Spyderco Knives is one of my top picks for everyday carry knives. They meet the criteria I look for when purchasing knives for everyday carry and they are extremely pleasant to work with. As I said in my review of the Delica 4, They are a surprisingly smaller shop (right around 100 employees) and cater to both law enforcement and military.
The Delica 4 is a great lightweight knife, but I wanted something with a little more heft to it that could be used for both utility work and as an emergency defensive knife. After taking a look at their website and talking with them I settled on the Spyderco Manix 2 with G-10 scales and an all black blade.
The blade is a full flat grind making it extremely efficient as a camp knife preparing food or prepping wood to get a camp fire going. Carving with this blade is a breeze due to the full flat grind. I’m able to get very fine curls and shavings off sticks in order to get a fire started.
The shape of the blade makes it work double duty as an emergency defensive blade. You just need to be sure practice deploying the blade so that you build some muscle memory in order to be able to draw it in a high stress situation.
From the Spyderco website:
A powerful synergy of high performance and low profile, the Manix 2 Black Blade is a reliable, full-service folding knife with a stealthy non-reflective finish. Its broad, full-flat-ground blade is precision machined from premium CPM® S30V® particle metallurgy stainless steel and coated with an ultra-durable black tungsten DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) coating. Matching areas of jimping (textured grooves) on the thumb ramp and the index-finger choil complement the handle’s refined ergonomics to offer an amazingly secure, comfortable grip.
Its handle is constructed with full stainless steel liners, a stainless steel back spacer, and textured black G-10 scales. It houses the knife’s high-strength Ball Bearing Lock mechanism, which consists of a hardened steel ball bearing encased in a polymer cage. When the knife is opened, a spring plunger drives the ball bearing forward onto a ramp on the blade, wedging it securely open. Pulling back on the cage releases the lock and allows the blade to pivot smoothly closed. Both opening and closing are easily performed with either hand and without ever placing your fingers near the blade’s edge.
