And if the alternative of the a Tie Millie was not a Tie Paramilitary (which is not yet born) but the SC123TIP: the Spyderco Sage II ?

The Sage line is a collection made in Taiwan (now a high quality of execution guarantee). and “represents Spyderco’s 30-year pledge to knife crafting and learning to make better knives at every available opportunity. The plan is to offer an ongoing series of Sage Folders with many of the different and ingenious locking devices and mechanisms the knife industry has to offer.” (sic)

The Sage I was a carbon fiber handle linerlock, an hommage to Michael Walker. The Sage II is a titanium handle integral lock, an hommage to Chris Reeve.

Let’s give a quick look at the design of that folder: not to big, flat, beautiful lines, taking in consideration a lot of Spyderco unique improvements — the wire clip, the choil, the full falt ground leaf blade… The C123 is standing on the shoulders of many great spyderknives, taking the best.

Comparing the Sage II (up) and the Tie Military there is an obvious family ressemblance. Full flat ground blade, integral lock and choil. The “cockpits” on both knives are very similar. The construction is rock solid, the titanium handles are offering enough grip for a smooth surface which is very “gentle” with your trouser pockets (where you gonna clip those knives eventually). The Sage could be a civilian version of the Tie Millie as the fact to go in the city with a long gorgeous knife like a C36 is not the best way to be “reasonnable” in regard of the laws, the sage while offering many of the great features of his big cousin but it will be more pratical to go with it “under the radar”.

The silver wire clip on a black trouser. This is the max visibility you will have from the Sage II once clipped.

The wire clip, for example, with its deep carrying positing is almost invisible and got no flashing names on it telling to every one: this is a knife !!!
Similar to pen clips and with almost no handle to tell tale, your Sage is following you and he’s easy forgettable.
The Millie is a very compact package and car easily find a place on your person, but the Sage looks like a wise choice to go light.

A close look at the handle of the Sage II (left) and  Tie Millie (right)

How the Sage II will handle “hard use” in the country side ? There is a lot of way to qualify what “hard use” means. Folders knives are not prybars or even fixed blade knives. The folder which are designed to be used as prybar often offers bad performance in the cutting departement. The grind here is flat and the blade relatively thin and I have noticed the Taiwanese edge grind is not flat but already gently convexed. This is amazing as your Sage II only needs some pass of gently stropping on a leather belt to get absolutely vorpal ! The cutting power has been already demonstrated in some video. They are some French videos torturing a “La Redoute catalog” with Bast2a, and American one with BLUNTRUTH4U reviewing a Sage 1 (same blade diffrent handles and locks) and they are very impressive. Cutting wood the Sage 2, the blade goes deep.
Now I like to do pushcuts with my thumb on the back of the blade and the Sage got almost sharp edge there: great for obtaining sparks from a fire rod but eventually painful without gloves. I have used some diamonds rods to blunt mine and really you can notice the difference in confort when you start to work by hand on that CPM S30V blade how much that steel is damn hard ! I would love to have a ruonded back and perharps will try to round it more a little bit. But here, without a backstand, you can notice how hard the steel is…
Anyway, you got a 3mm thin high flat ground blade with a convexed edge: all the condition for a great slicer and ideal folding friendly tool for bushcrafters. The belly of the blade improves the cuts in hard matter, working like a guillotine. (My best wood cutter is still the incredible Spyderco Dodo with its S edge which cant be compare to none as a “wood eater” !)

My favorite cutting test: going through the butt of a cola plastic bottle. you will be surprised how many great designs cant do it… The Sage passed it with flying colors !
Many so called “hard used” folders with really thick blade cannot pass that test at all.

The  ESEE 3 and the Sage II make a great high performance compact combo for going in the woods BTW.
Also the open construction on the Sage II and the simple reliable mechanism improved by Chris Reeve on his Sebenza Line is a breeze to get clean.

As the handle is not straight but gently curved to spouse the palm of your hand, there is no need for an abbrasive matter (like G10) to get and conserve a positive grip even with wet and slippy hands. There is a lot of intuitive security in that design. The choil and the jimping for example are so great to communicat direct force to the blade without to stress the pivot. This is a great feature which was first developped on the C36 Military and which is now used in the Slipjoint line of Spyderco: even with no lock your hand and fingers are safe.

For a reason unknown, when I have received my Sage II it was not smooth and the lock was sticky. No blade play in any direction though. This problem was easily worked around by adjusting the pivot and gently bend the lock beyond the handle to rub some pencil on the locking surface. Now the knife is as smooth as my Gayle Bradley and the “galling” (sticky lock) absolutly disappeared. The cute Sage II got something of a jewell and I have noticed many owner who first decided to baby it and use it only on weekend then eventually happilly use them very hard everyday.

There is a lot of wisdom behind the design of  the Sage collection. The choice to get a worker knives collection all performance oriented in the legal non threatning package is the wisest.  And the first designs so far are really workhorse. The carbon fibers on the Sage I for example can take a beating without to get marked or scratched and the frame lock on the second give a you a lot of confidence in your tool just by squizing the handle you know the blade won’t fold.  Eventually the Sage II got everything I love in a knife: reliability, beauty, efficiency and sheeple friendship. And my trousers love them too. The Sage II is simply a great knife to EDC.

Tha handle gives to four fingers a very confortable grip. The open ended construction while easy to clean would get painful for long hard cut. Gloves can help.

One sage said: “Think twice and cut once…”

Later, I was tempted to slightly convex the blade of my Sage II. The improvement in pure performance worse the time passed with sandpaper.
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