A couple shots of the Spyderco Dodo alongside the Vagabond with both knives opened :
and both knives closed :
The Dodo is ground from 1/8" S30V stainless steel, with a sabre hollow grind which tapers an edge from 0.017 to 0.028" thick and is ground at 9.9 (8) degrees per side. It has a striking blue G10 checkered grip which is heavily curved.
With the Dodo, push cutting the 3/8" hemp required 14.5 (5) lbs due to its very curved profile draw cuts could not be made on a cutting board, however slices on ropes under tension showed tremendous aggression illustrating a high aggression and and thus a complete sharpness profile.
The point on the Dodo is very acute and with a 50 lbs push it sank 260 (15) pages into a phonebook. It isn't possible to do a stab however as the point isn't inline with the handle. Essentially due to the point being almost perpendicular to the grip a very heavy slice drives the point inwards like a stab.
To illustrate the penetration of the point in that regard compared to other point styles, a phonebook was placed on a workbench at waist height with two inches of it extending over the edge. The Dodo and a K2 from Dozier were then slashed down fro shoulder height into the edge of the phonebook. The K2 reached an average of 285 (41) pages, and the Dodo a much greater 485 (61).
The initial sharpness of the Dod was high enough to cut even difficult to slice materials like overipened tomatoes and plums. The Dodo obviously isn't designed as a kitchen knife and due to its grip and blade style it has difficulty on most tasks. However the extremely high cutting ability it works well for many tasks.
The Dodo worked very well slicing thick strips of salted pork fat, effortlessly cutting through the thick fat and skin, however the point tended to aggressively score into plastic and wooden cutting boards. It can also be used to slice onions, but unlike utility kitchen knives which allow the edge to run flat to the cutting board, the heavy recurve on the Dodo means it has to be drawn through the onions and other foods to make a complete cut.
The grip is very secure, even when covered in fats and oils, however due to its rather extreme shape it isn't very versatile, so it doesn't work well for paring type chores where the points of the grip face inward but of course it isn't designed for that.
While the blade shape is somewhat limiting, due to the efficient primary and secondary grinds, the Dodo carves woods very well. The point lacks versatility for some chores, as it isn't inline with the handle, however it actually works very well on some tasks like carving, working well to make spoons and bowls.
On cordage the Dodo excells, the very thin and acute edge plus extensively hooked blade allows for an extremely aggressive slicing action even with a high polished edge.
As miscellenaous usage, The Dodo was used alongside another handful of folders to cut apart a SUV tire for use in a firestarting project. The point of the Dodo and aggressive curvature made it the best plain edge blade for the task.
This is one of the drawbacks to such a heavily curved blade profile, it requires rods to sharpen as regular hones are simply too wide to fit in the curves. Of course the corners of such hones can be used, but this precludes most clamp and jig systems. The Dodo of course is trivially sharpened on the Sharpmaker and due to the very acute profile it only takes a few passes to set the micro-bevel.
The Dodo has grip made from G10 in a striking bright blue which is heavily contoured to fit the hand in a hammer grip and slight variations. The G10 is heavily checkered for very high security while the handle shape provides solid ergonomics as it doesn't focus the checkering on any one points so as to quickly become irritating unlike as seen on the Buck/Strider Solution for example. The clip which is made from bar stock which makes it much more ergonomic than flat bar stock clips.
The Ball-Lock on the Dodo was pretty much invunerable to white knuckling and initially ignored both fast whippy spine whacks as well as slower and harder ones. The Ball-Lock is also self cleaning and thus isn't as likely to jam with lint and such as can happen with lock backs. It however can be problematic to disengage if the fingers are greasy or otherwise lubricated as it can be difficult to pinch the lock ball. It is very difficult to work with heavy gloves. After extended use of the Dodo the lock started to show problems and the strength and security tended to be erratic, at times all that was necessary to close the lock was just hand pressuse on the spine.
The unique and striking appearance of the Dodo conceals a very functional knife. The very pronounced point gives it very aggressive penetration on a slice, similar to a stab with a drop or clip point knife. The grip is also very confortable and secure and well suited to a hammer grip for maximum point presentation.
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More information can be obtained at the
Spyderco website.
| Last updated : | 1 : 01 : 2006 |
| Originally written: | 04 : 04 : 2005 |