SpydercoEndura 4 Signature Knife with 3.80" VG-10 Steel Blade with Emerson Opener and FRN Handle - PlainEdge - C10PGYW

A good outdoors knife will be used for wood processing, carving/whittling, animal processing, food preparation, rope cutting, producing wood shavings, scraping a firesteel, and many other tasks. It needs to have a reasonably thick and strong blade, made with a steel that is resilient against corrosion, breaking and chipping, and easy to resharpen, and with a grind that gives it a strong edge and a strong point.VG10 is a very well rounded, middle of the road stainless steel. It’s not as prone to chipping/ breaking as harder stainless steels, it’s very resistant to corrosion and rust, and It’s fairly easy to sharpen to hair shaving sharpness within a few minutes, which is very important for a good outdoors knife, which will have to be resharpened in the field several times because of the tough jobs it’ll have to do.Also, VG 10 has decent edge retention, which means it needs to be resharpened less often. Harder, more expensive steels available on other spyderco models may have better edge retention but they’re also more difficult to sharpen, especially under field conditions. They’re also more prone to chipping and breaking under heavy use, making them good for EDC, or for general cutting use, but not so good for camping, outdoors or survival scenarios where they would be very hard to resharpen.But the steel is only part of the considerations one needs to make to select a proper outdoors knife. The grind, the grip, and the blade thickness and geometry are all important factors as well.A full flat grind (FFG) gives the knife’s blade a thinner edge and a thinner point, making it better for cutting, as it generates less friction while its going through the material, but it also makes the blade (and especially the edge) significantly weaker. A FFG knife is perfect for an EDC knife, and for general use,but not so much for an outdoors knifeA saber grind is preferable for an outdoors knife, as the blade will be thicker closer to the edge, making it more resistant. Also, the point of the knife will be considerably thicker and stronger. They may not cut as well as FFGs (althouh they cut fine) but they will retain their edge better, and if the blade hits a knot in the wood, a saber grind will make it less likely for the knife to chip, break or suffer any damage.Add to that the blade length and thickness, appropriate for most outdoor tasks, a great grip and the ability to open the blade one handed with gloves on, and you have the makings of an awesome outdoors folding knife.For the above reasons, delicas and enduras, in VG10 and saber grind are a great choice for an outdoors folding knife, and a great option for a cubscout working on their whittling chip award/patch (the delica is smaller, and a better choice for smaller hands) or a BSA scout as their outdoors folding knife (the endura would be the better choice).

This is the best knife I've ever owned. I gained an interest in knives about 2 years ago, but didn't know enough about them to make a good purchase. I first bought a cheaper assisted opening knife, and liked it a lot, but the spring broke on me. I was then gifted a microtech switchblade clone, which I thought was cool but found out that it was very cheap. Over the time period of me owning these knives I would explore forums and watch videos (particularly a youtube channel named nutnfancy, check it out, here is his video on this knife:[...] and I gained a lot of knowledge on good knives.My criteria for this knife purchase were then as followed (ranked in order of importance):1) Folding knife, 3-4" from a name brand manufacturer. Folding because I would carry it with me everywhere, and these are typically lighter too. 3-4" because longer knives are increasingly awkward to work with on most tasks, and shorter knives just look small (I want to like my knife!). A name brand knife would hopefully mean a tight lockup (no or veryyyy little blade play), good quality build, decent customer service, and a name knife people can recognize (because its nice having a knife people think is cool).2) Good steel. Name brand manufacturers offer knives in bad steel for cheaper blades, and I didn't want that. I wanted a decent/good steel. I didn't want to break the bank, but I wanted to have a blade made out of something worth making a blade out of. (sharpening difficulty, edge retention, rust resistance, ect)3) Blade shape. I wanted something shaped like a drop or spear point. These were the knives I found easiest to use. I would prefer a knife without serrations. Small amounts of serration at the base would be acceptable, but perhaps not ideal.4) Opening speed/ease. I wanted a knife that was fast to open, because the faster it is, the more convenient it is. If I could get a knife that would be better at self defense WITHOUT sacrificing utility, I would opt for that knife. Self defense wasn't my primary purpose for purchasing but anyone who says they don't carry a knife for self defense is either dumb or lying, because when it comes down to it, if you need to use that knife to save your life, you will, no questions asked. That is called self defense. Again, any knives with gains in self defense WITHOUT sacrificing in the previous areas would be preferable over alternatives to me.With all those criteria in mind, this is the perfect knife for me. It fits all of the criteria perfectly. Folding, 3.8" blade, Spyderco, very nice lockup, good quality, good customer service (from what I hear, haven't needed it yet), VG-10 steel is a great steel, blade shape is what I wanted, no serrations, and this is in the group of the fastest opening knives on the market because of the wave feature (although I will mention that spyderco's wave is larger than any other manufacturer, and this does make for easier, more reliable opening, so one could argue that this is the fastest). That is why I bought the knife.Upon using and working with the knife, my expectations have been met. I love this knife. I don't have a single complaint.----- 2 Month Update -----I still love the knife, man this thing is awesome, and the wave feature is so nice. Initially I looked at it as just a tactical improvement, but its actually shown to be a utility improvement too. Opening this knife with gloves on is a breeze, and if something needs to be cut, no one needs to wait around while you fumble with your knife. You can hold what youre cutting in one hand and veryyy easily cut it without any thought, in any conditions.I have learned how to operate the knife completely with one hand, which is something I did not think could be done (closing a lock back one handed?). You can actually put your finger in a place under the blade, and hinge the locking mechanism. If you know where to put your finger, the blade will fall and the flat part by the base with bump into you, letting you reach around and close it.As Im typing this, I did a blade play check. The blade still locks up as tight as the day I bought it, and it should. Its only been two months.Another thing I've learned that I like is that you can easily open this knofe quietly. This is true with any lock back, but this is my first real venture into the lock back scene. I will say that while this is still my ideal knife, I do not like lock back knives. The wave on this knife counters it, but on any other I would not be interested.I dont use the knife an excessive amount, and I havent needed to sharpen it yet. Thats pretty nice.I do really like the handles. As some others have mentioned, they might feel cheap because they are slightly flexible and polymer based. However, the knife has a skeletonized liner and its not going to ever break. I prefer the reinforced nylon, it gives better grip in my opinion. Spyderco wins for putting amazing gimping on their blades, and extra texture on the back of the handle where the blade gimping is. It reallyyyy improves how well you can hold on to the knife.I think thats just about all the observations I've made on the knife while owning it. It's still my ultimate knife, if anything I love it more now then when I first wrote this review. I've kinda fallen in love with the blade shape too, from an asthetic point. The long, thinner (edge to spine, its thicker from side to side than the normal endura I hear) blade just looks so elegant. I thought itd be something I just lived with, but I really like how it looks.Great knife. Worth my money.----- 2 Year Update -----Ok, so, it hasn't exactlyyyy been two years, but it's close enough (1 year 9 months?) and I really just want to echo my previous statements. This knife is still my edc. I love it. I love everything about it."If you could go back, would you get a different knife?" ... Possibly. But I know exactly which one it is. It would be this knife's smaller sister, the delica w/ wave opener. That's the only knife I could possibly foresee kicking this out of my go-to position. Are there other knives I am interested in? Yes. Lately I've been eyeing up MCUSTA's Tactility with the cocobano handles. But even if I got it, nothing would ever remove this knife from my collection or from my rotation. It is edc perfection.----- 3 Year Update -----Still loving it. I now own knives that are 2, even 3 times the price of this guy. This is not to say that I do not love those knives, they are very nice, however this spydie endura with the wave opener is still my go-to. I still hold that the delica might be a better size (see 2 year update), however I'm super happy with my endura and would never get rid of it.