Free Standard Shipping in the US on orders over $99

Spyderco Manbug K390 & Blue FRN Back-Lock Knife

reviews1

photos0

discussions44

01 / 05

ALL PRODUCTS

Spyderco Manbug K390 & Blue FRN Back-Lock Knife

Where's the price?

To negotiate the best possible price for our customers, we agree to hide prices prior to logging in.

125 requests

Product Description

Pound for pound, bugs are some of the strongest creatures in the animal kingdom. Inspired by their power and compact size, the Manbug knife from Spyderco uses premium materials to pack a big punch in a small footprint Read More

Sort by: Newest

balakay43

Jan 5, 2021

Thank you friend. Sorry you have to deal with having a spyderco, I know their return policy sucks.

Vote

DSH007

Jan 5, 2021

balakay43?? No need to be sorry friend, Spyderco is one of my favorite brands! As far as their "return policy" goes, I wouldn't know.. I've never had to return one ;)

RayF

22220

Jan 5, 2021

Eager to hear how the new and improved "...back-lock mechanism..." work by comparison to those old-fashioned, Lock-Back mechanisms.

Vote

Hydraxiler32

Jan 5, 2021

what's the point of this if it is literally the exact same price on bladehq, knifeworks, knifecenter and where ever else it is sold. why would any sane person pay for the extra month on their delivery time?

View 3 More Replies

Hydraxiler32

Jan 6, 2021

I'm actually a socialist canadian spy so you better watch your back 👀 hehe

Vote

RayF

22220

Jan 6, 2021

Hydraxiler32 You too?!

Vote

luke1088

Jan 5, 2021

Thought the whole point was price, big group buy, big group discount. So because they dropped the "mass" that doesn't apply anymore?

SylentKnight

112

Jan 5, 2021

luke1088"So because they dropped the "mass" that doesn't apply anymore?" Yes. It's been a long time (at least a year, probably more) since they've done any group buys. That's a shame since the group buys are what brought most of us here in the first place. My suspicion is that they use sales from this and other non-Drop branded items to fund the Drop-exclusive stuff.

RayF

22220

Jan 6, 2021

SylentKnight And possibly to make payroll too, you think? Not to mention paying for the Cloud Services used to store and facilitate inane comments from all the Harvard School of Business grads, like your pal @luke1088 who's been here since 2016 but somehow never got the memo about MD changing it's name to Drop and dumping the whole group-buy concept about a week after they inaugurated Garfield, but thinks he should get better deal on this knife here, than across the street because he signed up for a free account on some headphone shopping site?

BigTipper

Jan 5, 2021

75 bucks for a man bug holy shiiiit... that’s more than spyderco even lists it on their website lol

SylentKnight

112

Jan 5, 2021

BigTipperThey actually list it for $104. What you're paying for is the K390. I don't have any experience it with it, but apparently it's the latest and greatest super steel.

Vote

inventbot

Jan 4, 2021

No belt clip means it is likely to jump out of my pocket and be lost, as have other knives (fortunately all cheapos), so it's a pass for me. The wire belt clip on the Dragonfly is useless anyway as it is slippery and doesn't grip fabric (plus it wiggles and mine recently fell off and was lost), but at least one can swap it with a more solid clip. With this knife there are no holes for mounting a clip. Maybe that's not a concern for some, but it is something to consider. Adding a lanyard can help to make a knife harder to lose.

Vote

Evshrug

3775

Community

Jan 4, 2021

Some additional details that I think the buyer should be aware of: This is a tiny knife; Spyderco calls it a keychain knife. It’s about 4.5” long from tip to handle base when open, closed it fits completely inside the pocket watch 5th pocket on a pair of jeans/pants 👖. About as long as a Swiss Army Knife SD Classic, but the handle is thinner and the edge retention is much higher. Your grip will be with three fingers, unless it’s got a lanyard or attached to keys. This is also one of Spyderco’s “Sprint Runs,” with unique handle colors and exotic steel choices. Often the collector value of sprint runs appreciates with time, if you decide to keep it mint condition, but these are more user knives in my opinion. It seems the steel is stronger than typical VG-10, because the blade is full flat ground instead of saber ground, which I’ve found to create less drag when cutting. Apparently the edge retention is very good too. I’ve never heard of this steel before, here’s how Spyderco describes it: Manufactured by Böhler-Uddeholm, K390 MICROCLEAN® is a state-of-the-art cold work tool steel produced by the particle metallurgy process. Its advanced alloy mix was specifically developed to provide the extreme wear resistance and high compressive strength needed in industrial cutting, blanking, and punching operations. Despite its toughness, its exceptionally fine, homogeneous microstructure also makes it readily machinable and easy to heat treat. I have the similar Ladybug, which is the same handle and knife length except the handle is “taller” (not thicker) to fill your grip a bit more. I think the tiny size is part of its strength: the Ladybug and Manbug are some of the smallest production knives that lock the blade (Rike hummingbird is another, sells well here on Drop), and you can snick them out one-handed at the office to open a package (and, with a bit of dexterity, close it one-handed too) without anyone noticing, much less finding it to be aggressive or threatening. The Dragonfly is the model to get if you want to hold a small knife with all four fingers and a thumb, but I never had grip trouble cutting things with either my Ladybug or Dragonfly. The Ladybug or Manbug are the more minimalist option, weighing almost nothing at 0.7 Oz. I think this steel will be worth a bit more than the regular black Manbug, and the color is cooler as well, and I know that an unusual small knife isn’t necessarily cheaper to make than a medium sized knife, but it’s hard to be excited about a $72 keychain knife. $72 buys a lot of things. But if you want a small knife and you think this handle color is cool, I do feel these are useful knives and this steel and full-flat-grind are improvements over the standard version. Just a little something durable in your pocket to make you happy.

(Edited)

View 14 More Replies

Notsurewhyibother

1200

Jan 5, 2021

It's unfortunate, but there are always those who will take advantage of kindness. It's still like ten knives a year.

Vote

reswright

3851

Jan 5, 2021

that’s fair to a degree. Most of the production decisions start around two years before the knives go on sale. We have a while before they reflect COVID’s impact on the market. They’d rather be moving more units than seeing scarcity conditions at the retail level anyway, but to a degree Spyderco has been in a position to at least announce which sprints, flash batches,exclusives, etc will be delayed and how long, or even to make executive calls like “The Native Chief sprints will be pushed to 2022” or “The LC200N Atlantic Salts will be delayed until further notice” if that kind of commitment can ease up a production bottleneck. Indeed they’re the only ones who can make those calls. And they haven’t. I’m sure there’s reasons. I get that they are likely penalized contractually in some form if they delay shipping knives to powerful retailers or any number of other contractual obligations and that there’s inside baseball being played to maximize profitability while meeting those obligations and so on. But there’s been a lot of radio silence-and not much else. So if they aren’t to blame for the scarcity, they still aren’t doing all that much to make it go away or reduce the retail impact, know what I’m saying?

MartMan

Jan 4, 2021

No value here, will not be " after" this one.

NSX1

Jan 4, 2021

Stop giving us MSRP pricing. This same model type knife is for $53 on Bladehq and this specifically looks like the “Manbug Sprint run” which is discontinued at $55.22 Please understand your patrons research your featured products before committing to a buy-in. You need to be more mindful of your pricing especially when the wait times are weeks here v.s days elsewhere to get!

Jan 5, 2021

I’m going to go with Yes, they were transitioning that way, and it hasn’t been a bargain bin for quick liquidation for a year and a half. They have a pretty huge reach right now, and like any business, they want to make money. They also didn’t start as a discount bazaar either, they started by organizing mass buys for enthusiast keyboard parts that would otherwise not have been worth producing in small quantities. So, we’d better get used to it or leave. Also, Spyderco has always had MAP, and will cut off sales to vendors that erode their product value and try to undercut all the other dealers that promote Spyderco in exchange for a “level playing field.” The knife industry is more small business than many others. Some of that explains why drops for Spyderco gear is so rare here.

Evshrug

3775

Community

Jan 5, 2021

Rare in the sense that it’s pretty new and not a mainstream or common steel choice. Maybe Spyderco has decided they will make more batches of knives in K390 steel, but I’m sure they’re making way more in VG-10 or S30-V. Would you accept “uncommon” as a fitting term then?

Vote