When Spyderco introduced the Military Model years ago it gathered fans like the Pied Piper. Critics claimed it too big, too expensive and more knife than the average user needed. Likewise, fans heralded the knife's big performance attributes and snapped them up, firmly positioning the Military Model as one of Spyderco's top all-time sellers. Carrying a large folder for many is simply a non-issue. For others in our sensitive PC world, smaller equates to friendlier, less shocking, and in some place just plain legal. We arrive back at the question knifemakers ask everyday, "How do we satisfy both worlds and make a smaller knife that acts, cuts and performs like a large knife?"

Welcome the Para-Military, a two-thirds sized version of the Military Model. Its flat-ground S30V blade stretches a non-eyebrow raising 3-3/32" (81mm) long and has a carbon level of 1.45% with the addition of vanadium and nitrogen for over-the-top edge retention. Coated in black, the blade is subdued and non-reflective. The Spyderco Round Hole is generously sized at 14mm for opening the knife blade with gloved (or large) hands. Its black G-10 handle shuns chemicals and temperature fluctuations and expands at the butt-end keeping the hand from slipping off the handle while making hard pulling cuts. The package is topped off with a nested Compression Lock making the ultimate mid-sized survival knife designed to level trees, carve tent stakes and never generate a second glance.

Made in Golden, Colorado U.S.A. Earth

• length overall 7 7/8" (200 mm)
• blade length 3 3/32" (81 mm)
• blade steel CPM-S30V
• length closed 4 3/4" (121 mm)
• cutting edge 2 15/16" (75 mm)
• weight 3.75 oz (108 g)
• hole diameter 9/16" (14 mm)
• blade thickness 5/32" (4 mm)
• handle material G-10