A shot of the Vagabond (top) alongside the Spyderco Dodo with both open :
and closed :
The Vagabond is a small fixed blade made from stock removal out of 0.145" thick AUS-6A stainless steel. The handle incorporates a guard for the blade which locks in securely via a small spring. When collapsed the guard fits neatly into a slot cut into the handle. The blade has a high hollow grind on a 1.9 centimeter wide blade. It tapers to a thin (0.015-0.020") and acute edge, 28.8 (8) degrees included. The blade has a long distal taper forming a slim point. The handle is thick (1.9 by 2.7 centimeters) and swelled nicely to fit the hand, creating a very ergonomic profile. The grip is checked for security and set at a slight angle to the blade with a very slight upper and small lower front guard.
Push cutting 3/8" hemp required 17.7 (1.8) lbs through the tip, with 13.7 (8) lbs on a two inch draw, showing high aggression in spite of the very high polish, and thus having a complete sharpness profile. Pointing sections of hardwood dowel the Vagabond could form a one inch tip in 6.2 (1.1) cuts.
The point on the Vagabond is slim and acute and with a 50 lbs push sank 238 (10) pages into a phone book and with a hard vertical stab penetrated 888 +/- 21 pages. The penetration on the phonebook was extreme, mainly due to the very secure handle which allowed maximum transfer of power to the point as little was wasted in any slippage however there were issues with discomfort.
The Vagabond works well in the kitchen as a paring knife, relatively speaking of course. It doesn't compare well to an actual paring knife but readily peels vegetables due to a fairly slim blade and acute edge profile. The very fine and acute point also easily trims and cores. The steel is also very corrosion resistant and was left wet for extended periods of time with no corrosion.
The Vagabond works well as a general utility knife, the edge though highly efficient is not so optomized that it can't handle heavy work without excessive damage. Alongside the Agent from Dozier it was used to remove a one foot by two foot section of sod to extend a small garden. Each knife was used to remove one such section by cutting out the boundries, and slicing under the sod to free it.
Cutting through dirt is of course highly abrasive and the Vagabond was quite dull after the sod was removed. However it could still easily point woods for stakes, though the extensive blunting was evident by noting the large amount of edge reflecting light and the a quick check on some 3/8" hemp rope revealed that it needed 100 back and forth passes to make a cut while the Dozier Agent only needed 30.
The Vagabond is very easy to sharpen as the edge is thin and acute, plus easy to machine. It responds well to stropping on leather loaded with CrO buffing compound and after extended sessions the edge was readily returned to air popping sharpness with a Sharpmaker taking a crisp edge without inducing a floppy burr which can be problematic on some of the softer steels such as seen with the Point Guard.
After the extensive dirt cutting in the above the edge had to be reset with an x-coarse SiC waterstone. This only took 1.5 minutes to put the edge back crisp where it wasn't reflecting light. The edge was then polished up to 4000 grit on a series of waterstones and finally given a few passes on CrO loaded leather and was hair popping sharp. The entire process took about five minutes.
The Vagabond has a well shaped grip which is very secure even when lubricated in fats and oils due to the shape plus the very aggressive texturing. However the texturing was at times problematic. Specifically during the phonebook stabbing the skin would become irritated readily and it became difficult to hold onto the handle tight enough to prevent it from slipping during the stab and thus efficiency tended to decrease. For example by the third stab on one such trial run the penetration was 150 pages lower, and on another run was 200 pages lower after three stabs. There were three minutes inbetween stabs so fatigue was not an issue. Of course this factor could be removed by wearing gloves, however gloves do slip somewhat and thus efficiency will be lowered somewhat vs optimal, but better for repeated work. Of course with repeated work with the Vagabond the grip adapts, after a few weeks of use with the Vagabond there were no ergonomic handle issues.
The Vagabond is a bit awkward to carry in the pocket of normal pants, but is easily dropped in a larger coat pocket or in a pack or even tool box. The blade guard for the Vagabond is easily released one handed, however is fairly difficult to engage back on the blade without two handed used. Once on the blade however it is secure and will not come off even with drops on to concrete from waist height. Higher drops were not attempted as they are likely to damage the guard.
As an extreme test, the Vagabond was dropped in a pillow case and jerked around for ten minutes to see if the guard could be released. Upon examination it was found that the guard had opened slightly and there was some fabric inbetween the blade and the guard. Note however that the extreme accelerations reached by the Vagabond in this test are a good deal higher than anything present on a person carrying it in any but fairly extreme situations and even then the guard could not be fully opened.
The Vagabond is well suited to a tool box knife. It has a tough steel which is very corrosion resistant, a point slim and acute enough for utility cutting and proding, plus a decent blade thickness to afford some leverage for heavier work. The steel is also easily machined so repairing edge damage from abusive utility cutting required minimal time. It also works well as a utility blade to carry in the truck of the car for emergencies or better yet in the glovebox.
Comments can be emailed to cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com or by posting to:
More information can be obtained at the Spyderco website.
| Last updated : | 04 : 18 : 2005 |
| Originally written: | 04 : 04 : 2005 |