- Joined
- Nov 20, 2007
- Messages
- 46
I pre-ordered one of these from KnifeCenter but then found Southern Edges had one in stock a bit later so bought this from him (first time using that shop too, good experience). I also picked this one up ( (like my Spyderco Janisong I recently posted a mini-review of here) because I like knives I can fidget with, and this is another good fidget spinner-type knife for me.
Here's a quick video of the first 'new' opening I mastered on it. I might literally be keeping this knife because I think this trick is so cool and I can't easily do it on my other balisongs lol. It's the super light weight, small size, and those circular 'spydieholes' you can more easily grip on the SmallFly 2 that does it I think (this trick is usually done by holding the latch which my fingers don't like to do properly - yes, I suck at doing tricks fyi
. ...these same reasons (mostly handle size but also weight) are also why this knife doesn't flip nearly as well as my other full-size Balisong / Butterfly knives, but this is more of an EDC type knife so that's perfectly fine in my eyes. Imgur album with pictures, with COMMENTS on a bunch of photos (which I'm going to regurgitate -and expand on a bit- below as well):
So this is totally tongue and cheek, and not really a negative of the knife, but I'm going to post what I initially thought anyway! ...I wanted to take this pic a little further away since the first time I opened the knife and looked at it from a normal viewing distance of maybe 18" away, I had to do a double-take – was that a scratch on the blade of this brand new knife? It wasn't lasered-on like the Spyderco logo on the opposite side, it didn't have thicker lines like the marking my Janisong has – it was extremely thin and seemed to be scribed (i.e. scratched) into the metal, and I literally thought it was damage to the blade... But no, it's just the designers initials... Weird choice in my eyes but it's probably just my personal preference (and it IS cool that the designer is so proud of their design that they want to sign it!).
Play isn't bad for a small G10 knife in my limited experience (I've only owned all-metal Balisongs before like BRS AB and Benchmade 87/85)... No tap either. Very cool to see right out of the box.
...BUT, and I'm sorry to say this, but when that (even super slight) play can make the latch hit the bare G10 and literally cause damage to it in the very first FIFTEEN MINUTES of owning it... which you just know is going to get worse over time (this pic was taken literally 2 hours after UPS dropped the package off), I would consider that a pretty large design flaw.
**Edit after a couple more days of owning: the design of the latch, with G10 sandwiched on both side of the latch cut-out, also makes the latch NOT open on occasion. It seems to be because depending on the angle you're holding the knife, if you're not squeezing perfectly straight-in on both handles, but cocked/angled just a little bit, this will make the latch touch/rub one side of the G10 and it gets squeezed and binds there and will NOT release. I find this happens with my left hand a ton more than my right (dominant) hand for whatever reason (probably hand strength and dexterity is better on my right hand).
Here's a close-up of the missing/damaged G10 area - this is as close as I could get with my phone, looks a little worse in real life when you look at it, but that's definitely a chip (or simply worn) out area on the scales, and is actually damaged (albeit slightly less) on the opposite side now as well.
These following pics show the pretty bad fitment on this knife. I don't mean to be harsh, this is literally my 6th Spyderco I've owned (if being a 6-time repeat buyer doesn't tell you I'm a fan I don't know what does!), but I have to say that even my ~$40-50 clone knives from China have better fit than this. This area is one of the worse with this spacer sticking out more than a bit. I'm kinda at a loss of (nice) words, but this is simply shoddy manufacturing and/or quality control. Sorry Spyderco, but there's just no nice way to put that. The opposite sides spacer is sunk-in instead btw. This isn't the type of fit and finish you expect of a USA-made knife with a $300 MSRP.
3x red lines are showing this same type of QC issues on a couple different areas (red circle is damage from the latch). You can see in this same pic how some of these same exact areas on the opposite side handle are just fine (others not so much on that other side as well...), so this wasn't some weird design/manufacturing choice or anything.
This is the steel liners of the SmallFly 2. I have a feeling this is perfectly normal as I saw this same rough, scratchy, 'finishing' on the steel liners of my Spyderco Janisong as well (which is made in a totally different factory in a different country: Taichung)... but still not cool in my eyes. People on YouTube immediately saw it on the very few videos about this knife currently online, and they mentioned it in the comments as well, so it's not just me who is bothered by this on a higher-end knife.
Couldn't capture this on film, but the edge is slightly off-center (not by a lot, it's really OK, but I know that some people are fanatics about that so I did feel I needed to mention it). The other issue i don't have a way to picture is how I had to loosen one of the handle pivot screws to get the handle to drop free and sway a couple times like it should. Someone on JerzeeDevil said these run on bushings (I haven't taken mine apart to verify), and I AM still learning about Balisongs, but I thought you are supposed to be able to tighten the screws all the way on a bushing knife and STILL have the handles swing free and not bind... like that's one of the positive benefits of the bushing design, but maybe I'm wrong about that. Quick fix and now swings freely so hopefully a moot point.
To end, this (and the Janisong last month) are literally the first Spyderco's I've bought in quite a while (still have several from years ago as I like the brand) and BOTH this SmallFly 2 AND my Janisong have issues right out of the box. And we're not talking about 1 or 2 ever-so-slight "nobody would ever notice in a million years" type of things... it's MULTIPLE areas, with parts (like the spacers) that stick out enough from the knife that you feel them every single time you handle it, things like a small chunk of the handle scales wearing off nearly immediately after you open the box. As more of these get released to the public others reviewers will probably (unjustified in my eyes) probably complain about how badly this flips compared to a full-size balisong... but I think that's a moot point – the purpose of this knife in my eyes is to have something small you can EDC and not have it be huge in the pocket, be super light, but still have a decent blade steel and a very usable blade shape, and STILL have a bit of fun with by flipping it (just not like in a competition setting lol)! Just by its size alone people should know it's not solely for flipping which is why I didn't comment much on that part of it. But anyway, just have to say that I'm very disappointed with the SmallFly 2's build quality, and combined with the Janisong's issues I just experienced, has really turned me off a lot from buying Spyderco again.
For full disclosure I have to say that I wouldn't even had mentioned ANY of this on a $40 knife, or even a $80 or so knife (but heck, I do feel like I have to mention that all those ~$40ish USA-made Kershaw's we've given my family members through the years were ALL pretty darn impeccably manufactured and running strong years and years later still...), but we're talking about a $210 knife with a MSRP of $300, manufactured in the USA none-the-less... makes me really think what's going on the factory floor of that company...
To end on a more positive note (well, I'll try my best): what do I like about this knife? Why am I still keeping it? (well, tbh, I kinda have to keep it since I only had a 3-day return window and I literally --design flaw or not-- damaged that latch area in the first 15 minutes of checking it out so can't return it now anyway...) BUT I really DO want something in this form factor, and there's really nothing else like this on the market. I also LOVE the blade shape - I'm a sucker for a full flat grind. I LOVE how when the knife is closed you see most of the bare blade which is different than any of my current knives. I LOVE that simple 'latch' drop trick! I LOVE that it comes with a pocket clip as I'm having a heck of a hard time carrying my HUGE Benchmade 87 in it's slim sheath in my pocket (kills me to even grab my keys from that same pocket as the knife takes up so much space!). I LOVE a balisong with a spring latch (even if you can't close it in the open position which does bug me) - I literally returned my Kershaw Lucha and sold my BRS Alpha Beast 3.0 primarily because they didn't make very good EDC's since neither of their latches would 100% reliably drop free, the Lucha doesn't come with a latch, and you can't buy a latch for the AB separately either. Would I recommend the knife to anybody right now? No. Not at all. But if they clean up the QC I think this would be a very good knife to own (but only time will tell on that).
Last edited:
