Review: Spyderco Resilience after 8yrs:

[xavierdoc]

Spyderco Resilience after 8yrs.



NB: Some hunting/gore pics in post two, below:



Resilience by name, resilience by nature?

Obviously, a fixed blade knife suits bushcraft use better than a folder but I usually carry a folder as well, particularly if my main knife has a thick blade or Scandi grind (see my Wolfspyder review for how I think Scandi-grinds are a weak compromise for food prep, for eg.)

I bought this knife from Heinnie Haynes on 14/10/2014 for £43.95. It's one of their cheaper, Chinese made folders.



Plain edged, 8Cr13MoV steel, long leaf-shaped, drop-point blade with full-flat grind and no choil nor finger choil and full length liners, open-backed, Walker liner-lock, phosphor-bronze washers, black textured G10 scales with a lanyard hole. Jimping on the thumb-ramp.





Size:







It's tempting to think of the Resilience as a budget Military, given the size and same lock type. The specs:



Resilience:







Military:





However, the blade on the Military is CPM-S30V and has a straight spine, as opposed to the gentle rounded profile of the Resilience, so a slightly pointer tip. The Mili also has a finger-choil and a bigger thumb ramp. The G10 scales are unlined, giving a slimmer handle and less weight.



The finger choil is a matter of personal preference, ostensibly offering good control of cutting close to the choil. However, the actual cutting edge of the Resilience extends right to the handle, negating this difference almost completely as there is almost no ricasso. This means that the Resilience actually has a bigger cutting edge relative to overall blade length.



Military blade length versus cutting edge:






Cutting edge length





The Resilience provides pocket clip 4 positions (I favour tip-down for long blades) versus the Military's one. Better for lefties, though Liner-lock don't necessarily suit left-handed use anyway.





On paper, S30v chemistry should out perform lowly 8Cr13MoV but in real world use the latter is an excellent compromise of edge-holding and stability versus ease of sharpening.



I've been down the rabbit hole of hyper-steels, having used Farid CPMRex-121 fixed and folders, Phil Wilson K294, S110v etc. I've come to realise that for my purposes, steels like SF100, O1, Aus10a etc serve my needs as well, if not better, than their high-carbide cousins (I confess to a soft spot for CPM-3V, though). 8Cr13MoV is in the "basic" steels category.



It's plenty tough enough as I found when I dropped it point first onto a tiled-floor:

















I live by the sea, enjoying kayak and spear fishing, but corrosion has not been a problem (rinsed thoroughly after use), though I carry a Salt blade for these activities most of the time. My usual Salt folder was confiscated by airport security (I'd left it clipped in my board shorts and was travelling with hand baggage only, oops!) so the Resilience filled-in until a replacement arrived.











The Resilience has accompanied me on twice-daily dog walks and hikes where it excels at slashing brambles around styles/narrow paths, bushcrafting forays and and foraging.



The hole is 12mm: useful for scale in photos:



























Parasols









Amanita







The full-flat grind and long blade mean this knife excels at food prep (not as good as a dedicated kitchen knife but better than most folders.)



Continued...

 

[xavierdoc]

Cont.



It's seen a lot of use on game (I shoot a lot of deer and rabbits, having 4 freezers for meat):

Spoiler: Hunting/butchery pics

Deer:



Watching deer:















Fallow buck









Deer gralloch:











Deer skinning:











Deer prep

The open-backed design helps cleaning but, as with all Liner-locks, you have to get gunk out of the gap between the scale and the lock bar to avoid stiff disengagement and poor hygiene.

Edge holding has been more than adequate in these tasks, also cutting up the numerous cardboard boxes we seem to acquire.



I initially sharpened it free hand, convex, later using a 40deg inclusive micro-bevel with the Sharpmaker.



Lock is wearing but still secure:







G10 a bit chewed up (opening beers):











It's become a "go-to" beater, when I don't want to abuse the Military nor carry a bigger folder like the Cold Steel Rajah I or Espada XL (which are superb at clearing overgrown paths etc.)



My Resilience celebrated its 8th Birthday last year and I began to wonder how long the lock would hold-up.



Q. So what can you replace a Resilience with?



A. Another Resilience! The price had gone up to £75 (still excellent value for a knife of this size and quality) but an offer appeared on Amazon at £50, so I snapped one up. Aside from the laser etching on the blade, nothing has changed.



Unboxing:







New and old:















So, if you're in the market for a large folder, I can whole-heartedly recommend the Spyderco Resilience. Even at the current price of £75, it represents excellent value and will last for years of normal use.


Highly Recommended

 

[R_Fonseca]

Good read and nice pics. Looks like a handy knife for sure. Never owned a Spyderco... Nope, don't need it... Nice though

 

[Kadushu]

I've had one for about the same length of time as you and must admit it's impressed me with its robustness. I've pushed it a bit beyond its remit (splitting kindling) but the lock up has withstood the punishment. I completely disassembled it last year to clean grit out of the pivot and it all cleaned up and went back together nicely with the blade centred and no blade play.

I think Spydercos are a bit divisive because a lot of their models admittedly look very similar and have a simple, utilitarian construction. However, within those constraints they do what they do very well and probably experiment with different steels more than any other company. I also have to applaud them for not being afraid of making thin, slicey blades when so many other knife brands are over built and have edge geometry like a masonry chisel.