Spyderco‘s Captain, designed by Jason Breeden, is an unusual folder featuring a recurved, “bulb-tipped,” hawkbill blade. Breeden explains on the Spyderco website that the blade design is intended as an outdoors-capable cutter that is also functional “in water” (hence the recurve). The two cutting angles, inward and outward, are thus opposed — outward for skinning, and inward for cutting line (just as examples).
The VG-10 blade features a swedge (for weight reduction — it isn’t sharp) and a nice long section of thumb grooves behind the blade hump. Like any Spyderco, it was scary sharp out of the box and cut well, retaining its edge quite well during testing. There is a choil for choking up during fine work, but I wish this choil were larger and grooved. It is a bit small for my index finger.
The Walker linerlock engages the blade tang fully, at roughly the middle of the tang (leaving room for wear). There is no blade play in the locked-open blade. The knife opens and closes smoothly, though it is a little difficult to disengage the liner because it does not protrude very high from the handle. (This is a good thing; you don’t want it to be too easy to disengage that liner.)
The G10 handle provides good traction and has nice ergonomic grooves near the lock. Its unusual, angled shape is also very ergonomic. While it’s a bit on the short side for my big mitts, I nonetheless found the handle very comfortable and my grip on the Captain was very secure.
The black-coated, steel pocket clip has good tension and is reversible for tip-up or tip-down, right- or left-hand carry. There is also a steel-lined lanyard hole drilled through the handle.
The one thing the blade does not have is a tapered point. If that feature is important to you, the Captain is not your knife. If, however, you want a versatile utility knife with impressive belly (inward and outward), the Captain is a unique and compelling choice.