Chris Reeve MK IV from 1987 in D2?

Thomas Carey

Thomas Carey

Dealer / Materials Provider
Joined
Nov 26, 2010
Messages
722
Just wondering if any Chris Reeve collectors can shed some light on this knife. Thanks in advance.

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It looks like an early, South African made One piece knife, I'm not familiar with the Blackjack connection though. It's basically a large aviator by the looks of it.
 
I have no info, but I'd say you have a nice piece of history there.
 
If I am correct(which I very well might not be) black jack funded and promoted a few of the early one piece knives. The crk website has their bio which mentions their early blackjack relations.
I'd say you have a nice piece of history there.
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Agreed, I can't imagine what one of those would go for.
 
Chris Reeve and the gentleman that runs/makes Bark River Knives were involved in Blackjack Knives.......... Also when A2 was scarce, Chris would often make knives with D2 as well. You have a very rare nice piece of CRK History there.
 
nyefmaker said:
Chris Reeve and the gentleman that runs/makes Bark River Knives were involved in Blackjack Knives.......... Also when A2 was scarce, Chris would often make knives with D2 as well. You have a very rare nice piece of CRK History there.
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That was something else that had my raising flags was the use of D2 as I had always thought those were all A2. Thanks for clearing that up. =)
 
Thomas Carey said:
That was something else that had my raising flags was the use of D2 as I had always thought those were all A2. Thanks for clearing that up. =)
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The standard use steel was indeed A2, I believe there were a number of SA blades made in D2 but they are very much rarer. There was some made in 3v too but I think that was only used on the Knonka, IIRC.
 
Yes, as HAZE stated above, A2 was the norm with D2 only being used when A2 was unavailable or for a special run. 3V was used on some Knonka's. Other than that, I know of no other steels used for the OPK.
 
Any idea what something like this might be worth to a collector should I choose to sell it at some point?
 
I think it is an important knife in a serious OPK serious collection.
It is an early SA production. Mine has number 681 and is from january 1989
 
In that period, if I remember well, CRK was selling in USA by means of BlackJack knives
 
Thanks so much for the info. I did not realize some were collecting just the early SA knives.
 
Haze said:
It looks like an early, South African made One piece knife, I'm not familiar with the Blackjack connection though. It's basically a large aviator by the looks of it.
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Blackjack marketed Chris's knives from early '87 to the middle of '88.

nyefmaker said:
Chris Reeve and the gentleman that runs/makes Bark River Knives were involved in Blackjack Knives.......... Also when A2 was scarce, Chris would often make knives with D2 as well. You have a very rare nice piece of CRK History there.
Click to expand...

Haze said:
The standard use steel was indeed A2, I believe there were a number of SA blades made in D2 but they are very much rarer. There was some made in 3v too but I think that was only used on the Knonka, IIRC.
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With respect this is not entirely correct.

Chris used D2 exclusively in the early years. It was really only after Bohler were having supply problems with D2 in round bar in South Africa that Chris switched to A2. The switch happened over a period of time as he used up his D2 blanks in various sizes.

It is important to remember that almost all the blanks were produced in SA until the end of the production of the one piece knives.

Thomas Carey said:
Anyone know when they first started making this model?
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The serial No.2 MkIV passed through my hands some time ago and the card marked it as made in 1983.
That was when Chris made the first one Piece knives. He was still working out of a one car garage.

I cannot see clearly in your photo but this one looks like it does not have "Made in South Africa" on it. This means it was one of the first batches to enter the US. The later ones were all marked "Made in South Africa" as required by US Customs.
 
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