Para 3 Lightweight

Looking forward to this one. Been on a light weight kick past week of so. Picked up a Manix 2 LW and have a Native 5 with FRN scales coming.
 
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.
 
SharpPancake said:
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.
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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.
 
So question is it worth it to pre-order or just wait until it hits the shelves and risk being sold out. I hate it when the pre-orders come at different times and you bet on the wrong pony in terms of which shop the knife gets into first.

I think I've already decided to put my other interests on hold to get the Para 3 LW. Between the knife steel and it being an actual size of knife that I edc, I'm sold. So the question is from experience which outlet do you think will get it first?
 
From what I understand, Spyderco mixes it up as far as which dealers/distributors get 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 ;)
 
tommylion said:
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 ;)
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Damn, I didn't know that, lol.
I have no impulse control and rolled the dice...I chose a sponsored distributor and pre-ordered. Lol.
 
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.
 
sharp_edge said:
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.
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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.
 
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cchu518 said:
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.
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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.
 
sharp_edge said:
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.
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That's purely why I'm trying it. if I don't like it, I think I'm gonna go to a Lil Native backlock. I love the Native series and am not hot on compression locks but I wanted to give this one a chance as its very pocketable. I find the best thing about the PM series is how it's an overall best of all worlds kind of knife. I think the milli is better on paper than the PM2 in all ways. But the milli is a honking big knife. The native and milli fits my hands in many positions whereas I feel like the PM2 locks my hand into only one decent position. Yet the PM2 is overall the better one hander and best for all jobs. I'm hoping that the smaller easier to EDC PM3 lw will be a more compact version of this.
 
I'm generally not impatient, but I was expecting this to ship a long time ago. I'll be honest. I haven't and won't preorder. The reason is I'm not putting my money down for several months of waiting. I might miss it but don't care. I don't understand why they can't give an approximate launch/ship date? This is a "new method by spyderco" apparently.
 
It was in the "Reveal" in January. Spyderco intends everything in the Reveal to be available within 90-120 days. So "before May" sounds on schedule.
 
sharp_edge said:
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.
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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.
 
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