“New” inkosi dated 2017

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knifeperson

Joined
Oct 17, 2011
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I just received a red micarta lh inkosi small. S35vn. The crk card was dated December 27 2017. Is that a bad thing? Seems strange. Most importantly, should I return it to vendor? Haven’t there been improvements along the way so 4 years may not be the latest? What do you think?
 
knifeperson said:
I just received a red micarta lh inkosi small. S35vn. The crk card was dated December 27 2017. Is that a bad thing? Seems strange. Most importantly, should I return it to vendor? Haven’t there been improvements along the way so 4 years may not be the latest? What do you think?
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You’re gonna be just fine with that knife. I don’t believe they’ve made any changes to the Inkosi since they updated from calling it the Sebenza 25. The only thing that will change is the blade steel to S45VN and that hasn’t happened yet. They’re most likely waiting till all the S35VN blade stock is used up.

The factory grease may be a bit dried out so a tear down and cleaning may not hurt but if it was me, I’d break it in for a few days first.
 
Hmm that is quite interesting! Was it from a small mom and pop brick and mortar? ...or from a small online dealer perhaps? Maybe no-one picked it up or it was acquired by them somehow and then they put up for sale. Some dealers offer pre-owned knives for sale but they usually list as such. How is the edge and any imperfections with the knife overall when you give it a good look-over?
 
Thanks for your comment, Danke42. I was hesitant to name the retailer where I got it because I wasn't sure if that violated some "rule." But yes, I am a lefty and I like the red micarta so when I saw this rather rare knife be in stock, I jumped on it. It looks great as far as I can tell and was cetainlly portrayed as new by ksf. It is just unnerving to get a 4 year old knife and I wonder if that's ok, as I stated. Is there anything to your comment about "warehouse discoveries?" Sarcasm, or something I should know? Or simply that's what it is - a "discovery." Thanks.
 
KSF is an excellent retailer, and very trustworthy in my experience. A lefty small Inkosi won't sell out nearly as fast as any right handed variant. There's probably a good chance it was hidden in their stockroom, or placed in the wrong section and new shipments kept going on top. Or it was a floor model perhaps. It'll be great quality no matter what year it is.
 
Left handed CRK’s don’t fly off the shelf. It’s probably one that has just sat on the shelf until you bought it. Nothing to worry about, it’s not too common to get a new CRK four years old that’s never been used.
I bought a lefty Wilson Combat 21 that was three years old. The grease was dried up, a cleaning and new grease is all it needed.
Congratulations on your CRK, it will serve you well.
 
knifeperson said:
Thanks for your comment, Danke42. I was hesitant to name the retailer where I got it because I wasn't sure if that violated some "rule." But yes, I am a lefty and I like the red micarta so when I saw this rather rare knife be in stock, I jumped on it. It looks great as far as I can tell and was cetainlly portrayed as new by ksf. It is just unnerving to get a 4 year old knife and I wonder if that's ok, as I stated. Is there anything to your comment about "warehouse discoveries?" Sarcasm, or something I should know? Or simply that's what it is - a "discovery." Thanks.
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It's pretty typical in a warehouse that the last of a run of everything can get misplaced or otherwise impossible to find during yearly inventory to be found years later and go back into live inventory. But as noted a lefty is naturally a slower to sell out item so it could have just been sitting and waiting for the right person.
 
knifeperson said:
Thanks for your comment, Danke42. I was hesitant to name the retailer where I got it because I wasn't sure if that violated some "rule." But yes, I am a lefty and I like the red micarta so when I saw this rather rare knife be in stock, I jumped on it. It looks great as far as I can tell and was cetainlly portrayed as new by ksf. It is just unnerving to get a 4 year old knife and I wonder if that's ok, as I stated. Is there anything to your comment about "warehouse discoveries?" Sarcasm, or something I should know? Or simply that's what it is - a "discovery." Thanks.
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There's nothing wrong with it. I bet KSF hasn't gotten another batch of their exclusive red micarta Inkosi and you just happened to buy one they had left that had been on the shelf a while. As others pointed out, it wouldn't be uncommon for a lefty to sit for a while.

The only change to the Inkosi has been the across-the-board switch to S45VN at RC60-62 instead of S35VN at RC58-60. CRK is still in the changeover process, a recent batch of glass blasted knives was all in S35VN despite being the latest production.

Very likely no S45VN red Inkosis even exist yet.
 
I actually do notice some slight variations of this 2017 inkosi with the latest version.

It is very subtle, but under the clip on the lock bar are two slight grooves in the bar itself. This shows clearly on the Knives Ship Free current offering (left, red, small inkosi). Maybe CRK thought it was functional but he removed them on the latest models? I can imagine that it would make the lock bar slightly more flexible and easier to disengage.

Also, the two thumb studs are silver, not blued.
 
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