Spyderco dropped a lone New Product Reveal this week, the K390 flavor of the Endura 4 Wharncliffe. All the expected specifications are here as the blue-handled lineup of K390 Spydies grows once again.
We really, truly don’t see any need to rehash the details of the base model Endura 4; if you’re reading articles on this site, you know all about the Delica’s big brother (well, one of its big brothers). The Wharncliffe version of the Endura first joined the lineup in 2019, following the wharnie Delica a few years prior to that. As for the K390 variants, they’ve been coming in dribs and drabs for years now, with many of the core models getting the telltale blue scales and steel upgrade, including the standard leaf bladed Endura 4.
What kind of steel is K390? Well it comes from Bohler-Uddeholm and, while its name is similar to the German giant’s ever-popular M390, it’s quite a different recipe altogether. Whereas M390 is a stainless steel, K390 is a tool steel, i.e. semi-stainless. This is a steel category that excels in toughness and impact resistance rather than pure edge holding, and that’s the case with K390 as well – although, being a fairly modern powder metallurgy steel, it is no slouch in that department either.
All in all, it’s well-suited to knives of the Endura’s size and class, a high capacity steel for long, demanding jobs, but not so specialized that it can’t function in an EDC role. The Spyderco wharncliffe series began life as a Spyderco forumite’s drawing for his ideal work knife, a wharncliffe Delica. Other forum users responded well to the concept, and eventually Spyderco worked with the user to make his dream a reality before bringing it into standard production for the rest of us.
Knife in Featured Image: Spyderco Endura 4 Wharncliffe in K390
