“Spyderco is a company, founded in 1978 by Sal Glesser and based in Golden, Colorado, U.S.A., that produces knives and knife sharpeners.” Thus says Wikipedia (and, incidentally, they’re right). They also have only 38 employees, which I think is pretty cool; it gives that small business feel and attention to detail. Anyways, Sal Glesser was the first, back in 1981, to think of and implement the pocket clip. He also introduced one-hand opening, with the signature Spyderco thumb hole. And serrations. In other words, he shaped the knife industry and made the “tactical knife” possible.

The Endura and it’s smaller counterpart, the Delica, were launched in 1990 as lightweight, affordable pocket knives. Since then, they’ve undergone improvements with each generation, this being the 4th (hence Endura 4). Pricing on the Endura runs from $60 to $115 (I got mine for $61). The knife measures 8 3/16 inches when open and 5 inches closed (the handle length). That leaves 3 13/16 inches for the blade, 3 7/16 of which are cutting edge. For its dimensions, the weight is a fairly light 3.6 oz, partly due to the skeletonized steel liners. Granted, the previous generation was lighter at 3.0 oz, but it lacked the additional strength of steel liners, which I think justify the weight. Opinions differ, however.¹

I just like the fact that it is a more rugged knife, regardless of whether the reinforcement is necessary or not. There is always the potential situation wherein you are sliding down the conical roof of a grain silo towards a 200-foot fall and certain death; dragging your fingernails has availed naught. Wha-chawww! You draw your Endura Wave and open it in one fluid motion, driving it desperately into the thin aluminum sheeting. It bites deep and torques under your weight, but holds, thanks to the tensile strength of the steel liners! Besides, that steel gives the pocket clip screws something more to tie into, and I hate wiggly pocket clips.

Build quality is excellent on the Endura I reviewed, the fit and finish near perfect. The handles are made of FRN (Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon), tough and resilient. I’ve dropped mine on asphalt and concrete with minimal scuffing to the blade and handles, and most of that has buffed itself out, excepting one shallow but visible nick.

Note the scuffed Endura clip vs. the unpainted Persistence clip.

The pocket clip, as I’ve already mentioned, holds up well. (And well it should—Mr. Glesser invented it!) The black paint looks good, but, like all painted or un-painted pocket clips, it scratches when you scrape it against rocks and concrete and so forth.² As you can see in the picture, it’s held in place by three screws positioned in a semi-arc. Not quite so solid as the setup on the Drifter, but adequate. And even the best clip can fail: I caught the Drifter clip on a vinyl chair the other day and bent it (CRKT sent two replacement clips free of charge). But with the longer clip and smaller screw base, leverage is greater on the Endura, and the screws did loosen. And I hate wiggly pocket clips.

However, the screws are fairly long and do tighten up nicely into the steel liners. I just had difficulty finding the necessary Torx set, but, after searching all our local hardware stores, I bought one online. I used some LocTite on the screws and set them tightly, and it hasn’t budged since (an impressive feat, considering the five weeks of active construction and trail-clearing work I’ve carried it through). To summarize, I really like Spyderco’s clip design: the shape, tension and flared tip lend superior ergonomics. I think the size ratio is right on, and despite a questionable screw array, remains secured extraordinarily well. (Incidentally, the Torx size was TX9 for the pivot screw and the rest are TX6, for those interested.) Finally, the clip may be moved to any corner of the knife to accommodate tip-up, tip-down, left- or right-handed carry.

The blade is 3 13/16 inches long, and made of the excellent VG-10 steel.³ I have noticed some side-to-side blade play, but I read somewhere that this has to do with the way it’s engineered for maximum strength. Besides, you can tighten it simply by adjusting the pivot screw; I just like it loose enough where it opens easily.

The Emerson or “Wave” opener is the wave-shaped hook on the top of the blade that works by catching the seam of your pants as you pull it out of your pocket. Here is a good video review that shows how the opener works (frame-by-frame pictures here), and another more humorous use. It is the result of a collaboration with Emerson knives; owner, knife-maker and martial arts expert Ernest Emerson designed the “Wave” opener for his distinctive tactical knives. Combined with the Endura 4, the result is a fast and affordable tactical knife. The deployment—gliding on phosphor bronze bushings—is wicked smooth and scary fast, as this guy demonstrates. The Spyder-hole, the regular opening method, is funky but attractive and works well, especially with cold fingers, gloves or big hands where a thumb stud would fall short. It was also, as mentioned above, the first one-handed blade-opening device.

The lock system is a lockback—more solid than most, if not all, linerlocks (although the LAWKS system feels comparable). The lockback mechanism also features the Boye indent in the release lever, which is “a half-moon of steel removed from the locking lever,” designed to “[make] the knife impossible to accidentally close when gripped very tightly.”⁴ The lockback is also a bit more awkward to close with one hand than linerlocks. It can be managed, however, and I will hopefully be posting a video soon to demonstrate a few methods.

I would call the intended application for this knife EDC (Every Day Carry) and light tactical. The length of the blade takes away much of your precision control, making food prep (like peeling an apple) and other tasks requiring fine-grained control difficult. You can, however, choke way up on the handle and brace your thumb against the opening hole, and gain some manipulability that way. On the positive side, the long blade (almost 4 inches) gives you lots of reach in defensive situations, and the long handle ensures you won’t lose your grip: you can hold the knife farther back on the handle and gain an extra inch of reach, or you can choke up to the thumb ramp for a solid thrust. It’s got a good stabbing point and a rock-solid reverse grip, but unfortunately not a whole lot of slashing belly (compared, for instance, to the Persistence). Finally, the Endura has really nice, functional jimping, both on the thumb ramp and on the plastic behind it, giving your thumb plenty of purchase.

My first impression of the Endura was that, like a ThinkPad, the knife is sturdy and rugged, and even attractive after a fashion. I fell in love with the snick of the lockback. I should note in closing that, while many online pictures and descriptions give the color as dark grey, almost black, the true color is more of a slate blue. (You can see the discrepancy between the two pictures I’ve posted.) The Endura came “shaving” sharp, as it should. I’m quite pleased with my Endura, and most exceedingly so with the excellent Persistence, with the result that I plan on buying more from Spyderco—possibly a Tenacious or FFG (Full Flat Ground) Delica.

Having weighed the earlier Nite Ize LED modules in the durability balance and found them wanting, I had heretofore purchased an official Mini Maglite LED AA, which also uses a Luxeon. But it flickers, and is longer than my regular Mini Mags, and generally sucks horribly. And flickers. Their LED module must be poorly wired or something. Maybe (hopefully) mine was just defective. One thing I do like about it—due to the longer reflector cone (I think), it is more focusable, as you’ll see in the picture below. This produces a more concentrated beam at greater distances.

But because that was such a fail, I picked up a Streamlight 3N. Pretty rugged piece of gear, it seemed. Used by firefighters and such. Molded polymer case, scratch-resistant lens, up to 30-lumen output, and it even has an “Intrinsic Safety for Hazardous Locations” rating. All this notwithstanding, the contact point on the bottom of the LED module is worthless. Although I’ve bolstered it with solder a few times, it always wears down, makes infrequent contact with the battery, and flickers. It gets worse in cold weather.

Enter the Nite Ize 1 Watt LED Upgrade II. It fit snugly into my old beater Mini Mag, already survived a shoulder-height fall onto tiles without even flickering, and summarily rocks. Here’s a picture I took with all three shining side-by-side at a dark wall. They all had fresh batteries.

Why is the Streamlight so blue?

*Note the Maglite is more focused than the others, since it is actually capable of being focused. That’s why the beam is smaller.

My last knife was a CRKT M16-13Z, which was a pretty decent knife. You can find a good review of it here. The only thing I’d add is to say that I found the clip somewhat less than satisfactory. The black paint wears off pretty quickly, at least with the kind of wear I put it through. Worse still, the three little screws that hold it on are placed in a short line or arc, and the leverage of being in my pocket as I move throughout the day would loosen them significantly. I did use Loctite® on them a few times, but it only helped partially. This did nothing to help the fact that the clip is a bit small for the knife in the first place. So not the greatest clip, but all in all a good knife — beefy and tactical, and I really liked the “flipper” opening mechanism. But now, on to the feature presentation.

My new knife is the CRKT Drifter, a budget offering of surprisingly good quality from Columbia River Knife and Tool. You can find several good video reviews on YouTube, such as this one.

At the risk of being redundant, however, I’ll reiterate the main points of interest, as well as give my personal impressions. First off, as I mentioned, the knife is affordable; pricing runs from around $18 to $25 on most retail websites. Its weight is 2.4 oz, meaning it’s easy to forget you’re carrying it. Nevertheless, it still feels quite sturdy, which brings me to build quality. The knife handle scales are made of G10, an extremely durable, lightweight material. From the Benchmade website:

G10: An extremely durable makeup of layers of fiberglass soaked in resin, then highly compressed and baked. Impervious to moisture or liquid and physically stable under climate change. Most commonly black, but is available in various colors, too.

Besides being surprisingly light and rugged, the handles are also nicely checkered for grip. The M16-13Z I previously mentioned had Zytel plastic scales, which give more grip in extreme conditions than stainless steel or titanium, but they were also thicker and heavier. These G10 scales accomplish the same thing without the thickness or weight. So, those are good, if you hadn’t got the idea. Moving on.

The blade is 2.875 inches long and made up of 8Cr14MoV steel, which is comparable to AUS8. In other words, it’s a high-quality (especially for the price) blade with good hardness and edge retention. Have a look at this steel chart for a more technical breakdown. The volcano-shaped thumb studs work very nicely, and the blade flicks open with ease. This is largely due to the Teflon and what looks like Phosphor Bronze bushings, both low-friction materials that make for a very smooth deployment. The top of the blade and the liner lock at the choil area have minor jimping, but this knife is decidedly more of an EDC (Every Day Carry) knife than a tactical model. Oh, and I like the blade shape… kind of understated and attractive. The liner lock is solid and holds the blade rigidly in place. Like the M16-13Z, the liner incorporates a little knob that corresponds to a divot on the base of the blade, meaning the blade snaps firmly shut, and requires a bit of pressure to flick open; this is a nice feature because it keeps the blade from coming open easily in a pocket or backpack. However, the Drifter does lack the LAWKS system found on many CRKT models, and even a good liner lock like this may fail under extreme torque. Again, EDC, not tactical.

Finally, the pocket clip. This is, in my opinion, one of the real strong points of the knife. Going back again to the M16-13Z, this is another area where the Drifter wins out. For a knife that CRKT markets at $60, twice the price of the Drifter, one might expect AUS8 steel instead of AUS6, Teflon *and* Phosphor Bronze Bushings, G10 scales, and a decent pocket clip. Don’t get me wrong, I like the M16 series, but the Drifter really has something going. (It does have a couple of down points too, but I’ll get to those in a minute.)

CRKT Drifter Pocket Clip

As you can see from this picture, the clip is securely mounted with three screws around the pivot screw. Furthermore, the triangular arrangement of the screws provides a much stronger bracing against day-to-day tension and leverage. To be fair, I should mention that the clip is not adjustable, so if you are left-handed or favor a tip-up carry, you may prefer something like the Spyderco Tenacious. But for a knife in this price range, you can’t expect everything, and the Drifter does quite well on most counts. I described above the shortcomings of my M16-13Z on this point, and I’m pleased to say the Drifter nails it. This clip is awesome.

Having said that, I suppose I should get to the cons, few though they are. Firstly and most importantly, the gray satin finish on the blade is something less than rugged. Maybe I’m just rough on blades, but for an EDC knife like this, I shouldn’t have the finish wear off under relatively mild abrasion. Granted, other stainless or bead-blasted blades I’ve had got scratched up after so much hard usage, but after a month this blade has a number of scratches where the satin finish has worn off, which is somewhat annoying. My input? Go with a bead-blasted finish, CRKT. And secondly — well, I guess this isn’t really a con — flicking this blade open or holding it for normal use, the knife doesn’t even fill my whole hand. The handle is 3.625 inches, which in comparison to the M16-13Z at 4.75 inches is definitely on the petite side. Then again, for a lightweight EDC knife I don’t guess it’s such a bad thing… it just feels weird when aggressively flicking it open.

So there you have it. In summary, the CRKT Drifter is an excellent-value, lightweight, rugged, liner-locking EDC knife with a quality blade and smooth deployment. I love the shape and feel of the whole knife, and definitely recommend this one.