If I were at Spyderco and Sal and Eric asked my opinion about how to improve my favorite production knife ever, the C28 Dragonfly, for the third (or fourth, depending on how you count the upgrade from the integrated clip to the wire clip) generation here is what I would say.

Improvement #1: Round off the top of the thumb ramp

The Dragonfly has a lot of design heritage from the Caly3 and this is one place where the Caly3 outdoes its itty bitty brother. This is a super simple change and one that I would be surprised if Spyderco didn’t make. The UKPK, another of the Dragonfly’s design ancestors, also has a rounded over thumb ramp. So long as they retain the quality jimping, there is no chance that the excellent grip on the DFII will get worse. Instead, rounding off the thumb ramp will merely make the knife even more pocket friendly.

Chance of happening: I don’t want to say even money, but this one is a no-brainer.

Improvement #2: Micarta Handles

I received a pair of upgraded micarta scales from IG user wanolte3, seen above, and they are amazing. This, plus the Proper and, of course, the Al Mar Hawk have convinced me that if you have a small folder, micarta is the best handle material. It is light, sturdy, and provides plenty of grip in all sorts of situations. It is warm in the hand, looks nice, and takes the overly high tech feel of FRN and mellows it out a bit. I am not sure if I would get rid of the FRN version entirely, but Spyder desperately needs a micarta version of the Dragonfly.

Chance of happening: Low, as a Japanese-produced knife, the DFII isn’t as easy to change as domestic blades like the PM2 or Shaman.

Improvement #3: Sharpening Choil

The forward finger coil on the DFII is one of the best features of the knife, making a small knife feel like a big knife in hand. The problem is that Spyderco’s finger choil has a “dead stop” design. I’d prefer a more nuanced termination to the choil allowing the user to sharpen the cutting edge for the entire length of the blade. There are two options, a double choil (the Strider approach) or a “naked” choil (the Drop Gent approach). The Strider design includes a sharpening choil AND a finger choil, which is usually pretty busy looking (except on the Strider—man, is that original design a stroke of genius).

The other option is the “naked” choil that ends in a sharpened tip like on the Drop Gent.

I have never had this be a problem, but I can see why some think it is unsafe. I would prefer the Gent’s choil as it doesn’t chew up cutting edge, but if anyone could pull off a double choil that works, aside from Strider, its Spyderco.

Chance of happening: High, I think a “naked” choil would be easier to produce than the current choil and it would be easier to sharpen. The only reason I don’t think this is an “even money” change is because, to my knowledge, no Spyderco has a “naked” choil.

Improvement #4: New clip design

I love the wire clip on the current generation of the DF, but constant quality improvement is about…well…constant improvement. Imagine a small spine-riding wire clip? Something that goes from the rear tip of the knife, right up to the lock back itself. Imagine the clip from Graham’s Stubby Razel on the Dragonfly, that would be killer. How they would implement it is beyond me. I am just a nagging suggester here, not a knife designer.

Chance of happening: None. This is simply too radical a departure for Spyderco to implement. I am not even sure it is possible if you want to keep the lanyard hole (which, for the record, I do not) and still have the knife be a lock back (which, for the record, I do).

Improvement #5: LC 200N blade steel

There is nothing out there right now that combines all of the attributes of LC 200N, nothing. It is plenty hard, easy to sharpen, quite tough, and virtually rust-resistant. It is my one and only blind recommendation for steel. If you need a cutting edge, regardless of the task, LC 200N will work for you. Making a regular, high end version of the DF with LC 200N seems perfect to me. The DF is the go-everywhere EDC knife given its size, blade geometry, and weight. Giving that go-everywhere knife a do-anything steel seems like a no-brainer to me. I know that there are country of production issues involved, but something tells me that Covid-19 will change a lot of that.

Chance of happening: Very low. The DFII, as I wrote above, is a Japanese-produced knife. That means that getting it in steels not make in Japan is hard to do and LC200 N is a steel made here in America. Unless Coivd-19 really disrupts supply chains, and Spyderco is forced to produce the C28 here, this just won’t happen.

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Spyderco Dragonfly II in ZDP-189