Spyderco Caspian First Impressions

[StSumwhere]

I got my Syderco Caspian three weeks ago but haven't gotten to go diving with it yet . Nevertheless, I do have some first impressions to pass along as well as pics!

First off, I'm a warm water diver who doesn't use a wet suit or gloves (but since I've turned 42, maybe I'll start covering up for the benefit of my fellow divers :mooner. Also I have small hands and the knife seems to fit me perfectly. Thus, if you dive with gloves or have a large hand or fat fingers, this knife may not be such a comfortable fit for you.

Here are some pictures of the knife in my hand and in my son Tim's hand - he's 5'11" with normal sized hands.

Spyderco Caspian in my small hand - perfect fit.

Caspian in a larger hand

An alternate grip for larger hands. This was much more comfortable for Tim, but less secure since his index finger is not in the hole. By the way, the knife has excellent jimping for the thumb and index fingers but not in the trademark hole. He also tried to keep his index finger in the hole and move his middle finger to the jimped area under the hole - no good.

This reverse grip works well for me but not at all for Tim. I plan to use this whenever I need to anchor myself to the bottom in moderate currents.

You can see how my son's hand engulfs the handle - sans gloves.

Finally, a closeup of the blade with combo edge. The edge is unbelievably sharp right out of the box. Now I need to get the Spyderco Sharpmaker because I won't use any of my other sharpeners to touch this beauty. By the way, the sheath holds the knife securely but releases easily with one hand.

Looking forward to carrying this on all my dives this summer!

Cheers,
Hector

 

[Splitlip]

Can the sheath be mounted on 2" webbing?
Can you post a better pic of the sheath?

 

[StSumwhere]

First, the knife comes with the sheath and two thin nylon straps with QR buckles. There's no other mounting hardware, but the sheath seems pretty well thought out. I'll try to take some pics later today (no promises since it is St Patty's Day!).

I laid the sheath on top of 2" webbing and found it is 2" at its widest and mounting parallel to the webbing is easily done with a couple of plastic cable ties. Mounting perpendicular to the webbing such as on a weight belt may be better done with an adapter plate or kydex - DIY projects either way.

 

[Splitlip]

Thanks

 

[havnmonkey]

wow!!! Eye Candy!!! i just bought a Spetton w/ my new Omer Alien...

[/IMG]

$35... But that Spyder looks sick!!! Especially w/ H-1 steel... Let us know how it handles the Sea!!!

 

[Brandon]

What's the distance between the strap attachment points (illustrated on attached picture)?

It looks close to 2", if so, knock the center bit out with a dremel and you've got your webbing attachment point. Shouldn't weaken the sheath too much...

-B

 

[StSumwhere]

Last couple of pics. That is unless someone wants to see the >inside< of the sheath!?

Atop 2" webbing - a perfect fit

Front of sheath

Rear

Thin profile

Brandon - the amount of material between the strap attachment points is 0.22" but even if you removed this you'd only have a 1.7" opening and I don't think removing more material beyond this would work out well. However, I think there are enough alternatives - arm mount, leg mount, inline webbing mount, and corrugated hose mount to name a few - that you should find something that works for you. As for me, it'll be leg mount because I already have 2 other cutting instruments on my upper body (on my BC).

-Hector

 

[Splitlip]

What's the distance between the strap attachment points (illustrated on attached picture)?

It looks close to 2", if so, knock the center bit out with a dremel and you've got your webbing attachment point. Shouldn't weaken the sheath too much...

-B

good idea

 

[johnny_bravo]

That's a nice knife...it will be a good addition to my Spyderco collection. Thanks for taking the time to post the report/pics.

Cheers.

-J.-

 

[sharky001]

I have one of these as well. It is indeed a beautiful knife. I want to mount the knife in the DIR position [i.e. on the waistbelt], but the sheath doesn't allow it to be mounted directly onto 2" webbing without adding opposed zip-ties [as suggested above], thus creating two loops to run the webbing through. By 'opposed', I mean threaded into the existing webbing slots in a perpendicular fashion. The only problem with this [and I have not yet tried it], is that the mounting points are low on the sheath [relative to the overall length] and I wonder if that would cause the knife to rotate or dip forward. Now, there is space to drill two small holes, which would effectively move the attachment points closer to the center thus reducing the rotating moment.

Just looking at the picture above with the knife overlaid the webbing. The sheath could be permanently attached to the webbing and then a 2" loop could be formed [i.e. sewn] in the webbing ... and then the waistbelt slipped-through.