Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight Knife Review

The Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife is a small knife (at 2.28″ blade length) with a full-flat ground blade and VG-10 steel. And it’s orange! Read on!

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Official Specs

Here’s a link to the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife.

Versions

There are so many versions of the Spyderco Dragonfly. Here’s a search for you to see what’s the most recent. They come and go, there are sprint runs, there are different blade shapes, and all manner of options. Most (if not all) have the Spyderco hole. Plain and SpyderEdge (serrated) are often available. All manner of blade shapes are available.

Price

I bought this Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife ages ago and have no idea what I paid. Amazingly, this version is still available and at $110 is a steal!

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Package and Manual

There is no manual.

What’s Included

• • Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife
  • Paperwork

Look

First, I apologize for the inconsistent orange throughout this post. The Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife is orange, and it’s the right orange. It’s a fantastic, perfect orange.

Secondly, this is more of a long-term review. I’ve had this knife for ages and used it a bunch. I still love it, and it’s held up well!

I love small knives, and for me, the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife is about right. It looks about right, and it uses about right.

 

Maybe weirdly, I don’t love the way the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife looks closed. But this is how I feel about many Spyderco knives. I have a few, and they’re all tall in the sense of the view below – from bottom to the top of the spine, they’re tall!

Fortunately, they’re also often fairly thin, and this is just a looks preference for me. They still use great!

Open / Close / Lock

Opening the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife generally involves the Spyderco hole. I would typically use my thumb to open this knife one-handed. The prominence of the blade (as mentioned above) could be considered a feature, because a pinch-to-open (using two hands) is also a very viable means of opening this knife. And then there are the “alternative” ways, which involve a zip-tie and allow for quicker deployment.

Whatever the case, when you get the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife open, you can really choke up on it thanks to the jimping on the spine (right where my thumb is, below) and on the choil (right where my index finger is, below). Those provide great grip!

The Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife is a “back lock” knife. The little indentation on the back (below) provides tension as the balde moves into place then locks against the blade, keeping it in place.

To unlock the knife, you depress this back lock, and the whole metal piece moves out of the way of the knife, allowing it to swing back closed. It is an uncomplicated, very direct mechanism.

One thing to note about this locking mechanism. Despite the lock being away from the blade, it’s hard not to hold the knife as seen below. Thus, for a little while, some of your fingers are probably in the way of the blade. Even unlocking this knife two-handed, it’s hard to keep all your digits out of the blade path. Now, that’s normal – many lock types are naturally this way! So it’s not a problem, just worth mentioning.

Build and Feel

Build quality on the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife is great. Sort of obviously – Spyderco isn’t a new brand trying to cut corners or anything like that. But everything that should work a certain way on the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife absolutely does work that certain way, flawlessly. This is a great knife!

The blade centering is great (even on this used version!)

The pivot is pretty simple. I’m not sure there are washers or bearings or anything. And the pivot can only be adjusted on one side. This is pretty common among my Spyderco knives, though. They are not knives I typically open by flipping or flinging or whatever flingy deployment. I open these knives deliberately.

The branding is subtle in that it’s a part of the mold, which I like. But it’s not a small logo. I also like that. You’ll note in the photo below the orientation of the logo. It’s “right side up” when the knife is open. I also appreciate that – the knife is made to be used!

Here’s the pivot side that is not adjustable.

Even the fiberglass-reinforced nylon (FRN) spine has jimping! Note jimping on the blade and on the spine, but not on the lock, where the spine has jimping. Seems like matching jimping there would be nice!

Inside the handles, you can see the metal parts of the lock mechanism.

The seam on the FRN handles is so clean that it looks like one piece!

Size

Overall Length: 5.58in 142mm
Closed Length: 3.33in 85mm
Blade Thickness: 0.098in 2.5mm
Blade Length: 2.28in 58mm
Edge Length: 1.88in 48mm
Knife Weight: 1.2oz 34g

Above, you can see the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife with the Civivi Elementum in orange G10. I use that knife so much! I haven’t talked about it much yet, but that Spyderco Lil Native is going to be my “nicer” knife size standard (in the same way that I use a Convoy S2+ and Hanko Machine Works Trident as flashlight size references.)

Here’s the knife in hand:

Below, you can see that on my average-sized hand, you don’t really have a place for your pinky. And no, it wasn’t the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife that made me need that Band-Aid. (It was the Lil Native 5 from the photos above).

Below you can see the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife with the venerable Convoy S2+. The version below is a custom laser-engraved Convoy S2+ host by GadgetConnections.com. I did a full post on an engraved orange host right here! Or go straight to GadgetConnections.com to buy your Convoy S2+ now!

Also in the photo above, my Standard Reference Material (SRM) flashlight is the Hanko Machine Works Trident, an 18350 light. While I have not reviewed or tested the Gunner Grip version seen here, I have tested a Hanko Machine Works Trident Total Tesseract in brass. I love the Trident, and it’s a striking contrast to the inexpensive Convoy S2+, another great SRM.

Steel / Cut / Oats

The Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife uses VG-10 steel. You can see the label in the photo below.

But I should say that this Dragonfly 2 uses VG-10. There are many steel options.

The blade shape is a “leaf” shape, but again, many options are available. From this Coltellimania.com-produced image, the blade could probably be considered some type of Drop Point. It doesn’t super matter – it’s a great blade for slicing! Despite being small (2.28″, 58mm), it’s beefy (tall) and reasonably thick at 2.5mm.

The blade is full-flat ground.

Retention

The Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife features Spyderco’s familiar “reversible deep-pocket wire clip.”

I strongly dislike how these look, but the function of every one I’ve tried has been great. And that’s much more important. They do provide a reasonably deep carry, and aren’t as weak and “paper clippy” as they might look. Above, you can also see the lanyard hole, which provides another means for carrying this knife.

The pocket clip is reversible, so the Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife is great for right and left-hand users. It’s tip-up only, though.

Summary and Conclusion

The Spyderco Dragonfly 2 Lightweight knife is a great knife that I recommend you own. It’s not terribly costly and really can disappear in the right pocket (maybe even a 5th pocket!) and comes in this gorgeous orange (or any other myriad of colors). You can almost certainly find one of these to suit your needs!

Notes

• This knife was provided by me for review. I was not paid to write this review.
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