C01 Worker

The C01 worker is the first pocket knife produced by Spyderco inc. As it's the first we will dwell a little on all the other firsts this knife was and it's impact on the knife industry as a whole.

In modern history, certain knives represented the solution to the cutting issue of their time. Until the late 19th century the fixed-blade knife, perhaps epitomised in the United States by the bowie, was such a paradigm. From then until the late 20th century, the folder gradually came into its own; the Swiss Army models may represent the height of the folder's development in terms of mechanical refinement. In the late 20th century, however, a significant paradigm shift took place wherein the one-hand-opening, serrated-edge folder with clothing clip became the solution. It remains so today.

The first Clipit, the Worker Model, was introduced in prototype form at the 1981 SHOT Show in New Orleans and caused hardly a ripple of interest. It was a prototype made for Sal by Jim Oddo. Production models made by what would become Spyderco's largest Japanese supplier were first sold at the Texas State Fair, mostly to exhibitors. (I saw this model picture in a knife newspaper a few years later and found it unremarkable, so I can take no credit for having recognised its worth and impending stardom from the first.)

Externally, this new knife looked different, with its hump on the blade punctuated by a hole and its spring clothing clip attached to one of the scales, for clipping to best or edge of pocket. Some people called the knife ugly, but those who used it appreciated its innovations and soon put the question of looks aside as secondary. In time, people came to love its friendly look because it represented a knife that fulfilled so many of their needs - needs they hadn't even known they had because no-one had ever addressed them.

The Original Clipit Patent: Key Features

Because the Worker was the vanguard of the entire ClipIt line, we will focus as some length on its key features, many of which I define by quoting directly from the U.S. Patent.

Front Lock

"Blade-locking mechanism located so as to fall under the user's thumb when holding the knife for use, actuated by a leaf spring that bears against the lock to provide tension and also bias the blade closed...."

The front is hardly new. The Boker knife company of Germany was using a front lock in about 1903, but its origin may be a century or more previous. Its use was popularised in the current generation by the late custom maker Harvey McBurnette, but the concept was never patented. McBurnette introduced the front lock to Oregon designer Al Mar, who began using it on his knives in the 1970s. Sal obtained permission from Mar to use the lock design and to include it in his patent application.

There have been several types of blade locks. The back lock has been very popular; representative samples include the Buck Model 110 Folding Hunter and Schrade Uncle Henry folders. Back and front locks differ chiefly in the length of the locking bar and location on the handle where on presses to unlock the blade. Here "front" means nearer the end of the handle where the blade pivots, while "back" means nearer the other end. The back lock has two disadvantages:

Safety dictates the use of two hands to close it: one to hold the handle and operate the lock and one to close the blade under control. Although it is possible to design this problem away, very few have bothered to do so. The blade must never be pushed into the handle when closed, or allowed to fly closed under the returning force of the lock, because its edge is likely to contact the handle and be damaged. This handicap is not a manufacturing defect; it is inherent in all current back-lock designs. A custom maker told me he has seen back-lock folders costing several hundreds of dollars and more that have copper or ivory stops for the blade to hit - awkward gimmickry on other fine knives. The McBurnette/Mar front lock completely solves both of these problems. The kick (downward protrusion of the choil just before the edge begins) contacts the spring at or behind the lock pivot, preventing contact between the edge and any part of the knife. Not only can the thumb easily disengage the lock, but the blade can even be allowed to snap closed into the handle under the force of the lock with no danger of harming the edge. This simple, rapid, one-hand procedure, which can, with practice be executed without having to look at the knife, will be described in detail later in this section.

The front lock may be somewhat more resistant to unintentional unlocking because in use the rear part of the lock (which is pressed to unlock it) tends to fall in the gap between the thumb and forefinger. No lock of this type, however - front or back in design - is immune to unintentional unlocking by the pressure of the user's hand, and no designer can predict how a user will grip his knife. In addition, given sufficient force a piece of the locking lug or the blade tang could be broken off, defeating the lock. Of course, manufacturers could use massive springs to keep the locks closed, or massive locking mechanisms - and compromise both portability and the advantage of having the lock in the first place!

The time of greater danger with any type of knife is when unusual force must be applied for cutting: at such times most of the user's concentration may be diverted away from safety. Hence, the wise user will strive to be aware of the pressure his hand may be exerting on the lock and will develop habits that minimise the likelihood of accidents under pressure. No matter how many "safeties" have been designed into a knife, however, its very purpose makes it inherently dangerous. Thus the operator must be the ultimate source of safety. As soon as one begins to believe the knife is safe of its own accord, the likelihood of injury exists.

One-Hand Opening

"...an enlarged portion of the blade providing a depression that can be engaged by the user's thumb to open the blade one-handedly...."

The wording of the patent is meant to include any type of depression in the blade designed to engage the fleshy part of the thumb, a hole merely being a special case of depressions on each side of the blade that meet in the middle. Whether implemented as a hold or merely depressions, this feature's great advantage is in providing one-handed operation of the blade (which we will elaborate on shortly). Blades with holes are not new, but prior to the Clipit, none of those holes were ever used to lever the knife open with one hand. The holes have traditionally been used as wrenches and specialised keys, for decoration, and to reduce weight. The current U.S. Army M9 bayonet's wire-cutter involves a hole in the blade.

False Edge

"...a second, shortened cutting edge on the top of the blade...."

The secondary edge is also called a "false edge" because designers sometimes remove metal from the back of the blade near the tip to lighten the blade and alter the balance of the knife and to enhance penetration. In this case, the Worker's edge is actually sharpened, albeit with a somewhat wider bevel than that of the main edge. When the Worker is closed, this edge drops below the scales, protecting the hands; the user must lift the blade slightly to bring it into use. Sal explains:

"I gave it a sharp false edge because that allowed you to open the knife just a little bit and use the sharpened false edge to cut something like a piece of string or a piece of tape. Again, I was trying to produce a very efficient high performance or what we call high speed low drag folder that you could carry anywhere."

The Police, Renegade and Native Models, plus others, have a similar treatment on the backs of their blades, but this is called a swedge rather than a false edge. With regard to the length of this blade, Sal says:

"I was really concerned about legalities, even at that time, and after much thought I came to the conclusion that knife under 3 inches would not be intimidating. And (it) would allow a person to carry a knife legally even though it had certain features, such as opening the knife with one hand or the easy access of the clip."

Clothing Clip

"...a clip mounted on the handle which can be used to support the knife from the edge of a pocket opening, or a belt...."

The clothing clip, explains Sal, is an idea he adapted from another product:

"The clip idea came from a key ring I had, that had a little frog and a chain attached to it. The frog would sit up on the edge of your pocket, with the head and two feet dangling out of the pocket. The key chain would be attached to the frog. It was a great idea because it allowed you to pull the keys out of your pocket without having to reach down into the pocket. I carried that frog for some time and was always impressed with the ease of accessibility. I finally put two and two together and decided to put a clip on the side of a pocket knife to provide the same access."

The clip was mounted so as to carry the knife with its blade pointing down, or tip down. The springiness of the clip held the knife securely, ready for deployment with one hand.

An additional advantage of the clip, which is only obvious once one has used the knife, is to provide an extra gripping surface for the hand, both when opening the knife (preventing rotation of the handle in the hand) and when using it.

Solving Real Problems

As stated in the patent, the ClipIt design solved the following problems:

knife creating wear/holes in pocket, with ultimate loss of contents, leading to carrying smaller, lighter knives to minimise or delay the onset need to use two hands to bring knife into use, and the attendant need to visually inspect the knife in order to operate the blade need to use two hands to close the knife and return it to its predeployment position having only one cutting edge on the blade having only one cutting edge on the blade

The first knives Spyderco produced changed the knife industry as we know it today! The knives with their opening holes clothing clips and balance between fit and finish made other long established manufacturers take a long hard look at their own products. It wasn't long before other knife makers were adoption Sal's ideas.

As the first knife produced by Spyderco the Worker will always be a very special knife to me personally for two reasons, it was the first ever Spydie I owned and it was the knife that started my interest in Spyderco knives.

One of the most important qualities of this knife is the one handed opening. The situations where I found this facility useful are too numerous to list but being able to deploy the blade with one hand whilst holding a rod, reel and terminal tackle in the other was something special.

(The complete patent can be viewed here: File:Original Worker patent US4347665.pdf)

Designer

Sal Glesser

First prototype handmade by Jim Oddo and Sal

Variations

Some of the variations will be dealt with in a little more indepth manner here, as opposed to in the table, due to their history or other things which make them stand out.

• C01 Worker from early run with Sakai Markings instead of Spyderco on the blade:

As far as the Sakai Clipit Worker goes, Sakai is our main maker in Seki City. When we first started making knives with him we didn't know all of their normal practices. After we had done two or three runs of the Clipit model we received by accident, several pieces that came in with our product that was stamped with the Sakai brand. Investigation revealed that it was a normal policy for Japanese makers to recreate customer designs and sell them in the domestic market under their own name. We explained to Mr. Yuhei Sakai that this is not an acceptable practice, that we did have intellectual property on our models and that we would prefer that there were no other variations with no other names out there. He complied and didn't make any more. Since G. Sakai is our Japanese distributor, he also sells Spyderco brand in the domestic Japanese market at this time.

• Zowada worker from the evolution edition: The Zowada- bladed worker from the Spyderco worker evolution set is the only Spyderco to date with a Damascus blade. The blade is made by famous custom knifemaker Tim Zowada which is also the designer of the C56 Tim Zowada.

In an email from Tim Zowada: I made the steel for the Evolution edition. The steel was sent to Japan for blanking, grinding and heat treating. The steel was a lamination of W2 and ASTM203E.

The Zowada worker also has a special clip with Kraton onlay and Kraton inlays in the handle

Variations of the C01 Worker

SKU	Handle	Edge	Steel	From/To	MSRP	Note	Number made	Grind	Clip	Clip positions	Collectors club
1001	Stainless Steel	PE	GIN-1/G-2	1981-1982?	?	Original SKU, this is the first knife made by Spyderco. All two-screw clipped Workers were PE, and did not have a Lanyard hole. The handles were unbevelled and the Swedge was sharpened on these. Both LH and RH models were available. Thin handle slabs.	1200?	Hollow grind	2-screw clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
1001	Stainless Steel	PE	GIN-1/G-2	From/to	MSRP	SAKAI Worker, with Sakai markings. See text above.	One run, 600?	Hollow grind	2-screw clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
1001	Stainless Steel	PE	GIN-1/G-2	1983-?	MSRP?	Next generation worker, thicker handle slab on clip side, beveled edges on handle. Both LH and RH models available.	Number made?	Hollow grind	2-screw clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
C01SBK	Stainless Steel	SE	GIN-1/G-2	1991?-?	?	Black titanium carbo-nitride coating	?	Hollow grind	3- screw old standard clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
C01SATU	Tufframl	SE	GIN-1/G-2	1993?-?		Black Tuffram coated Aluminum	?	Hollow grind	3- screw old standard clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
	Stainless Steel	PE	GIN-1/G-2	From/to	MSRP		Number made	Hollow grind	2-screw clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
	Stainless Steel	PE	GIN-1/G-2	From/to	MSRP		Number made	Hollow grind	2-screw clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
	Stainless Steel	PE	GIN-1/G-2	From/to	MSRP		Number made	Hollow grind	2-screw clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
	Stainless Steel	PE	GIN-1/G-2	From/to	MSRP		Number made	Hollow grind	2-screw clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
	Stainless Steel	PE	GIN-1/G-2	From/to	MSRP		Number made	Hollow grind	2-screw clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
	Stainless Steel	PE	GIN-1/G-2	From/to	MSRP		Number made	Hollow grind	2-screw clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A
	Stainless Steel	PE	GIN-1/G-2	From/to	MSRP		Number made	Hollow grind	2-screw clip	Right hand tip-down	N/A

Technical information

Typical measurements (mm and grams) of the C01 Worker:

SKU	Length overall	Length closed	Hole Ø	Blade length	Cutting edge	Blade thickness	Weight

Typical measurements (Inches and ounces) of the C01 Worker:

SKU	Length overall	Length closed	Hole Ø	Blade length	Cutting edge	Blade thickness	Weight

Pictures

C01S Worker

C01PCOM Worker