When I saw this release, I bought it purely for my favorite 10v steel, in the same family of steels as A11, k390, k294, etc. some of my fav knives ever are k390 lil temperence, and endura. I missed out on the 10v para 3 in the past, but I was able to get a couple kizer 10v, etc.
I was skeptical I would carry the lil native, I thought it would be a bit small for my liking. I normally daily carry a para 3, or manix 2, in some kind of high end tool steel are my favs…. Like rex 45, or maxamet even, or I carry one of my seki city k390’s. But I also knew that spydercos ergos are the best, and even their small knives are very good in hand.
Well lets just say after a couple days of carry, the lil native started as a backup knife, and now it’s my primary carry. I love the compression lock spydercos more than any others so the lil native compression lock is the jam. It feels very good in hand and the ability to choke up on blade is on point. The 10v cuts anything and after a few weeks of hard use at work cutting cardboard, thick foil bags, rubber hoses, wire, etc its still shave sharp….. and I trust it more than maxamet which can be brittle…..10v is much tougher and still has an edge that lasts way longer than standard knife steels. People make fun of me for paying so much for super steels….. but then I laugh at them when their knives are always dull and mine havent been sharpened for weeks or months and still cut everything better than their knife did brand new. And 10v/k390 is one of those steels you wont believe it until you use it long term and see for yourself.
Fit and finish were amazing, felt good in hand, etc. I love it so much a bought a second one for my collection, not to be used.
The only complaints I have at all were 2 small ones. The knife was a hair tight when I got it. I like it to fall open and fall closed when you hit the compression lock. But it wasnt so tight I needed to loosen screws….. I knew it would smooth up after some use, and it did. After maybe 2 weeks of much use and flipping it open and closed a lot, the washers broke in and now it falls open or closed with minimal flick of wrist.
The other minor complaint I have is the compression lock button is smaller than most my other ones, so it really hurts your finger or thumb with a lot of use, more so than say a para 3 or lil temperence or shaman. But if I really wanted, i could buy one of those aftermarket button/tabs you attach to the lock….. but im not big on the idea of super gluing a piece to my knife liner…. Even with owning a second for collection and making this one a user.
Oh and one other thing….. my first one (the edc user) had a very small chip on bevel of the blade, you could only see held up to the light. I havent had any other chipping issues. I suspect it was either a carbide pulled out of edge, or more likely, spyderco has been known to burn the edges on some steels during final grinding and sharpening. I suspect thats what happened, and when I finally sharpen the thing, I will learn very quickly if that’s what happened, and if so, I will have to grind/sand/sharpen off the burnt edge. No big deal (for me anyways) cuz I’ve seen it before and grinding and sharpening is almost meditative for me anyways, I thoroughly enjoy it. But otherwise the 10v lil native is one of my new fav knives.
When people tell me my knife collection and spyderco collection is ridiculous, I tell them they should get a load of my sharpening stone collection….. shaptons, naniwas, kings, natural stones, synthetic stones, ceramic stones, carbide stones, diamond stones, diamond resin stones, crock stiks, field sharpeners, angle sharpeners, small belt grinders, etc etc etc. I have so many sharpening stones, I need to sell bout half of them cuz I cant hardly lift the huge tupperware container I store them in. But when you experiment with knife steels and super steels….. you have to experiment with stones too…… i dont like a diamond stone for everything like most people use. Regular stones will work on all but the hardest super steels, if you find the right stone with right density and the right feedback and return. It’s all about feel….. you can tell if its actually sharpening or if the steel is just eating your stone away. Cheap stones are mostly filler and not enough grinding material and just get eaten away by hard steel.
