Spydercos answer to a common slipjoint problem





The Spyderco Grasshopper





The grasshopper is the largest and most practical





The Spyderco Honeybee

The Honeybee is small but still reasonably practical for light tasks





The Spyderco Bug

The Bug is too small to be practical for most cutting chores





I have had some questions and concerns recently about the Spyderco Bug family and the size of the knives within the family so i am going to address these concerns in this post. There is nothing new about slipjoint knives, they have been around since God was a lad and have been a part of peoples everyday carry since the day after. The main problem with slipjoint knives is that quite often the slipjoints can be weak and this will only end up with the knife folding on your fingers while your using it which obviously isn't ideal! Spyderco decided they were going to come up with a solution to this problem while ensuring that they could still have a customer base in the UK. The UK is well known as being a nanny state when it comes to anything pointy or shooty so spyderco had to make something that was better than a slipjoint but wasn't a locking folder. The answer? SLIPITS.SLIPITS are the mid point between traditional slipjoints and modern locking folders. They rely on resistant pressure at the pivot point, making them secure and safe to use without a locking mechanism which in turn makes them legal to carry in the UK. The Spyderco Bug family consists of 3 knives which are some of the best selling budget folders in the Spyderco range. The problem that these knives have is that they are quite small and for that reason raise concern with some people that they are not practical or even safe to use. I'm going to address these concerns and give you a small breakdown of each of the 3. I have added a standard bottle top to the photos for size comparison.The grasshopper is the largest of the 3 knives which makes it the most practical of the 3. It is made of 8Cr13MoV stainless steel and has a blade length of 5.9cm. The Grasshopper has an overall length of 12.8cm making it just big enough to be carried as a main EDC item and a strong practical knife for most cutting chores. It weighs just 39 grams meaning it isn't going to weigh your pockets down and certainly doesn't look very intimidating.The Honeybee is the mid sized knife of the 3 but is still reasonably practical. With its 4.1cm blade it is practical for light cutting chores such as parcels and paracord items. If the handle of the Honeybee was bigger i would feel much more comfortable using it on slightly heavier cutting tasks, unfortunately i can only fit 2 fingers comfortably on the handle which always leaves the concern that i don't have a good enough grip on it to perform those tougher cuts.The Bug is the smallest of the family and seems a little daft to me. Don't get me wrong, i love the Bug but with a 3.3cm blade and an overall weight of 11 grams, i really wouldn't use it for anything other than a keyring weight. It would be OK to use in one of those situations where you have nothing else and only to cut something like tape or paper. Again i say this purely down to the size of the handle and not being able to get a good grip on it.All 3 of these knives are brilliant and all come razor sharp out of the box. Unfortunately i would only be happy to carry the Grasshopper as my main EDC knife and even that is at as push. The Honeybee and Bug are for the times when it would be silly and intimidating to pull out something like a Paramilitary but i would never carry them as my main knife. As mentioned in the breakdowns the handles are too small to be practical and as the blades come razor sharp i would be too worried that i was going to lose a finger using them for heavy or medium chores.If you are thinking of getting something from the family i would recommend the Grasshopper as the most practical but at less than £25 the other 2 are great as backups and light cutting.I hope you find this article helpful and it clears up some of those queries that you may have about the Bug family. Please get in touch if you feel i have missed anything or would like some extra information.Thanks for reading, please like and share and visit me on social media!Liam