I mean, if it wasn’t too expensive, and it definitely was NOT made on earth... I’d think an alien blade was pretty special. No guarantees on quality control though, haha!
The fact that you just recommended that we watch another reviewer who disagreed with you about this knife is exactly why I love and appreciate your channel.
I've just gotten in to exploring EDC knives and you and your excellent reviews are an absolute GEM ! Keep being so natural, authentic and down right entertaining. Thank you Nick.
I have an S110V and an S30V regular Para 3 and a LW in CPM-SPY27. You're right Nick. The Lightweight is my favorite. It used to be inconsistent when it comes to fidgeting but I've finally broken it in and it's a drop-shut knife. I love the color of the FRN of the SPY27 version. Speaking of the scales, the one in the Para 3 LW is smoother than the Manix 2 LW or the Seki City Japan knives. I go for bigger blades and my Shaman is my favorite but my Para 3 LW is a close second.
I have been looking for advice regarding a knife replacement. This review along with several others published by members of the knife community proved very helpful. I finally decided to purchase the Para 3 LW, I am very satisfied with the purchase. The blade is razor sharp, the blade centered, the opening/closing as smooth as butter, the wire clip enables full concealment.
My chef knife is bd1-n, and it's an amazing steel. Sharpen the blade, keep it honed on a steel (ya'll need to understand honing, btw. Don't do a Gordon Ramsey honing. Just two or three swipes to align the burr) and I only have to sharpen three times a year. I use it every day for 4-5 straight hours of cutting in a commercial kitchen. Can't wait to get this steel in a pocket knife!
@@jesser8369 he said they try to keep everything alike, but that the blades wouldn't necessarily interchange. So, in no uncertain terms, he was saying theoretically they can be swapped, but they can't guarantee they will work 100%. As long as the tolerances are nearly identical (and Spyderco works hard on making sure they keep tight tolerances) it will be no big deal. It's just something to cover themselves in case someone does a swap and it doesn't work. But we all know it will almost certainly work.
Michael Campbell it’s completely possible. There’s only a .001 difference in blade thickness. The handles are very close to the same size per spyderco’s site
I really enjoy your knife reviews Nick. Keep them coming! I am seriously considering purchasing the Spiderco Para 3 lightweight, especially after viewing you're review.
Another great one. The Para 3 and PM2 have the same blade thickness. Yet, they still slice better than almost anything in the industry. The Para 3 replaced both my Delica and PM2 as the lightweight, pocket knife for camping since I don't use a pocket knife for batoning. :)
I love mine! One of Spyderco's most exciting EDC-sized options ever. This is really, truly, the "Delica killer" that everybody thought the Boker Patriot was going to be. Now, if they'd just make one with a translucent blue handle like the Manix 2 Lightweight has...
Some of us don't have any problem with the standard clip. Not everything has to be deep carry, and a lot of times I prefer a non-deep carry. More to grab on to to get the knife out of pocket, and I am anti-lanyard so that wouldn't work for me. Not that I mind deep carry, but I think the Para 3 G10 is fine as it is. No hot spots for me either. Everyone is different however! The standard Para 3 is actually one of my all-time favorites and I carry it a lot.
Great review. Not just because it said what I wanted to hear (which it did, full disclosure)--but because Nick makes his points with such simplicity and honesty. They're supported so well and with such apparent ease that it appears the review writes itself. In other words, he makes it look easy: Like every observation is plain to the naked eye and the rationale for any opinions follow so naturally from his observations that one might not even realize they're being persuaded. It's elegant.
Great great review. While I liked my G10 Para 3... I love my LW model. The wire clip coupled with the rounded FRN scales feels great. Bring on the sprint runs! I definitely want a light grey FRN sprint with M4 or cruwear blade steel. Can you imagine how good of a slicer a “skinny” Para 3 LW would be? Give it the same blade stock thickness and BTE geometry as the Chaparral... oh hell yeah.
Nick, I just got the Para 3 Lightweight with the blue FRN scales and CPM SPY27 blade. Your review on the basic model was a big part of my decision-making process, and I’m very happy with the knife. Thanks for always putting out useful, honest, entertaining, and just all-around great reviews!
I love my Para 3 lightweight. I have a Para 3 in black with brown G10 scales. Love the knife, but the clip and FRN handles on the lightweight are kinder to the pocket of my jeans. Easy to get in and out without destroying my jeans.
Great reviews as always and helped me a lot to expand my collections. It would be great if you can creat a gem folder and put all of your gem reviews so that I can pick your brains on those.
Great review, much appreciated. I just ordered a few for Christmas gifts. Might get a Delica 4 or Dragonfly for my kitchen drawer; female with small hands.
Great review and now I want one even more than I already did. Just a couple of things: -Chaparral has about 2.254" of sharpened edge. The Para 3 has 2.62." About 3/8" difference, for those wondering. -There is one ugly thing (to me at least) that I think you've missed: They sold out everywhere basically immediately and, despite these being out for a few months now, Spyderco hasn't gotten out another shipment. Spyderco has frequent issues getting their shipments out in a timely manner and providing enough knives to meet demand. Everyone knew that this knife would be absurdly popular, they really should have upped the production on them and had another shipment ready to go out. But I guess that matches the theme of being the Spydercoiest Spyderco ever. I really want one of these in a bad way, but I can't get one right now, which is frustrating. Some day.
Spyderco like most knife companies have obligations to get knives out to their dealers before they sell any themselves on their own site so it’s best to try and get them through dealers, dealers are often cheaper as well.
That’s what I kept thinking before I watched this video! Love the profile of the Native, that continuous curve from blade tip to handle base. However, Shabazz makes some good points, as usual. Both have relatively thick blade stocks, same blade length, similar sized black FRN... but the Para3 LW is easier to fidget with (bigger spydie hole), has a deeper carry pocket clip (for now), and, for now, it exists and I believe it’s back in stock. The Para 3 LW being available now doesn’t just mean you don’t have to wait to get it, but also it’s a known product with all the ergonomic improvements over the original, rather than a wishlist product. What if a Native with a compression lock will have the same blade edge interacting with the lock cutout area “feature” as the ‘lil Native? I’m not saying it will, or that that is particularly a problem for everyone, but we already know the P3LW is good to go. I preordered one, and I asked BladeHQ if they accepted returns if I changed my mind. They were awesome, basically I had nothing to worry about as long as I didn’t cut with it or disassemble it so it would still be in a “new” open box condition. I don’t know how Golden does it, but the nylon has a finer finish to the handle than my Dragonfly 2 and Ladybug, the action is very smooth, and the fidget factor is strong. Other than a smaller lanyard hole, I’m not sure what a sage 5 LW will do different, and functionally the P3LW is just really good and hard to complain about unless just aesthetically you hate it. Not going to try to talk you out of pining for a Native Compression lock, but the P3LW is a keeper.
Absolutely, as Nick says the Para 3 is not space efficient in the pocket. The Native 5 more so, not as wide. The Sage 5 LW might scratch that itch, we'll see.
Just bought one of these today. Feels just like smaller version of the manix lw with a little more solidity which is something I've always wanted as that's my favorite Spyderco knife and the price is right (looking at you Benchmade). Home run
David Martin Portmann it’s a dye called rite dye . If you look through Reddit or the spyderco forum there are tons of walkthroughs on how to do it. It will work best on jade scales but it will work well on yellow too
Civivi may very well give this guy some competition (hopefully) later this year in that price bracket....i have been hearing rumors of a design collab with some well known makers...and its gonna be very very cool. Great review Nick...loved this knife so much I let it go, passed it onto a person for a deal--it was their first spyderco, and they absolutely love it. you are spot on that this is their essence.
Mine has a little side-to-side play out of the box, but has perfect to the eye centering. I'm very satisfied with the knife for the reasons you stated. As for efficiency for space, for me it is very space efficient and compared to some other Spyderco models is when folded, there is no gap between the blades spine at the base and the scales. This gap leaves the base of the spine exposed and catches on things. I find this knife to be an excellent EDC. It is a full-sized performing ultra-lightweight locking folder that is snag-free with a great action and lock. Mine is also DLC coated for better corrosion resistance. 2023 MSRP is now $200 USD in black, and can be found for $140 USD online.
@Nick Shabazz Picked mine up in Australia a few weeks ago now. Did you notice the sharp edges on the FRN atall? I sanded mine down a little with some 400 grit sand paper as it was a little edgy in the hand, other than that great knife! Love the channel, keep up the great work!
Great video, thanks. I just bought my second one of the Spyderco Para 3 light weight with the Spy27 steel. It is the most Spyderco a knife 🔪 can get, I believe. It is my favorite knife for EDC out of the 100's of knives I have.
While I prefer the deeper and more gripper scales of my Native 5. The radius edges on the pm3 LW makes up for this change is scale pattern. And the deep carry wire clip wins hands down. It's great EDC knife!
I've seen people in Instagram that have swapped blades for all black. Looks awesome. I love this knife. I've tried to carry others since I got it but I end up saying screw it and grab this one.
Great knife, this does compare with the Bugout. Bug out best Benchmade, this best Spyderco. Great review. So super cool that mr. Glesser made the bestv video of the knife.
Great review! Looking forward to see how this compares to the sage 5 lw. I prefer the sage design but I'm not that confident in taichung compression locks. Quick question, did you disassemble the native 5 to dye it?
Because you are a teacher( changing tablet to teacher is the edit. The Swype keyboard on my Android is almost as bad as the voice to text software.) in LA, it's an easy for me to see that it's a Grail Knife for you. The 911 might be Grail Gun for you. I certainly do not invite your job. Thank you for doing what you do.
I had ordered one of these, it arrived in the middle of watching this! I like it, needs a sharpening choil and resharpening, will make a nice light carry when wearing shorts.
Just picked up a bd1n manix 2 lw that is really blowing me away (it's been a couple years since I picked up a new spyderco after 17-18 years of carrying essentially only spyderco folders). Now I'm looking back and trying to pick put which new spydies to add to the already large family. Currently torn between a sage 5 lw vs a pm3 lw.... I know I will be happy with either so it's getting down to the nitpicks to decide between the two.
Hey Nick, I’ve been waiting so long for you to make a Bugout/Bailout review (you promised that it will happen shortly) that now I want it even more, to see Bugout vs Bailout vs Para3LW. just please!
Thanks for that info. I'm watching this as I decide if I want this knife as a lefty. I got a Rat 1 and hate how cramped it is to open. I do have fat thumbs though.
Swapped out blade from my Para 3 G-10 with S110V steel. No issues with BD1N in G-10 version or the S110V in the LWT. Not necessary, BD1N pretty good steel. Crazy knife people.
I hear complaints about this knife feeling cheap, centering problems etc and never noticed that they had any impact on using this knife for what it was meant to do. I have 2 and think they’re outstanding and BD1N exceeded my expectations.
Being that the para3 seems to be in everyone's edc collection, i have had my eye on it for some time. It was just too beefy for my needs. I have been waiting for this! I like my delica but hate the blade opening and lock back. This might dethrone my Bugout.
@@esoteric5277 just looked it up. Damn that pretty much is a delica with a finger choil except for the steel. But honestly I get too wrapped up in the steel thing anyway.
@@josephkuser3998 I guess it's a bit like getting a car engine with more cylinders. If you can afford it, go for it! For me personally, the Meadowlark feels better in my hand. The Native 5LW feels even better, has better steel, and I was lucky to get a very good Amazon warehouse deal (with a partial refund because I got the S30V version) where it ended up costing me less than a Delica 4 would have😁 But I'll also be wanting a Chaparral and now ofc. the Para 3LW. So on my budget, no Delica anytime soon😒 Don't get wrapped up in loving Spyderco, it's likely to cost you an arm and a leg😏
