Spyderco Military Fluted Titanium C36TIF Review
And there she is: The beautiful and fabled Spyderco Titanium Fluted Military, perhaps the most well-crafted Spyderco ever made. At least to my hands and eyes! This USA-made Military features awesome blue-annodized and machined titanium scales, with an outstanding Reeve Integral Frame Lock system that is reinforced with a double-pinned stainless steel insert to reduce friction wear. And outstandingly engineered piece of cutlery.
Blade
The Blade is a fully flat ground CPM-S30V Stainless Steel affair, measuring 4″ in length. This is one of the most efficient cutting knives out there, with fantastic slicing ability and a great thin cutting edge. While its called a Military, its not really a hard use knife. This is a purebred cutter/slicer more suited to EDC for light to medium duty use. The tip can snap on these guys under stress, as with many Spydercos, since they tend to have finer points on their blades.
Handle
This handle is beautiful and ergonomic. The Fluted Military has a precision finished handle with a very custom feel to it. The feel and action feel very hand-tuned. Whether they are or not, I do not know, but they feel to me like Spyderco spent a little bit more time on these guys than your run of the mill Millies. The Action is superb, and much more smooth and decisive than a regular military, which, because of its ultralight all G-10 handle construction tends to be head heavy and lacks the rigidity of this Titanium version. And I still love the regular Millie.. so this one here, is a masterpiece.
Fit and Finish
Like I said above, it feels like Spyderco spent a little bit more time on this one. This fluted titanium military commands $300-350 on the secondary market, which is not bad for a Production folder. That puts it up just under the price of CRK Sebenza’s, which are the gold standard for production folders. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they precision is at the same level of CRK’s, the Fluted Ti Military shows what Spyderco can do, if they choose to flex their muscles. It is a beautiful and well crafted folder from one of America’s Premier Knife design and manufacturing companies.
Overall
If you can get your hands on one of these, do it. Its a great knife. They were never cheap to begin with so you’ll probably not see a ton of appreciation in value, but it will definately hold its value very well in the long run and probably increase in value slowly over the years. Its also a great EDC folder for light to medium duty use, if you want to use a collector’s item like this one. The 4″ blade is a fantastic slicer and a great utility shape that can conform to many tasks. I’d probably recommend a regular run Millie if you were going to use it, but if you don’t mind roughing up one of these guys – go for it! Its a fantastic blade.
Specs:
Length overall: 9.5″ (241 mm)
Blade length: 4″ (102 mm)
Blade steel: CPM S30V
Length closed: 5.5″ (140 mm)
Cutting edge: 3.687″ (94 mm)
Weight: 5.1oz (144 g)
Blade thickness: .145″ (3.7 mm)
Handle material: Titanium