I just recently picked up a couple of nice used Spyderco knives, an Endura, and a Dyad Jr, the Endura was almost new, just a little cosmetic wear on the clip/lanyard hole and pocket clip, the blade was flawless, and still scary-sharp, it shaves arm hair like crazy
the Dyad Jr is an incredibly awesome little pocketknife, it has a plain edge drop point blade on one end, and a sheepsfoot serrated blade on the other end (both blades are 2" long), there were a few tiny oxidation spots on it, but they cleaned right out with some 000 steel wool, both blades were incredibly sharp still, but not scary-sharp
the Dyad Jr is out of production, and it turns out the Dyad series of Spydies are actually somewhat rare and valuable (they eBay for around $45-50 LNIB), i actually called Spyderco to find out how much it’d cost to refurb this little gem, and found out the interesting history of the Dyad series…
Spyderco came out with the Dyad line, then a short while later, a manufacturer making cheap-crap Chinese-made** knockoffs (a knifestamper using the Smith&Wesson name under licence) created a very similar knife and tried suing Spyderco for “patent infringement” (Spyd. came out with the design first), a legal battle ensued and for some reason, Spyderco decided to let them take the design and discontinued the Dyad series, long story short, the design was stolen from Spyderco thru slimy legal maneuvering by S&W, and attempts to string the lawsuit along to make it unprofitable for Spyderco to defend their knife design (i hate lawyers…)
so, thanks to the crappy S&W knives, a superior knife was pulled from the market, and the Dyad series has become a very collectible knife, sorry, S&W, i’m not going to be purchasing your crappy knives, ever
tonight, i picked up a Sharpmaker sharpener, i’ve always seen these sharpeners on display in sporting goods stores and they seemed too good to be true, seemed rather cheesy, they had to be overrated, right?
yesterday i stopped off at my local sporting goods shop with my semi-dull Gerber EZ-Out beater lockback knife, a knife that resisted hand sharpening on bench stones and the Lansky sharpening system, the thing was rapidly becoming about as sharp as a butter knife…
after about 20 or so passes on the Sharpmaker, my lowly Gerber was hair-poppingly sharp and could shave hairs right up there with my Spyderco Endura, it was frankly, amazing, this little device was able to put a razor-sharp edge on my clunky old beater blade
…imagine what it could do to my Endura and Dyad Jr, i had to get one
so tonight, i picked up a Sharpmaker, and it’s everything i thought it could be, 10 passes down the white rods and the Dyad is super-scary-sharp, i can put it on my arm to shave arm hairs, and the hairs will jump off my arm, rather than face the blade, doing the fingernail-drag test, it’s sticky down the length of the blade, i can hold up a piece of paper with a corner facing out and chop the corners off the paper
i just put a new edge on the Endura and it too is scary-sharp, it doesn’t shave hairs as readily as the Dyad Jr, but that’s due to the blade being thicker and meatier, the Endura’s blade is a thick, rugged, meaty blade, yes it has a keen edge, but it’s a thick, substansial blade, better suited for heavy-duty cutting, the Dyad’s blade is thin, more of a razor-style blade, made for finesse cutting, the Endura’s like a machete, the Dyad’s more like a scalpel
the Sharpmaker is one of those rare products that actually does what it says it will, actual truth in advertising, who’da thunk it?
** i don’t mean to imply all Chinese-made knives are low quality or knockoffs, just S&W knives, there are some very high quality Chinese made blades out there, like the Kershaw line, for example, the Ken Onion Vapor series, very nice, reasonably priced, scary-sharp blades