Note: This review, as with all content I write on this site, is my opinion. It does not reflect the opinion of others, including the American Knife and Tool Institute (AKTI), the cutlery trade group that I advise on legal matters.

In grad school I attended a debate between Stanley Fish and Alasdair McIntyre. McIntyre was serious, well-spoken, and had a proper British accent. He was exactly the kind of person you would expect to debate something on Boston College’s campus. Stanley Fish, a noted postmodern thinker with a reputation of being a chaos gremlin intellectually and on college campuses, was none of those things. Fish, however, exuded charisma. His comments were incideniary and his retorts were the verbal equivalent of Will Ospreay’s Hidden Blade. And while I have more of an intellectual affinity for McIntyre, Fish was the person I remember most. In fact, I can’t remember a single thing McIntyre said but even now, 25 years later, I remember a half dozen quotes from Fish. My favorite quote was this one: “Now, no matter what your intellectual commitments are, if you like philosophy, you like Aristotle. This is something we can all agree on, correct?” And of course, the answer is yes.

And there are quite a few things like that. If you like baseball, you will be a fan of Willie Mays. If you like cars, you're likely to be entranced by Christian Koenigsegg’s creations. If you appreciate good legal writing, there is Nancy Gertner. If you like beer, chances are you will relish each sip of something from Hill Farmstead Brewery. If you like architecture or taking pieces of wood and changing their shape, you will be fascinated by the Blacker House. Each represents a quintessential example of the form.

Spyderco is that for knife nerds. Spyderco is a knife lover’s knife company. They roll out great steels all the time, they update classic and beloved designs, and the iterate on designs that people like. They also collaborate with some of the best in the knife business—from custom makers to high end production facilities. It’s that blend of features that makes Spyderco, even now some 51 years since its founding, an enduring presence in the enthusiast knife market. It is also what makes their best knives some of the best production knives ever made. This knife, the Sage 6 in S90V, is the best knife they have ever made. That is a bold statement. Let me back it up.

Here is the product page for the Sage 6 in S90V. The Sage product line has more than a dozen variants, which, given its name seems impossible. There were six models with different locks and within those models with the same lock there were variant with different handle scales and steels. As such, I count about 15 different Sage models with six different locks. The locks, so far as I know, are as follows:

Sage 1: Liner Lock

Sage 2: Chris Reeve Integral Frame Lock

Sage 3: Blackie Collins Bolt Action Lock

Sage 4: Al Mar Mid Lock (lock back)

Sage 5: Compression Lock

Sage 6: Button Activated Compression Lock

The majority of variants are found in the Sage 5 model, which came in S30V, REX 121, Magnacut, M4, and Maxamet. If you want more detail here is the Spydiewiki page. The Sage 6 itself has two variants—one with full carbon fiber handles and S90V blade steel and the base variant with peel ply carbon fiber and S30V blade steel. If you had any doubt that I would buy the expensive one, you haven’t been reading this site long enough. Here is a video review. Here is a Reddit thread on the knife (oh how far we have fallen—from written reviews to Reddit threads…). Here is my Sage 6 in S90V happily purchased with my own money and mine to keep:

TDLR: Perfection through refinement.

Design: 2

This form factor—a curvy handle, half-and-half finger choil, and a leaf shaped blade has been a hallmark of Spyderco folders for years. And there a lot of very good iterations on this formula. None are as refined, useful, or natural as the Sage 6. This design simply flows in the hand, making cutting a natural extension of the movements of your arm. The tip is exactly where you think it should be. You have precise and controlled cuts every time.

Fit and Finish: 2

The facility in Taichung, Taiwan that Spyderco uses to make knives produces some of the finest, most consistent blades on the market. Even compared to other facilities, such as those in Italy or mainland China, Taichung makes sterling blades. Only the very best manufacturers—Chris Reeve Knives and Reate are on the same level. The fact that these makers produce knives that cost significantly more is a sign of just how special Taichung stuff is. Its among the best on the market, but definitively not the most expensive. With this luxe version of the Sage 6 we see all of that quality in spades and the result is a flawless knife with some high degree of difficulty.

Grip: 2

With curves and cuts in just the right places, a hump that doesn’t come to a point, and a half-and-half finger choil, the Sage 6 is a delight in the hand. No grip is anything less than superior. It has taken a while for Spyderco to arrive at the shape of the Sage series, but you can see its DNA in a bunch of knives—the Caly series, the Caly Jr. series, the Native knives, and the Dragonfly knives. In the end, I think the Sage’s handle design is as good as any of them with only the Caly being slightly better (in fact, the Caly 3 handle is the best in the knife world, in my opinion).

Carry: 2

Its not huge nor is it particularly thick. Instead of some design brilliance Spyderco went the easy route to good design—use the Goldilock’s principle. And, like a lot of stuff on the Sage 6, it worked.

Steel: 2

Even with a shift in the Steel scores, S90V is still a 2. It’s getting more common and newer steels are coming like Vanax and Magnamax, but its still really amazing at holding an edge and fighting corrosion, so I have no problem awarding it a 2.

Blade Shape: 2

The leaf blade shape is one of the best out there and something that Spyderco does exceptionally well. Spyderco didn’t invent the leaf-shaped blade, its been around in regional cutlery designs for years (the Shinlin Cutter and the Filipino Barong, for example), but they do seem to be the most prolific modern proponents. The reason is a good one—the blade shape allows for a ton of variation in use making for an excellent slicer, good at piercing cuts, and still quite competent at mincing or fine chopping. As an EDC blade shape it is as good as it gets, right there with a classic drop point hunter. And, unlike a like of Spyderco’s design choices, this one is aesthetically pleasing as well. Make no mistake—I could care less about aesthetics 99% of the time, but if they happen to promote a good design, like the use of micarta, then they warrant a mention.

Grind: 2

Combining the leaf-shaped blade with a thin blade stock and a good flat grind makes for an impressive tool in the hand. Literally no one that I have handed the Sage 6 to for a quite cutting task has been disappointed. We probably all get this because we are knife folk, but people expect our knives to be notably good. So when you get one back and even a person expecting greatness is impressed you know your knife is excellent. If they only knew that this slicing ability was coupled with diamond-like edge holding they’d be even more impressed.

Deployment: 2

The Spydie-hole is, for various reasons I will elucidate below, the best opening mechanism ever designed. First, of course, is the ease of use—making the hole a circle allows for easy rotation in the hand. Second, there is the fact that it is fully and always ambidextrous. Third, the hole does not, like a plate or a stud, put something in the cutting path. Fourth, unlike with a wave/hook or a flipper, the hole allows you to control the speed of deployment. A good Spydieflick will open the knife as fast as a flipper on an equivalent pivot mechanism, but you retain the ability to open the knife slowly and quietly if the situation requires. Even now, with years of new designs, mainly the flipper and front flipper, the Spyderhole reigns supreme.

Retention Method: 2

Is there a better, more simple, more effective clip design than the wire clip? Honestly 17 years into this website and I am still not convinced that anything is better. It comes in and out of the pocket easily. It is super low profile. There is no problem with the front ramp or a squared off butt. Everything just works without flaw or problem every single time.

Lock/Blade Safety: 2

This was the stumbling block of the original Sage 5. I like the strength of the Compression Lock, but I am not thrilled at how pinchy it is on the hand and I am not impressed with how unintuitive it is for non-knife folks to use. The BUTTON ACTIVATED compression lock fixes all of those problems and it retains all of the benefits.

Other Considerations

Fidget Factor: Very High

Peak fidget device in the Spyderco line up.

Fett Effect: Low

Satin belt finish and true CF basically mean this will look just about as good as it did the day you got it even a few years later.

Value: Moderate

At $300 this is a chunk of change, but it is not that bad considering out good the knife is compared to the high end of the market. In a world where kilobuck production knives exist and this is vastly better than all of them, its hard to see this as anything less than okay value.

Overall Score: 20 out of 20; PERFECT

I am sure that Spyderco will find a way to make an even better knife. That is the nature of continuous iteration. But for now, this is it. This knife embodies everything great about Spyderco in one blade—the right steel, the right blade shape and handle design, the wire clip, and the unbeaten Spydie hole. It is the zenith of their company’s designs. And if you carry and use it for a day you will know why. It is never anything less than supernal. Is the price upgrade worth it from the regular 6? If you read this site, then probably. If you don’t know the difference between S30V and WD40, skip it. The regular 6 is still a great knife.

Competition

I couldn’t name all the knives worse than the Sage 6. That list is too long. Instead, it’s probably easier to name all of the knives that aren’t worse than the Sage 6. That is a list of one. The TRM N2 is not clearly worse than the Sage 6. Aside from that, even in the most rarefied air of the production world—the Small Sebenza, the Hogue Deka, and the Giant Mouse Riv—the Sage 6 stands above them. This is an S-tier knife and that tier has a population of two. Between the Sage 6 and the N2, it is a very tough call. The N2 is so thin and simple it is hard to find fault with it. But the Sage 6 is just a fantastic knife to use, carry, and open.

But what about the best Spyderco? Well, that is a fun competition too. I think the best Spydercos are (in no particular order): the Caly3, the Dragonfly 2, the Brouwer, the PM2, and this knife. I like the Dragonfly 2 better, but it is a knife that has some serious issues for folks with larger hands. It works for me, but not for everyone and so I think the Sage 6 beats it. The PM2 is an all time classic but with the original version of the Compression lock, I like it less than this for the palm pinching. The Caly3 is a real competitor. It has a slightly more graceful handle and feels more nimble in the hand, but its lock isn’t as fidget friendly or as good at lock up. I also like the S90V steel slightly more than the “hey how did that tarnish” ZDP-189. In the end these two designs are 1A and 1B, like having peak Greg Maddux and peak Tom Glavine in your starting rotation (not 1995 versions, they skewed too heavily towards Maddux, more like the 1997 versions where Maddux was 8.6 WAR and Glavine was worth 6.2 WAR). I take Maddux (this knife) over Glavine (the Caly3). The one wild card here is the best new design from Spyderco in years—the Brouwer. Yes the clip is terrible and the steel could be better, but if they made an S90V version of that knife with a wire clip, it would give the Sage 6 a run for its money. That design is so good in the hand AND hides in the pocket. As it is, the original Brouwer is not close, but the bones are there to rival this great design in the Spyderco line up.

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