Bummed Out by CRKT

Sad to see CRKT shooting themselves in the foot in some areas.

Any production company or individual that produces should know that they can get away with one mistake or failure , but several get a lot of attention and folks are long to forget , or keep quiet about it.

Some of their designs make me raise an eyebrow, just IMO.

Then again , some of their designs I really like.

Just have to be choosy , they have made some fine knives in the past , the Contrail for one , the S-2 for another , the M series is popular for a reason.
 
I own Desert cruiser and I've alos found crkt chisel grind inconvenient - of course it cuts and even shave hair, but when you put much force in the cut or slice knife goes off the line.
Cutting grind in chisel crkt is about 25 to 30, and combined with hollow primary grind on the other side of the edge it seems to create much twisting force.

I've solved it by adding(by hand) a new grind on the hollow/flat side. Although it makes edge even thicker(now its 30-15 degres) it's much more reliable.
 
"No, but the Lansky is on my list of things to buy this year. The idea of darkening the edge is very good. At what angle do you sharpen the C-grind?"


I'm not sure what angle to use for a chisel grind. I would think you would be ok following the angle from the factory, unless you know that angle isn't working for you.
I've never had a knife with a chisel grind.
 
I thought CRKTs use normal V-grinds with chisel edges, a la Emerson?

Do they really veer that much in soft substrates?

My first knife was a CRKT M16Z with that funky one-sided edge and I don't remember it being as much of a problem as an actual chisel grind.

The biggest problem with that edge geometry is deburring the back (non-edged) side without rolling the edge or totally destroying it.

I've found that sharpening the edge side, then going flat on the rear chisel side to hone a few times at a high grit (i.e. 600grit), and then a few passes on a strop works pretty well for those weird V-grind chisel-edge setups.

But IMHO it is really just a failing of the geometry. Why take the trouble to grind two flats, but not put in 2 edges?

Also, yeah, CRKT blade steel is incredibly soft, whether it's their AUS-6 or the 420J2. But that shouldn't mean you can't get an edge on it... just that the edge will disappear in 5 linear yards of cardboard.

-j
 
i am not going to buy another AUS8 or AUS whatever knife. i have 2 and i dont dare to use my M60-14NK(enduring freedom) for fear of ruining the edge. my next knives will be RC60+
 
I have an old CRKT Stiff Kiss, i think its Aus 6 with a true Chisel grind, it gets really sharp and stays that way far better than other more expensive kinves in my collection.
but:
Then i have also an (3 years old) CRKT M1-Lightfoot with Aus8 and a Emerson style V-Grind this knife is'nt holding an edge at all! After 1 day of Office-use (pizza cutting etc.) its duller than any of my taiwan beaters!! I own a few Emersons and so i'm used to sharpen this style of grind.
Crkt should care more about steel-quality and Heat treatment than the next fancy locking mechanism on there knives !
have a nice day
 
SuroK said:
I am not going to buy another AUS8 or AUS whatever knife. i have 2 and i dont dare to use my M60-14NK(enduring freedom) for fear of ruining the edge. my next knives will be RC60+
Click to expand...
Well, that's unfortuante. There is value in all the posts here. I just have to accept that CRKT knives are made as tactical weapons that can open UPS packages and bags of potato chips. :D

I'm not sour on all on AUS8 knives because I've had too much luck with Cold Steel's AUS8 offerings. I've found they cut very well, they're easy to sharpen and they're reliable. VG-1 is probably even a tad better. I'm not generally fond of 440A, but I've got to admit that Cold Steel's 440A seems to be sharp as the dickens and is very functional for a knife.

As Esav indicated, not all knives have to have razor sharp blades. And it's true that I've seen many dull knives that continue to cut for quite some time because dull though they may be, they ain't as dull as we think they are.

The thing that's got my shorts in a knot is that I have a S&W Extreme Ops Hawkbill that is outcutting many of my more expensive knives. Could be just a fluke. Maybe it was produced on a day when they got the heat treat right on the nose, but that plain edge is almost keeping up with my Spyderco Native! It cuts anything and does it a lot better than any of my CRKTs. And it never gets so dull as to be worse than my sharpened CRKT.

The world is full of contradictions, as Shirley Jackson once said. It doesn't take too much to make me happy with a knife, but when my blade won't even cut an ordinary envelope into strips, but rather, mauls it, something just ain't right. I'm thinking of having CRKT check the knife out. The only other knives that have been routinely as bad about cutting are a Pakistan two-dollar special and, of course, a Gerber Paraframe.

27LTH.jpg


My Recon 1 (same as above, but with plain edge) is an
AUS8 knife that does an excellent job.
 
Sometimes you just need to know how to sharpen, for the knife and for the job. Cheap steel from a cheap company won't perform like the best, but if you put a toothy edge on it, and don't expect to slice soft tomatoes neatly, you can still use it in the workplace on twine and plastic and tape and cardboard.
 
is VG-10 superior to aus 8? im guessing it is. so im moving my interest from crkt to spyderco.
 
Yes, VG1 and VG10 are both better steels than AUS8. I still am a big fan of ATS-34 and 154CM, but have a number of knives made with AUS8 and even 440A that I like. I'm not crazy about AUS6 and below, though I could make due with AUS6.

Esav is right. Either learn to live with a knife's limitations and learn to get the most out of it, or go with something else. I am presently very suspicious about the lack of quality in CRKT's knives.
 
FWIW I have a CRKT Voodoo assisted opening in 154CM & it's great knife for the $$.Never had any problems with it.Razor sharp out of the box.Really like that milk bone handle design too.:thumbup:
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