The Pelican has an overall length of 7 13/16" (198mm) with a blade length of 3 1/2" (89mm), a cutting edge of 3 18" (79mm) and a weight of 5.8oz (164g). The blade steel is 8Cr13MoV hardened to 61 HRC. A shot from Spyderco website :
This one came with an edge ground to 0.025" thick and 0.040" wide for an angle of approximately 18 degrees per side. From the Byrd Pelican webpage :
To date there are five models: The Cara Cara, Meadowlark, Flight, Pelican and Crossbill. All models have hollow-ground blades manufactured using 8Cr13MoV stainless steel, which is similar to Aus-8 in its properties, performance and function. 8Cr13MoV steel contains both molybdenum and vanadium. Molybdenum enhances the strength and hardness of the steel, vanadium its wear resistance and toughness. Carbon augments the steel's tensile strength and increases its resistance to wear and abrasion. Resulting from this recipe is blade steel that retains a sharp cutting edge over time and use. Most byrds are available with a olain or combination plain/serrated cutting edge. The "comet" shaped opening hole is a trademark of the byrd line and is synonymous with the stringent quality requirements, high performance materials and manufacturing, which go into every knife. fully stainless handles have a sequence of ergonomic curves that fit into the palm for comfort and fatigue-free control while cutting. For additional safty, a portion of the lock release is ground away. This is a design add-on conceived by custom knifemaker David Boye and eliminates the chance of gripping the knife tightly enough to unintentionally release the lock. All byrds feature a pocket clip that clips the knife inside a pocket and it attaches to either end of the folder for tip-up or tip-down right-hand carry.
The initial sharpness of the Pelican was comparable to production knives in general but a little under optimal for Spyderco. It was sharpened lightly before any cutting was performed. This took just a few minutes on some fine stones ending with 0.5 micron chromium/aluminum oxide on leather.
With a fine shaving edge capable of push cutting newsprint, the Pelican made push cuts through 3/8" hemp with 30 (1) lbs.
On birch hardwood flooring the Pelican takes 61 (3) cuts to form a point.
The point on the Pelican is designed for high strength rather than optomized for peneration. On a phonebook it sinks 143 (5) pages with a 50 lbs push, and 328 (50) pages with a hard vertical stab.
As a paring knife, the edge on the Pelican
is heavier than necessary, the blade is also too wide and a little thicker than
optimal. The handle is also a bit wide though not as awkward as grips like the
Fulcrum. The knife is also a little too heavy. In
general the Pelican of course handle such work, peeling a couple dozen potatoes,
but it is readily outperformed by more optimal knives like the Jess Horn. The largest differences is seen
when trying to do precision work like coring or cutting the rind off a
watermelon as it is difficult to turn the Pelican and cut close to the rind.
As a utility knife, the Pelica
has problems on harder vegetables and
will crack up thick carrots. Using it to
make even small slices in turnips
is also problematic due to the force required . While a kitchen utility knife does it in about 2 lbs
the Pelican takes about fifteen and can't make thin slices as it will just cause
them to crack. The performance is fairly low due to the thicker cross
section of the grind, in general the blade length is also a little low for a
utility knife. The Twistmaster for example is
a very nice utility knife for most kitchen work.
For cutting on softer materials when sharp it still cuts well as those materials
don't bind on the blade so the force is low on various meats both raw and cooked
as well as breads. There is concern with the lack of belly, in order to make
complete cuts the very tip has to be used by holding the Pelican at an angle
which also tends to score the cutting boards more so than usual. This focuses
the cutting on one point and induces a higher rate of wear and once the tip
is blunted full cuts are problematic in contrast to knives with a more curved
profile where the cutting can be just shifted to another part of the edge.
The biggest standout for kitchen work was the more
robust profile for tasks such as
cutting frozen foods or using the
tip to pry frozen foods apart. The steel
wasn't immediately rinsed and dried and still showed no evidence
of corrosion. The knife was also easily cleaned, just
flushed out with water and soap and dried.
The Pelican worked well on light vegetation such as grasses as this just requires a sharp edge. For carving and general wood shaping the performance is behind blades which are thinner with more acute edge profiles for most woods, especially on hardwoods as illustrated with the stock work. However on soft pine, the Mora 2000 needed 3.2 (2) slices to make a point on a piece 2.7 x 4.7 cm, whereas the Pelican was only slightly behind at 4.0 (3) slices. As the wood got softer the Mora tended to bind and the thicker blade on the Pelican induced some splitting which reduced the wedging action and thus increased the relative cutting ability significantly.
The main benefit of a larger and heavier folder like the Pelican is the ability to whack off small limbs and quickly cut down sticks for framing small shelters or skewers for roasting plus being more robust in general for digging and prying to break woods apart. The Pelican easily lops off limbs 1-2" thick in soft wood trees like Pine and easily takes down 2-3" Alders in a few chops. This level of chopping ability will enable the building of a bough cave in about a half an hour or a very smokey fire in just a few minutes with a lot of green boughs.
The Pelican worked well over a range of tasks, in general doing best when the
tasks were demanding as the material was harder or thicker and which demanded a
robust blade profile. In general the handle was solid however cutting through
the thick plastic of a two litre pop bottle was problematic as with 125 lbs
applied only a partial cut was completed and the inside of the handle slabs were
too sharp. To make hard cuts of this class in general gloves are required to do
a significant amount. In general, the Pelican does well on
harder tasks like cutting open food cans, which is done simply by
slamming the tip into the top making an x-cut and then prying the sections up.
The Pelican was used for this tasks on multiple occasions with no visible damage
to the edge, the main benefit of the fairly high edge angle.
As a quick check on edge retention on cardboard, the Pelican was used to make 85
cuts through 1/8" ridged cardboard against the ridges. A total of 21 m of
cardboard were cut before the knife started to leave the edges a bit rough and
some of the facing tore on the last half a dozen cuts. To sharpen, the Pelican
was stropped on leather loaded with 0.5 micron chroimum/aluminum oxide with the
edge restored to smooth shaving sharpness with just five passes per side. More
quantitative work has been done with other Byrd knives to gauge the edge
retention of the steel used, specifically the Meadowlark and Cara Cara have been used on
various media, to investigate the performance of both the straight and serrated
edges.
The Pelican responded well with a variety of stones from natural and synthetic waterstones to diamond pads. The straight edge with lack of curve also raises ease of sharpen as it makes the motion of blade on hone very trivial as it doesn't need to be rotated to match the usual curve which forms the tip.
| The handle on the Pelican is similar to the grip on the Endura with the first contour modified to two smaller contours making it more secure in a sabre grip. Due to the lack of a precise point, this grip seems suitable as it won't be doing the same kind of work as a Meadowlark and thus the integral front finger choil for the index finger isn't likely necessary as sabre and hammer grips are more inline with this blades primary functions. The handle also works well in reverse. The grip does have a few issues however, it isn't well suited to icepick grips as the contours face the palm. It also has similar problems common with all stainless grips; lack of security due to the slick surface, which is compensated for somewhat here due to the contouring and problems in extreme heat or cold due to the steels very high ability to transfer heat. Specific to the Pelican there is an ergonomic issues with the inside of the handle slabs being a bit too sharp. |
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The lock back of the Delica was stable under spine impacts, torques and white knuckling. Stability in the latter was enhanced by the milled out section of the lock bar which aids in preventing accidental releases.
The Pelican is a working folder suited more for heavier cutting tasks with the robust tip and edge profile. The lock is secure and strong and the handle well shaped. The only ergonomic issues are those inherent to stainless steel in general which are a relatively slick surface and fairly sharp edge inner edges. The initial sharpness was about average for production knives and resharpening was easy in general due to the steel being easy to machine, the edge relatively thin and acute and the profile being straight. There were no issues with corrosion or any durablity issues.
Comments can be emailed using cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com or by posting in the following thread on Bladeforums :
More information can be obtained at the Spyderco website. The following thread may also be of interest :
| Last updated : | 6 : 6: 2006|
| Originally written: | 12 : 01 : 2005 |