This is such a well built knife. It's one of my absolute favorite EDCs!

Another great presentation from The Shabazz. I always have to check that my playback speed is set to 1.0 and not 1.25 with Nick!

I love this knife! It's a solid little laser after having the blade reground to a thinner, hollow grind with a small sharpening choil. It has superb, silky action and feels great in my hand. I also nicked up the thumb studs while sharpening and Spartan replaced them for free. I just paid for shipping. I never regret buying this knife.

Just want to throw out that Bill has been on record saying he purposefully left that unsharpened portion of blade there intentionally as part of the design. I don't necessarily love it myself but he stands firm with the choice. I also agree with the ugly. Those last finishing steps take a knife from eh to amazing very quickly.

I'm glad you reviewed this. I bought their Horkos made in S45VN and I love it. Was considering their folder but after this I definitely think their price is a rip off. No cut out for your thumb to get to the lock bar, no lock bar insert, sharp lasering and gimping. Definitely not worth $450. I appreciate your review.

Nick, I watch your videos in the eventing (from Europe) because your voice is soothing. I also enjoy the content very much indeed, but you should not underestimate the fact that it makes me fall asleep like a baby. I also like to mention that ….. ….. zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hey Nick, awesome review as always, I feel like you’ve been “picking my pocket” for years.

I bought the big and the small SHFs because the RHK XM-24 and RHK XM-18 were hard to get. Don't regret either purchase. Even after got a RHK XM-24 the next week. Got a Stitch the week after. Now, I have too many favorites!

I would only own this just to appreciate my Sebenza more lol

Plague doctor will always represent the time I got back into knives and in some ways the first time I got into modern knives. Really like Spartan blades.

Great review.

I have a full size plague doctor with the damascus blade and I agree 100% with the review. It's a beautiful and well built knife but definitely not a casual edc sort of thing for most people.

any plans on reviewing the full size? I just ordered the join or die DLT version which I am pretty excited for

The Kizer trademark and other blade markings are, frequently if not always as deep, if not deeper, than the markings on this blade (one of which I have in hand)… I like them deep. I know they will never wear off!

First off love your channel! Just bought a harshey full size spartan babe special edition. I payed 570 for it and did not notice until watching this that It doesn't have a frigging sharpening choil! Ima have to trade it for a hinderer now damnit! Lol keep up the hard work ur amazing

You should give the American Blade Works Full Ti Framelock flipper a try

I 100% agree with everything you have said in this video. I brought it all to their attention a little bit after release. They just told me, "it is, how it was designed to be". Harsey even decided to give me his 2 cents. He wasn't nice about it. Came across very full of himself. The Spartan guys were trained by CRK. One of the reasons the action is very inkosi like. This knife was very close to being great. But the finish just 100% isn't there at all. They could just blast the handles and make the knife far more comfortable. When I was in the military, noone carried $400 or $300 folding knives. Most people had Benchmades...(most didn't carry a folding knife, plenty of leathermen's). Why? Because they are cheapish. If it breaks, they fix it for free. More likely to loose it before it breaks though. I lost 3 of them. Fixed blades, is a different story. Plenty of expensive fixed blades. Anywho, great review and I agree.

Got one when they first came out. Had tiny amount of stick but that cleared after a few open and closes. Smooth as glass that puts a sebenza to shame, nice and snappy opening. Only thing about it that's ugly to me was the initial sharpening, looked like they did it with their eyes closed, other then that I love mine

when I cut plastic the sharpening choil stops me. when I cut paper the sharpening choil messes it up. when I'm cutting cardboard that sharpening soil messes it up.

This is one of my favorite styles of knife, I glad I bought a few Fantoni Harsey Knives when Fantoni was around. The Spartan Blades Harsey missed the mark IMO. They left too many sharp edges and no excuse to not have a chole on the blade, also I don't like the reversible pocket clip (as I'm right handed) it's just extra junk on the knife but lefties rejoice I guess.And no lock bar insert big mistake. I just found out about the Spartan Blades Hersey today May 11 2023 and was ready to pull the trigger on one of the "customs" with engraved handles but before I did I thought to do a little research...glad I did, this knife and it's big brother (4.25" blade and 9" OAL 5.9oz.a beast) have just enough issues for me to put my wallet away.

I'm with you on all your points.

Not a fan of how they done the plunge grind on the blade. Probably end up looking really strange towards the heel and potentially getting a recurve after a bit of sharpening.

Fun fact before production spartan consulted the legend himself Mr Chris reeves....and I think alot of the elements are there....is it a sebenza? no not by a longshot .....but the quality and recipe is there

A good one for work at the Vaseline factory.

I had a Pallas and had mostly the same feelings. Good design but ugly detent and lock stick. Would love to see them step their game up

I had one. Lock stick due to no insert or carbadizing, no sharpening choil, sharp inner scales around the edges, gap between lock bar that scale it’s milled from is too wide, not well sharpened, tab sticks up being only 1 screw. I did like the clip and jimping, internal lock bar relief, pivot acting as overtravel stop.

All excellent points. I also don't care for the lanyard hole.

agree. the only knife i returned... the very same day i bought it. brilliant design (except for that unsharpened bit that should've really bean a choil... major wtf there). but all those sharp edges, the meh action out of the box, and mine was also verrrry unevenly ground (never had one this bad, not from CRK, not from Civivi, not even some "aliexpress specials")... no thanks at that price.

Love my SHF’S!!

Was looking forward to this one! But a touch disappointing for the full $$$....

wow another great review of a knife I cant afford , it seems of late to me most of your reviews are of higher end models , which is great I love to see them , it just reminds me of how poor I am , can you try to do more models around the £100 mark or there abouts , I really like your reviews have done for years , when i come to check your new stuff out I think , is this one for me or another one of Nicks high end folders, .as far as price goes here in the UK nice pocket knives are pricey and my top end tends to be £250, my taste is for hand built slip joints , I do have all the usual suspects , spyderco Kershaw's rats and more I'm a collector after all, keep up the good work I'm not having a go at you , just reminding you little people buy knives too

The little "Christmas Tree" is to symbolize their joining with Pineland Cutlery a few years ago. Text taken from one of their posts a while back: "What’s the deal with the little pine tree on my knife? Now that Spartan Blades is part of Pineland Cutlery, all new knives made after 18 July 2019 will have a small pine tree next to the logo. Basically, you will now have pre and post Pineland Knives. This is a way of marking a new beginning with our family at KA-BAR while honoring the past."

Fwiw, Bill purposefully excludes a choil so as not to introduce point of potential steel failure (would say these are optimized for hard use). Whether this is worth it (and certainly on the smaller 3.25), is up for debate, but that’s the reason. Nothing to do with avoiding things getting caught in the choil.

Chamfering Fairy lol nice review.

It's pleasant when you talk me out of considering a purchase. (My wallet takes a deep breath and relaxes.)

TRM or Spartan?

Agree on the Ugly - that’s exactly how I feel about my SHF compared to my CRKs and Hinderer. I still like the knife a _lot_. But to the argument that it doesn’t matter: cool, but then charge less than the people who go the extra mile.

I own one (plague doctor, 3.25), and I can not agree more......i like mine as a collector, but if I make myself be honest....it simply lacks the fit and finish of many knives I've bought in the past year at half the cost

The pine tree is there to represent their partnership with kabar

I’ll buy one just for the sticker

I just received a copy of this knife, and it has an issue. While moving the blade through its range of motion manually, and slowly, I noticed that it felt ROUGH through part if it. First I thought it must be a bad bearing (it feels like tiny “bump, bump, bump,” like a bad bearing), but then realized it has washers. Finally, I used a bright light to see inside as I operated the blade. What I saw is that the detent ball runs in a track on the very edge of the heel of the blade (which may be a factor), a track which is conspicuously rough. I feel it only when I move the blade manually and slowly. It still flicks open perfectly well… Is this a defect? The fact that to me, there seems to be a problem (I never encountered this issue on any other knife, including some very cheap ones), suggests to me that there IS a problem! It’s too bad, because I LIKE this knife otherwise…

15:09 Perhaps the knife being designed by "high speed low drag"dudes is why it so spartan? 17:25 saves it! The Shabazz rules.

I love the graphic, but I’d rather have a small sebenza in this knife’s size.

My initial thoughts are that it looks like one of those Olamic knives. Except boring-er

had the big one, sold it 2 days later. detent was too soft, action was gritty, no chamfered edges on the ti, felt really underdone and completely overpriced. if you price your knives like chris reeve, you need to deliver, this didn't feel nearly as good as most $150 chinese ti-folders.

Looks like a Spartan helmet with arrows.

🤙🏻👊🏻🇺🇲

Dang.... Not much else to be said. I feel you brother. Would of, should of, could of...🤷‍♂️😮‍💨

Everything you complain about is why I also haven't pulled the trigger on one. They are down my preference alley, but they seem just not as well finished as any competitor.

Cowabunga NS.!

For the price no choil ?

sharpering choils make real using of the knife impossible

It's always been a decent classic but saying they went 95% of the way is being generous by about 15%

You might expect some of these issues from a hunerd dollar Twosun, maybe.

Why do "high speed low drag" tools get a pass on poor fit and finish yet get to be priced as a more high end better finished knife? I see this same thing with many other knives namely emersons. I'm not saying this is bad knife, or Emerson's are either. Just that if you're going to price it like it's a higher end knife, it should be finished like one. Also Military guys aren't walking around with 400+ dollar folding knives.

American made knives have fallen behind big time in the value vs quality and intrigue market. It's unfortunate.

Thank you Nick!! I’ve been trying to tell my wife 3.25 inches is plenty! Just sent her this video to confirm!

I agree with you. I love the full size but the 3.25 felt very cheap to me. I don’t really like lockbar inserts though, just adds another failure point to a very simply done. I will say, that Spartan has some of the best customer service in the business. I received quite literally next day turnaround for a blade replacement. Sent it on Monday, got it back Saturday

To expensive 😭

What accent is this

I'm glad it's American made because only Americans would punt up their hard earned cash to add this piece to their collection of overpriced knives they never use. (I'm mainly taking the Mickey here)