Before I let ET actually get into the Spyderco Challenge, I wanted to lay out my stance on the issue and give some background information.

For one thing, I didn’t call another blogger out or lay down a challenge just to be a contrary asshole. It was a calculated move to try and abolish a small bit of bigotry in the knife snob community.

Let me also state that I have no brand loyalties. I worked in a knife shop for some time, and got quite a bit of insight into the industry. Based on real world experience with literally thousands of pieces of cutlery sold, returned, broken and replaced, I know which manufacturers stand by their stuff, which are easy to deal with, which are worthless and which to trust.

That’s not to mention my own personal locker of things with points and edges. Off the top of my head, I own at least 3 Al Mar’s, five Benchmades, an Entrek, a RTAK, a Becker, three Emersons, three Kershaws, two CRKT’s (soon to be one but I forgot about the KISS), a Gerber, a couple Leathermans, and a few more, not including kitchen stuff (Messermeister, Kyocera and Global, mostly). Oh, and eight Spyderco’s.

I chalk it up to the employee discount. Kinda like the reason I have so many Surefires. Guns, I have no excuse for.

Of the ones I carry every day or almost every day, I like the Benchmade 941Ti, the Benchmade Skirmish and the Spyderco Manix the best. You’ll note that two of the three are large and burly, while the other is slim and built equally like a bank vault.

So thats where I’m coming from. Having sharpened thousands of blades, I like S30V the best while I loath that Carbon V stuff from Cold Steel. Having played with virtually every locking mechanism in existence, I tend to gravitate toward lockbacks and framelocks, but the Axis is really nice.

OK.

ET made a disparaging remark about Spyderco while talking up CRKT. Some people really like CRKT’s, and for the low price point they have a place in the knife world. I don’t consider them on the level of a Spyderco, however. Again, this is from personal experience and working in the industry. Spyderco is like the Glock of the knife world - ubiquitous, reliable, well made and not expensive. I like them very much. CRKT is like the Smith & Wesson automatics of the knife worlds - sure, the higher end stuff (M16-14 Big Dog / Smith M&P) is well received, but not many people rave about Sigma’s. They work, but they’re a little clunky and not the most optimal. I hope I didn’t butcher the analogy too bad, and hopefully somebody doesn’t remember that I talked Glocks down not too long ago in favor of 1911’s. That’d be like Spyderco versus Chris Reeve, I guess.

Now because he and I see eye to eye on most things, I wanted to see what the deal was. Turns out he had the bias based on some knock off piece of junk. So the challenge was issued, accepted and discussed. You can read the details at the supplied link.

Now we wait.

Come to think of it, I don’t need this many folders. I need to sell some so I can buy a Strider SMF.

(Haji, I’d like to see you weigh in on this issue as well, seeing as how you got me the knife job and basically started my education on the subject.)