Recommendation? Chris Reeve Knives Next Design?

Bought the machines that make the knives???? I don't understand.... we could buy those machines, but programing them, and designing what they build seems like a big hill to climb to me....The machines make the repeatable tolerances necessary for Chris' knives to be affordable, and produced in a timely manner.They are by themselves useless.....
 
Good thought GermanyChris. I also like larger folders. Have a Grayman Satu, and Medford Praetorian. Beastly.
 
kidcongo said:
^^No offence to the man himself, but that’s a bit of a stretch. For sure he made some jigs and whatnot to hold blades or tweek something, but “he bought the machines that make the knives” would be more accurate and truthful.

Personally, my observation is the quality has been going up since Chris left. I think the last couple years he was at the helm the company may have been suffering from too much growth coupled with whatever personal dramas were unfolding.

Hopefully he will again design a knife for the company, but if not, he certainly left on a high note.

Click to expand...

Chris did build one of the grinders used for surface grinding to give the tight tolerances. He was definitely the master. Definitely miss that he is no longer involved, they have changed a lot.
 
id like to see them work with gareth bull after the slip joint collab is over. One of those ventures would be the best way for them to do a flipper and with out making it a permanent part of their product line. Their core line of products gets to follow the path they've been on which seems to be what they want to do. Frankly i think most their customer base would be dismayed to see them going into the frame lock flipper business. Their product is not only a gold standard but pretty unique(specially the 21 and way they do inlays etc.) The fact that they dont retire the product line even periodically to make something new is awesome and one of my favorite things they do. lots of refinement over time and probably the best product support, I dont expect to find out that i cant get my 21 serviced if i need it while im alive; that's awesome.

Gareth Bull follows a similar style and the sebenza blade sticks out in what seems like a nod to a front flipper plus South Africa being where crk came from. I think we could have an epic CRK field grade shamwari or something like that.
 
aengina said:
I think the Tilock design was originally supposed to be a flipper.
Click to expand...
I was going to comment this. I remember Nick Shabazz saying something about it. Chris Reeve himself shot the idea down. Though i do like it, and would likely buy a Reeves flipper, i doubt it will ever happen.
 
I don’t know, DrRollinstein...If I was taking $1,000 bets on say, 1 November 2016, that Donald Trump would be our next president, people would be crippling themselves to get to me. Nothing political intended, just observing strange, unforeseen events often occurring in life. Be well, all.
 
Chris isn't in charge as I understand. The new leaders may be more open to the whole thing of flipers. How about an Automatic Umnumzaan ??!!
 
I didnt even think about it. A good auto (side and OTF) a cut above microtech would be nice. But my uneducated impression is that microtech has that market locked up. I have a couple of them and I do like them, even though I feel the OTFs are a bit...well...."fragile". And I do love the UDTs.
 
bart1 said:
Bought the machines that make the knives???? I don't understand.... we could buy those machines, but programing them, and designing what they build seems like a big hill to climb to me....The machines make the repeatable tolerances necessary for Chris' knives to be affordable, and produced in a timely manner.They are by themselves useless.....
Click to expand...

I agree. The point of my original reply being the knives are made on industrial machines, for the most part, that you too could purchase and program for whatever tolerances you desire. Chris Reeve did not design the CNC machines, water jets, lathes etc., but certainly was involved in choosing how they are used and programmed.

In general, any knife maker can achieve what CRK does with the same goals and financial resources to purchase good manufacturing equipment. They would only lack Chris Reeves excellent designs, his drive to perfect the process, and his ingenuity in overcoming or improving upon the shortcomings of the automation. The machining world still requires machinists.

I guess my point is that CRK is not great because of some secret machine that Chris Reeve built that they hide in a back room. CRK is great because it is their goal to be great.
 
I'd rather see a new steel introduced as an option on the 21 and Inkosi. The S35V does everything I need with minimal maintenance. But another steel would make them alot of $$ IMO.

Another crucible steel. Maybe 204p or CPM 154. Love them both.
 
Last edited:
First a flipper, second a 4" or 4" plus blade, third with a genuine glass breaker and finally a giant Mnandi.
 
Medium regular sebenza, Umfaan (just a tad longer and better thumb studs), medium-large mnandi, and VIROBLOCK FOLDER!
 
I'm pretty sure Chris did design the machines to grind the hollows to his specs and had someone build them for him. I believe there have been 2 of those machines built to his designs so far.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top