My top 4 knives, pictured. I love spyderco and will always respect it as the most practicality oriented brand. Once you step outside the realm of pure practicality, however, there is some interesting competition in the small category.
Spyderco PITS M390: a non-locking knife that can essentially be used like a locking knife due design. Nothing I am aware of really competes in this category. Carries really well because it's thin but better ergos IMO than the drift.
Quietcarry Drift: super lightweight. But otherwise no real advantages over PITS (except maybe vanax) and the lock is not super reliable as it can be pushed out of position in use with a pretty normal grip. Actually this is probably no longer top 4 since I got my large Inkosi.
Small Sebenza: Spyderco doesn't offer anything quite like the small Sebenza: great size to blade length ratio; ergonomics actually great for me despite small handle; tolerances and build so good that it seems to get better looking and better functioning over time. Feels like if benchmade made a $400 knife that wasn't a rip off. Cutting edge nearly as long as PM2.
Rosie: Obviously 800 dollars makes any practicality arguments silly. But there isn't anything that Spyderco offers with this combination of thin blade grind and native-like ergonomics. All while having a better size to blade length ratio than most spydercos. The action is just the cherry on top. It's not perfect: it should have salt-rated hardware (if the blade is magnacut or LC200n) and probably hardened steel washers for the bearings to ride on (so you don't actually dent ti when over-tightening)
by nomorebuttsplz
