How in the World Is This Dazzling Spyderco Knife So Affordable?

Be careful — this stunner of a folding blade’s crazy-low price might have your eyes bugging out of your head.

Close-up of a knife blade with a sharp edge and a circular hole near the handle, which is made of wood with a visible grain pattern. The background is a solid light turquoise color.

Add Gear Patrol as a Preferred Source on Google

By Sean Tirman

Published September 8, 2025

·

Updated November 10, 2025

If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more

You don’t need a huge, honking EDC knife to perform most everyday cutting tasks well. In fact, larger knives can sometimes be a detriment to your loadout, depending on how heavy and sizable they are.

There’s definitely something to be said for much more compact knives. That goes double when they come from a beloved, time-tested, trusted brand.

Case in point, the Spyderco Bug Nickel Silver Abalone is positively tiny. However, it’s also jam-packed with style, substance and quality craftsmanship. Perhaps more exciting, however, is how dirt-cheap it is.

Folding pocket knife with a stainless steel blade featuring a circular hole near the base. The handle has a wooden frame with an inlaid metallic or mother-of-pearl panel and a circular hole at the end. The background is a solid light turquoise color. — This is the latest (and greatest) take on the brand’s smallest folder, the Bug.

Snug as a bug

The Bug has been in Spyderco’s catalog for some time. It also holds the crown for the smallest folder the brand offers.

In total, this tiny titan measures a mere 2.91 inches in length. For reference, that slots right between the average lengths of a standard house key and a car key. Yet, despite its stoutness, this is a fully capable cutting tool.

Users should have no trouble accessing this knife’s blade even with larger hands.

The blade is 1.25 inches, which is more than enough for most everyday cutting tasks, like opening packages, cutting stray threads and so on. And because of the iconic leaf blade shape, it has plenty of cutting belly and an outstanding piercing point.

While not as high-end a material as Spyderco typically employs, this knife’s Sandvik 12C27 steel blade is still highly durable, easy to maintain and decently resistant to corrosion. For reference, it’s the same steel used in Opinel’s iconic knives, as well as many other modern folders.

It also has a thumb hole — a smaller version of the brand’s patented Round Hole — for easy manual deployment. Users should have no trouble accessing this knife’s blade even with larger hands.

Handle of a knife with a metal inlay and wooden edges, featuring a circular hole near the bottom end, set against a light turquoise background. — The nickel silver handle features an entrancing mother-of-pearl inlay.

Pearl of wisdom

Opposite the blade, the handle is really the star of the show. The main body is made from nickel silver and houses a slipjoint mechanism. Like a Swiss Army Knife, the handle provides some tension to the blade when deployed, but it doesn’t have a true lock.

It also has a lanyard hole toward the butt, which is perfect for a bit of paracord or, more likely, feeding your keychain through it. Between its size and that hole, this could be your dream keychain knife.

Even considering its size, [$45 is] a pretty magnificently affordable price.

However, the most exceptional part of this knife is the jewelry-quality mother-of-pearl inlays on the handle. These lustrous, opalescent inlays give the knife much more character and individuality than it might otherwise have without sacrificing its overall functionality.

Perhaps most impressively, the whole package will cost you, at most, $45. Yes, you read that right. Even considering its size, that’s a pretty magnificently affordable price.

Folding pocket knife with a brushed metal blade and a handle featuring a mother-of-pearl inlay bordered by a light wood frame. The blade has a circular hole near the base for easy opening. The background is a solid light turquoise color. — This is Spyderco’s smallest folder, measuring just 1.68 inches when closed.

Coming soon

While the brand has yet to announce a release date, the Spyderco Bug Nickel Silver Abalone will cost a measly $45, as mentioned, once it becomes available.

But if you’re really clever, you’ll add it to your wishlist on Blade HQ, where it will be even cheaper — $34 at launch.