ZDP-189 blade steel is the hottest, hardest and highest performing blade steel in the knife industry today. 3% of its component ingredient is pure carbon making the steel harder and in turn extending its edge retention. At press, Spyderco was one of a handful of cutlers around the world working with ZDP-189 blades, offering it on several models including their C90 Stretch folder.

The C90 Stretch started as a pet-project lockback knife design. Spyderco's owner and chief designer made it for his personal use, incorporating features he wanted. He wanted high performance blade steel with edge retention super-powers for outdoor cutting: things like wood, rope and anything encountered in the wild. It had to work equally well indoors on cardboard, mail and fingernails. He sized it so it wouldn't scare non'knife people and made it look slick on the off chance he'd someday have to wear a suit. The handle is peel-ply carbon fiber, with a four-way clip, left/right-hand and tip-up/tip-down. Blade is full flat ground, solid ZDP-189. The C90CFP exemplifies all that is Spyderco, function, high performance, advanced materials and workmanship in an out-of-the-ordinary package.