If you know me, you know I absolutely adore the Paramilitary 2 with its great ergonomics, style and grace and at first I really hated the Para 3. I hated the looks for sure as it kept a high blade with less length or something of that nature. I went to S & R Knives to test it out and had no intention of buying it until I held it in hand.
Needless to say I am writing a review about using that very knife. It was love as first grasp. Suddenly it looked more normal in comparison to the photos I've seen, the ergonomics are there again but in a slightly smaller package. Full four finger grasp choked up on the choil or just the handle.
I bought the digi camo and satin as that's all they had available and I didn't care for the aesthetics so much as function (even though within the first 24 hours I had dyed the handle a black midnight digi camo, followed by a second dye to all black). Fun fact: My first PM2 had the same aesthetic setup.
So they added some curve to the butt of the knife which is nice but very well could have kept it like the PM2 for my main gripe of the clip placement. Too much sticks out, period. I have a low ride titanium clip on order and I hope that'll help out.
The action right out of box was smooth as butter, as most would expect from most knives nowadays. I added a drop of 3 in 1 oil and it's a slippery beast now! Keep in mind it didn't NEED it but I always add a touch to my pivots.
Now with the lanyard hole. Ok it's fine and it'd work better than most knives because it's at the utmost point of the butt. Of course that makes it pop out the pocket a ton and should have been kept in the PM2 configuration as I mentioned prior. With this being said, screw lanyards on most knives so I filled it with JB Weld and it did the job for now.
I've been hearing a bit of a gripe about the blade to handle ratio, where I tend to not mind that on this knife as I really have found a great niche in small knives so I benefit from small blade but lots of hand purchase.
This is a good offering from Spyderco as I really like my slightly smaller blades lately and the trademark fit and finish are on point! Try it for yourself, you won't be disappointed.
