Hey, everyone.
David C. Andersen here coming at you from the KnifeCenter, and today we’re taking
a look at the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 series of EDC pocket knives, including a few new
variants you’re not gonna want to miss.
Let’s check em out.
The Dragonfly 2 is a fantastic design that’s perfect for those of you out there who appreciate
a smaller everyday carry.
It’s a very pocket-friendly design that really disappears when you’re not using
it.
It works great clipped, or even just stuffed in that little fifth pocket in your jeans
that doesn’t see a lot of other use.
Like many great Spydercos, the Dragonfly 2 combines a lot of familiar elements, which
we’ll cover.
And, being a popular design, Spyderco, being Spyderco, has certainly released a lot of
cool variants over the years, including different blade shapes, handle materials and steel.
Let’s take a look at a few of them now.
The standard Dragonfly shape features Spyderco’s leaf-shaped blade.
Now, this lives somewhere in between a drop point, or even a modified wharncliffe.
But whatever you want to call it, it’s great for everyday use.
They typically come with a full flat grind, which keeps them very efficient slicers, there’s
just enough edge to work with, and they have a swedge along the spine as well, which is
gonna relieve a little bit of friction off the spine when you’re moving through softer
materials.
You can get it in the plain edge, shown here, and there’s even serrated models available
if that’s what you prefer.
Of course, Spyderco likes to play around with steels a lot, too, and while most Dragonfly
2s feature VG-10 stainless steel, the model I’m holding right here features an upgrade
with ZDP-189.
That’s only one of the blade shapes available.
Shown here on a Dragonfly 2 Salt, we actually see a hawk bill blade, and the steel on this
model is H1 steel, as well.
Now, this may not hold an edge as long as some of the modern powder steels, but it is
impervious to rust, which is gonna make it easy to maintain over the years.
Next up, we’ve got a couple of newly-released blade shapes, and the first is the Emerson
Wave version of the Dragonfly 2.
That hook on the spine of the blade is an officially licensed Emerson opener.
What’s great about this is it allows you to open the blade as you’re drawing it out
of your pocket.
How this works is that hook catches on the hem of your pocket while you draw, and as
you pull it out it rotates the blade open very easily.
But even if you don’t want to use that feature, just like all the Dragonfly 2s here, it does
feature Spyderco’s signature round opening hole.
This makes it very easy to open the blade using your thumb whether you’re right or
left handed.
Also, because they’re not using thumb studs, there’s nothing sticking out the side that’s
gonna get in the way of your cuts.
Next up, we have the true wharncliffe version of the Dragonfly 2.
This broad, but acutely-pointed blade still has a full flat grind for efficiency, but
it’s gonna be very effective when you want to use the point for piercing or scoring.
Moving back to the handles, like many great Spyderco products, it’s made of fiberglass-reinforced
nylon, and if features their famous bi-directional texturing.
This material is lightweight and strong, and because that texture goes in a radial pattern
around the logo here, you have retention in both directions, so whether you’re pushing
on the blade, or pulling on it, you’ve got positive grip to keep your hands secure.
As far as carrying the knife goes, it features Spyderco’s wire clip as well, although it’s
not really deep carry, because you do have a fair bit of the handle that sticks up above
the clip.
But because of the handle design, when you fold the knife up, it’s very small, as I
was saying at the top, making it very easy to carry in your pockets.
As you can see, it barely takes up any more room than the width of my four fingers; I
could actually easily cover it up with my hand if I needed to.
Given that, you might not expect to have a very good grip on it when you open the knife,
but that’s not the case here.
Because they’ve included an integrated finger choil at the front of the handle that spans
the ricasso of the blade, you’re able to choke up with your index finger there, and
still get all four fingers on the knife.
I have somewhat larger hands, not huge, and for me I’d say it’s about a three-and-a-half
finger grip on the knife, and that’s just enough grip to get a very secure hold and
put enough power behind your cuts to get you through most every day tasks.
As far as handle color, we’ve got black on this version, but there are other colors
available, usually with some of the different blade variants.
Right now the Emerson Wave version features dark gray FRN.
The Dragonfly Salt, like most of the Salt series, features a highly-visible yellow FRN,
and the ZDP-189 version that we showed you at the top features dark green FRN.
Now, all these colors are great, and the FRN works very well on this design, but what if
you want something a little bit nicer?
We do have a green G10 version of this knife, which feels even more solid than the FRN.
Part of that’s due to the rigidity of the material, but also because we have a full
metal backspacer running all the way down the knife, where as the FRN versions featured
synthetic material all the way up to the back of the knife here.
Speaking of the lock, it is a mid-mounted lock back, which is very secure, and also
quite ambidextrous in nature, and it even features the David Boye dent.
Now, if you’re unfamiliar with this feature, it does a couple of things: It’s primary
purpose, by bringing the edge of that down a little bit, is to help avoid any accidental
closure if you are gripping the knife very tightly.
The other thing it does is, even if you’re not looking at it, it’s very easy to index
with your finger, and you can tell exactly where that lockbar is to disengage it.
There’s even nicer versions than this available.
Some of our favorites include our KnifeCenter exclusive Pakkawood-handled versions.
These even come with a HAP-40 blade laminated with 410 stainless steel on the outer layers.
We’re also big fans of the stainless steel version of the Dragonfly 2, and this features
a full-stainless front, and it’s perfect for a few things.
You can carry it as is, and it will look great, even with classier attire, but it’s also
a great place for engraving.
So, if you’re looking for initials engraved on there, or if you want something really
fancy, this is a great platform for it.
This version also features a full stainless steel clip as opposed to the wire clip.
So these are just a few of the great Dragonfly 2 variants that Spyderco has to offer.
You can check all of them out at KnifeCenter.com.
If you want to get your hands on any of them, click the link in the description below to
head over there, and don’t forget to sign up for our KnifeRewards program, where you
can earn free money on knives you were gonna buy anyway.
This is David C. Andersen signing off, see you next time at the KnifeCenter.