A lot to like, just not for me. - Spyderco Native 5 Lightweight 2.95in Folding Knife

I'm not an FRN guy, or even a lockback guy. But I have Spyderco's longer LC200N blades and I wanted a small one. It's the ideal take-anywhere steel that you can even swim with, leave wet and dirty, and not face consequences.

The Native 5 Salt fits really nicely in the hand, and fills it more than some other small Spydercos. It's a locked-in grip. I like that it doesn't have a hump to jam against your thumb. I don't mind that the thumb hole is slightly occluded, but it feels a little awkwardly placed, like lower than it should be (this is so your thumb clears the choil/guard of the scales during a slow roll).

It's of course extremely lightweight, with no liners and no washers. The blade runs against the FRN, and it's certainly not smooth like PB washers, or even teflon...and the bolster areas next to the plunge scrape the scales as it opens and closes, making a little nick in the FRN where the plunge edge is), which at least on H1 Salts ends up scratching the bolster. When closed, the blade wasn't centered and would "click" if you wiggled it toward centered.

FRN is what it is--tough nylon. It flexes more than G10, and to me can feel creaky. It's tough, but molded and more utility than beauty. There's also the love-or-hate extremely grippy pattern, which is a sharp-edged and a bit much for EDC, and a true pocket destroyer (even with the clip landing pad). The scales' inside edges were a bit hard-edged. Also, the gap between the lockbar and FRN was really crooked until I filed the FRN down on one side. All this is just the nature of molded FRN, but there's some room for improvement.

While I was pleased that this was the first backlock I've gotten from Spyderco with no vertical play or lock rock, the action from the factory was incredibly stiff and tight, even for a lockback. No flicking even with a strong wrist flick, and I can flick any Spyderco. The lock bar was also hard to push down, with sharp edges, and no Boye dent...really thumb-fatiguing. The action eventually played-in about as much as Spyderco's washerless FRN can, but still was basically slow-roll thumb-open only. No flicking without unsafe levels of wrist flicking. There was also gritty gunk in the lockbar from the factory, on the first open, which immediately scuffed up the highly-polished lock surface and I couldn't get all the grit out without disassembling it, cleaning it, and then re-polishing the path. Weirdly, though the blade part of the lock interface was extremely polished, the lockbar side looked slightly rough and unpolished. Let's polish both sides, Spyderco.

The gritty lock bar made me wonder if the backlock, metal-on-metal running on a long smooth path, is the best lock mechanism for use near sand. Also, the inside of the scales has this faux-skeletonization pattern in the FRN, and also many divots, and all kinds of crannies, for dirt, sand, mud, and fish gunk to collect. Wish it was smoothish inside. Also, a 4-position pocket clip is nice, but means lots of extra holes for dirt and sand.

Without liners (which I'd rather it had), it does carry so light you'll forget it, of course, if it's a bit wide. If you like forward choils, this has one and is comfortable in that grip too, but it takes up a lot of what could've been edge. When you notice that it's almost as big as the Spydiechef, and is actually thicker, it's not a lot of edge for its size. Probably enough for most people's EDC tasks.

Nice grind overall, though the edge bevels weren't quite consistent. Overall--considering its steel, it's a great value IF you like linerless FRN, and understand they don't have the action or feel of sturdier knives. Im sure they're plenty study for most EDC jobs, but for me, it's a feel thing. I really want to like FRN, but it doesn't generally do it for me.

I'm still waiting for Spyderco's small -bladed, hard-use/upscale LC200N knife. But this is certainly a good knife, depending on your needs and taste.