The Balisong Collector Reviews
The Spyderco Spyderfly

Spyderco Incorporate of Golden, Colorado has been a major manufacturer of fine-quality conventional-folding and fixed-blade knives since the early 1980s. Recently, Spyderco announced the newest addition to their product line, the Spyderfly Balisong. That knife was unveiled exclusively here, on the Balisong Collector's Page. You can read that article by clicking on the Spyderco logo below.

I'm pleased to report that the Spyderfly is now in full production. And it's time for The Balisong Collector Himself to take a close look at the latest production balisong to enter the market.

Spyderco's expressed goal in creating the Spyderfly was that it would not be another me-too balisong. It had to be different. It had to have the Spyderco Edge, and not just on the blade, but everywhere else. Spyderco consulted with a number of leading balisong enthusiasts to identify ways to make the Spyderfly not just a new balisong, not just a unique balisong, but a better balisong.

The knife you see here in these pictures was sent to me especially by Spyderco President Sal Glesser to commemorate that collaboration. I'm very pleased to have it and thank Mr. Gleeser for his kind consideration. I'm even more thankful to him, though, for creating a great new balisong knife.

While the Spyderfly shown in these pictures has some special marking on the blade, it is a production piece in every other way.

You may click on this or any of the other images in this article to see a higher-resolution version.
The higher-resolution images average about 350K. Each opens in a new window.
If you are using pop-up blocking software you may need to bypass it to see the high-res images.

The Spyderfly utilizes a dual-tang-pin design. Large tang pins give a bigger contact area with the handles and are, therefore, stronger and more durable. But, they usually force more space between the handles. Spyderco addressed that by recessing the tang pin pockets into the handles.

Even so, when the Spyderfly is open, the handles don't meet.

If you squeeze hard, you can just barely get them to meet. The harder you squeeze, the stronger an open balisong is... until the handles touch. So, by using a large tang pin and spacing the handles apart, Spyderco allows you to squeeze hard and get a strong knife as a result.

This is important because the Spyderfly can not be locked open. The latch only works to lock the knife closed. This may skirt legal restrictions on locking knives in some areas. However, the Spyderfly can lock shut making it a very safe knife to carry.

In fact, the latch is part of what makes the Spyderfly unique. It's spring-loaded. Just squeeze the handles and the latch springs open.

In the picture above, you can see the spring which wraps around both sides of the latch. I think it's a bit livelier than Benchmade's spring latch and it certainly takes less squeezing force to open.

Click on the Spyderco logo below to continue: