You guys make me so jealous with the food pics sometimes.

There's not a lot of variety in my neck of the woods. In fact, my only local option for Mexican food must have fired all of the Mexicans from the kitchen when the new owners took over, because in between visits they went from having a "secret" (actual authentic Mexican) menu and "you are the only one who drinks the mescal" to crap service and cold food that was bad enough that we swore not to go back.

I miss traveling for work(food) sometimes. Lol

I am looking at the Spyderco advocate since I like ti knives.

Is this a decent cutter?

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I don’t own one so I can’t advocate for it...

You already said that.

Be patient.

Requires considered thought and time to type.

Is that a hemorrhoid cushion?

Why is it in your pic?

My daughter's saddle pads and whatnot for her horse.  Washed and then air dried because it was a nice day here.

Early generations supposedly suffered from the ball bearings wearing tracks into the washers and resulted in less than superb flipping action.  I ended up going with the now discontinued Mantra 1, the 2 Advocates I had the option to buy were pretty garbage for a ball bearing flipper.

Spyderco addressing this over at bladeforums

Mantra 1 FTW

Thank you. I will take a look.

OK. I do not have one, but have looked at them for some time so I will share what I have learned. I am not aware of anyone in this austere group having one, but maybe there is a lurker who does and can speak to it.  A number of guy sin here have GB1s and GB2s and have been generally pleased with them I believe.  So first, a bit about Gayle.

Gayle Bradley is custom knife maker and a regular competitor/winner in cutting competitions.  He is very good at it.  Old school knife guy, sticks with what works.

He has a special relationship with Spyderco, not aware that he works with anyone else.

When he does collabs with Spyderco, I think they typically(exclusively) use CPM M4.

CPM M4 is an awesome steel.  Awesome edge retention, great toughness. Only major drawback (which is a big one for me in a humid climate) is it is not stainless.  3V isn't stainless, but I haven't had issue with it rusting. With M4 though, I had some Spyderco Mantras that seemed to develop rust spots (nasty tiny ones that would not come out) just from looking at them (awesome knife as well by the way).

I had a GB Air too. Loved that little knife.  So much good.  I ended up selling it because I did not want to babysit the M4. Maybe I could have forced a patina to protect it from the rust spots, but I liked the clean look.  Same with my last Mantra. A perfect specimen. Didn't want to sit on it for too long for fear of rust.  Sold it to KFB2 who probably keeps it in a climate controlled case.

Anyways, if you can overcome that or you live in a climate where it doesn't matter, the Advocate should be a nice choice.

The Advocate is a great useable size. About as long as PM2 overall, it has more useable blade.  It is also thinner than a PM2.

I remember reading reviews from a number of people that the action was not the best on their new Advocates. But after disassembly, cleaning and relubing, they functioned much better. I think this was a known issue and Spyderco fixed it going forward.

It is not a common one to see on the secondary market. Not sure what that means, but I don't think the GB designs ever achieved wildly popular status like other Spydercos, but it may also be due to the M4. I do not think I stand alone in the hesitation. (I know BRK stopped using M4, but I think they cited the reason for doing so as difficulty to sharpen. This wouldn't worry me with diamond stones) The ones I did see were $150-160. I find that a lot easier to swallow than the $250 pricing online for a new one.  Pricepoint wise, would have liked to see this new at $200 or just below.

It is a Taichung knife, so high quality.  Ergonomics are supposed to be very good. This would be inline with Spyderco's (unspoken?) principle of made for the hand, not for the eye (although I find the Advocate easier on the eye than many Spydercos.

Which brings me to the last critical point; the orange peel treatment on the Ti.  Just doesn't do it for me. Looks dirty.  At least in pictures, might feel different seeing it in person.

But even that I might overcome, but for the M4. It is supposed to be an excellent knife. And yes, they can go extra thin with M4 so the Advocate has a thin flat high grind blade that should be a superb cutter.

Honestly, for the right price, it is one I might still pick up. If I do a forced patina on the blade and maybe do a dark ano on the Ti, it might work for me.

So, FWIW, there it is.

You always did have good taste.

Thank you for the well thought out reply.
The humid weather may be the deciding factor, especially since I sweat a lot as well.

I will keep looking and take a look at the Mantra 1 also.

I went a little bit over target, I was paying too much attention to the game.

Pics don't look great but it's fucking grubbing

Yeah, the Mantra 1 was the bomb. Loved that little Knife. Push button action (after disassembly, cleaning, no lube, ran it dry). I went through 4 or 5 of those. It is discontinued now though. Haven't seen one for sale for some time. People are probably hoarding them.

The Mantra 2 never seemed to catch on quite as well. I suppose it does look kinda awkward.  Probably works well.

Very nice Op.

Don't you have the 0452 in blue ti as well?

You guys and your food pics. What's wrong with a table knife? Are your steaks and vegies that tough?

PM2 got a little real use today cutting off the end of some burried 3/4" plastic water line. It made the cut but took more force than I'd hoped.
Would you cut your food with a knife that'd been playing in that dirt?
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Yep, everyday.

Just wipe it off first.

I work on bulldozers that live at the landfill and other dirty construction equipment. I use my knives daily. I also use them to cut up my oranges that I have at lunch. I'll occasionally use them for eating at home if my choices for knives are in the dirty dishes.

Wet burrito?

At a social function in close quarters where pulling a 4 inch knife out and taking pics would make the talk of the watercooler. I like keeping a little lower profile

Looks solid but needs dolmas

You just gotta search. I've had good Mexican in WA and some hella good Asian food.

Sometimes I use yelp but only pay attention to reviews where the names of the people match the ethnicity of the food.

It's a process. We moved and have been searching for spots but we much rather would cook at home

Yes but....

They've had problems with their bearings and pivots. Read up on it and make an educated decision.

That said Gayle Bradley designs wicked cutters in M4 that cut like no ones business. My GB1 is a wicked cutter that my wife had been stealing

Solid picture. A good evening

You like missing promotions.

To be a boss you need to make boss moves.

I still want one of those

Gailer in M4... I'm just saying

Not sure the acid wash would work. And I wouldn’t want painted M4.

Otherwise M4 is pretty sweet. Edge retention of M390 and toughness of A2.

There is some great food in Washington for sure. Just not in the small town (>2000 people) that I live in.

I end up cooking much more often than we go out as well. My family is big enough that we can eat a great meal at home for way less than it costs to go out.

M4 parkerizes a nice dark grey.

Awesome break down

M4 and 3v do well in humid areas with a little mineral oil from time to time.

And it's food safe for dinner pics

Same knife

I thought you had an all Ti version as well.

Is it just me or do the ARFCOM knife threads not give much love to Microtech?

Yeah. I clean them off.

Although for more involved  outdoors projects I typically stick to my fixed blade knives

Sure, lots of Arfcom people have Microtech.  We may be down to just one right now...leave them in vehicles, purses, drawers.

The novelty of their signature knife, the OTF, has worn off for me.  Sure, it is fun, but other designs are more practical to use day to day.

Most Arfcom knife threads are full of mouth breathing retards that carry something one step above a gas station knife trying to give advice.

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That being said, I don't have a Microtech knife. I have looked at the LUDT. I probably would have already purchased one but the fucking billboard on the blade bothers me. They do use some nice steel in their blades.
Their stuff comes off as sort of high end mall ninja to me.
Their customer service reputation sucks too. I would rather give business to Protech who seems to be a decent company.

Haha. No.

Our "promotions" are odd.

Interesting.

It's Maxamet Manix Monday

No, the tip isn't broken, it's sticking in the tabletop. I've been abusing this one. So far, so good. Cut up six feet of cardboard, cut a bunch of zip ties, cut a vent in a chemical drum. Rinsed it off in a cooling tower tank. No rust so far. I did dry it off on my pants.
I've cut a couple of sensor cables with it, opened a shitload of packages done a little scraping here and there. Still shaves.
Maxamet lives up to the hype IMO. Any of the other "super steels" would have lost their shaving edge by now.

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Meh, I wasn’t a fan of the finish on that big machete he did for SublimeShooter. Maybe it was just the size, too much grey.

ummm...this one isn't? I mean, not you or I obviously. We're f*cking geniuses.

I hear what you are saying. Some of their stuff does come across as borderline mall ninja stuff.  Some of it I feel is way overpriced. They have been working on improving their customer service and if you know how to talk to them, no issue.

Your comparison to Protech though is an interesting one. Protech does seem like a good company, but their choice of materials for the pricepoint they sell at, doesn't match up in my mind.  And that is across the board.

On the other hand, the Microtech Ultratech series and LUDT seem to be appropriately priced for the materials used.

S110V? M4? Cruwear? ELMAX!?

I should have clarified, as compared to S30V, S35VN, CPM154, 20CV, etc.
I'll test vs S110V and M4 at some point. According to most cut tests I've seen it will smoke those too.

I agree about Protech. I wish they would get off the 154CM train.

I'm not a genius, far from it, but some of the folks in GD...

my newest belt carry (Liontribe Ringed Urban Legend) with my favorite every day carry (Hogue EX-02):

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