Recommendation? Centering and expectations

F

Forcite

Joined
Aug 27, 2014
Messages
37
Hi All,

I've been looking to pick up a Small Sebenza 21 for awhile now. A seller shared this photo and I was wondering what people thought about the centering.

img_4562-jpeg.1115632


Looking at the tip, it seems to favour the lock side. It is being sold as NIB. If I understand correctly, I'd be very limited in terms of what I can do to adjust centering. The sharpening looks a little uneven at the tip too, but maybe I'm being too picky.

I know blade centering at this level isn't a functional issue and I can easily put a nice new edge on the knife with my KME. Still, between this potentially being the most expensive knife I ever purchase and CRK's reputation, I have high expectations.

I'm interested in what CRK veterans think. Is this within spec in your opinion?
 
Dunno. Could just be the perspective when photographed. Sometimes you can make a perfectly centered knife look off center. Or an off center knife look centered. Frankly, there is so little wiggle room when a CRK is closed, if it was as off center (again not much compared to some other manufacturers) as the picture looks I'd be surprised if it wasn't rubbing.

The fact that you can see the pivot (or one of the spacers - can't quite figure out based on perspective which) on one side quite well but not the other makes me think he took a slightly off center shot.

Did you ask the seller if the blade is in fact off center?
 
It looks off in the photo-I'd ask the seller if it is
It can be a number of things as mentioned- actually off, photo, not fully tightened pivot(or assembled incorrectly), grind.
Without the knife in hand it would just be a guess which one it is.
 
It looks a little off center to me. Looking at the blade at the pivot, it almost looks like the blade might not be sitting right with the washer and bushing. Seems like a decent gap on the right? It's fairly easy to "pinch" a washer when reassembling the knife. Also, very easy to fix with a little wiggling. I'd ask him if it's been disassembled before and whether he's the original owner.

Not sure if that's the problem, but that's my guess. You just don't see many CRKs with off center blades. It's rare. Especially the full Ti slab Inlay versions like this. I've see a couple carbon fiver scale models with slight centering issues.

Without examining the knife, no way to know for sure.
 
I appreciate all the solid advice. Will follow up with the seller to see what is going on.
 
If it's your most expensive knife purchase, get a new one, they aren't that much more and you'll be worry free!
 
Looking at the whole length of the blade to the pivot, the gap looks even. It’s hard to tell if it truly is off centered because of the angle of the pic. As others have stated, the angle of the picture can be deceiving. See if you can get a pic of the knife on the tip end with the camera looking at the center of the knife
 
Forcite said:
Hi All,

I've been looking to pick up a Small Sebenza 21 for awhile now. A seller shared this photo and I was wondering what people thought about the centering.

img_4562-jpeg.1115632


Looking at the tip, it seems to favour the lock side. It is being sold as NIB. If I understand correctly, I'd be very limited in terms of what I can do to adjust centering. The sharpening looks a little uneven at the tip too, but maybe I'm being too picky.

I know blade centering at this level isn't a functional issue and I can easily put a nice new edge on the knife with my KME. Still, between this potentially being the most expensive knife I ever purchase and CRK's reputation, I have high expectations.

I'm interested in what CRK veterans think. Is this within spec in your opinion?
Click to expand...

Generally CRKs don’t have side to side slop in the pivot so it shouldn’t be an issue but;

I would be abit worried that since the pivot is already abit funny if you were to have to loosen the pivot a tiny bit to get a good action; then when you go to open the knife and put pressure on the thumbstud it might push the blade over until it does rub the lockbar side.
 
aleforme said:
It looks a little off center to me. Looking at the blade at the pivot, it almost looks like the blade might not be sitting right with the washer and bushing. Seems like a decent gap on the right? It's fairly easy to "pinch" a washer when reassembling the knife. Also, very easy to fix with a little wiggling. I'd ask him if it's been disassembled before and whether he's the original owner.

Not sure if that's the problem, but that's my guess. You just don't see many CRKs with off center blades. It's rare. Especially the full Ti slab Inlay versions like this. I've see a couple carbon fiver scale models with slight centering issues.

Without examining the knife, no way to know for sure.
Click to expand...

The photo looks pretty dead on to me. After looking closer, the angle may be off just a tad to the right, but the blade tip still shouldn’t be off that far on a CRK. I agree it looks wide at the pivot. Perhaps assembled/reassembled incorrectly. The gap on the right side of the pivot appears significant. Blade appears to be way off.

brownshoe said:
If it's your most expensive knife purchase, get a new one, they aren't that much more and you'll be worry free!
Click to expand...

Also very good advice. The perceived savings isn’t always worth it. Sort of like the price difference these days between new trucks and used trucks. Considering the overall outlay, the difference in price to buy new may not be that much.
 
Last edited:
brownshoe said:
If it's your most expensive knife purchase, get a new one, they aren't that much more and you'll be worry free!
Click to expand...

Basko00 said:
Also very good advice. The perceived savings isn’t always worth it. Sort of like the price difference these days between new trucks and used trucks. Considering the overall outlay, the difference in price to buy new may not be that much.
Click to expand...

I would probably go that route, and still may, if I was in the US. In Canada a similarly configured Sebenza would cost about 40% more on the retail market :(

The seller says it isn't centered, so I may just hold off rather than make things complicated and risk disappointment.

Thanks for all the insight everyone. Really appreciate it.
 
Forcite said:
I would probably go that route, and still may, if I was in the US. In Canada a similarly configured Sebenza would cost about 40% more on the retail market :(

The seller says it isn't centered, so I may just hold off rather than make things complicated and risk disappointment.

Thanks for all the insight everyone. Really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't have much trouble finding another that doesn't have a problem. No use starting with a problem unless it is a super deal and worth a gamble.
 
Last edited:
I agree with most others- it's probably centered okay but better to look elsewhere if this is a serious purchase. Not to dig too deep into this but it caught my attention after taking hundreds of "centering" photos. The problem here is Parallax- unless you align the optics and lighting the image will lie to you. Here's a quick examination where it appears the camera was slightly off to the right causing the inside of the frame on the left to be visible. That would lead you to think the tip is off to the right.

33799645838_69f917c0f8_b.jpg
 
I expect my CRK’s to be dead centered.
As others have stated, parallax and perspective can come into play in photos, which can work both ways. At a certain point one needs to trust the seller or buy new. Call me paranoid, but it’s one of the reasons I haven’t picked up a CF model off the exchange.

I had an inlaid 21 that wouldn’t center, in spite of everything mic-ing appropriately. It drove me nuts so I sent it in. I got a call back from CRK explaining that one of the scales was slightly warped and would be repaired under warranty. Kayla (that’s her name, right?) explained that such warping is extremely rare. They Correcte the problem and I was extremely pleased in the end.

Obviously other factors can affect centering too.
 
Last edited:
Thanks again everyone. At this point I think I'll just pick up a new Sebenza the next time I'm in the US for work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top