Ok, I just received my Tropen directly from Spyderco and I love it!
The polished and contoured G10 scales fit my medium sized hand perfectly w/my index finger in the scale cut-out and my thumb on top of the wave tang.
You can choke up on the blade by placing your index finger on top of the spine where it's flat and radiused and your middle finger in the scale cut-out for skinning or slicing something. You can also hold it in a reverse grip but I am less comfortable w/that because the seems less balanced and more unwieldy when held this way. Not saying it can't be done; it's just doesn't feel that comfortable doing that to me.
The upswept edge of the blade and flat grind make it very effective for cutting/slicing whether in the kitchen or for SD. The flat radiused section of the spine also makes the blade very effective in using for a counter block SD tactic, as you could use a Szabo, Ayoob, Gunting or Jot Singh Khalsa. However, the blade shape to handle angle is not that good for stabbing because, when the knife is held out straight, the blade angle is upward and would be easy to deflect from a stabbing (but not slicing) motion. This is the reason for the adjusted blade/handle angle you see in the Ayoob and various Schempp designed knives.
The knife deploys very easily and quickly using the flipper or the wave. The Spydie hole in the blade is too small to use for deployment but (like the ZT and other Emersons that I own) you can flick the blade open by using the end of the wave tang as the friction point and it easily flicks open in this way with your thumb. So, you still have 3 deployment options available.
I do not make it a habit to close my knives one handed but you can do this safely w/the Tropen. Unlike other compression lock knives, when you release the blade from the open position, the flipper tab stops the blade from fully closing and accidentally dropping on your finger if it's in the way.
The only thing you cannot do w/the Tropen that I can do w/other Spyderco compression lock knives that I own is to flick it open by simply releasing the compression lock, because about 1/2" of the exposed end of the blade is in the way and prevents you from disengaging the lock bar tab when the knife is closed.
Regarding this exposed edge, I do not see how you can possibly cut yourself on it UNLESS you push down and inward w/your finger tip so that your it touches the blade and then intentionally continue to apply finger tip pressure laterally along the exposed edge, which would be hard if not stupid to do.
The gimped end of the lock bar tab acts as a guard to prevent you from cutting yourself on the exposed edge and when you use the flipper, your finger will contact the gimping on the top of the lock bar tab long after the blade has already been deployed.
The flipper tab is also very large and I don't see how it would be possible for your finger to slip off it and, even if it did, the gimping on the top of the lock bar tab would prevent you from cutting your finger on the exposed blade edge. So, there really is no risk of cutting yourself on the 1/2" of exposed blade unless you intentionally want to do it and there is no need to dull it.
So, I think that the Tropen is a FANTASTIC knife!
Unlike the Shaman, which I mentioned in another thread is a fine knife but think is just "ok" because it does not "excite" me, the Tropen (like the Autonomy2 and Amalgam) does. While I generally do not like to carry my more expensive knives because I do not want to risk losing or damaging them, it will be hard to keep the Tropen out of my pocket.
Kudos to Javier Vogt and to Sal for bringing this truly exceptional knife to market!
