Spyderco Tenacious review
The Spyderco Tenacious is a mid-sized, reasonably priced folding pocket knife. It features quite a few options as far as blade edge and where you put the belt clip, fits conveniently in your pocket as well as your hand, and the steel itself holds an edge nicely to allow you more time for working with your knife as opposed to working on it. This blade is most comparable to the much more expensive Kershaw Skyline and Buck Vantage Pro in size, weight and quality.
While not made in the United States, this knife demonstrates exceptional quality and value considering this knife is under $40 in most markets.
Below, please check out our interactive table. Use the table to see how the Spyderco Tenacious stacks up against some of the best blades in its class:
| Photo | Model | Price |
|---|---|---|
 | SOG Flash II | $$ |
 | Spyderco Paramilitary 2 | $$$ |
 | Gerber Bear Grylls | $$ |
 | Kershaw Shuffle II | $ |
 | Spyderco Tenacious | $$ |
 | Kershaw Knockout | $$ |
Size of the Spyderco Tenacious
This is a fairly large folding knife and I would not consider it appropriate for urban use because there are few situations where this length of blade is needed. For those interested in an urban use knife, you may want to look at the Persistence or Ambitious.
If, however, you live and/or spend a lot of time in the outdoors, this knife is perfectly suited to fit your needs.
As far as size specifics, this knife is just under 8 inches when open and almost 4.5 inches when folded. The handle is shaped to fit easily in your hand and has light steel scales covered in a textured laminate for a slip-free grip.
Below, please take a moment to view some of the best-selling knives currently for sale on Amazon:
| BEST SELLERS |
|---|
1) Cold Steel Survivalist |
2) Ka-Bar USMC |
3) Kershaw Cryo II |
4) Mossy Oak |
5) Kershaw Knockout |
Blade
The Spyderco Tenacious features a 3.39 inch blade with the full length being usable edge. There are a few different options available from the factory, which saves you from needing to customize it yet again, thus adding to its versatility.
You can get this knife with either a plain edge, serrated or a combo of the two. All of these blade options come with the choice of a black coating. All of which are held fast and there is very little sideways play with the blade and none vertically when open. The blade is also fairly thick, which means that it can put up with a lot more abuse than blades with thinner spines.
Using the Plain Edge Spyderco Tenacious
The plain edge has the advantage of a smooth cutting edge for the entire length of the blade, which allows for smooth, fast and precise work such as whittling wood, making feather sticks, cutting an apple in half or skinning your dinner. This edge also makes for easier work when sharpening it, as you only have to worry about the one edge and no curves.
As the entire blade is designed to be low-friction and the edge does not have teeth to assist it in any way, making sure you know how to hone your knife is imperative as this edge only works as well as it was sharpened. Therefore, if you put effort into your sharpening, this blade is sharp enough to shave with. And if the your sharpening effort is lacking, this edge will let you know very quickly.
Using the Serrated Edge
The serrated edge is for work where you need your blade to take purchase in whatever it is doing, be it cutting ropes while climbing, cutting through bone or simply cutting a branch. Whatever your mission, the serrated edge will grab ahold of whatever you want to cut through and is even very forgiving of a duller edge than its straight edge counterpart.
It is a bit of a nightmare to sharpen though, and unless you are familiar with sharpening a serrated edge, I would suggest taking it to a professional knife sharpener.
If you would like to do this yourself, be aware it is an involved task, requires specialized hones and a lot of practice. Unlike a plain edged blade where you need to remember long, smooth strokes on a stone for sharpening, a serrated edge requires each individual serration to be carefully sharpened with specialized tools in a short back-and-forth motion.
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Using the Combo Edge
The combo edge has both a plain edge on the front and a combo edge on the back, making this the Jack-of-all-trades of the knife world. With that said, like any true Jack-of-all-trades, it is unfortunately the master of none.
The combo edge has a very aggressive look to it and excels at both slicing and pushing. Unfortunately, this is what can make it dangerous. If you are using the back, serrated area, you have a very sharp plain edge and point that is moving in front of where you are working, which can easily be forgotten about.
This is an excellent edge option if you are looking for an everyday carry knife that you want to be versatile enough to do a variety of unplanned tasks. If, however, you are looking for a knife for a specific task such as skinning, whittling or slicing then a plain edge is better for your needs, whereas if you are looking for a knife to cut ropes, bone or branches, you may want to use a serrated edge.
Handle
As mentioned above, the handle for this knife is a set of steel scales coated in a textured G-10 laminate and is shaped to fit nicely in your hand regardless of what you are using it for. This is quite a wide knife and gives substance without being awkwardly bulky. This extra width also makes it ideal for grabbing when you have thick gloves on as you will not accidentally drop it.
Just as you see with most folding knives, Spyderco in particular, this knife is a wee bit hilt heavy, but unless you are planning on throwing this knife, which I would not recommend, it is not excessively noticeable.
Deployment and Extras
This knife is very obviously made by Spyderco with the signature Spyderco Round Hole by the textured grip on the spine. This knife uses bronze phosphor washers, which allows for quick, smooth deployment that will not fail when you need it in a fix–even with gloves on.
As this is not a fixed-blade knife, there is no sheath that comes with this blade, however, the iconic hourglass belt clip is customizable in that it can be placed on the top or bottom of the knife, and can be placed on either side. The only issue with this is that occasionally it can feel a little loose but some Loctite would resolve this.
Quick Facts
- Blade Length: 3.39 inches
- Blade Thickness: .118 inches
- Overall Length (open): 7.76 inches
- Overall Length (closed): 4.45 inches
- Weight: 4.1 oz
- Blade Steel: 8Cr13MoV
Conclusion
In all, the Spyderco Tenacious is a well-made knife that has not lost quality despite being crafted overseas. Depending on which blade option you choose dictates its strengths and weaknesses for your particular tasks, few as they are. This knife is one of the reasons Spyderco is one of the top names out there.
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