Caribbean is a nice knife. My only gripe with it is the amount of loctite the factory used on the rear standoff. It caused me to strip the screw out it was so bad. I wanted to take the knife apart to rinse off the scales after swimming in the ocean with it in my board shorts.I cant make up my mind. I told myself to buy only one folder this year, and it is going to be this one or Caribbean.....I think I just wait for the release of Para3 and then I buy something.
Damn, I didn't know that, lol.From what I understand, Spyderco mixes it up as far as which dealers/distributor gets a new knife first, in order to be fair to all of them. Makes it tougher on those of us who want it as soon as it's out, though
It's because it's cheap to manufacture AND... this.. I used a Manix LW in BD1 for a solid year and it was a good steel. It acted a lot like 440C in a sub-$100 knife. For me it's the fact that you can pour some liquid nitrogen in the mix of this cheapo steel and all of a sudden the properties get enhanced up to between VG10 and S30v, and its still cheap to manufacture and easy to sharpen. I personally find that fascinating.There does not seem to exist much info about CTS-BD1N used in Spyderco knives. A post by Phil Wilson on spyderco forums said the steel is in the same league as s30v and 154cm in terms of edge holding. So, it is a steel I like to see in the Para3 platform, though I fail to see what the craze for this steel is about (i.e., why people are so more excited with it over s30v). Being lightweight is certainly an interesting feature on such a small knife.
It's because it's cheap to manufacture AND... this.. I used a Manix LW in BD1 for a solid year and it was a good steel. It acted a lot like 440C in a sub-$100 knive. For me it's the fact that you can pour some liquid nitrogen in the mix of this cheapo steel and all of a sudden the properties get enhanced up to between VG10 and S30v, and its steel cheap to manufacture and easy to sharpen. I personally find that fascinating.
Fair enough. FRN scales (which is perfectly fine with me) and BD1N steel together manage to bring the retail price down to below $100, which is good news to my wallet. As for BD1 (not BD1N) steel, it is an OK steel. I also had a Manix 2 lw in that steel for some time. It was one of the first three spydercos that I had. Curious to see how this BD1N steel actually performs.
Knifecenter said "before May" when I asked about it today.
The reason BD1N is hyped is it's a revolutionary steel. It has a cost (materials and machining) like common budget steels, but it performs just shy of vastly more expensive entry level super steels. It's super corrosion resistant, but still holds an edge excellently and has good toughness for a stainless steel. BD1N and LC200N are showing that nitrogen enhanced steels might be the future for cutlery steels. Few steels can match their performance with the balance between edge retention, corrosion resistance, and toughness. Now BD1N also brings in low cost with that performance.There does not seem to exist much info about CTS-BD1N used in Spyderco knives. A post by Phil Wilson on spyderco forums said the steel is in the same league as s30v and 154cm in terms of edge holding. So, it is a steel I like to see in the Para3 platform, though I fail to see what the craze for this steel is about (i.e., why people are so more excited with it over s30v). Being lightweight is certainly an interesting feature on such a small knife.