3 of 7 'New' Small Inkosi sent to CRK to address issues?

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Initialconditions

Initialconditions

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Hi all. I'm wondering if I'm missing something because 3 of 7 just doesn't pass the smell test for me. It's just way to high of a percentage of new knives with issues.

Quick summary. After a LONG and winding EDC journey, I've decided small inkosi is the knife for me. So, I'm moving most (maybe all) of my collection in favor of a (hopefully) manageable collection of small inkosi.
As such, I've since bought 7 'new' small inkosi over the last month. THREE of them have had issues and are now back at CRK for tunes and inspection.

One was from knife art, one from DLT trading, and another from ebay. The one from ebay is the reason I've tossed 'new' in quotes. It was claimed to be new, and upon my inspection that seems to be the case. But ebay is... ebay, so I'm taking the new status with a grain of salt.

Now, the issues:

over engagement of the lock: as I said, purchased 7 new small inkosi and this one stood out with the lock bar engaging at nearly 100%. It was also the only one I could push the lock bar deeper very easily to get it to touch the show-side scale.

lock stick: terrible, horrible, nightmarish lock stick. only one of the 7 that constantly disengaged unwillingly with a noticeable "ting!"

stop pin stuck in show side: this was the ebay purchase. It's the knifecenter exclusive black cerakote version. The stop pin is supposed to slide in and out of the show-side scale... but not on this one. It was lodged in there. Only way I could disassemble the knife was to remove the stop pin screw on the lock side, leaving the stop pin stuck in the show-side scale. This stuckness resulted in an inabliity to match tenstion between the pivot screw and stop pin. Tightening the stop pin screw pinched down the scales behind the pivot. So, when opening the blade, there was a drastic shift in tension as the blade neared the stop pin. IE smooth for 80% of the opening process, then suddenly running into strong resistance. I tried alternating tensions between the pivot screw and stop pin, but was unable to find something that kept the blade travel smooth but not too loose.

Long story shorter, here's the options I see:

1. There's a 'trick' to owning and tuning small inkosi. (I've never seen anything suggesting this to be the case, but I'm grasping at straws here)
2. I just got crazy unlucky.
3. QC issues are more frequent than people let on with CRK stuff, because their users are more protective of the brand OR are generally more forgiving of the brand OR something else?
4. There's been a decline in product at some point in time (IE stay away from 2017 birthdays because they changed equipment and a bunch of whacky stuff happened. Note: I'm the 2017 date was just picked at random as an example, I have no clue if/when there has actually be any decline)

Let me know if you vote for any of the above or have a different suggestion on how 40% of my new small inkosis had to be sent back for some pretty sizeable QC issues.

Oh, and please refrain from attempting to second guess whether the issues exist. "You sure there was lock-stick? I doubt it." doesn't really fit with what I'm trying to determine here.
Assume I've handled alot of knives. Also, remember, I just bought 7 new ones and 3 noticeably stood out from the rest as having issues. Issues I could not reasonably fix, though I attempted to do so.

Thanks in advance for joining the discussion

Lastly, I did reach out to them, regarding this silliness, so I'll update as the conversation progresses with them.
 
Why are you disassembling them? And why did you buy 7? Seems boring to me, I don't want 7 of the same knife, even if each one is different. Not to say yours don't have lock stick, but I have never had a knife that won't unlock easily for me. Maybe I just have super strong thumbs.
 
Since the knives (3 of them) are back at the factory for servicing: why not see what CRK can do for you?
Good luck!
 
unwisefool said:
Why are you disassembling them? And why did you buy 7? Seems boring to me, I don't want 7 of the same knife, even if each one is different. Not to say yours don't have lock stick, but I have never had a knife that won't unlock easily for me. Maybe I just have super strong thumbs.
Click to expand...
I buy 7 of the same knife and disassemble them all because it's good exercise for weak thumbs.
 
landed my 8th. this one's great too. so, in fairness, I'm at 3 of 8 with imperfections.

I'm also thinking the stop pin stuck in the cerakote is kinda explainable. i know the tolerances are legendary, so it would make some sense that a stop pin could get lodged on that model if there's a little extra coating in the hole for that pin.

that just leaves the lock stick and the over-engagement. if we chaulk up the over-engagement to an actual QC issue then we're down to what would cause really bad stick with a ceramic interface?
 
Is the actual ceramic ball at 100% engagement? Was there a reason to disassemble the cerakote version?
 
unwisefool said:
Is the actual ceramic ball at 100% engagement? Was there a reason to disassemble the cerakote version?
Click to expand...
not sure about the ceramic ball, but based on the comparison pic that I sent of a 'standard' inkosi and the over-engaged one, CRK agreed it did not look right and asked me to send it in.
 
I've never had an imperfect CRK (other than they don't come super sharp), then again I've maybe been through a total of 10 over several years. I'm also a fan of the Small Inkosi but not to your level, just a DP and a Insingo. The Cerakote can definitely cause problems with pins so I'm not sure I'd call that a defect. I've never had anything close to lock stick with one though and the lockbar touching the opposite scale is a problem.

It's not hard to believe that their QC could slip. There are so few CRKs in stock (or anything else good for that matter), weather that's from increased demand, or fewer workers, or supply chain issues.... ...any of those things could cause some hiccups in production. I'll say my newest CRK, from just a couple months ago, is as good as any I've had. It was even sharp!!

I would hope that CRK would take care of the issues especially given the number of their knives you've purchased.
 
I have had several folders (many brands) that developed some degree of lock stick after using them for a while. All of them are now perfectly fine after I continued using them. One of my CRK had also lock stick for a couple of weeks that went a way. If I remember correctly it was my Large Sebenza 31 that is super smooth now.
 
First update:
The two knives with lock problems have both come back functioning perfectly. I did reach back out to CRK to call out the fact that I have had to pay shipping (both ways) to get NEW knives fixed and working as they should, and await a reply to see if they are going to address that issue. I certainly hope for, and frankly, expect adequate compensation. I will provide an additional update based on how they respond, as well as give another whenever the last knife returns.

That said, if they do step up and make it right, I will not be providing specifics as I personally believe that's in poor taste to share those details. Special note, I will NOT be responding to anyone who attempts to goad or convince me to do otherwise. Put simply, "make it right" means different things to different people. I have provided CRK with options I believe are satisfactory, given the circumstances, and will simply share if they've done what I feel is adequate or not.
 
Second Update
After only a couple emails back and forth, I believe they've made it right.
To be clear, they didn't blow my doors off with crazy compensation, nor did they toss me the bird and say "sucks to be you." Instead, they landed in a sweet spot with a fair and prompt response, which is all this fan of the brand needs to keep working to grow my collection.

I'll post one final update when the last knife is back in my possession; I'm hopeful, and pretty confident, it'll be a simple "last knife is back and works great."
 
Initialconditions said:
Second Update
After only a couple emails back and forth, I believe they've made it right.
To be clear, they didn't blow my doors off with crazy compensation, nor did they toss me the bird and say "sucks to be you." Instead, they landed in a sweet spot with a fair and prompt response, which is all this fan of the brand needs to keep working to grow my collection.

I'll post one final update when the last knife is back in my possession; I'm hopeful, and pretty confident, it'll be a simple "last knife is back and works great."
Click to expand...
So they didn't reimburse you for shipping?
 
Third Update
Ok, the final blade has returned. It's the all-black, DLC version that had the stop pin stuck in the show side. I will break it down in the next week or so to confirm that issue has been corrected.

In the meantime, the action is much improved over how horrendous it was when I sent it in. That said, it's still noticeably more jerky than the rest of my inkosis. Hoping it'll eventually break in to be as smooth as expected. Not sure how they do the cerakote, but it definitely feels like they're working out the kinks and this version is just a bit subpar compared to the other ones. Speaking of, didn't notice it before but the cerakote is kinda pock-marked. Not sure if that's a thing with cerakote or just another example of them not having a lot of experience with it. Once again it just doesn't look quite right (photo below shows some pimples in the finish). I have a green cerakote on the way, so will have a point of comparison in the near future.

20220805_171641_3.jpg
 
Oh so that's what gat "in poor taste to share the details" means. You have trouble being direct. Pretty key "detail" to leave out when claiming 3 of 7 inkosi were screwed up.
 
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Final Update
Disassembled the black cerakote ink today. Went perfectly; CRK definitely fixed the issue. Also received the OD Green Small Inkosi today and cleaning went great on that one as well.

So, since I'm now up to 11 small inkosi in the collection, some purchased new, others used, I'll answer the questions this thread initially asked:

From the initial post, I'll address each one.

Here's the options I see as relating to these issues:
1. There's a 'trick' to owning and tuning small inkosi. (I've never seen anything suggesting this to be the case, but I'm grasping at straws here)
Nope, no trick. Should disassemble easily and not have noticeable issues on the outset.
2. I just got crazy unlucky.
Yes, this was definitely the case.
3. QC issues are more frequent than people let on with CRK stuff, because their users are more protective of the brand OR are generally more forgiving of the brand OR something else?
Definitely not the case, but the lesson here is that no brand is infallible. People are imperfect beings, so any process built by humans will also be imperfect. It's just that some processes are more consistent than others, with CRK normally being on the 'quality' end of the spectrum.
4. There's been a decline in product at some point in time (IE stay away from 2017 birthdays because they changed equipment and a bunch of whacky stuff happened. Note: I'm the 2017 date was just picked at random as an example, I have no clue if/when there has actually be any decline)
This one is just undecided. I do see people asking about birthdays constantly, so it could be there's a general sentiment that certain periods produced better products than other periods.

In closing, sometimes crap happens, and it can happen in bunches. Given that, it's your choice whether to attempt to work through it, or move on. In this case, waiting for weeks while your knives are fixed stinks, but I'm satisfied with the end result.

I'll leave you with a pic of my current collection of plain small inkosis; thanks for riding along. Thread locked
20220809_114711.jpg
 
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