The Spyderco PM2 Thread Is Really About Why One Design Endures
A post with the title “PM2” and nothing else should not work. It does, because the Paramilitary 2 is one of the few knives where a photo is the whole argument. Two decades after release, it is still the default recommendation for anyone who asks what to buy first, and the thread is a good place to work out why.
The design is a set of compromises that happen to fit a very wide range of hands. The blade is a full flat grind with a distal taper, which makes it a capable slicer without being fragile. The handle has a forward finger choil that lets you choke up for detail work and a full grip behind it for power cuts. The compression lock sits on the spine side of the handle, so the blade closes without your fingers entering the path.
The steel has changed over the years, from CPM-S30V to S45VN and now to a range of sprints in MagnaCut and other alloys. What has not changed is the geometry, and geometry is what people actually feel when they cut. This is the reason a PM2 in an older steel still performs, and the reason a clone with better steel still does not.
The criticisms are equally well established. The blade is thick behind the edge compared with a dedicated slicer, the handle is long for a three-and-a-half-inch blade, and the tip is thin enough that dropping the knife on a hard floor is a real risk. Spyderco has sold millions of them anyway, because none of those flaws matter to the person opening boxes and cutting rope.
Verdict: if you are buying your first serious folder, the PM2 remains a defensible choice at its price, and the secondhand market makes it easy to try without committing. If you already own one, the thread is not going to tell you anything new, which is itself the point.
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