Back in August 2010, a forum member posted photographs of a Vallotton modified Sebenza and I made the following post.
I would like to make a few comments about the after-market modification of any knife made by Chris Reeve Knives. I completely understand that once the knife has been purchased, it is the owners right to do whatever he (or she!) wants with it. What I want to make very clear, though, is that any modification will void the warranty on the knife. We are occasionally asked to service a knife that has had third party work done to it and we charge appropriately for this.
I know there have been a few of our folding knives that have been modified into automatics. Two are mentioned here, but I believe there have been others. I want to state very adamantly that, as a company, we disassociate ourselves completely from these knives. We have never made automatics and will not do so for a very specific set of reasons. Automatics are illegal in the majority of states and under a wide variety of circumstances; the shipping of these knives is restricted by a slew of postal regulations; our industry is under enough threat already and I will not be party to giving the anti-knife lobbyists any further ammunition. The recent attempt to reclassify one hand opening knives as assisted opening, and the issues facing retail stores in New York at the moment are graphic illustrations of the threat to our industry.
These modifications to our knives bring them into the automatic category and I cannot state strongly enough that, not only are these knives out of warranty, we will not service them in any way. We simply will not accept such a knife in our shop.
This thread brings the subject of dual action modifications back into light. I want to state clearly that all modifications are a violation of copyright this is not just my opinion but the statement of our legal advisor. The dual action modification changes the mechanism of a Sebenza to one that is illegal in most states of the Union. Regardless of how well the conversion might have been done, the reputation and integrity of my company is impaired when the products we make are converted into items that are largely illegal. I am adamantly opposed to such modifications, and I continue my long-standing opposition to automatic knives.
Chris
