Most people usually prefer to walk around with a pretty decent sized knife. But there are times in emergencies when you will want something that is light, compact and easily accessible. Introducing the Spyderco Bug Knife.
Spyderco is one of my favorite knife brands, they’ve come out with some total crackers that have made me salivate at times. They always look for new innovative designs and performance test their products before launch.
At the moment I’m focused on their Spyderco Bug Knife – the baby of the Insect Family. A true mini pocket knife that you can have handy and practically invisible at the same time.
The History Of Spyderco Bug
The Spyderco Bug line was released in 2009, along with its two companions the Honeybee and Grasshopper, and is the world’s tiniest knife. Altogether, these three knives come in a Bug Set or Bug Kit (if still available). They are planned to be teeny tiny backup knives. They do however lack essential features that you get with fully-sized Spyderco Knives such as being clip less and lockless. Despite being lockless, their size and pressure of the back spring facilitates their two-hand opening.
These knives did release around the same time as the Tenacious Folding Knife. But the uses of all these knives vary from knife to knife. From my point of view, these Bug Knives are part of the great effort by Spyderco to appease a lot of people. There are many people out there who have different needs compared to that of a knife addict. Such as civilians need for regular day to day cutting tasks, whereas a military person would use it completely differently.
Spyderco Bug Knife Features
1. Dimensions
The Bug Knife is extremely tiny, it has a closed length of 1.63 inches, when opened just 2.78 inches and it’s only 0.183 thick. This mini pocket knife has a blade length of 1.22 inches with an edge length of 1.1 inches. Weighing in at 0.36 oz. or 10.5 gm, this mini pocket knife is too small to be a serious cutting tool (let’s be honest) but a lot of people like to keep it as a small keychain knife.
2. Blade
The blade is in fact very sharp, even being so small the fundamentals are still there. The blade is a stainless steel made of 3Cr13MoV, which apparently is comparable to 420J2. This is a less-robust setting of the 8Cr13MoV. Both are quite known for being less robust and dull quickly. It is bit on the softer side, so you will probably have to re-sharpen it frequently. Similarly, it doesn’t have the greatest edge retention but the rust resistance is pretty adequate. For less than $15, the Spyderco Mini Bug is a very affordable knife.
3. Handle
Let’s talk a little bit about how anyone can handle it. Yes, it is tiny, obviously. And, there is not much to hold on to. Yet, they did a pretty good job on the handle. Because, as little as there is to grab, it still does feel comfortable enough and you also get a decent grip on it. The designs itself is pretty slick and the handle has a small smooth area for carving a name on it if you so wanted to. The end of the handle has the typical Spyderco hole that is large enough to attach to your edc keychain or lanyard around your neck while camping.
4. Keychain Friendly
The Bug is so small and light in weight, that if you don’t attach it to something, you’re probably not going to be able to find it when you need it. It is impossible to call this mini pocket knife inconvenient to carry. It is true that somewhat larger knives are definitely able to be put to more use. For example, the Honeybee and Grasshopper have wide list uses and services. However, they feel bulkier to carry around.
5. Carrying Legality
Since, it has no lock and is super small; it is pretty much legal to carry around anywhere. I mean, who could say anything against this cute little knife, which doesn’t even lock. Hence, you are very much on the safe side actually.
6. Spyderco Quality
The design is still very similar to the standard Spyderco brand, quality for cost, safe and user friendly and keychain attachable. It also requires a significant amount of pressure to fold this mini pocket knife. When you try to open it, the blade exerts solid tension so you know this thing is definitely not going to open in your pocket, which is very important feature.
7. Locking Mechanism
Spyderco Bug is a slip-joint knife very similar to its family, the Honeybee and Grasshopper, this means there is no locking mechanism. The pressure of the back spring keeps this mini pocket knife opened or closed. Being lockless is one of its many benefits. You can carry it and use it with no need to open the lock of this tiny thing every time and gives a seamless experience to the users. If you are looking for something which offers a lock mechanism, then you can opt for the Ladybug, which has a functional lock back system.
Spyderco Bug Knife Conclusion
I would definitely recommend this Spyderco Bug Knife – the whole insect family in fact as they are super cool in my opinion. If you don’t want any legal issues and if you don’t want people asking questions, you should seriously consider the little guys. And if you’re budget is tight, you can buy this mini pocket knife for less than $15 on Amazon. Like I said, it is an extremely tiny yet very effective knife and a great gift idea.