I've waited a while for the Cat to be released by Spyderco, and I must say that this one is a real winner. This is a Taiwan-made Spyderco, much like the Sage and Salsa, and costs around $45 in stores. The Cat is the slightly bigger brother to the Chicago; both offer carbon fiber handles and S30V blade steel at a great price. The model number is C129CFP. The Cat weighs in at 2.3 ounces on my scale.
EDITED to add: based on the box' sticker, my Cat was made in February of 2010, so it's the newer batch.
The Handle: The Cat comes in at 3-9/16" closed and 3/8" thick without the pocket clip. The handle is made up of two stainless steel liners, one locking. the liner on the non-locking side is hollowed out to reduce weight. On top of the liners are some of the nicest carbon fiber scales that I've seen in a knife. They're smooth like the Caly 3, not textured like the Sage I. The knife is open in the back, allowing debris to be blown out or removed with a Q-tip.
The Cat is held together with six (three on each side) T-6 screws, and one T-8 to act as the blade pivot pin screw. All of mine were tight and shiny, although there did appear to be some stripping of the screwheads as it came out of the box.
The pocket clip is adjustable for tip-down carry in either left or right pocket, and uses a T-6 screw as shown above. It's Spyderco's wire style clip, and this lets the Cat ride deep in the pocket. The clip is satin finished and has a slight bronze look to it.
In-hand the Cat is comfortable to use. Without using the choil, it's a three-finger knife for me. This is fine, and doesn't lose anything in an EDC role.
Like most Spydercos, the Cat has a choil and it's quite useful. This brings the Cat closer to a four-finger knife for me.
The choil is also jimped. The photo below shows this jimping, and shows the lock-up...
Lock-up is solid and is done with a linerlock. The linerlock isn't jimped, but it doesn't need to be. Mine had absolutely no wiggle at all out of the box, and the lock engages the blade with its (the liner's) entire length as shown.
In use, the Cat is a real pleasure to use as an EDC. The handle makes it melt into your hand, and I found absolutely no rough spots. Fit and finish on mine is nearly perfect; no splinters in the carbon fiber, no overhanging liners, no chips in the ends of the carbon fiber scales. The only other finish problem that I did have (in addition to the stripped screwheads in photo 5 above) will be shown in the next post.
Continued below due to photo upload limitations...
EDITED to add: based on the box' sticker, my Cat was made in February of 2010, so it's the newer batch.
The Handle: The Cat comes in at 3-9/16" closed and 3/8" thick without the pocket clip. The handle is made up of two stainless steel liners, one locking. the liner on the non-locking side is hollowed out to reduce weight. On top of the liners are some of the nicest carbon fiber scales that I've seen in a knife. They're smooth like the Caly 3, not textured like the Sage I. The knife is open in the back, allowing debris to be blown out or removed with a Q-tip.
The Cat is held together with six (three on each side) T-6 screws, and one T-8 to act as the blade pivot pin screw. All of mine were tight and shiny, although there did appear to be some stripping of the screwheads as it came out of the box.
The pocket clip is adjustable for tip-down carry in either left or right pocket, and uses a T-6 screw as shown above. It's Spyderco's wire style clip, and this lets the Cat ride deep in the pocket. The clip is satin finished and has a slight bronze look to it.
In-hand the Cat is comfortable to use. Without using the choil, it's a three-finger knife for me. This is fine, and doesn't lose anything in an EDC role.
Like most Spydercos, the Cat has a choil and it's quite useful. This brings the Cat closer to a four-finger knife for me.
The choil is also jimped. The photo below shows this jimping, and shows the lock-up...
Lock-up is solid and is done with a linerlock. The linerlock isn't jimped, but it doesn't need to be. Mine had absolutely no wiggle at all out of the box, and the lock engages the blade with its (the liner's) entire length as shown.
In use, the Cat is a real pleasure to use as an EDC. The handle makes it melt into your hand, and I found absolutely no rough spots. Fit and finish on mine is nearly perfect; no splinters in the carbon fiber, no overhanging liners, no chips in the ends of the carbon fiber scales. The only other finish problem that I did have (in addition to the stripped screwheads in photo 5 above) will be shown in the next post.
Continued below due to photo upload limitations...
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Pretty neat deal for the price you paid , CF and S30v... nice !
