EverydayCommentary: Spartan Blades Talos Review

H. Clay Aalders
Knife & Accessory ReviewNewsfeedProduction Knives
·10 Comments·

There is an alternative universe in which collectors hunt eBay for Extended Definition Super Betamax copies of all nine seasons of Firefly. Nathan Fillon is better known for his sardonic, space cowboy Captain Malcolm Reynolds than the boring TV trope Castle. People still can’t believe that Mal and River Tam had a baby together, but he was so heartbroken when Reavers killed Inara at the end of Season 5 that it makes perfect sense. In this parallel universe, Mazda just announced the RX-10 with its rotary engine/electric hub motors. Finally, the chain restaurant Zagna, which sells pans of lasagna, but no pizza, was one of the few sit down eateries to make it through the COVID-18 virus.

Sometimes its not clear why public sentiment picks one thing over another. One becomes a classic and the other a footnote. And often for no good reason. Betamax (as well as Super Betamax and unfortunately named ED Betamax) was 100% better than VHS. But VHS caught on and Betamax didn’t. The rotary engine is in many ways superior to the standard ICE. And NO show was better than Firefly, which was cancelled part way through its first and only season, while dregs like Home Improvement or Family Matters lasted the better part of a decade. And while I love pizza, I feel like lasagna is not the inferior Italian dish when the two are compared.

Quite the intro for a review of a knife.

Read the whole thing at EverydayCommentary.com

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H. Clay Aalders

H. Clay Aalders is a lifelong edged tool user. He spent the past 20 years as a woodworker and fishing guide in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Tennessee. While guiding in Idaho, Clay worked part-time writing for a local newspaper, and upon moving to Tennessee began writing for the blog The Truth About Knives - spending his last 5 years there as Managing Editor. His background is in fixed-blade hunting and bushcraft knives, but has jumped into the world of vintage slipjoint collecting with both feet since coming to work at Knife Magazine. Clay’s primary role is as Digital Editor, curating and creating new content for our website and blog, as well as maintaining the Knife Magazine social media accounts (FB/IG: @theknifemag, Twitter: @knifemagazine). He is also a contributor and Associate Editor of the print magazine.

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10 Responses

  1. This space is an appropriate place to talk about a Spyderco “Tenacious” that I saw at a local pawn shop on Saturday. “NIB. . . sort of, because the box was beat to hell” and it had a “2” on the end tab which usually indicates a “factory second” (aka “reject”). The knife to my eye was “unused”; But, the “China” and “8Cr13MoV” on the tang (. . . and on the box end tab label) made me want to call Golden, Colorado and question the “why” of manufacturing a Spyderco in the “PRC”. I am aware that Spyderco makes their “Byrd” line of knives in communist China. I do not support that reasoning by Spyderco. This “Tenacious” is a fairly decent folder. Basic cookie cutter blade pattern and no frills. My gonads just got a bit frosted at seeing this for sale at $49.99 in the shop. I was a bit amped up about the recent news that the “PRC” is pressing further with their aggression towards Taiwan. Today, I read in the Sunday paper that the “PRC” is “dumping” millions of “new cars” in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere. It is a scheme to unload these cars. They advertise the cars as “used” and undermine the world market . . . now, Cambodia vs. Thailand.
    Just to relax, I watched “Happy Gilmore 2”.

    Reply

    1. i found myself out of town needing an edge to help someone move back. boxes, tape etc. found chicom spydie efficient at a gun show. for $40 it got me through the weekend. fit and finish are superb, it’s a pretty nice knife other than the steel.
      “i was a victim of soycumstances!” (squeaky voice).

      Reply

      1. Sweet mother of necessity, CMEAT . . . did you leave your “utility knife” at home? I am curious, . . . is your gun show “chicom spydie” a “Byrd in the hand”? AAaargh on the Hocky humor!!

        Reply

        1. had to. i flew down and drove the youhaul back (with a swiffer pole on the pedal wedged under my gut… cruise). didn’t want to check luggage so couldn’t bring anything. and no, i draw the line at the byrd. those teardrop eye holes scream lower tier.

          Reply

          1. Remember “Freddy Fender” . . . “I’ll be there before the next teardrop falls!” Regarding “holes”, . . . I am heading outside to dig some postholes with my clamshell. Putting up some split-rail along the northern property line. “U-Haul” on cruise control . . . brings back a memory of my Navy honorable discharge in 1982. Packed the U-Haul and towed my “VW bug” from Groton, CT to Hagerstown, MD.

  2. I agree with the “knife expert” on the “finger grooves”; in that, I do not want a knife handle that “directs” me to hand and finger placement. Regarding the “Talos 1”, Spartan Blades manufactured a useable knife at a decent price, e.g. Amazon at $75. The “Talos 2” must have been a brain fart . . . I own a “Kranos” which I bought at the “2015 Blade Show”. Just had to have it. Probably the largest folder that I own. Definitely a tactical knife. I was ten years younger then and loving the wide, wide world of knives.

    Reply

  4. haven’t gone there yet, but i don’t mind counterpointing right off the bat. at all.
    i’m not too tough on video mediums- capacity is a huge plus and the sony system didn’t have it initially (maybe later, i’ve barely heard of the other two mentioned) so once that capability was adopted beta sucked hind titty the rest of the way. people want record time.
    the wankel didn’t last five years in the nsu spider, suzuki failed to successfully market it in their re5 and aside from mazda’s ultra dominant racing campaigns they gave up after resurrecting it a second time. insurmountable drawbacks such as poor (city) mileage and short lived apex seals (vaguely analagous to a piston ring) had them pull the plug. that being said, i would take a three rotor cosmo in a heartbeat.
    i tried watching firefly when it was on nutflex. got through maybe one and a half… maybe i should have stuck with it. i was intrigued because i heard they had a community sex worker onboard, but it just seemed cheesy. being part simpleton i could easily sit through all of ash versus evil dead a second time.
    i would opt for good zag over most any dish, with curried goat, pot roast, ox tail stew and italian beef with giardenara right behind. pizza is a basic food group; i’m in chicago and big headed enough to say that you probably have no idea. i imagine cambridge probably serves some kind of detroit variant but i don’t really know or care. you gotta come here.
    as for the knife, i should read that review. it looks pretty cool.

    Reply

      1. this may only be of interest to del, and he may be well aware, but one of the last gasps for the wankel engine besides mazda, was the norton motorcycle. much as triumph and enfield have been resurrected (there are others but these are ostensibly british), norton resurfaced with a rotary that saw some sales, and for a while provided the british police with cycles. and they raced. they were dominating all others with what was traditionally considered an approximately 600cc engine against three quarter and full liter bikes. i believe it was the fim that decided to reformulate how displacement was calculated for the rotors effectively doubling the wankels swept volume and basically killing the effort. it really is a dominant design.

        Reply

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