Spyderco Shaman “Hype Vs Reality” 

I’m going to link the video that shows the modified grind in the description.

The Shaman is damn near perfect for what it is designed for. It's not designed for cutting boxes. It is designed for people like me that either want or need a thicker blade. Until the Shaman I hadn't purchased a Spyderco since 1995 after breaking 2 back to back. I never hated on their design. I knew their design wouldn't work for me so I didn't buy them. Funny thing, you don't buy a Ferrari and then complain it doesn't have a lift kit and mud tires so you can go off road. Same here, you don't buy a knife intended for hard use and complain the blade is to thick. The Shaman is EDC for me that hasn't cut a box in years but cuts kevlar and steel reinforced hoses on a regular basis. I apologize for going on and I apologize for my first comment if you saw it. My point is to say not every knife is designed to cut boxes, or whatever you want. Your complaints about the nub, jimping, and rough edges were legit. The other was unnecessary. The knife you want exists in their line, this one is mine. Leave it alone.

In regards to the thickness behind the edge Sal Glesser in an interview stated this folder was his ultimate outdoor hard use knife. He designed this folder after his retirement and he made it clear it was what he wanted. I would prefer it thinner behind the back 2 inches of the blade. I dig the knife and don't ever see parting with it.

Sweet dye job ! Looking forward to seeing how that regrind turns out 👌

FINALLY! Was waiting for this video long time! Good work man

Kenny good video!! Really nice mods and your regrind with the acid etch are awesome!!!🔥🔥 Thanks for sharing brother!!!👊👊👊

What's up Kenny I just got the rex45 shaman with composite wood scales. The nub doesn't bug me so I think I will leave it be but I'm concidering doing a regrind to thin it out, how much did the regrind help the knifes performance? How much do you think it would effect the knifes strength and structural integrity? Pretty much only going to cutt soft materials with it cardboard and thin plastic and I wouldn't mind making it more slicey but I deff don't want it fragile to the point where it will break if I slip and hit something hard or something that will fail me if I need it as a last resort self defense tool

The shaman is made to be a rugged, very ergonomic knife. It really comes down to hand size and preference. But it was made to be a good, hard use knife. Good video 👍

I put in a preorder for the rosewood Rex 45. Been hunting for a Koenig arius but most likely won’t find one anytime soon, so I decided to get the shaman with Rex 45 . Will fill the stout folder spot for the time being. Keep the vids coming ! 🤙🏽

Good job on tinting the scales on your Shaman (what kind of color agent did you use?)...looks great .You have quite a few nice knives ...how long have you been collecting?

Yo dude loving your videos. The one about knife addiction has so accurate! Like your reviewing style also, very in depth and real use. I can't find you channel when I search in the search bar tho. What's up with that?

Wow really nice looking design knife!!! :D

Great video. I like how deep into subjects you go. I would recommend however that you add times stamps to your videos, as they are so long. It would make navigating to specific points much easier and would make it better to view. Keep it up, you have the potential to go far on this website.

Great job very in-depth review. Update us with more mods.

How do you get the drop shut to be so smooth? Mine gets caught up a little bit before it shuts all the way

Bro, you have a LOT of nice knives and I always appreciate seeing them. Never seen one I didn’t like actually. BUT, someone, sooner or later has to tell u, so I’ll be the one. Bro you go on rants and most videos end up being literally pointless. Nothing against you, but if you what he’d your videos in so many of them you will, at the beginning, talk about what you’re going to talk about, and you never get it it. *For instance, one thing I was excited about watching you do in this video was explain how you removed the pointless knob. You just talked about the nub and obviously showed that your nub was removed but you would’ve gotten 12,000 more reviews had you would have titled of the video removing the nub on the Spyderco shaman. This is like the second time I’ve ever posted anything on social media in my entire life. No Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, this is the second time I’ve ever posted anything in 15 years and it happened to be on your RU-vid channel. It’s simply constructive criticism, if you read this and take it as anything other than that then you are reading it wrong. I would love to see you succeed and I hope you do well but at the beginning of your videos maybe already have some talking points laid out in front of you to the side, and make sure that you hit every single one of them and check them off as you go.

Excellent video, thank you 👍

Shaman is becoming my Favorite, just bought the TKJ Exclusive version 🥳, which will go nicely with my Lil Native TKJ exclusive. The choil for me doesn’t get in the way when closing. This is a BEAST OF A BLADE, not meant to cut small tasks although it can. It is meant to cut Beefier material, such as Steel Braided Rubber, silicon, some plastics. In comparison, Shaman is more on line with Native 5, Manix 2. Shaman has a beefier leaf blade than the latter. And the lil native compression is the small version of it. Lockback lil native is the small version to the native 5. If you ever want to part ways with your Shaman let me know.

Hey Kenny know all these vids are from a different era these days 😅 but please do more reviews your one if the only reviewers I ever respected because of your love and USE of your knives, I’m a gardener and do landscape construction so I burn through K390 please bring it back man 😊😅

Damm man, love your comparisons. 👏Nice Vid as usual. We'll ones I've seen anyway. 👍Is up. Sound is nice with action. Nice para3 dude.. Would expect it nice and smooth on the edges, damm spyderco why? Why I say? Lol M4, nice to hear, if you have done there 20cv what's it like. I know I should try and get on to the web page. But I'm waiting for Yojimbo2 in 20cv, White Mountain, thanks to LTK there, nice.. Hope you get one and do your take: Reality vs hype, your vids are on point as far as I'm concerned man. Cheers

Wow that Green Looks awesome not usually a fan of green but it looks sweet I also have my shaman nub ground off and ooe it's a great knife I was worried the thick stock would make it s bad cutter but with my own edge on it its s cutting machine . I think it's a very underrated knife how do you feel about it compared to the Chavez because I'm considering splurging on the Micarta inlaid Chaves its look and materials wise my Grail.

Should I buy a shaman or a ZT0562cf??

I have the same M4 version, and I love it. I agree on the smooth G10, I love it. I prefer it in fact. The Shaman fits my hand perfectly. None of the complaints bother me, including the nub, but I do agree that the grind could be better. I've thought about sending the blade off for a regrind, just not sure if I want to spend the money or not. If they thinned it out a bit, it would be the perfect knife for me.

Because of this nob Shaman is also a flipper, although it requires a little practice. And second thing if You try to close the knife in complete darkness how do You know without nob if the blade is closed?

Can you please do a lil native comp lock one of these videos thanks

You could’ve used the rough inside G10 edges to open your tampon box.

When is the 21 video coming out?

Hey Bruh!) Great vid. Whats up with Steve? Long time no see. Is he ok?)

did you get stamped washer burs?

Good reviews as always! Not sure why people complain so much about the "sharp" inside edge, I didn't even know about it until I saw reviews mentioning it. The ONLY time it felt sharp was when I stuck my finger in there, why would you ever put you finger in there? I agree $200 knife needs to be super slick and attention to all details should be a given but seems funny for men to complain about that (unless the owner doesn't even use it).

Apparently you know more about knife design than Sal Glesser.

I'll keep saying it, a back lock would have made more sense on this knife. You know how I feel about this one and maybe I'll do something with mine soon.

I modify recon 1s to work really well ! I make them into a fidgitable knives mostly by taking several pounds off the lock spring but not to much ! you got to keep good retention ! and the handle ! I make the lines of the front match the lines of the back taking part of the finger guard looking part off and the second finger choil off ! way better to use ! ! can't leave home without a custom recon 1 ! I've done a bunch ! yeah totally night and day from the out of box knife ! but they're good out of box to !

Great knife but purely for cutting performance Pm2 and Military still does better job but both of them has very thin tip ,not so much this, this is abuse-prove construction (especially M4 version).. I love it💪👍

Against getting rid of the nub.. Just get used to closing it and don’t put your finger there. When you get the hang of it and you don’t hit your finger at all! I don’t agree with you on most of this. The blade is perfect as it is. The jimping is just fine. The only thing I agree on are the scales being sharp on the insides.

Alex, I mean Kenny, no by the knifes shown its Alex!😎

"those edges were sharp really effected the ergonomics" if you got little bitch hands 😂 I'm kidding, mines like that too but I didn't even notices till I saw you mention it

If you actually listen to this video, you really don't like this knife man. I think you're looking for a knife that is completely different from what they intended when they designed this absolute beauty of a hardworking EDC.

You made some very good points. For a knife costing that much, your points ask the question...WTF? Especially concerning to me, more than the sharp points on the handle, on the scales, is the fat grind. Great points... also looking forward to your take after you re-grind.

Can’t agree with the thinner blade theory. Sure this isn’t one of the main points of purpose for this knife. I work in a warehouse as I repair disaster remediation equipment And I prefer a thicker blade. Straight across the board... cardboard is plentiful but is the least of my concerns and even with other knives available I simply use a box cutter on boxes because it’s a thin razor and no knife is competing. For everything else and I mean Everything thicker blades like this work for me That’s why I bought this... I have pm2’s and other thinner blades and what’s suites me best is thicker blades.

So I’ll start off by saying, you’re measuring your behind the edge thickness too far back. As it implies, you’re supposed to be measuring behind the edge, not “behind the secondary bevel”. The BTE thickness on this knife is much thinner than the .025”-.030” you were measuring. Also, you keep quoting the wording from the description of the knife from Spyderco. It says “outstanding edge geometry and an acute utilitarian point”. What about “outstanding edge geometry” implies that they’re saying that it’s thin and slicey like you’re claiming it’s saying? For the thickness of the blade stock they start with, it does have outstanding edge geometry and again, is much thinner than .025” BTE. And then, the “acute utilitarian point”. Again, how does that imply “thin and slicey”? Definition of utilitarian: “designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive.”. Definition of acute: “being or forming an angle measuring less than 90 degrees”. So where are you getting that they said it’s supposed to be thin and slicey and that they didn’t deliver? This knife was made to be a hard use EDC knife. And they delivered just that. Just because it doesn’t fit YOUR needs for an EDC knife, doesn’t mean Spyderco didn’t deliver. Many people love this knife because Spyderco DID deliver. Your opinions about the blade and it’s geometry are unfounded. Look up “Shaman Breakdown with Eric Glesser” here on RU-vid. He literally talks about how the blade is supposed to get thicker towards the tip, and mentions pryability because it is thicker. He explains exactly why they chose the blade geometry that they did. Also, learn to take constructive criticism in stride. People are obviously watching your videos and taking the time out of their day to give you feedback on them, and instead of listening and finding ways to cater to a wider audience and be more successful, you get defensive and tell people to go find another channel to watch. If your goal isn’t to be successful in what you do here, then keep doing you. But if that is your goal, learn from the feedback and make changes to how you approach things. Either way, good luck.

why don't you just get a Lil' Native if you want a thinner blade?... same shape

Put her on a diet...thin to win! Hope the regrind makes it amazing.

The nub is to help prevent your hand slipping forward when bearing down while using the coil. Sal meticulously designed every inch of that knife for a reason. He figured that you being annoyed with it gently tapping your finger while closing it was better than you losing a finger. You made a mistake when you removed it. You have a lot to learn about knives. I trust sal a lot more than a kid with a chip on his shoulder.

The shaman is the second best . The smok would be the best. The yojimbo is pretty awsome