Spyderco Caly 3 Damascus & Carbon Fiber Sprint Run

As a long time fan of the Caly/Calypso Jr./UKPK design, I simply ‘had’ to get this Caly 3 sprint run. I am definitely not disappointed. Contrary to the earlier Damascus Delica sprints, this one could be an actual user.

The Damascus blade looks excellent, I love the dark wavy lines. It also doesn’t hurt that this is a stainless VG-10 damascus, so it´s good to go for EDC in my book. The fit and finish are excellent: the action is smooth, good self-close on the blade, excellent tight lock-up and the bolster is seamlessly mated to the carbon fiber handle. The blade is centered too on my sample, if that’s something you care about.

I had one little problem with the knife. It was tough to change the clip for the ‘right’  left-handed carry position. It was tough to get the screw assembly out of the handle. The tolerances are so close, that I had trouble pushing out the bolt-part of the clip assembly. Once it was out and fitted for left-handed carry, I noticed the clip didn’t entirely want to touch the handle. It took me a bit of bending and fitting, before I managed to fit the clip for my preferred carry position for the Caly 3. Ideally, you’d want a clip change to be a ‘drop-in’ affair and not a session of bending and fitting. Still, I got the coolest left-handed Damascus/CF spydie on the block now ;).

Overall, this edition of the Caly 3 is a nice tribute to the designer, Sal Glesser, and the wonderful craftsmen in Japan who made this knife. It’s been great to see this knife evolve from the original Calypso Jr. with stainless steel or micarta handle.

The stainless steel Calypso Jr. was a great start, although it never saw much pocket time. I always felt this folder was too heavy for its size.

The micarta Calypso Jr. is a great lightweight folder. Still, too bad about the right-hand-only-tip-down clip and the fact that I only managed to score one with a serrated edge. The FRN Calypso Jr. was a wonderful revelation for this lefty, well over ten years ago.

The Caly 3 and UKPK models are wonderful evolutions of the Calypso Jr.; getting rid of that sharp cusp on the blade’s spine and adding better blade steels and handle materials. Together with the Delica, the Caly 3/UKPK model is my favorite 3-inch Spyderco utility folder. This damascus & carbon fiber sprint run is an awesome edition for us afi’s. It’s a great pocket knife with plenty of bragging rights. I’m sure this one won’t get any cheaper in the next few years.