CRK Quality Rivals?

Esav Benyamin said:
William Henry is the only manufacturer who beat out CRK for manufacturing excellence ... once ... in many many years. They are very fine knives, but not really aimed at the same market.
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+1 WH makes great knives. Not tactical and very different than a Sebenza. Similar to a Mnandi.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Interesting ... Hmm? More than just mentioned. Do you know something about BM Gold Class you'd like to tell us?
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Nothing to share, I've just had my eye on the 7505-132 Dual Action. And I found it interesting no one mentioned bm golds which may imply their fit and finish is not great?
 
They only PRODUCTION knife I've ever owned that matched (exceeded) the QUALITY of CRK is my Rockstead Higo. If you can get over the price, they're an amazing knife. :)
 
The only production knife I've had that comes close is the ti version of the Lionsteel SR-1.

Not quite as precise as CRKs, but they overall quality is on par. The SR-1 takes the wow factor in my book over CRKs but that's not quite what we're talking about...
 
Askurato said:
Nothing to share, I've just had my eye on the 7505-132 Dual Action. And I found it interesting no one mentioned bm golds which may imply their fit and finish is not great?
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I've had a couple Gold Class and played with a couple others. They're super nice knives but they appear to be inconsistent between some models. They have VERY high fit and finish but unfortunately, they do not match the consistent tolerances and solidness of CRK. Keep in mind I've come to this conclusion after owning a 530-111 and 551-101 and playing with the osbourne and torrent, they're more towards they "low end" of Gold Class prices, that may have something to do with it :o

I've also had my eye on the 7505 :)
 
Ive owned hundreds of knives over the last 30 years,& have come to learn that the sebenza & umnumzaan are the best knives ive seen in their price range. someone mentioned shirogorov. they are real nice, but now they have doubled in price;you can get the sebenza & zaan for the price of the shirogorov,& they are much more readily available,too.take a sebenza or zaan & look real close at it,there isnt a flaw that can be found,if a lemon did arise,which ive never seen, it could be sent back & be corrected.the shop tours 1 & 2 show how much goes into these knives....
 
I bought a Gold Class mini-Presidio from 2012, from a Custom Dealer (they were sold out everywhere else). I returned it due to F&F issues (blade was way off center, etc.). So while I like Benchmade as a standard production knife, in my experience their Gold Class does not rise to the CRK level. It was just a standard BM with exotic materials (CF scales, damascus blade).

jbob24 said:
I've had a couple Gold Class and played with a couple others. They're super nice knives but they appear to be inconsistent between some models. They have VERY high fit and finish but unfortunately, they do not match the consistent tolerances and solidness of CRK. Keep in mind I've come to this conclusion after owning a 530-111 and 551-101 and playing with the osbourne and torrent, they're more towards they "low end" of Gold Class prices, that may have something to do with it :o

I've also had my eye on the 7505 :)
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I have had several models from various production makers where my definition of great fit and finish was spot on. No one does it with the consistency that CRK does though.
 
Askurato said:
I found it interesting no one mentioned bm golds which may imply their fit and finish is not great?
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I have two BM golds (551-101 and 940-121), both purchased new. I love Benchmade and their designs, but the knives came with a couple imperfections you would probably never see on a CRK. The carbon fiber Griptilian was poorly sharpened (practically "dull"), and the ti/cf 940 had an off-center blade--along with some very minor imperfections which prevented everything from lining up perfectly the same way a CRK would. Both problems were fixable, but for the price paid, they really shouldn't have cropped up in the first place.

^Just remember that's only one man's experience with two knives, not an indictment of the entire gold class line.
 
Askurato said:
And I found it interesting no one mentioned bm golds which may imply their fit and finish is not great?
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Why would you jump to that conclusion? No one said that.

The fact that no one compared them the CRK only says that they are not at CRK standards. Many great knives aren't, which is the whole point of this thread.
 
jbob24 said:
They only PRODUCTION knife I've ever owned that matched (exceeded) the QUALITY of CRK is my Rockstead Higo. If you can get over the price, they're an amazing knife. :)
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I think Rockstead is definitely up there. I can only imagine what happens to the employee who sends out a flawed knife.
 
Razorsharp-Travis said:
Here is some unbiased opinions

Sebenzas have great fit and finish, my Spyderco southard and Tuff have been almost as good, My Chaparral and PPT, not as good. The tuff and southard have the best fit and finish I have seen in a full production knife.. The sebenza I have is off center to the left, but the fit and finish is marginally better than spyderco. People like to say hinderer fit and finish as as good as a Sebenza. I would put a hinderers fit and finish about where Spyderco Taiwan knives are, maybe a bit lower. The fit and finish is pretty much the same as my Strider SMF (new one in PD1) . The fit and finish differences between these knives is barely noticeable, yet people seem to think that its a huge difference. Handle my spyderco tuff and my sebenza and tell me what makes the tolerances better than my tuff, with out quoting chris reeves 0.001 inch accuracy. Cause the finished product is nearly identical in fit and finish.
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I will not quote their precision, I will tell you how to see it without the need of a high precision tool. REMOVE the pivot screw of the Sebenza, check for blade play...nope nothing. Now loosen the pivot screw on the Tuff for a few turns and check for play. See what I mean? ;)
 
Raylance said:
I will not quote their precision, I will tell you how to see it without the need of a high precision tool. REMOVE the pivot screw of the Sebenza, check for blade play...nope nothing. Now loosen the pivot screw on the Tuff for a few turns and check for play. See what I mean? ;)
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I know :) Cause of the bushings etc. The stop pin stops the blade wobbling in that case, cause it's the same length as the pivot bushing. Set that aside and look at precision elsewhere. They should make more bushing knives at spyderco but in Taiwan :D then it will be a tough argument
 
Razorsharp-Travis said:
I know :) Cause of the bushings etc. The stop pin stops the blade wobbling in that case, cause it's the same length as the pivot bushing. Set that aside and look at precision elsewhere. They should make more bushing knives at spyderco but in Taiwan :D then it will be a tough argument
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You say that as if it is a simple thing to achieve and maintain, but if it were cheap and easy don't you think everyone would be doing it?

What is a bushing knife anyways?
 
I've owned several Sebenza's and consider the CK&T Brend #2 to be equal and the ZT 550 and 560 to be close.
 
Most of the knife companies will be semi-custom/midtech to full on custom. There are midtechs that reach CRK quality and exceed too, but they are on a different level and a slightly different price range.
 
Razorsharp-Travis said:
I know :) Cause of the bushings etc. The stop pin stops the blade wobbling in that case, cause it's the same length as the pivot bushing. Set that aside and look at precision elsewhere. They should make more bushing knives at spyderco but in Taiwan :D then it will be a tough argument
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People are already paying a huge premium on the Taiwan knives. If they started putting pivot bushings on them, they would probably cost as much as a Sebenza.

Sal is on record as saying that if they produced the Southard here, it would have been close to $400...
 
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