Spyderco Paramilitary 2 Thoughts

In my opinion, the Spyderco Paramilitary 2 is one of the most overhyped knives on the market. I've not been a very big fan of this knife, so this will not be a glowing, positive review of this blade. Everyone else seems to love them for some reason. I don't personally recommend it, but tons of other people do.

As a whole, this knife is great quality. When you're paying more than $100, that's what you should expect. Spyderco knows what they're doing in the quality department. I've got no issues with the quality or fit and finish of this blade.

I also don't have any issues with the steel. This is the CPM S110V version. It's a very nice, higher-end steel for sure. I like that Spyderco does lots of different versions of this knife with different blade steels. You can always count on Spyderco knives coming extremely sharp.

My biggest issues would have to be the blade-to-handle ratio and the handles. The blade-to-handle ratio on Spydercos is always pretty off. On this knife though, it's really bad. There's not really a big issue with an uneven ratio, but aesthetically, it doesn't look good at all. This knife is very handle heavy, which is not something I like either. My issue with the handles is how squared off the edges are. I'm not sure if I just got a bad one or if a lot of Spydercos have squared off edges. Whatever the case may be, this knife is extremely uncomfortable for me to hold. The handles dig into my hand a lot. I could easily round off the edges myself, but for a $150 knife, I shouldn't have to do that. My last big complaint about this knife would have to be closing it with the compression lock. The compression lock itself is awesome. I have no issues with that whatsoever. It's a durable and great lock. However, I've found that I have to be very careful with how far in my finger goes on the lock or the knife will not close properly. If my finger is too far in, the choil bounces off my finger, and the knife remains slightly open. Not sure if that makes sense or not, because I'm not really sure the best way to describe it. It is an issue in my opinion. I've had knives with compression locks before, and I never once had to think about where I placed my finger on the lock. This issue could be easily solved if Spyderco ground down the choil ever so slightly. I should never have to consciously think about where my hand is on the lock.

Those are pretty much all the reasons I hate this knife. I think it's very overhyped and just an average knife at best. There's really nothing that fancy about it. There's tons of other EDC blades out there that are cheaper and function even better. I will not personally recommend this blade. However, there are so many raving reviews from pretty much everyone else, so maybe I just have an unpopular opinion. I think I had too high expectations for this blade. It was fun to try, but it's definitely not a perfect knife. Look elsewhere if you want a great EDC knife. Thanks for looking!