There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
But when you're really down, I'm mean just feeling lower than low, it may sound counterintuitive, but I suggest you try to get SUPER BLUE...
I'd been trying to super blue for a long while, and yesterday achieved that desire. And let me tell you what, it sure put a smile on my face from ear to ear. I'm going to have strained cheek muscles I've been grinning so much for the last 24 hours. Here's a more comprehensive look at my blues-kickin' Super Blue, or aogami, as our friends from Japan style it I believe. Somebody tell me if I'm wrong about that, I could well be...
A few observations: firstly, retail price was $77.00, an outstanding, indeed almost ridiculous good deal, considering that; secondly, the super blue blade steel is pretty dang cool. It had a liveliness in both look and feel--more lustrous than the usual Spyderco satin finish, flat-ground blade (I presume it wasnt given extra buffing, if so there was no mention in the enclosed literature), and more springy on a cut, if that makes sense. That's not an universally positive trait for blade steel, but it was distinct enough feedback to be noticeable compared to the holy sextumvirate I'm most accustomed to, i.e., S35VN, 154CM, M390, CTS XHP, CPM M4, and CPM 20CV. This feels different, and it might be because (tertiarily) this is the only non-Microtech knife about which I could honestly say: it came out of the box more or less as sharp as it could be, and as I'd want. For once I didnt even feel the need to run it across the strop. But it's such a shame to see such a nice blade affixed to that damn cheap plastic-feeling FRN. God, Spyderco, could we...I don't know... get some eager-beaver MatSci grad students from the U of C to work on altering the specific gravity of FRN, just to give it a little heft w/o adding ton of weight? Then mold it with an eggshell or orange peel texture, something very small. Oh well, the $77 is awesome.
Finally, I've handled a couple higonokami folders purporting to be super blue steel. Now, Spyderco uses "official" Hitachi-brand "Super Blue Steel" (a registered trademark of the Hitachi Corporation), and maybe those higos I played with used an off-brand version, that is, the iron sand and their best guess at alloying and forging/tempering, calling the final product "super blue" knowing they weren't going to get sued. But if so, their best guesses sucked week-old sushi, because to my recollection they were nothing like this Calypso Jr blade. I'm not commenting on the SK3 or shigogami knives, mind you. Just the ones claiming super blue blades. And maybe I was just looking at authentic Japanese folding knives made by the third-best unlicensed child slave-staffed factory in the western quadrant of Hubei province. Shiru ka? (Hubei is in China, for you geo-challenged folks; thanks a lot for wrecking my joke by making me explain it. Buy globe for gods sakes', would you?)