Spyderco Smock Compression Lock Knife Carbon Fiber (3.4" Satin) C240CFP

There are many things to love about the Smock. Materials are fantastic, the fit and finish is incredible, the blade comes razor sharp, it looks awesome and unique but it really is more of a fidget thing than a functional knife in my use experience. The action is one of the best in my collection making it super fun to flick open and close. The knife doesn't lend itself well to EDC tasks all that well tho. The blade stock it too thick. the pocket clip.... just sucks, the ergos are bizarre with that squared off forward choil and the button compression lock makes it strange to try and open and close fluidly when you are in a weird position. If i were to describe the knife in a few words it would be 'acquired taste'.

This is probably my favorite knife of my collection currently. It's just so fidgety. It cuts well too, but so do the rest of my knives. The Smock is just more fun.
There are a few issues, but nothing terrible. Spyderco's S30V can be a bit brittle. My Smock has gotten a couple tiny chips on the blade. The sharpened length to total length ratio is obviously not good. Also sometimes when you're cutting boxes, the cardboard slips into the choil and gets caught. And G-10 with a carbon veneer? That seems a little insulting. Not a big deal, it just seems like it would have been better without pretending it's something fancier.
All that said, what a fun knife. Great for any knife junkie. Cuts great and fidgets even better.

This is certainly form over function but I really like it. Possibly the most fidget-friendly knife ever made with so many deployment methods. I personally couldn't handle the carbon-over-G-10 scales but Sharp Dressed Knives can help you out with that and also make your Smock unique.

This is my favorite knife!

This is listed as right handed, but lefties, don't hesitate to buy this great knife. When I ordered mine I was worried that my left hand grip would trip the lock button but that just doesn't happen. However, the button is easy to depress with my pointer finger. Everything is perfectly ambidextrous in my opinion.

The Smock gives up a little ergonomics for the slim and convenient pocket profile. Also, you lose a little cutting edge to the cool compression button. Both are compromises I am very happy with.

Great quality, wicked sharp, it's a Spyderco.

Cheers!

Such a fun knife to fidget with. But also a really good slicer.

This has to be one of my favorite EDC knives. I am a huge fan of the button lock mechanism and I think Spyderco ought to do more of these. The spydie hole is just big enough to where you can still reverse flick it with your middle finger or push it out with the thumb. The flipper tab works great and I like how they designed it to be hidden once the blade is open. The milling in the handles looks nice and the ergonomics are pretty comfortable as well. Overall one of my favorite go-to knives!

The Smock is a solid, beautiful, slick Spyderco knife that treats you to the strength of a compression lock and a release button and integrated flipper tip.

One handed opening is so much FUN and can be done in so many different ways. The only complaint that I agree with is the merely adequate OEM clip.

Replace it with a Lynch NW (no relation to me) Para 3 titanium clip and it will slimly hide in your pocket.

I love to do the Spidey-Drop to open my knives, but the flipper functionality outshines it on this knife. So much FUN!

The blade is wicked looking and should be strong.

Well, where do I start. The flipper action is a bit pointy at first, but once I know how much force is needed (through bonding with the knife), the flipper is great.

Same goes for the compression lock button. It'll take a bit of time to get used to, but once I know how much force is need on each press, it's smooth.

The thumb flick hole is a bit small. I had to bend my thumb a bit more than usual (e.g., the hole on the tenacious or sage 5). However, action is also great.

Handle and blade wise, just a new treat from Spyderco. Handle is a bit smaller than the usual Spyderco knives, but quite the right size for the blade.

After all, really nothing negative that I can say about this knife. Oh yeah, came razor sharp, but isn't that all Spyderco knife straight from the manufacturer?

amazing knife smooth action easy one hand open and close and it came razor sharp it has great grip and is just an over all amazing knife its been in my pocket for over a week straight and won't be leaving any time soon

Finish is amazing. You can really tell that whoever finished/inspected this knife has pride in their job.

Is it an odd design? Maybe, but for me, I love it. I like flippers but hate the flipper tab sticking out too much. This doesn't protrude at all. A button compression lock; AMAZING. I love this knife!

This knife is so good I retired my Benchmade Nitrous Striker.
Super smooth action, crazy sharp, fits great in hand and pocket.
Quality is top shelf.

This is the only knife I have ever owned two of.
Knowing manufactures drop items I wanted to make sure I would always have one.
Perfect for my EDC needs.
Allen R

I love the design, especially the lock mechanism. It's a compression lock actuated by a button. Genius. It has a really unique look while still being quite functional, too.

I really wish they'd ditch the lanyard hole and give it a deep carry clip.

Also, the price is about $25-35 too high, IMO. Should at least have s35vn or even m390/20cv at the listed price...
I swear, Spyderco is becoming Benchmade. When I started really collecting knives about 5 years ago, they were (mostly) a bargain! Now, joining the Butterfly Tax is the Hole Tax.

Okay, so after owning a ton of knives (but none of the crazy expensive ones like a Chris Reeves sadly), I can confidently say that this is one of the best knives out there in regards to practicality, usefulness and convenience. And personally, this has quickly become my favorite knife (or at least tied with my Para 3 spring run with S35VN steel.
The great parts of this knife are firstly, the button compression lock. I think every knife should be this easy to close. Even my kids (under supervision of course) can safely use this knife. It's super simple and doesn't require much dexterity unlike other lock types.
This thing also comes from the factory incredibly sharp. More sharp than any of Spyderco's other knives. I did strop it when I got home as I could feel a bit of a bur.
I love it's shape and size. It's a bit bigger than some of the knives I usually get, but it doesn't feel bigger at all.
The not so great parts are the fact that the carbon fiber isn't real. It's just covering some G-10 or some other plastic polymer.
The disassembly and reassembly is also a bit more complicated than your standard compression lock folding knife. There's a spacer pin next to the compression button that doesn't have a cut-out position so you have to guess the rotation angle — get it wrong, and your knife won't open. There's also a TINY detent ball that is floating on a TINY spring and YOU WILL LOSE IT if you're not careful. So be careful and disassemble on white paper, or something that is high contrast to the color silver.

TL;DR - Great knife, good craftsmanship — watch a few YouTube vids before maintaining it yourself.

I chipped mine already on some wire! My bad, entirely, but still a star off. Because I'll never be able to replace that factory edge since they're always out of stock! sobbing internally

I love the lock and flipper. The blade shape is very useful. Nice action and it drops closed. Pocket clip works but a lot of the knife sticks out of your pocket.

Pros: I love this knife! Everything from the action and the unique flipper to the blade shape. It is easily the sharpest knife I have ever received out of the box. It has a rock solid lockup, an awesome one of a kind (for Spyderco at least) compression button lock and great detent.

Cons: There really is not much if anything to complain about this knife. If I had to pick on one aspect of the Smock to complain about I guess it would be the pocket clip. That isn't a huge deal to me because it's an opportunity to give the knife a subtle customized look by adding a deep carry clip of my own choosing.

Tip for anyone who doesn't know already. Any of the Para 2, Para 3, Delica 4, and a good chunk of other Spyerco clips will fit this knife. Happy slicing!

Waiting for it to arrive in the mail. I sure this is a great knife. First compression lock for me and to make it better it's a button lock. I knew before I got my bugout I would love it, got the same feeling about the smock. Will update once I have it in hand.

Perfect Detent. Best Action I've ever experienced. Scary sharp blade. Fantastic button-activated compression lock. If you remove the 2nd detent ball and spring it becomes an amazing gravity knife. The only weaknesses are the edges of the blade and gimping are sharper than I prefer and the clip isn't very deep.. My diamond sharpening card took care of the edges in a few minutes and a custom clip made it disappear in my pocket.
4.5 *s stock
5+ *s with basic mods

So I was worried about picking this one up based on some things i had read online but it is well worth it. I like the design but once in hand I loved it. I have not put this thing down since I picked it up. The overall design and quality of build really stands out to me but the real winner is the button compression lock. This has to be one of the best locks I own now. I really hope that spyderco does more with this button, it does not seem to be a huge deal to install and makes opening and closing the knife sheer joy.

I really Like this knife because of its uniqueness. I like the way the flipper tab is designed and overall ease of operation. The compression lock button makes the knife fun to use, very fidget friendly. I agree With other comments concerning the pocket clip, it really needs a deep carry clip and I found the knife to be on the heavy side for EDC. Not serious negatives and overall I am very pleased with this knife in my collection.

All this knives drawbacks are tiny but are all done on purpose. First that double detent is utterly unnecessary, manual button locks are my favorite and most carried type of folder and one has NEVER accidentally opened in all the years I've carried them.
Also it should have a wire clip, no ifs, ands or buts, that spoon clip is no longer liked by most people and the wire clip is one of the best available, please stop inflicting the spoon clip on us and making us pay $25 extra to fix this with an aftermarket clip.
Still gave it five stars despite these, as it's as close to a perfect edc as one can get otherwise.

Let's get this out of the way; I'm guessing that probably 90% of the people who got one of these ended up ordering an aftermarket deep-carry clip from one of the usual suspects. Why on earth Spyderco saw fit to release a knife like this without a deep-carry clip (e.g. their simple but perfectly adequate wire option would've been frankly perfect for this knife) is beyond me. Similarly, Spyderco scoured the far corners of the globe to find the most hideous carbon fiber pattern imaginable for this (and other Taichung) release. So, a fair chunk of people will also be looking for aftermarket scales for the Smock as well. That turns a reasonably-priced knife into quite an investment, unless you're profoundly crazy and you adore the stock clip and scales.

Beyond that, though, there's so much to love about the knife...the blade is wonderful, the action is smooth and smile-inducing, the button-actuated compression lock is a stroke of genius, and the understated flipper tab that just becomes another design element is similarly awesome...that the wait to get one (I was lucky/fast enough to score one from the latest batch) is well worth it. It's a damned amazing knife, even with the mentioned caveats, and you should definitely own one. Just know that Spyderco needs to make a v2.0 of this knife, correcting a couple of those annoying features.

Smock out of Stock. Booooo! All compressions should have a bottom release. All knives should have a compression lock! Only my opinion. First flipper compression lock with a button, by spyderco. I see a future for many compression lock knives with this button release..my only complaint is the pocket clip. Wish it came with a deep carry pocket clip.

Well done Spyderco Taiwan. This knife is very well made. Mr. Smock and Spyderco created a very unique design. It’s fun to open and easy on eyes. I have a feeling this will become one of my favorites.

Prior to receiving the knife I had this idea that, in the normal grip, the knife would feel blade heavy. Well not as bad as I thought. I also thought the knife was a bit ugly and once in hand, I seemed to forget about that. In fact, I was never enthused about another compression lock, but in this case the button made all the difference. It's still not the prettiest knife I've ever seen, but once you pick it up I think you'll agree it's a functional gem.

Feels very high end, fit and finish is perfect. This is my second Taiwanese spyderco after the Spydiechef.

Pros:
-Styling is great.

-Grip feels great, not grippy like a para 3, but also not smooth, just right, won't tear up the pocket.

-Cutting edge is pretty short compared to the handle, but this is expected, especially on a spyderco, it ads to the style in my opinion, but I will still consider it a con

-Pocket clip is great(it is in this position for a reason, it creates an area to grip as a fulcrum when deploying the blade, it also makes it easy to pull out of the pocket.

-Sharpness is on another level, I think it came sharper than the spydiechef.

-Weight is very good, light, but it doesn't feel like you spent $162 on a toothpic.

-The flipper is great, I don't mind the lack of jimping on the tab, spydieflicking is easy with index and middle finger.

-Easier to open than a PM2/Para 3, and also easier to close, almost on par with a Benchmade 940, extremely close if not a tie.

Cons:
-Ergonomics are a bit strange, you need to decide where you are going to place your index finger

-Not as easy to flick open with your thumb like you would a typical spyderco, my fingernail just slides right over the opening hole, I don't mind because I can use the flipper tab or spydie flick it.

Carry:

It is similar in size to my Benchmade 940, a little thicker, but it carries almost as good, much easier to carry than a PM2, Maybe easier to carry than a Para 3 as well but they are close.

This is absolutely my new favorite knife. I open it five different ways and simply can't get enough of it. This thing just screams quality at every corner. Light, strong, perfect size for my edc requirements. If you're on the fence about purchasing it, just buy it and thank me later. Awesome job Kevin and Spyderco!

Waited a year to receive this knife and it was well worth the wait! After owning multiple Spydercos, benchmades, and zt’s this is by far my favorite out of them all. The smoothness of the opening and closing to the sharpness straight out of the box, this thing is amazing. Good job Kevin smock!