New Knife Day - Spyderco Shaman - First Impressions

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Dec 1, 2022
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Hey all, new guy here. Very late to the Shaman party, but took delivery of my first Shaman yesterday--a brand new black G10 S30V from Blade HQ.
I also bought a set of OEM green micarta scales from a forum member here.

I've had a Spyderco Tenacious (black G10 combo blade) for almost 10 years, enjoyed it, and wanted to see what else Spyderco had to offer. So I picked up a black FRN Delica 4 and this Shaman.

Action: a little stiff out of the box, but after one drop of lube and a couple hours of fidgeting it now flicks open easily, and the click is rather satisfying.
Blade: reasonably sharp out of the box, but I'll touch it up today with my whetstones. I like the stonewash finish. The shape is appropriate for the style and attractive. S30V suits suits me, for my purposes I prefer stainless and easier sharpening over something like M4.
Handle: the G10 is smoother than I expected. Almost too smooth for my taste, but the shape is handsome and ergo is good. I'm looking forward to the arrival of the OEM green canvas micarta scales I bought. The standard black G10 scales are very Glock-like and utilitarian. Not bad, but the green canvas micarta has more character.
Lock: Stiff/robust. The lock is definitely solid, but repeated operation (fidgeting) causes fingertip pain. My only complaint about this knife, which is odd because I keep reading how fantastic this compression lock is. Hopefully it mellows out over time, and/or I stop being so soft lol.
Clip: love the 4-way adjustability, stonewash finish matches the blade, clip does its job well. I like Spyderco clips. I don't care about deep carry.
Price: got mine new from Blade HQ for $215 +tax and I feel it is a little overpriced. That being said, I did buy it, and I'm not returning it. To help fund the purchase I sold a Benchmade Contego that I had gotten for free, so that softened the blow.

Shaman
Tenacious
Delica 4
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Just picked up a Para 3 and the lock is also very stiff. Mine makes an audible pop whenever I disengage the lock. It's my first Spyderco so I'm not sure if that's normal with compression locks but hopefully it'll work in soon.
 
Wow I didnt realize how close the tenacious is in size compared to the shaman. I know the numbers but I guess seeing it altogether is different.
 
The Shaman is a great "harder use" knife from the Spydie lineup, but much like the Manix the ergos are an A+.. I'm sure you will love it even more with use..

Slice O Life said:
Wow I didnt realize how close the tenacious is in size compared to the shaman. I know the numbers but I guess seeing it altogether is different.
Click to expand...
I didn't realize it either until you pointed it out.. Went to compare mine myself after you said it lol. Was gonna do a general lineup size comparison of all my Spydies, but the Manix is in the car, wife has my Para 3, and the PM2 is just MIA. So it's just the Military, Endura 4, Shaman, and the Tenacious..
20221204_172457.jpg
 
Corton93 said:
The Shaman is a great "harder use" knife from the Spydie lineup, but much like the Manix the ergos are an A+.. I'm sure you will love it even more with use..


I didn't realize it either until you pointed it out.. Went to compare mine myself after you said it lol. Was gonna do a general lineup size comparison of all my Spydies, but the Manix is in the car, wife has my Para 3, and the PM2 is just MIA. So it's just the Military, Endura 4, Shaman, and the Tenacious..
View attachment 2007525
Click to expand...
The Military’s blade is so amazing, against this lineup it really shows how tall and long it is. If you wanna talk about a hard use knife, I think it’s still the top dog spyderco… or top bug I guess.
 
I love my Shaman. I also have the dame opinion of the scales though. They are nice and nothing at all wrong with them. They are just too slick for me. So I got me some SDK skinny black micarta on the way.
 
Out of 1 PM2, 4 Para3s, 2 Sliveraxes, 1 Lil Native, and 1 Caribbean, the only trouble I have had getting a compression lock to release is that the Caribbean requires a firm flick to close. All the others open with just a thumb or finger flick (no wrist required) and close with just a slight wrist flick. No finger or thumb pain with any of these knives. But when I close the Lil Native, the ricasso bounces off my fingernail, which annoys me greatly.

BTW, on the PM2, Para3, and Lil Native, the ricasso is long enough that I can safely release the compression lock with my thumb and let the blade drop on my index finger.

On the other hand, I have had a Manix, a Rescue (backlock), and a Byrd Cara Cara (backlock) that required metal implements to assist with closing. With the Byrd, I had to use a screwdriver blade to push the lockbar beneath the scales to get it to close, before I took it apart and filed down some corners on the lockbar and tang. It never flicked open very well, either.

The Byrd Meadowlark (backlock) was also hard to close or open at first, but after I took it apart twice to bend the spring and spent several days breaking it in, it opens and closes pretty well.

The Atlantic Salt (backlock) took several months of breaking in before it opened and closed nicely.
 
Slice O Life said:
Wow I didnt realize how close the tenacious is in size compared to the shaman. I know the numbers but I guess seeing it altogether is different.
Click to expand...
I was surprised by this too! I was worried the Shaman was going to be too big, but it turns out the Tenacious I had been carrying around for years is very similar in size.
146g Shaman vs 118g Tenacious, so there's a 19% difference in weight. That might sound significant, but holding one in each hand they don't feel much different. One ounce (28g) difference, according to my inexpensive digital scale.

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As for the lock, I maintain that the compression lock on my Shaman is super stiff and hurts to use. Although in real world use it likely wouldn't matter as I wouldn't be repeatedly flicking it open/closed over and over again for hours (fidgeting). It doesn't hurt to unlock the knife once or twice in a normal use scenario.

Why did they go with the compression lock on this design versus a backlock? The backlock on the Delica 4 is great.
I thought the compression lock was going to be some big fancy deal, but it appears to be just a linerlock (not unlike the one on my Tenacious) except in reverse.
Looking at the Shaman and considering the thickness of the blade, it seems they would have to use a thick chunk of metal for a backlock which would make this knife a lot heavier. Perhaps this is why.
 
Backslider said:
I was surprised by this too! I was worried the Shaman was going to be too big, but it turns out the Tenacious I had been carrying around for years is very similar in size.
146g Shaman vs 118g Tenacious, so there's a 19% difference in weight. That might sound significant, but holding one in each hand they don't feel much different. One ounce (28g) difference, according to my inexpensive digital scale.

----------

As for the lock, I maintain that the compression lock on my Shaman is super stiff and hurts to use. Although in real world use it likely wouldn't matter as I wouldn't be repeatedly flicking it open/closed over and over again for hours (fidgeting). It doesn't hurt to unlock the knife once or twice in a normal use scenario.

Why did they go with the compression lock on this design versus a backlock? The backlock on the Delica 4 is great.
I thought the compression lock was going to be some big fancy deal, but it appears to be just a linerlock (not unlike the one on my Tenacious) except in reverse.
Looking at the Shaman and considering the thickness of the blade, it seems they would have to use a thick chunk of metal for a backlock which would make this knife a lot heavier. Perhaps this is why.
Click to expand...
Im not a fan of the compression lock outside of the para 3 and para 2. Just seems like it’s not a design that is needed. It also has a lot of drawbacks in ergos and other various things. I think a liner lock would be more in tune with peoples tastes, but a backlock is stronger.
 
Another Shepherd said:
Out of 1 PM2, 4 Para3s, 2 Sliveraxes, 1 Lil Native, and 1 Caribbean, the only trouble I have had getting a compression lock to release is that the Caribbean requires a firm flick to close. All the others open with just a thumb or finger flick (no wrist required) and close with just a slight wrist flick. No finger or thumb pain with any of these knives. But when I close the Lil Native, the ricasso bounces off my fingernail, which annoys me greatly.

BTW, on the PM2, Para3, and Lil Native, the ricasso is long enough that I can safely release the compression lock with my thumb and let the blade drop on my index finger.

On the other hand, I have had a Manix, a Rescue (backlock), and a Byrd Cara Cara (backlock) that required metal implements to assist with closing. With the Byrd, I had to use a screwdriver blade to push the lockbar beneath the scales to get it to close, before I took it apart and filed down some corners on the lockbar and tang. It never flicked open very well, either.

The Byrd Meadowlark (backlock) was also hard to close or open at first, but after I took it apart twice to bend the spring and spent several days breaking it in, it opens and closes pretty well.

The Atlantic Salt (backlock) took several months of breaking in before it opened and closed nicely.
Click to expand...
Rub a pencil on the face of the lock bar and the back of the blade where the lock will settle.
 
$215 seems really high for S30v. The GB2 is less. The Griptillian is way less.
 
The compression lock is by far my favorite lock type. It is essentially a liner lock but better in my opinion. The only trouble I've had from any of them is after sending my 15+ year old paramilitary back for service. Came back with pretty severe lock stick that it didn't have when I sent it in. Still works awesome. My Para 3 and Shaman are smooth and have no stick.
 
DMG said:
$215 seems really high for S30v. The GB2 is less. The Griptillian is way less.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, the standard S30V Shaman was $149 when it was released and then inexplicably jumped up in price shortly after release, seemingly due to popularity/demand.

As I type this, the price is $231 on Blade HQ. The $215 I paid was a Black Friday sale price.
Is it a great value? Not really. Is it the knife I wanted? Yes.
There are lighter knives, harder knives, less expensive knives, etc. This is the one I wanted. I like the looks, the feel, and S30V is great steel for my use.
I sold my M4 Benchmade Contego to buy this Shaman. That Contego was a pain to sharpen (hard steel), prone to rust, quite large, and didn't feel as good in my hand. It's still a great knife for someone, just not for me.

I'm not a collector or anything. I have three folding Spydercos (Tenacious, Delica 4, Shaman) and one fixed Benchmade (Hidden Canyon S30V). I work in maintenance, and I do a bit of camping, backpacking, off-road trucking.
 
I was never really interested kn the Shaman when it first came out. Thought it would be too big for my taste. I bought it for around $200. Not on sale. Just the price that was in the case at a local store. And to be honest the price right now at around $215 is right where I would expect it to be. My Hogue Ritter RSK was about $160 and my ZT 0562 was $250. The Shaman is right in the middle and on the same level quality wise as both.
 
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