Spyderco: Tropen - Vogt Design Wave Flipper - Compression Lock - Black G-10 - CPM-S30V - C237GP

I've only had my Tropen for about 5 months now and in that time, with many other owned knives to choose from, it has become my EDC. In that time it has done all the things I ask a working knife to do and held an excellent edge while doing it. I must have opened and closed the knife many, many hundreds of time— mostly because it is such a sheer pleasure to feel its wonderfully smooth operation. Those bearings indeed work. It is the smoothest and easiest-opening knife I have ever used. And the amazing compression lock makes the knife as close to the rigidity of a fixed blade as I have ever experienced in a foldng knife. Reviews elsewhere complain about the tiny bit of blade exposed near the lock release. At no time have I cut myself on that small bit of blade . And, of course, when you press the lock lever to close the knife the blade is open and nowhere near the lock lever. Nor have I hit my finger with the flipper. I can't even see how that could be done. You'd have to work overtime to make either of those things happen with this knife. My only complaint with the knife was the Emerson opener. It only works about once in five tries, often leaving the blade is a dangerous half open state. Since the only reason to have such a feature on a knife if for "emergencies" and since it doesn't work well it is a non-starter for me. A Dremel and a cut-off wheel, plus five minutes, solved that problem for me and now the knife is just about perfect. For me anyway. Besides, the smoothness and speed of the knife's opening without the Anderson makes it entirely superfluous. IMO, Spyderco should drop that feature.