Milwaukee Wire Clip fitting Spydercos?

[kreisler]

At least 8 Milwaukee FASTBACK knives/utility knives come with a stainless wire clip (#1901, #1902, #1903, #1940, #1985, #1990, #1995, and #1996), we call it a wire pocket clip, they call it a wire belt clip, same same. A whole range of Spyderco knives come with a wire clip too, e.g. the deep carry ones on the Techno, SpydieChef, Slysz Bowie (all Made In Taiwan), and the Chaparral and Para 3 Lightweight.

Questions are:

1. In general, are the Milwaukee wire clips any good or even better than the Taiwan Spyderco ones?
2. In particular, does the Milwaukee wire clip fit on the Spyderco knife?

The good news is that original Spyderco replacement clips could be had for maybe ~7 bucks (mas 5 for int shipping), which is "affordable" compared to US titanium clips. But who would want to rebuy a part with which he wasn't happy to begin with. I'd want to look for alternatives. DIY or Milwaukee come to my mind as potential alternatives, anyone with experience?

The Milwaukee replacement parts price list is inexpensive, wow:

1. The straight deep carry wire clip of #1903 has spare part number 14-46-0114 (1.62$). Looks like a good candidate for our purpose.
2. The straight deep carry wire clip of #1995 (? same as #1996 #1940) seems to have number 14-46-1903 (3.99$) and apparently is/was also used on #1985 #1990. Looks like a good candidate for our purpose too.
   
3. The wide non-deep carry wire clip of #1901 #1902 has number 14-46-1901 (3.50$). It is/was also used on #1985 #1990.

Amazon customer reviews of the Milwaukee wire clip are a mixed bag, most ppl are surprised and love it, others have bent it, even broke it, meaning you're not getting superior material quality for the money. In the end a commercial wire pocket clip is just a wire (of some suitable affordable metal quality) which was bent professionally into shape. Chitanium wire would cost 11.5$/m shipped from AliX (1.5mm*1000mm Titanium Wire UNS Gr1 TA2) but i wouldn't follow such a diy path; you'd need a vise, two Leathermans and whatnot.

So let's find out if either 14-46-0114 or 14-46-1903 or both could be used as direct Taiwan replacement clip, thanks for your contributions!

 

[foofie]

Very interesting idea - curious how it turns out.
One thing to keep in mind - which knife are you repacing the clip on? If it has frn (ie chaparral lw), the new clip likely will not hit the spyderco logo and cause a bit more wear on your pants. If it is one of the knives you mention (Techno, Bowie), then the length of the replacement clip will not make much of a difference.

 

[kreisler]

I have the Techno 2 en route, so personally i was thinking techno2 but everyone else is invited to post their own Spyderco-Milwaukee findings.
The nearest retailer dachundhaus which carries those Milwaukee knives is 120 klicks away. What's worse the knives are sold in semi-sealed blister clamshell packaging with the clip part of the knife being in the sealed packaging section; i checked various youtube unboxings. So even if i were at the retailer's shop, i wouldn't be able to test what i came for, .. unless i bought the full knives for the test: the prices are respectively #1990 19.89€, #1902 13.95€, #1903 21.39€ (and #1906 11.79€ which has a normal pocket clip), affordable as knives as such but imho too much just for clip testing and learning the desired info. I mean, for that money i'd rather order 3 original Taiwan clips for 26$ (= 3×7 +5) shipped i guess?

I've called Milwaukee. While they do ship the parts to the Americas, they don't ship "over the pond", i.e. overseas. They confirmed the above low price quotes and will add tax and FedEx shipping to CONUS end consumer destination addresses.

So maybe, one day, we'll find out that some Milwaukee wire clip is a fit on the Techno/Bowie/Spydiechef, but prolly none of us would order the spare part from Milwaukee direct. Unfortunately, overseas end consumers will be out of luck getting hold of such a clip at reasonable cost.

I was hoping that some of you guys could test and find out since Milwaukee knives are widely available in US hardware stores (maybe i forgot to mention, i am located in gemani )

 

[Danke42]

Sounds like this to me.

You got a ten dollar knife? Get a one dollar clip.

 

[kreisler]

just a heads up, the Milwaukee clip is absolutely not worth bothering.
i got the original Spyderco wire clip and it is STRONG, just wow!
a titanium 366 wire clip would be more flexible but it's not worth trying to find or make something better or cheaper than the original Spyderco ones.

great stuff, gets the seal of approval by critical me!