Are Sebenzas and Neil Roberts knives Customs or Production Knives?

Balislinger

Balislinger

Joined
Nov 11, 2003
Messages
6,787
And I know there's that whole mid-tech semi-custom grey area, but generally speaking, for both the Chris Reeve Sebenza and the Reeve/Harsey Neil Roberts Knife, would you say they are custom knives or production knives? I'm trying to organize my collection on paper and don't know which category to list them under. At first I thought of classifying the Sebenza a custom and the Roberts a production knife, but thinking more about it I've confused myself.
 
It's a tough call, when I think of custom made knives, it's ones that are almost entirely hand made, to the point that no 2 are exactly alike, not matter how similiar.

When knives are made using high tech machines and one is a perfect clone to another, then IMHO, theyare closer to "mid-tech" or semi-custom"...or even "high end production", whatever that means????
 
Is the Sebbie blade handground? I think it is at least hand-finished. I don't think the Harsey knife is either hand ground or finished.
 
I think most people consider CRK knives "Semi-Custom". The sebenza blades are hand ground. I am almost certain the Harsey designed knives are hand ground also, but am only 99% certain on that.
 
Chris Reeves knives are in a class by themselves, in my opinion. There is production, CRK's, and Customs. But, if you want to haggle, they are production knives, and NOT custom. But, they ARE the BEST production knife out there!!
 
On Bladeforums, they must be sold in the production sales forum. :D

Part of the confusion is that we have a broad range of what makes a knife a custom. If a knifemaker designs and crafts a different pattern every time he makes a knife, that's clearly custom work. But what if he makes each knife, sole authorship, but all to the same pattern, perhaps with handles of different materials? What about a knifemaker who uses extensive machinery but is otherwise doing it all in-house by himself?
 
so if the maker has the blades CNC'ed by another metal factory its not custom
but if the machine is at his place of buisness its custom? eek

think one should make the difference between handmade, custommade, customized and production knives.
assembling the CNCed parts into a knife by hand doesnt qualify as handmade imo.
merely manually putting a grind on the blade isnt really "handmade" imo. manually shaping the blade (stock removal) and then manually putting the grind on will contribute to "handmade"
 
Chris Reeve are production knives. But they are production knives that include a lot of hand work and they are of impeccable quality.
 
They are production. Sebbies are CNC'd to the hilt and then custom fitted. They are excellent--top notch, without a doubt.
 
JoHnYKwSt said:
I think most people consider CRK knives "Semi-Custom". The sebenza blades are hand ground. I am almost certain the Harsey designed knives are hand ground also, but am only 99% certain on that.
Click to expand...

Johny says the Sebbie blade is handground, someone else said it is CNC'd. Who wins?
 
Has anyone ever had a direct answer from either maker to see what they think? Might go a long way to clear up the confusion. Just a thought.
 
There is not confusion in the industry.

They are production knives and I think they are the best production knives out there with William Henry close behind.

I can not remember how many years running CRK has garnered "Manufacturing Quality Awards" at The Blade Show.

Chris has made custom knives in the past.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top