Thanks so much for the great question. Oddly enough I have not yet had an opportunity to handle a Persistence yet. I really should just buy the whole lineup.

Easily the best knife I own, absolutely no blade play, cuts paper like nothing I’ve ever seen out of the box, feels strong and dense but still weighing very little. Just an all round spectacular knifeFor this reason, the Tenacious is more of a large utility knife than a true EDC. Sure, it can be carried every day, but it’s a good size knife. When it comes to making no-nonsense tactical knives that are perfect for everyday carry, Spyderco tops the list with high-quality designs made in a manufacturing language that is uniquely their own. There are plenty of everyday carry knives to choose from, but none cut quite the same look and perform the same in hand as a Spyderco. Unfortunately, you usually have to spend a pretty penny to get your hands on one. But when Spyderco introduced the Tenacious, it turned that idea on its head. That's because the Tenacious was made to provide just about everything that made a Spyderco knife great for EDC at a much more accessible price point than many other Spyderco models. While it was a budget knife, it punched above its weight, making it a strong value for the money that was hard to ignore. But it's been a decade since its introduction, and we've seen a lot of changes in the EDC knife industry since then. So, is the Spyderco Tenacious worth it today? Read on to see whether it's still the choice to make, and how it holds up against the competition. I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on the Tenacious as 2023 is nearing its end. In 2008 the Tenacious debuted and not without some controversy. Many declared this Chinese Spydie as heresy or junk with a Spydie bug on the blade. For a lot of others it was an introduction to Spyderco, a favorite and a trusted work knife. In 2008, 8Cr13MoV was a somewhat unknown knife steel, looked at with some skepticism. Spyderco put it on the map with the Tenacious and it became the standard entry level Chinese knife steel for almost anyone making a decent bargain price knife in China. It has had it's detractors, but many including myself found it serviceable as a working steel despite somewhat modest edge retention.

opening knives from KnifeCenter, Inc meets one or more of the criteria set forth above and agree to use My approach to Spydies just is to not own too many and thus really get to use all I own, ideally not more than ten at any point in time (a number my collection still exceeds anyway). The Tenacious is a pretty large knife for EDC in a public / urban / suburban setting. The Persistence might be a nice compromise as it will have the same build quality and materials as the Tenacious in a smaller footprint. Possible disadvantages would be the shorter cutting edge as you mentioned (which is useful in both utility and self defense scenarios) and the ergonomics may not be as good. Having never handled a Persistence it’s impossible for me to comment on how the ergos are, but being a smaller knife you generally have less real estate.These G-10 scales are screw attached to a skeletonized steel liners which give these knives very good rigidity while still maintaining a decent overall weight. Do you still EDC a Spyderco Tenacious? If not, did you upgrade? Tell us about your experience in the comments below! The Tenacious has an overall length of 7-3/4″, a 3 3/8″ blade, weighs 4.0 oz, and is made in China. The blade is not only long but it is fairly wide (from edge to spine) at almost an 1.5″ inches. This is a large knife for EDC (Every Day Carry), and people contemplating the Tenacious for that use may prefer it’s smaller brother, the Persistence or the Ambitious. Here is a size comparison with the Mini Griptilian and Kershaw Skyline so you can see what I mean:

do you happen to know if this blade is swappable with the regular g10 tenacious? i'm planning on getting two more and having at least three resilience models by the time this is done... The Tenacious "lightweight" should actually be, well, a lightweight - I guess they could achieve that by just a partial liner (like on the Millie 1) on one scale, and pretty much no liner on the other.As you stated, the shorter blade of the Persistence will have limitations in food preperation or the cutting of any larger items with one slice, but this is a given with any blade of this size. What is important to know about the Persistence and the rest of this line of knives is that as they go down in blade size, they go down in handle size. This is not just the length of the handle, but the width of the handle scales as they approach the cutting edge. The Persistence does not offer much protection for the index finger and the Ambitious offers none. So, in an emergency defensive role, I would only use the Persistence in a reverse grip. I would not try to stab anything with it and, in this role, I would not consider the Ambitious at all. In assessing blade and edge integrity, we have to look at a range of things. First, of course, is the initial sharpness. No knife will pass muster if it comes from the manufacturer dull. The Spyderco can shave you. That's good. Next, the blade material informs edge integrity and sharpening characteristics to some degree. The 8Cr13Mov steel Spyderco uses in the Tenacious G-10 is highly regarded but not the best in the business. So one thing that kind of concerned me about this knife was that it was made in China. At the time the Tenacious originally came out, there was a lot of stigma regarding Chinese manufacturing and Chinese knives. Today, with the advent of high end Chinese knife manufacturers like Reate, there is less of a concern, although certainly some of that original stigma still exists.