Spyderco ATR

Reviewed 04/16/2010 by Dangerouscold

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

My girl got me an ATR. I called it my "white whale". This review is for the SS handle, VG10 steel model.

Build Quality: Absolutely flawless. The knife screams quality with every aspect. Great blade shape, sharp hollow grind. The lock deserves it's own paragraph on this knife;

The lock: It's a compression lock using the entire scale of the knife. Basically a frame lock working in reverse, making the only way this knife could fail is shearing a thick stainless steel scale. The knife has no room for wear- It just snaps into perfect lockup, every time, and always will. Even the famed paramilitary has a similar lock, but only using a liner, about half the thickness of this steel I-beam locking in place.

Ergonomics: I think the knife fits in the hand very, very well. The only complaints I hear are about the stainless steel handle (which if you don't like, don't buy this), and the clip. The clip is a strange, tight, small clip found on the lil' temp as well. It is the only reason I'm docking a point from this knife.

Value: Docked a point here, because after market prices on these things is crazy. I've seen a titanium handled, S30V version go for close to $350. The SS model can go for $150. Worth every penny, but that's a whole lot of pennies.

Overall: If you want a sharp, easy to re-sharpen, hard use, Fort-Knox-Locked, interesting, practically custom feat of knife engineering (it won an award in Blade the year it came out), buy it. If you only like backlocks and clip blades w/ G10 handles, skip it. It would be better off in a user's hands anyway.

Reviewed 04/16/2010 by ReallyPissedOff

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Self Defense
-Owned for 6 months

Comments:

First and foremost, this knife, asides from being super sly and sexy, is incredibly expensive. Of course, that is because it is discontinued & now a collectors item. How much it will set you back? I've seen it for approx. $300 for the ti version. The review I'll be doing will be in regards to the ti handle & s30v blade version.

I would categorized this knife in the self-defense/tactical category. Primarily, this is due to the heavily jimped hood (not blade ramp) of the blade and the nice finger choil that prevents forward ingression of the fingers. Secondaly because the upper edge of the blade is ground down, it makes it an excellent piercer. Thirdly, it's got reach ~ at about 3.75" blade. Fourthly, it has milled out holes in the handle, providing grip and allowing you to switch between grips readily by gripping the holes to swing the blade.

The materials are excellent. Need I say more about s30v & titaniium? Also, this has the very rare & STRONG compression lock (better than framelock IMHO). Although it's not as easy to disengage as a framelock, it more than makes up for it in strength. In fact, because of the very nature of the lock, if you're left-handed, it will feel incredibly nice for you.

All in all, this is a beast of a blade - albeit at quite the premium nowadays (2010).