Spyderco Chaparral review

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A while back I went on the lookout for a new EDC knife, i did not know at the time it was called an EDC knife, for me it was just a pocket knife.
After some research and knife forum stalking I realized I did not know anything about knives but I started to really like that there was so much to choose from..it was a bit overwhelming.

I decided that, even if I knew it was not a popular way to go, I would first try out a few cheap knives from China to get a feel for the size/weight/lock options that are out there, I knew I wasn’t getting the best but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to spend 200 dollars to find out what works for me and what doesn’t and I would just ignore certain negatives that I could guess better quality knives didn’t have.
An 4 inch blade is still a 4 inch blade and if a cheap knife is heavy at 6 ounces in the pocket a good quality knife of the same weight probably won’t feel lite, the wisdom of my logic was undeniable. 

So, what did (about) 50 bucks worth of cheap china knives teach me?

I like 3″ or smaller for my office EDC blades.
I like 3-3.5″ knives for my none-office EDC blades.
I like pocketclips that are on the small side and make the knife ride deep.
I don’t mind the lower end steels, I can sharpen them and with what I do they should last a long time anyway.
Being able to just mess around with the knife is important and for this to attract me to the knife it has to be smooth and have well rounded handles and just feel well made overall.
The lock type has impact on the fun factor for me, frame locks and axis lock knives are more fun than some other lock types.
When the blades get to thick they mess up your apples. 
I need to get a few office EDC knives that won’t scare the crap out of coworkers and that I can carry with me when I go to work at a customer site and use to unbox stuff without feeling uneasy about my 4.5 inch pocket sword.
I need to get a few none-office EDC knives that could get a little bigger and I loved the steampunk/nuked/salty look I saw on some knives out there.

For me that was pretty valuable information, I didn’t own more than a SAK I got from my father about 25 years back at that point and I was now closing in on what I wanted from a knife.

So I decided it was time to get a nicer office EDC knife and quickly fell for the Spyderco Chaparral.
I guess the lock type was not the highest rated (when it comes to fun) but I never had a lockback and the thin ffg blade with higher end S30V steel and high quality look of the knife won me over.

So, let’s get this review started shall we?

Layout and spec’s
It’s a backlock knife with S30V steel and carbon fibre scales.
Size open : 6.3″ (162mm)
Size closed : 3.6″ (92mm)
Blade length : 2.8″ (71mm)
Weight : 2.5 oz (70 grams)
Spyderco product page : http://www.spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=672

It is made in Taichung Taiwan.
From what I understand from Sal the blade steel and some other parts are send from the Spyderco HQ to Taichung where the knife is assembled. Judging from this one sample the QC is great. 
A small folder with high quality materials.

Build quality and finish
The build quality of the knife was as good as I expected it too be, it feels great in hand and when I use the bladesided fingerchoil I can get a full four finger grip on this knife and I have pretty large hands.
The carbon fiber is well rounded and offers good grip, it’s of a woven variety and it feels great, I would classify it between low and medium traction but that is fine for office use.
Centering is perfect, as one would expect with this lock type since there is no pushing on the blade from the lock.
The liners are milled out with 4 holes.

Build quality and finish is close to perfection.

Action and lockup
No flicking this knife open, you get about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way and there it sits.
I think this is because of the lockback with the small/light blade, flicking this sucker open is not going to happen but I have no problem with this on this knife because my flick-cravings are going to be met by other knives in the future.
Flicking a knife open in an office environment might not be the best idea anyway, this lockback makes you kind of ‘roll’ the blade out nice and easy..feels kind of classy and the action is like glass on glass with this Chaparral.

Lockup is perfect and comes with a reassuring KLAK sound, no blade play in any direction.

Extracting and deployment
The wire pocketclip has, in my opinion, perfect retention. Not too much friction but it feels secure and i´m not afraid of losing the knife.
The clip never caught on anything while standing up unlike some other clips I have used.
It´s not a fast knife to extract and deploy but it does not have to be.
The faster and larger the knife gets the worse the looks I get from colleagues and I just really don´t want to upset them or my clients because then I won´t enjoy the usage of the knife and will hesitate when I can use it.
Clip is right or left side tip up only carry that´s perfect for me especially combined with the backlock (more on that later).

Extracting is easy and deployment is best done with a classy roll of the blade from it’s handle.

Things I noticed
Ok, so in using the knife I noticed the tip of the blade is really useful because it is really really sharp and small, opening packages, letters and stuff works great because of this precision.
I didn’t have a knife before that has such an incredible tip, I think this is because it is probably more expensive to make, maybe it requires better machines or better trained personnel but none of my cheap knives had this and I love it!

The backlock gives the knife incredible detent, no fear of this opening in the pocket.
If I open the knife more than a full inch it is still sucked back in.
I had one of my cheap knives with weak detent loose in the pocket, opened on me in my pocket and nicked me at retrieval.
Even if it was just a little cut it made me aware of detents in knifes, I want the knife on the far right on the pocket so the blade is against the pants and I want a proper detent.
Real world usage

The feel in pocket is practically none existent, you really don’t notice the knife about 95% of the time, it’s so slim, short and it’s light enough to accomplish this.

Overall the carry of this knife has been great and so has it’s performance.
Not a single person I met was intimidated by the look of it in my hands (and for me this is a positive).
It does feel like you are reaching it’s design limits when going for the big thick cardboard boxes.
Sometimes I need to open en ‘cut to reduce volume’ something like 40-50 boxes in a day.
I work with IT hardware and I noticed I feel a little unsure because the bigger boxes and reenforced with metal clips to make them able to carry the larger loads and I don’t want to catch a metal clip on the 2mm thin blade or let this clip cut my hand that is fairly close to the surface of what I am cutting.
So this is where the knife reaches it’s limits and I decided that when I need to do this kind of work the Chaparral stay’s at home and I take a bigger knife I don’t worry about with me.
This is an elegant folder designed for precise and elegant tasks, it’s not a heavy cardboard slayer.

Sharpening
Sharpening the knife was interesting because I was only used to 8cr13mov steel on my cheap blades, well…S30V was something else to sharpen.
But when you learn to be patient it takes a beautiful edge and I think I really did notice that it holds this edge longer but I must say I don’t keep track

Overall
I give this knife a 9/10 in the role as a gentleman’s folder.
It could be a little smoother on pivot action (- .5) and the deployment hole is a little too sharp on the inside edges (- .5) but other than that I can’t fault the knife in any way.
It’s not build to cut really heavy cardboard and it’s not build as a rapidly deployed defensive weapon.
Almost everybody that sees the knife on my desk picks it up and looks at it knowing it’s something a bit special, if none knife people do this it’s fun to see, never had that will my old but reliable SAK.

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