Just a quickie here...seems the older I get, the more I'm prone to liking the looks of knives I would have laughed at when I worked in retail cutlery in my 20's, not that long ago. I keep seeing new versions of the Spyderco Kopa on various knife sites. I think most of them, if not all, have VG10 blades and are made by Spyderco's Japanese partners, maybe Moki. They all seem to be limited runs and all share the trait of exotic, colorful handle materials.
These are kind of cool, in an industry dominated, by and large by stealth black, foliage green, desert tan and the recently trendy camo, or even ACU digital camo.
Don't get me wrong, I love "tactical" looking blades, but these Spyderco Kopas have sort of a carefree, utilitarian look to them, and hey, if one was willing to shell out the cash, they'd probably make an awesome father's day gift for anybody's Old Man. Except my dad. It's funny, out of all of the knives I've given him over the years, the only one he carries consistently is an old early-generation Gerber EZ Out, with the wonky oval opening hole and the "gator grip" handle. I don't even think the steel is ATS-34, it's some rock hard, impossible to sharpen Gerber junk steel, but hey, he's used the hell out of it, and seems to enjoy it. It seems in the past, the more supposedly "high performance" a folding knife is, the less he uses it. I've given him an Emerson he's never carried but once when we were out on our annual trout trip. One year I gave him a $10 Frost's of Sweden carbon steel, rubber handled fixed blade, similar to a Mora knife, and it's his trusty bait knife on his boat, even though the thing rusts like hell on his saltwater bay. Oh well. I think this Father's Day (followed by his birthday the same week), I'll stick with the tried-and-true gift of kitchen knives. He has a ragtag collection of knives he's used for 20+ years and he's an outstanding chef and takes real joy from cooking, and using high quality tools to prepare meals. I bought him a Cold Steel Kitchen Classics bread knife for Christmas, and he loves the damn thing.
With kitchen blades, i never get him anything too expensive, because he throws the shit in the dishwasher, and sometimes leaves cutlery out in his barbecue shack. Kershaw's parent company KAI makes some cool, reasonably priced kitchen knives, as does the aforementioned Cold Steel. Hmmm, if I can't find anything in the kitchen cutlery vein, I'll go to the old standby...bottle of wine. That always does the trick, and it's one of the last vices the man enjoys.
If you have any funny father's day gift stories, or want to share gift ideas, leave a comment, or email me.
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