![]() | |
Company type | Proprietorship |
---|---|
Industry | Manufacturing |
Founded | Golden, Colorado 1978 |
Headquarters | Golden, Colorado |
Key people | Sal Glesser, Founder & President |
Products | Knives |
Revenue | US$10 million |
Number of employees | 84 |
Website | www.spyderco.com |
Spyderco is an American cutlery company based in Golden, Colorado, producing knives and knife sharpeners. Spyderco pioneered many features that are now common in folding knives, including the pocket clip, serrations, and the opening hole. [1] [ failed verification ] Spyderco has collaborated with 30 custom knife makers, athletes, and self-defense instructors for designs and innovated the usage of 20 different blade materials.
Spyderco was founded by Sal Glesser. The name Spyderco was coined after Glesser noticed that many high-performance sports cars had 'Spyder' in the name, which inspired the name Spyderco to signify high performance cutting tools. The first product Spyderco produced was the Portable Hand in 1976, this "spider-shaped device", was a series of angles, ball joints and alligator clips that helped people such as jewelers and hobbyists to work with small parts. Spyderco's founder, Sal Glesser, and his wife Gail, converted an old bread delivery truck into a motorhome and traveled to shows. As they became more successful, they graduated from the bread truck to a truck and trailer. They settled in Golden in November 1978. The firm began producing knife sharpeners in 1978 and produced their first folding knife, the C01 Worker, in 1981; [2] [3] this was the first to feature a round hole in the blade designed for fast, one-handed and ambidextrous opening, which is now the company's trademark. [4] Additionally, the company claims that this was the first knife to feature a pocket clip on the right side of the handle. [5] [6] [7] [8]
Most knives produced by Spyderco are folding knives of various designs, blade steels, handle materials, and locking mechanisms (including two patented proprietary locks); however, they have also produced fixed-blade knives for various purposes. [9] [10]
The firm's knives are made with a plain edge, a partially serrated edge, or a fully serrated "Spyder Edge" configuration. [11] Their most common handle material is FRN (Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon) and G10, although they make knives with steel handles as well as some limited editions with handles from various other materials. [12]
A large part of the firm's knife production is outsourced to foreign contractors in countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Italy, and China. [13] (though many of their flagship knives are made in the US) Knives made with CPM S30V steel were previously all made in Golden, Colorado; however, Spyderco began shipping CPM-S30V to Taiwan to have their highest end knives produced there using this steel.
Spyderco knives are popular with many markets including private citizens, fire and rescue personnel and law enforcement officers. [11]
For his many influences in tactical knife design (most notably the pocket clip, serrations, and opening hole) and many collaborations with custom knife makers, Spyderco's President, Sal Glesser, was inducted into the Blade magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame at the 2000 Blade Show in Atlanta, Georgia. [14]
Spyderco has experimented with new blade steels over the years. [15] In 1994, it was the first company to use powder metallurgy in a production knife (in the form of Crucible's S60V tool steel), and the first knife company to use H-1 steel in a folding knife. [16] The Mule Team Project offers end users fixed-blade knife in various steels for the performance testing. [17]
Spyderco's current Steel Chart PDF.
The blade steels used by the company over the years include:
154CM an American stainless cutlery steel
52100, a ball bearing steel used in the first run of the Mule project.
8Cr13MoV, a Chinese stainless steel tempered at the RC56 to RC58 range and used in the Tenacious, Persistence, Ambitious, Resilience, Grasshopper, Kiwi3 and Byrd lines of knives. Often compared to AUS-8, but with slightly more carbon.
9Cr18Mo, a Chinese stainless steel used mostly in high-end barbering scissors and surgical tools.
440C, a stainless steel known for corrosion resistance and ease of sharpening.
Aogami Super Blue (青紙スーパー), a Japanese high-end steel made by Hitachi. The "Blue" refers not to the color of the steel itself, but the color of the paper in which the raw steel comes wrapped.
ATS-55, a performance stainless steel similar to ATS-34 with the molybdenum reduced, used only by Spyderco for knife steels until the early 2000s. [18]
AUS-6, similar in quality to 440a, used as a "budget" steel in early Spyderco models.
AUS-8, a frequently used Japanese steel, which is known for taking a very fine edge, due to the inclusion of vanadium. Sharpens easily, and has moderate edge holding and corrosion resistance.
AUS-10, a Japanese stainless steel series made by Aichi with the same carbon content as 440C but with slightly less chromium.
BG-42, a high performance stainless steel formulated for ball bearings, similar to ATS-34 (same composition, but with added vanadium), which has similar properties.
CPM S30V steel an American powder-metallurgy, high-carbide steel developed for the cutlery market. [19]
CPM-M4 (aka AISI M4), usually tempered to 62-65 HRC, a high-speed steel with combination of high carbon, molybdenum, vanadium, and tungsten for excellent wear resistance and toughness; a powder-metallurgical, non-stainless steel.
CPM-S60V, (a.k.a. 440V, a.k.a. CPMT440V), a modern American super-steel that is wear resistant, but difficult to sharpen. The low level of toughness means that it can only be hardened to around 56 RC, causing the edge-holding performance to be diminished.
CPM-S90V (a.k.a. 420V), similar to Crucible's S60V but designed to be more wear resistant with a very high carbide volume and high vanadium content. Appreciated for extreme edge-holding. S90V was featured in a sprint run of Spyderco's Military in 2004. Since then it has been used in several sprint runs in knives like the Manix 2 and Paramilitary 2. While S90V holds an edge better than S30V, both are usually hardened to about 59–61 RC.
CTS-20CP, Carpenter Technology's version of S90V, with slightly reduced chromium. Features high wear-resistance and edge-holding, hardened to about 60 RC.
CTS-BD1, Carpenter's versions of Gin-1 with improved chemistry. Originally featured in a Mule Team fixed blade.
CTS-XHP, made by Carpenter Technology. Often referred to as a stainless version of D2.
D2, a high performance tool steel that features high wear resistance. Spyderco uses Crucible's version of D2, which is a powder metallurgy version. CPM-D2 is found in a sprint run version of the Military model.
G2, a.k.a. GIN-1 (銀紙1号), a Hitachi-made low cost stainless steel comparable to, but softer than, AUS-8. Generally hardened in the mid to high RC 50s. A tough, corrosion-resistant steel.
H-1, a steel which is well suited for marine applications, because it substitutes nitrogen for carbon and thus is completely rust-proof in any normal environment such as saltwater exposure, though can still oxidize if exposed to extreme heat and chemical attack. It grinds, scratches and has edge retention similar to the low carbide steels such as AUS-6. It is a precipitation hardening steel, which means it hardens by the mechanical process of grinding the steel, rather than by heat treating. [20]
MBS-26, a Japanese [stainless] steel, very fine grained with high corrosion resistance used in the Catcherman and in most kitchen knives by Spyderco.
N690CO, an Austrian stainless steel similar to VG-10. Currently found in the Squeak and previously used in Spydercos manufactured by Fox Cutlery.
VG-10 (V金10号), [21] a Japanese steel developed for the horticulture industry by Takefu, often hardened around the RC60 range. Reported to have better corrosion resistance but less edge retention than S30V. Appreciated for taking a fine edge, and being easy to sharpen, while still holding an edge well. Used in most of the firm's Japanese-made knives.
ZDP-189, a Japanese powdered super-steel made by Hitachi, hardened to RC 62–67, with very high carbide volume. Has inferior edge-holding ability to S90V and S110V.
Through the years, Spyderco has collaborated with numerous custom knife makers in the design of various models. [12]
Spyderco often produces limited edition models, referred to as sprint runs. These limited runs are generally versions of discontinued models with different blade and handle materials, though some are completely new models, such as the Kopa; a "dress knife" with several variants, each with a different handle material such as micarta, evrina, and tiger coral.
Spyderco designs and produces knives under the Byrd brand. These knives use high quality materials and are manufactured in China, allowing much lower prices while retaining most of Spyderco's quality. [44] To differentiate the brands, Byrd knives have a "comet" shaped opening hole in the blade, rather than the trademark round hole found on Spyderco models.
To date, Byrd knives have featured 8Cr13MoV as their blade steel except for the Byrd Catbyrd titanium which uses 9Cr18Mo steel. [44] The brand's early knives were marked 440C, but tests found that the steel was something entirely different from American 440C. This steel was closer to AUS-8 than American 440C, and also went by the name 8Cr13MoV. [44]
The first Byrd models, the Cara Cara, Meadowlark, Flight, Pelican, and Crossbill, initially featured stainless steel handles. Newer Byrds have featured aluminum, fiberglass reinforced nylon (FRN), and G10 handles. [44]
A knife is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools. Originally made of wood, bone, and stone, over the centuries, in step with improvements in both metallurgy and manufacturing, knife blades have been made from copper, bronze, iron, steel, ceramic, and titanium. Most modern knives have either fixed or folding blades; blade patterns and styles vary by maker and country of origin.
A Japanese kitchen knife is a type of kitchen knife used for food preparation. These knives come in many different varieties and are often made using traditional Japanese blacksmithing techniques. They can be made from stainless steel, or hagane, which is the same kind of steel used to make Japanese swords. Most knives are referred to as hōchō or the variation -bōchō in compound words but can have other names including -kiri. There are four general categories used to distinguish the Japanese knife designs: handle, blade grind, steel, and construction.
The Benchmade Knife Company is an American knife manufacturer in Oregon City, Oregon.
Buck Knives is an American knife manufacturer founded in Mountain Home, Idaho and now located in Post Falls, Idaho. The company has a long history through five generations of the Buck family from 1902 to the present day. Buck Knives primarily manufactures sport and field knives and is credited with inventing the "folding hunting knife" and popularizing it to such a degree that the term "buck knife" has become synonymous with folding lockback knives, including those made by other manufacturers.
Strider Knives, Inc. is a custom and production knifemaking facility headed by Mickey Ray Burger, founded and based in San Marcos, California.
The SAE steel grades system is a standard alloy numbering system for steel grades maintained by SAE International.
The Linerlock is a locking mechanism for folding pocket knives. A Linerlock is a folding knife with a side-spring lock that can be opened and closed with one hand without repositioning the knife in the hand. The lock is self-adjusting for wear. The modern Linerlock traces its lineage to the late 19th century, but in the 1980s the design was improved by American custom knifemaker Michael Walker.
Cold Steel, Inc., is an American retailer of knives/bladed tools, training weapons, swords and other martial arts edged and blunt weapons. Founded in Ventura, California, the company is currently based in Irving, Texas, after an acquisition by GSM Outdoors in 2020. Cold Steel products are manufactured worldwide, including in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, India, Italy, China, and South Africa.
W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company is an American manufacturer of traditional pocket knives, fixed blades/sporting knives, kitchen knives, limited edition commemoratives and collectibles. The company originated in Little Valley, New York, around the turn of the 20th century, before relocating to its current home, Bradford, Pennsylvania, in 1905. The company's namesake, William Russell Case, first made knives with his brothers under the name Case Brothers Cutlery Company. His son, John Russell ("Russ") Case, worked as a salesman for his father's company before founding W.R. Case & Sons.
VG-10 is a cutlery-grade stainless steel produced in Japan. The name stands for V Gold 10, or sometimes V-Kin-10 (V金10号). Like various other blade steels, it is a stainless steel with a high carbon content, containing 1% carbon, 15% chromium, 1% molybdenum, 0.2% vanadium, and 1.5% cobalt.
The Sebenza is a folding pocket knife manufactured by Chris Reeve Knives of Boise, Idaho. It is constructed with a stainless steel blade and titanium handle. Its handle functions as the lock mechanism similar in concept to the Walker linerlock differing in that the handle itself forms the lock bar which holds the blade open. This mechanism was invented by Chris Reeve, and is called the Reeve Integral Lock (R.I.L). It is also commonly referred to as the Framelock, and is one of the most widely implemented locking systems in the folding knife industry, where lock strength and reliability is a product requirement. The name Sebenza is derived from the Zulu word meaning "Work," a tribute to Mr. Reeve's South African origins.
CPM S30V is a martensitic (hardened) powder-made (sintered) wear and corrosion-resistant stainless steel developed by Dick Barber of Crucible Industries in collaboration with knifemaker Chris Reeve. Its chemistry promotes the formation and even distribution of vanadium carbides, which are harder and more resistant to abrasion than chromium carbides. The powdered metallurgy process reduces the size of the carbides and gives the steel a very refined grain, further improving toughness. It contains carbon 1.45%, chromium 14.00%, vanadium 4.00%, and molybdenum 2.00%. Barber received feedback from a number of other knife users and knifemakers such as Sal Glesser, Ernest Emerson, Tony Marfione, Phil Wilson, William Harsey Jr., Tom Mayo, Jerry Hossom, and Paul Bos in the development of CPM S30V.
The Umnumzaan is a folding pocket knife manufactured by Chris Reeve Knives of Boise, Idaho, and designed by Chris Reeve. The name "Umnumzaan" is derived from the Zulu language, meaning "Head of the family," or "Boss" (colloq.), a tribute to Mr. Reeve's South Africa origins. The Umnumzaan was designed to meet the needs of operators seeking a heavy-duty folder capable of handling heavy use and even abuse. Building upon the Sebenza’s success, the Umnumzaan features: a stronger pivot joint, a thicker blade, a different blade grind with a reinforced tip, improved ergonomics, thicker titanium handles, a thicker titanium lock bar, a stronger ceramic ball detent system, a larger titanium spacer, a phosphor-bronze washer system designed to act as a ‘dry-sump’ to retain lubrication and keep dirt out, an oversized ambidextrous-thumb studs & extended lock bar to aid operation when wearing gloves, a lanyard pivot joint that uses pivoting lanyard tie bars, and a deeply textured grip.
Chris Reeve Knives is an American knife manufacturing corporation with international sales and distribution headquartered in Boise, Idaho, that designs, develops, and sells folding pocket knives and fixed-blade knives. Its products include the Sebenza, Inkosi, Umnumzaan, TiLock, Mnandi folding knives, Impinda slip joint, and the Green Beret, Pacific, Professional Soldier, Nyala, and Sikayo fixed blade knives. Chris Reeve Knives' industry contributions include the Integral Lock, contributions to the blade steels CPM-S30V and CPM-S35VN, and has won Blade Magazine's Blade Show Manufacturing Quality Award 15 times. Their motto is Think Twice, Cut Once.
Emerson Knives, Inc. is an American company that produces knives and related products. It was founded in 1996 by custom knifemaker Ernest Emerson in an effort to mass-produce his folding knife designs for the U.S. Military and collector markets.
Ka-Bar is the contemporary popular name for the combat knife first adopted by the United States Marine Corps in November 1942 as the 1219C2 combat knife, and subsequently adopted by the United States Navy as the U.S. Navy utility knife, Mark 2. Ka-Bar is the name of a related knife manufacturing company, Ka-Bar Knives., Inc., of Olean, New York, a subsidiary of the Cutco Corporation.
Robert G. Terzuola is an American knife maker who popularized the type of knife known as the tactical folding knife.
Mike Snody is a Southern Texas knife maker who is known for his use of exotic materials in his custom knives. He is currently based in Walsenburg, Colorado.
Crucible Industries, commonly known as Crucible, is an American company which develops and manufactures specialty steels, and is the sole producer of a line of sintered steels known as Crucible Particle Metallurgy (CPM) steels. The company produces high speed, stainless and tool steels for the automotive, cutlery, aerospace, and machine tool industries.