Spyderco Puukko

Pekka Tuominen Spyderco Puukko

Pekka Tuominen Spyderco Puukko

As you can notice the blade of the Puukko is not tapered like the Nilakka. It’s a real different animal to work with.
More strength to the tip for example.Even if I had never got any issue with the folding version which is one of my sharpest (if not the sharpest) of all my knives. The Puukko is in the same category in term of push cutting.
Also you can notice how its cousin, the Urban Hunting Knife II looks huge compare to that lil’ Northern Woodlord. Again Pekka’s Puukko is destined to be sheeple friendly. For the Finnish, this blade lenght is more than enough.
It’s a gentleman bushcrafter and it screams to be used ! And Spyderco S30V bring a very stable edge in my own experience.
I’m planning to keep that Puukko in a zero edge (when I had gently convexed my Nilakka…) and I will be confronted at one moment to the water stone. More to come soon !!:-)

Uncategorized

FARID K2 – No Rest For The Wick2d

1 Comment

Spyderco Farid K2

This is a big knife but it has found its place in my pocket. The flat design makes it easy to carry and forget in your pocket. Also the single screw clip makes a beautiful print like a much smaller knife. this is deceptive and it works great.

Now the thin edge has proven its power in push cutting. The handle is not the most confortable but this is the price for a flat design. On that matter the Pekka Tuominen Nilakka is the king: thick and confortable handle with a thin edge. Anyway the K2 is a very powerful knife. The curves of the very thin edge help a lot. Also the weight behind the edge helps a lot. My K2 has been used for light chopping chores and it works great. This is another dimension of use which is going to be explore with the coming Tatanka. The wide blade of the K2 got enough momentum to cut deep. Really wide like a folding little machette.

Another great asset is how the knife is easy to clean and rinse under the tap. This is a great plus for hunters and cooks.
Mine has even fall on concrete and got no marks.

The edge is resistant to plate also. Mine has not rolled after some strong cuts on harder materials. The blade is also enough pointy to be used like a fork… Mine has stained but they have been removed with some compound. I haven’t kept the blade clean at all for a month now. So stains can happen. no big deal.

The K2 has proven also to be female friendly. It has been used around the table for cheese, bread and various desserts. The shape of the blade makes it easy to use with efficiency.
Also the smoothness of the action has been noticed by many handlers in my family. They feel immediately at ease with this massive blade. And they notice how thin the blade is.
Well I’m lucky to have it still ! 🙂

SPyderco Farid K2

The butt of the bottle is parted in two.

Delicate chorizo. The long blade and the thin edge give an efficient sawing motion which only needs the weight of the knife to cut through.

Huge mortadella !!


This is the kind of cheese which needs a longer blade.

Frosen forest white chocolate ice cream has been a match as some biscuits are hidden inside.

It looked easy but eventually it was a mess.

I was able to cut through it with my Ikea VG10 Chef Knife by pushing with handle and the blade with all my weight…
Ice is a tough material, even with a hot knife. 🙂

Uncategorized

SPYDERCO K2 FOLDER ~ C185TI – The Flat and Furious

2 Comments

Farid K2 SPyderco K2

Farid Mehr is known for his massive designs. He was even doing integral lock from stainless steel slabs. This is pure heavy metal. Here is his first collaboration with Spyderco and the result is well impressive ! The K2 could be seen as an Über-Sebenza and last but not least this is the first CPM10V industrial folder ever.

CPM10V is the King of the Mountain in the pure edge retention field, it’s got even better results than CPM90V.

Typical Chemistry
Carbon 2.45%
Manganese 0.50%
Silicon 0.90%
Chromium 5.25%
Vanadium 9.75%
Molybdenum 1.30%
Sulfur 0.07%

Much less Chromium than CPM110V and CPM90V. CPM10V is an alloy with almost 10% of vanadium. This is a dream steel. Something to test and feel. I have already the great tests of Jim Ankerson about how great CPM10V at 63HRC is a pure beast of work. Cliff stamps also have made some “in deep” researchs with the same conclusions.

My K2 is light, perfectly balanced. The edge is thin. The blade is wide. The handle is flat.
The lock needs some breaking in as it’s sticky. The flat slabs are not close to how the Slysz Bowie feels confortable. Flat and palm are not friends. Also the spine of the blade is square after the hole hump. the finish of the blade is not as refined as the Slysz’s but the K2 got its own charisma. Something brutal which asks to be tested hard. It’s a very masculine tool.

So here are some pictures and size comparaisons. This is a big folder which ride small in the pocket with the best powder steel available nowadays. Pocketing that much high quality edge in a flat, solid and light package should raise the ears of the hunters. Also the R.I.L. lock and construction is easy to clean.

FARID K2

The Slysz Bowie and Farid K2 the Yin and the Yang.


A clever disk to prevent over pushing the RIL.




Compared to the Millie. The K2 leaves almost the same pocket print. The absence of choil gives a lot of edge.



Let’s try to dwarf it with the Cold Steel Voyager XL but in the end the K2 provides a relatively long blade too !


Compared to my Sebbie.


Compared to the Tuff. Two very different philosophies. The Tuff is tougher but the K2 got more edge length.


The construction of the knife uses only two screws. The axis and the other one (near the lanyard hole) which got that kind of squashed steel ball to give rigidity. Very clever. No need for a spacer.


And the belly is perfect for cutting pizzas !!


Is the K2 a folder for Machete ?

Uncategorized

SPYDERCO C06TI TUSK – PASCAL JAFFRE’S REVIEW “INSPIRATIONAL BLADE”

1 Comment

Once in a while I invite some friends to write reviews about knives. Pascal Jaffre is a passionate of classical music, shooting and computing with a lot of cultural background, he’s also a skipper. So, he was the right person to review the

“Inspirational blade”


A Spyderco Tusk Review

« Try Spyderco’s Tusk folding knife and tell me what you think about it! » were captain Nemo’s words one evening at the shooting club in Asnières (town’s name comes from “ane” = donkey). No donkey hunting for Tusk as the quadrupeds long left the patches where they used to graze and rest from barge tugging against the Seine’s current. On the contrary, Tusk’s tasks have been diverse and peaceful; in turn it has proven to me as a great inspirational source!

If I were a castle, which one would I be? Marlinspike Hall of course and Tintin would have been better equipped against the “l’Oiseau brothers” with me in his pocket.


Could I have influenced world famous composers like Mozart and Wagner? Maybe I have… take a close look!


Given that folded, my shape resembles that of a drop of water, had I been a musical note, which one would I have been? “A flat” of course which is Chopin’s “drop of water” in the famous Prelude N°15 – Prelude à la goutte d’eau!


Transposed to music this picture does not sound as harmonious as it looks: A-flat and G (Tusk and la sole – not Schubert’s trout)! The fish was delicious and it was a pleasure to eat “a flat” fish with a G-em.


More seriously let me show how sharp the blade is. Even trickier than the tomato test: the rotten pineapple test! Hard on the outside and soft (much too soft) in the inside. However Tusk did the job perfectly and my trash can got the pinapple – less the first bite.


Let’s finish off the food test with a panel of some other tricky things to cut. The sausage (saucisson): very thin slices. The avocado hard skin and yet ripe inside not crushed and perfect cut. The well cooked French bread – I was really impressed how a blade without dents cut the crust. To finish 2 types of Comté cheese (24 and 32 month aged) from the Jura region. The most difficult cheese to cut out of the 2 is the eldest because less moist and having a tendency of breaking: Tusk cuts the cheese at ease!


Birds of a feather? No, not feather but leather – courageous Tusk about to beat the baby crocodile and the result is below! Well done Tusk!


Good hunt!

Tusk also participated in the assembly of C 4.8 my French catamaran built in the early 80’s.

The result I’d say is contrasted in the sense that in my case the marlinspike was preventing from using the shackle key. This is due to the small volumes in which the tool needs to evolve. Had the shackles been oriented with a 90 degree rotation, that limitation would not have appeared.
Here is a demonstration of how the marlinspike limits the rotation: blocked at one point by the top of the hull. Obviously shackle keys that have an outer curve add further difficulty so it’s important that the tool be as thin as possible.

Another similar situation when installing the shackle key that holds the stays, forestay and shrouds to the mast. Again unfortunately the length of the marlinspike hinders the ability to rotate by a wide angle. However what I found really comfortable is Tusk’s ability to deliver power when working with the shackle key; this is due to its length combined with its overall robustness.

So to summarize a long strong tail does not necessarily get to go everywhere! That said, as during the assembly of C 4.8, wind was blowing up to 33 knots the marlinspike eventually had a good effect after putting it in the wind because in the evening we were down by some… knots!

Tusk ne manque pas d’air!
Tusk has been a great knife to test: discrete in the pocket, a beautiful gem that fuels imagination and a strong working tool. I’ll have to test against larger boat!

(Text and Photo Pascal Jaffre.)

Tusk !

Pascal Jaffre

Uncategorized

JD’S SPYDERCO LADYBUG IN SUPER BLUE STEEL LGYP3E

1 Comment

JD LADYBUG
 

Thanks to my friend Nemo I have had a chance to check out the Spyderco C(SB) steel with a full flat grind(ffg). This is my first ffg Ladybug and my first experience of Super Blue steel. Let me tell you what I found!


I have had a Ladybug before. The VG10 model with the saber grind.I did not like how it cut, for my taste it was far to thick at the edge and the back. I ground the bevels flat so now it has a singe bevel grind. It cut much better but I did not use it much.

The day I brought the Ladybug SB in to service I put a fob on it, Spyderco Jur style, to give me a little extra to hold on to. I oiled the joint with a little Nano Oil. The mid-lock was smooth and easy to operate. There was just a little vertical blade play. Which is not uncommon on mid-locks and back-locks. My older Ladybug was the same in that regard.

I then sharpened it, as the edge was only cutting note book paper roughly. At the same time I lowered the edge angle. When I sharpened the back the of blade, the part above the Spyderco hole, was about 1mm above the hone. This gave me a final edge that was just below 10dps(degrees per side) blended into the main bevel.

My idea is that a knife this small should cut with very little resistence. You are not going to put much force on the blade as the handle is to small for that. So, thin and sharp is the way to go! Grinding the whole blade flat on the stone would make it cut even better but is just to much work for me.

I cut a little cardboard just so see how well it would cut, how the edge would respond, and how the handle would feel in the hand. The blade cut well with little resistance but the edge had collapsed. After de-stressing the edge (lightly cutting in to a stone to remove the damaged steel) and resharpening it I cut some more cardboard. The edge seemed to be stable but more cardboard cutting revealed a small section had collapsed again. It took a few times de-stressing and resharpening to stabilize also this part of the edge. It has been my experience that often a knife need to be sharpened a few times before you see its full potential.

These sharpening sessions gave me the opportunity to use different hones to sharpen the blade. And I must say: this is a very nice steel to sharpen! No matter the hone. I sharpened with diamonds, a Norton fine India hone, and different ceramics. After de-stressing it could be apexed quickly with hardly any burrs forming. The burrs that did form could be removed with just a few light, high angle, passes into the stone. It was not just easy to sharpen, but easily took very sharp, hungry, edge! 🙂

The handle is large enough for me to get a two and a halve finger grip. During the cutting task I used the knife for, I found the handle to give me a good grip and precise control of the edge. I did find the handle small and fiddly for opening the knife with the thump in the Spyderco hole. So, usually I opened the knife in a different way.

The last few weeks I cut medium size apples, cardboard, I opened mail, cut open and removed the seed from and avocado, trimmed a nail here and there, and cut plastic food packaging. The knife handled all these task without much of a fuss, though the apple was at the limit of its abilities due to the length of the edge and the size of apple. Some of these task would have been easier or faster done with a larger knife, but you do not alway have that option. In those cases it is nice to know that this, slightly modified, ffg Ladybug will get the job done. As the saying goes: „I does not have to be big, just sharp!” As for the steel…It takes a great edge! 🙂

Text and Photos by JD.