The review consists of :
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The review consists of : |
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The Paramilitary from Spyderco is a compression locking folder made by stock removal out of 0.155" thick, S30V stainless steel. The handle is G10 with dual stainless steel liners. The Paramilitary weighs 110 grams and is handle heavy, balancing on the middle finger. The blade has a full height flat grind tapering to a thin (0.020-0.027") and acute edge at 25.2 (9) degrees included. The grip is swelled well to fit the hand, large enough for glove use, and checkered to enhance retention in compromized situations.
With the thin and acute edge and high initial sharpness, push cuts through 3/8" hemp required a minimal 15.3 (7) lbs through the tip with a much reduced 9.5 (4) lbs on a two inch draw. The vast drop in force shows a significant inherent slicing aggression, revealing a complete sharpening profile for the Paramilitary.
Pointing sections of hardwood dowel the Paramilitary could form a one inch tip in 5.6 (1.1) cuts. Very high wood cutting ability for a tactical folder and even in general.
With a slim and acute point from a full length distal taper, the Paramility sank 227 (6) pages with a 50 lbs push in a phonebook, and 689 (16) pages with a hard vertical stab.
The slim and acute point of the Paramilitary effeciently cuts the eyes out of potatoes and the lightweight nature and slim grip makes it easy to handle sideways in a pinch style grip for peeling potatoes and other vegetables. The blade upsweep efficiently slices up roasts and breaks apart chickens for stew and stir frys. The blade curvature also puts the edge low enough to readily allow full cuts on a cutting board and the straight spine works well as a scraper to readily clean diced vegetables off the cutting board and into the stew pot or fry pan.
To benchmark cutting ability, using a Japanese utility knife took 1-2
lbs to slice some
carrots and Paramilitary was close at about three
pounds. The performance difference increased on larger vegetables like turnips
and decreased on softer ones like potatoes. In general for most kitchen work
the Paramility is ahead of larger folders like the Manix as it is easier to handle. For much the same
reasons the Catcherman is more efficient still
outside of point work as it is too flexible for coring except for soft fruits.
The U2 makes a nicer paring knife, but in general is
limited for utility work as it has a very short blade, the Paramilary is much
more versatile in general able to handle a much wider scope of work.
The corrosion resistance of S30V was high enough to allow the knife to stay wet while working even on acidic fruits and vegetables. The knife was never oiled, just rinsed and wiped dry at the end of any food preperation.
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Tool : the efficient edge profile of the Paramilitary comes
into play on woods where it has a high efficiency for deep cuts and allows quick
rough shaping and piles of shavings from even seasoned hardwoods. The larger
handle is an asset here compared to folders like the small Sebenza for the heavy cutting,
though smaller folders will have an advantage in the precision carving as they
are easier to handle especially for cutting intricate curves.
As shown in the above stock wood cutting, the cutting is solid though behind folders like the Opinel. However the Paramiltary has a much stronger blade which allows much more aggressive shaping techniques by twisting the blade in woods to remove the chips much faster by inducing them to split. It can in just a few minutes take a simple stick and shape a tapered pry bar. Comfort in hand is in general high though the clip is squarish and there is a ergonomic issue with the top of the hump for foward grips which place the hump in the center of the palm as the very tip of the blade is used for carving the contours. If the spine was rounded ergonomics would improve for grips over the blade. This very simple and yes even crude tool has many uses, often the main advantage is to save wear on the knife. The prybar will dig a hole readily through sods, pry up rocks, act as a spud and remove thick barks from woods, and works well as a general kitchen implement acting as both a mixing spoon and spatula. It is easy to shape with the Paramilitary to refine the taper depending on the task at hand. |
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Traps : the Paramilitary has little direct chopping ability and aside from woods under an inch it is most productive to pound it into wood with impacts on the spine. The least stressful way is to set the knife in the wood with a few taps and then disengage the lock which allows heavy hammering on the spine with no stress on the lock. For softer woods the lock can be kept engaged as long as the impacts are moderate, meaning mainly wrist action. This is useful for cutting poles for example to make bird traps such as shown on the right. A small stick is cut to length, the ends poined, a hole drilled through the top, and the bait stick set and held in place by a trigger knot which is kept under tension by the large rock. A bird lands on the stick which holds a noose. The stick collapses immediately and the rock pulls the noose tight.
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Shelter: a platform bed was constructed in about thirty
minutes.
The two main support posts were windblown sticks, the
basic lattice framework was
dried tree branches and
3/4" pieces of alders the Paramilitary cut in one chop
as they cracked and split. It was a more powerful
chopper than the Endura however behind the
Manix.
On top of this basic frame
was a foot of
moss, ferns and small branches.
The Paramilitary cut cuts swaths of such material much more efficiently than smaller folders like the U2 though is behind the Military, one of the better larger folders for such work. This bed gives insulates from the cold ground does nothing against rain or wind. Another can be built over the first to give decent rain / snow protection or bed on the ground and use the platform bed as a roof and then lay a framework around it to create a lean-to. |
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Point work : as the tip on the Paramilitary is rather fine, prying in woods would want to be avoided and instead cut the wood out for shaping of hollows for bowls and spoons as well as trying to remove imbedded objects. The Manix's thicker tip was more able to pop out chunks of wood to carve depressions for a spoon or bowl. However S30V in general has little ductility and will not bend significantly before breaking.
Fire : the combined abilities of the Paramilitary to gather tinder and break down larger woods make it a solid fire building tool. It is significantly ahead of smaller knives like the RSK handling the thicker wood work and behind larger folders like the Military and Manix. The grass on top of the fire on the right was there for protection from the rain as it was misting off and on. When it rained the grasses protected the coals and then as soon as it stopped they quickly dried and just added fuel to the fire.
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The Paramilitary readily carves up a few pop cans to produce a makeshift stove. Cutting off the top, punching holes in the bottom, and sliding it into another can cut in half with slits in the sides to allow it to slide over the top can. With the can on bottom filled with a handfull of rocks it is fairly stable even in a stout breeze and it both protects the fire started from the wind while allowing a decent draw through the base. With a small amount of tinder a decent fire is produced quickly. This can be used as a cooking source or simply transferred by wooden tongs to another location to make a larger fire once a decent amount of coals are built up. The aluminum cans will melt however in a heavy fire, you can actually melt them and use it to cast various shapes. Harder metals such as tin food cans are also no problem to open or cut apart to make similar stoves and other tools. The bottom and top can be removed and cuts made in the side as well. Pieces can also be cut into shapes and holes made with the tip to craft fishing lures. For this type of work about a 15 degree microbevel is necessary unless a lot of care is used. Increase up to 20 per side for sloppy cutting. This work will dull the fine edge on the Paramilitary but not produce significant visible damage with the right cutting methods. The main focus is to cut straight and avoid twisting the knife. |
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Digging in rocky soil, the Parmiliary is used as a pick, loosening the soil and
working with the tip to remove any larger rocks. It also readily cuts through
sod or heavy roots which make digging with a stick or small shovel difficult.
The digging on the right left the edge fairly worn and the point rounded but no
significant damage.
In general though, aside from really rooty or boggy soil, or frozen ground, it is best to carve a small digging stick, which can be as simple as a pointed stake to dig with. This often works just as well as the knife and saves wear on the blade as one session of even moderate digging could easily induce as much wear as weeks or even months of regular cutting. The high cutting ability and general rugged nature of the Paramilitary allows shaping of such tools such as shown on the right efficiently. |
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The Paramilitary was also used to cut a coat hanger in pieces to use as
fishing weights.However even going very light with about 50 hits to cut about a
third of the way through the wire the edge was visibly distorted. If impacted
hard so that it could be cut half way in just ten hits the edge would
bend so that a fraction of a millimeter deep was deformed. The edge angle is
quite acute and could be made more obtuse to handle such work without damage.
In terms of tip toughness, the Paramilitary was dropped from three feet onto concrete. Three impacts had no significant impacts on the tip which did gouge the concrete on each impact. Dropping it from six feet however caused the tip to break back to 0.015" thick on the second impact, little indendentation.
In regards to general utility, The lock is very strong and secure and thus capable of handling heavy and dynamic loads. The scope of work of the knife as a utility tool for prying and such is thus limited by the blade strength. S30V isn't a fairly ductile steel and the Paramilitary has a fairly slim point which would be readily broken just by moderate wrist flex if the point was used for serious prying.
As a first rough trial for edge retention on used carpet the Paramility, Pacific and in H1 and Agent from Dozier in D2 were used to cut used carpet on a slice with the sharpness determined by the force required to slice three inches into 1/8" cardboard. This was done mainly as an experiment to see how effective cardboard could be as a measure of sharpness. The Paramiliary and Agent both had 20 degree secondary edge bevels polished on the fine Sharpmaker hones, and the Pacific Salt had a 20 degree secondary edge bevel applied with the medium Sharpmaker hone. The results over an average of four runs.
| # cuts | Paramiltary | Pacific Salt | Agent |
| force on cardboard | |||
| S30V | H1 | D2 | |
| 0 | 3.7 (1.0) | 5.3 (0.8) | 3.7 (1.8) |
| 2 | 5.3 (0.9) | 6.0 (1.0) | 4.0 (0.8) |
| 6 | 4.3 (0.3) | 5.3 (1.6) | 4.7 (0.8) |
| 14 | 6.7 (2.7) | 7.0 (2.0) | 6.3 (1.3) |
| 30 | 6.7 (2.1) | 6.3 (1.9) | 4.7 (0.9) |
| 62 | 6.0 (1.0) | 6.7 (0.8) | 6.7 (0.9) |
| 126 | 6.7 (1.2) | 7.7 (0.8) | 6.3 (0.9) |
| 254 | 7.7 (1.7) | 8.3 (1.3) | 6.3 (0.9) |
It was obvious by feel that the Pacific Salt was behind but the cardboard results don't show anything definately as the precision of the measurement was too low as as the influence of sharpness on the force required was too small, it was mainly measuring the wedging of the blades and thus was controlled more by the profile. With a visual inspection, the Pacific Salt was significantly more indented.
For a second run on used carpet, the three plain edged blades had the same edge finish. 254 cuts were made with the sharpness measured by the length of edge required to cut 1/4" poly cord under 10 lbs of tension. The results scaled to the performance of the Paramilitary are shown in the following table which is an average of five runs :
| # cuts | Paramiltary | Dozier Agent | Pacific Salt |
| S30V | D2 | H1 | |
| rank based on length of edge to cut poly | |||
| 254 | 100 | 70 (11) | 47 ( 7) |
The performance of the Agent, being significantly behind the Paramiliary was likely due to the carpet being wet and thus corrosion was a factor as well. The lower performance of the Pacific Salt in H1 isn't surprising as the wear resistance is low and this is an extended run on abrasive media.
The Paramilitary, Spyderco Catcherman in MBS-26 and Byrd Meadowlark in 8C13CrMoV were also used to cut similar carpet and all finished with a 20 degree microbevel with the fine Spyderco rods and used for five rounds of 254 cuts on used carpet. The final sharpness was again checked by how much length of edge was required to cut 1/4" poly cord under 10 lbs of tension. The results scaled to the performance of the Paramilitary through an average of four rounds of cutting :
| # cuts | Paramiltary | Bryd Meadowlark | Catcherman |
| S30V | 8C13CrMoV | MBS-26 | |
| rank : length of edge to cut poly | |||
| 254 | 100 | 85 ( 9) | 73 (10) |
The slim blade on the Catcherman made it readily the most efficient blade in regards to force in the cutting. In general the performance in regards to edge retention was very close and while the Paramilitary had an advantage it would be difficult to tell without careful measurement.
The Paramilitary was also later compared to a Manix and a Heafner bowie in D2 on well : more used carpet. The two S30V blades were identical and ahead of the D2, this was also cutting done during light rain so corrosion again was an issue.
Concerning extent of blunting and sharpening after the carpet cutting, a couple of passes on a smooth steel increased the sharpness on all blades by a factor of 3-4 so the actual extent of blunting in regards to required sharpening was rather low. This steeled edge is of course formed of weakened steel and will roll readily just with one cut through the 1/4" poly, all of the weakened metal must be ground away in order to enable the restoration of an opimal edge. To restore the blades to an optimal finish took about two minutes on a 200 grit silicon carbide waterstone, the blades were then honed on a 800 grit waterstone and the bevel was reapplied with a Sharpmaker. The only significant difference in ease of sharpening was that the Catcherman was the fastest to hone as the edge bevel was so narrow much less metal had to be removed to reset it and thus it sharpened about twice as fast as the Paramilitary.
The Paramilitary has a very simple blade shape and is fairly easy to sharpen and has minimal burr formation as long as proper technique is used and the edge isn't over sharpened. While S30V has a relatively low grindability due to the high alloy carbide content (especially vanadium) the thin edge minimizes metal removal necessary for sharpening and thus speed of honing is in general fairly short.
Of course with repeated sharpening, and especially if the edge angle is reduced the edge will increase in both thickness and width and that point ease of sharpening will be significantly reduced. As shown in the picture at the right this very well used Paramilitary has a apex bevel which is significantly wider than the as-boxed version and is at the point where sharpening is taking longer than desired.
At this point it was regound and the thickness of the apex or secondary bevel
was reduced to under 0.005". This means the amount of metal which needs to be
removed for sharpening is extremely minimal and thus the speed of sharpening
is very high. Note of course with such a very thin edge bevel there are
concerns with durability on harder work.
In general though due to the high alloy content any grinding is more efficient with stones with harder abrasives such as silicon carbide, CBN or diamond. In general therefore natural stones will not cut as aggressively and thus will not give similar feedback and can more easily over sharpen due to more force being applied and create issues with burrs and weakened edges.
On the positive :
However, there are a few issues as well :
As with most modern synthetic handles it is also extremely durable, resistant to weathering, heat/cold and even chemical attacks with would be harmful to the user.
The clip is one position only however and like a lot of Spyderco's it is assembled with rather speciality screws (six point stars) rather than the much more common torx. However Spyderco doesn't in general promote ease of breakdown (likely trying to avoid damage and warranty claims).
A couple of other minor issues :
The compression lock on the Paramilitary is secure under various heavy white knuckle grips as well as fast and heavy spine whacks and very heavy dynamic cutting and torques. It is also an inherently stronger and more stable design than the traditional liner or integral.
The knife also opens smoothly, much easier than on the lockbacks like the Manix, with the same easy swing as found on liner locks like the Military. The Paramilitary is also easy to open and close one handed, though the lock release is problematic to release wearing heavy gloves, much more so than a lockback and some people find it more awkward than a regular liner or integral lock.
With a high flat grind and thin and acute edge the Paramilitary sets a high standard for cutting ability while retaining a decent durability to allow a wide scope of work. The handle is decent ergonomic and secure for a folding knife and the lock strong and secure. There are however a few obvious areas for room for improvement :
Most of these changes were made later to significantly deal with the ergonomic issues, see the thread below.
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More information can be obtained at the Spyderco website and more pictures in the PhotoBucket Album.
| Last updated : | 28 : 12 : 2012 |
| Originally written: | 05 : 19 : 2005 |