Spyderco byte March 2025 - Designer's Spotlight: Paul Alexander
Designer's Spotlight
Paul AlexanderPaul Alexander’s love of knives began as a child. In addition to being a Boy Scout, he was also the son of an avid shooting enthusiast and often accompanied his father to local gun shows. While his father combed the show for firearms, Paul’s interests naturally drew him to the knife tables and he soon found himself a budding knife collector.
Although Paul’s passion for knives never faded, a busy life and a career with one of the leading manufacturers in the automative industry took precedence for a while. Along the way, Paul earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Mechanical Engineering and established himself as a leading expert in the design of automotive systems and devices. He is also a specialist in state-of-the-art industrial materials and has approximately 100 U.S. patents to his credit.
In the early 2000’s, Alexander became an active member of several Internet forums and visited the shops of several custom knifemakers. Inspired by several design-related discussions on Spyderco’s forum, he ultimately decided to combine his professional skills with his lifelong interest and began designing and engineering knives. Not surprisingly, the results were something special.
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Ouroboros™
Alexander’s first Spyderco collaboration was the Ouroboros™. Released in 2016, this unique folding knife was named after an ancient Greek symbol depicting a serpent eating its own tail. It featured a broad, leaf-shaped VG-10 blade with a gently curved cutting edge and a gracefully curved handle. The handle’s nested stainless steel liners formed the foundation of its high-strength Compression Lock® mechanism and were complemented by peel-ply-textured G-10 scales, a stainless steel backspacer, and a reversible deep-pocket wire clip. Uniquely ergonomic and amazingly comfortable in use, the Ouroboros introduced the cutlery community to Alexander’s distinctive style and fueled their appetite for more of his designs.
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Sliverax™
Paul followed in 2017 with the Sliverax™, which was among the first folding-knife designs to combine our signature Compression Lock mechanism with a flipper-style opener. Its sleek drop-point blade was crafted from CPM® S30V® stainless steel and included both a fully accessible Trademark Round Hole™ and an index-finger flipper to offer a full spectrum of one-handed opening options with either hand. The Sliverax’ open-backed handle featured carbon fiber/G-10 laminate scales, nested stainless steel liners, and a reversible deep-pocket wire clip configured tip-up carry.
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Parata™
A year later, Spyderco introduced Alexander’s Parata™, which showcased our patented Stop Lock™ mechanism—a high-strength, extremely user friendly lock that releases by lifting a toggle on the spine of the handle. Offering smooth, ambidextrous operation, the Parata’s Stop Lock was housed between gracefully curved peel-ply-textured G-10 scales. The lock supported a flat-ground blade crafted from VG-10 stainless steel. Its unique shape and broad profile gave it exceptional edge geometry and created a highly functional integral guard. Like his previous designs, the Parata included deep-pocket wire clip that was reversible for left or right-side tip-up carry.
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Ikuchi™
In 2019, the Ikuchi™ joined Alexander’s growing family of designs. Named after a mythical Japanese sea monster, this ultra-slim design features an elegantly curved handle crafted with full, skeletonized stainless steel liners and stunning carbon fiber/G-10 laminate scales. In the closed position, its narrow, open-backed profile completely contains the knife’s blade—except for a small textured section of the tang that serves as a flipper opener. Stroking this section of the blade with an index finger or thumb provides leverage to swiftly pivot it into the open position, where the knife’s Compression Lock mechanism locks it securely. The Ikuchi’s satin-finished CPM S30V stainless steel blade is full-flat ground for exceptional edge geometry and has an acute, scalpel-like point for detailed work.
As Alexander’s knife designs evolved, so did his approach to the design process itself. Taking full advantage of his professional expertise, he began designing in CAD (Computer Aided Design) and using rapid prototyping and 3-D printing technologies to create physical models. These models allowed him to quickly refine the ergonomics of his designs and achieve near-perfect attention to detail before submitting them to Spyderco. This was the exact approach he took in the design of the NAND and it streamlined the product-development process significantly.
Paul Alexander is truly unique among knife designers. Like all great artists, he has a distinctive style that is all his own. At the same, he is amazingly versatile and backs his efforts with world-class talents as a professional industrial designer and mechanical engineer. Spyderco is extremely proud to collaborate with him and eager to share more of his work with the knife community.
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