CRK Slipjoint.....!!!

How does "zulu" apply to this design?

 

I actually would pay more money for a sterile knife since I find most logos to be obtrusive to the design. And, in fact, I have, because my Sebenza 21s are mostly pre-Idaho Made stamped versions which cost a premium on a secondary market. So I have put my money where my mouth is on this one. I am a big fan of the impinda being a very clean, logo-free external design. Let them engrave the inside as Bhyde said, and it's win-win to me.

 

Fair enough. I guess I'm just in a bit of a sticker shock for the knife which on "face value" seems much more simple then CRKs other knives.

 

Id like to see a smaller version with some inlay options.

 

It's screaming for inlays.

 

Now that I know more about this knife I am taking a 180 degree turn and adding my congrats to CRK...
As far as price, I think that the price is justifiable... it still has titanium scales and a lot of design and details have been built into this knife.
It is not a knife that I would personally purchase as my Sebenza is legal for me to carry

 

Respect

 

And WOOD inlays at that.

 

With all respect, I don’t think the Impinda can be characterized as a savvy attempt to capture a bigger share of the UK knife market. I’m not a UK lawyer, but my understanding is that selling or carrying a folding knife with a blade longer than 3 inches, like the Impinda, is a felony in the UK. That’s probably why bonzodog, a member here from the UK, talked in an earlier post about trimming down the blade length. And it probably isn’t a coincidence that the CRK website will not allow an Impinda order to be placed by someone who has a UK address.

It’s true that Spyderco has made UK-legal knives. Both the UK-PK and the PITS are slipjoints — with blades shorter than 3 inches.

Legality aside, both of those Spyderco knives can easily be opened one-handed (it appears the Impinda cannot), and both have safety features built into the design (in fact, the PITS has two safety features) to prevent the unlocked blade from closing while in use (again, it appears in Impinda does not). But many other slipjoints operate two-handed without safety features, so slipjoint fans might not see a disadvantage here.

In any event, I continue to hope that the Impinda sells like hot cakes — if only to encourage CRK te release more new designs.

 

I think it looks great. Very simple and sleek looking. I am very tempted to try one out.

 

It is more for a world market. Not just UK, but that is a common area often mentioned. There are many countries through Europe that carrying a one handed opening knife is illegal without some form of justification. I have had talks with Tim in the past and he has wanted to make something for those markets and I think CRK knocked it out of the park with this one.

Price... well it is always subjective, but they did sell out their initial batch of fifty and I know there is already a lot of guys with theirs on order from CRK that will be waiting 4-6 months... and this is just the US market so far. Wait till these start hitting dealers overseas. I suspect even at that price point it will be very popular for years to come.

Not surprisingly, and thankfully, CRK knows what they are doing in design, marketing, and pricing.

 

Did Chris Reeve make any slipjoints as a custom maker? Most of the ones I remember seeing had some type of lock.

 

Missed the existing thread. Was looking for "Impinda" somewhere in the title...

 

Exacty. I view this knife not as meant to be competitive with any other CRK but a complementary one. It's something they don't have today. They don't need another knife the size of the mnandi; they have the mnandi. They don't need a knife a hair under 3", they have the small sebenza. They don't need another one hand opening framelock.

 

I think you're 100% right. The problem becomes "who needs such a precise slipjoint compared to a sebenza" and the answers are:

1) Die Hard CRK fans, like myself (because I will almost certainly buy one) -- but there's not that big of a market to support a new knife in the lineup, otherwise they'd make new knive designs every few months, and hire new engineers, because the Die Hards would buy them regardless!

2) Die Hard Slip Joint Fans that love modern materials -- not sure how big this market is. Most slipjoints I see use natural materials like bone. It's possible this market is untapped but I honestly don't know.

3) People living under oppressive government laws that have high disposable income and enjoy high quality knives but are legally not allowed to carry a sebenza -- I bet this market is potentially huge. Offhand, I think there's 10 million people in NYC every day. Millions more in England. This could be a huge new market of possibilities... **if** the knife was under 3" blade length and met the requirements for their knife laws. Which this knife is not.

If this slip joint was 2.75", then that third market would open up. I bet there's dozens of high end cutlery or sporting good shops in Manhattan that have no high end slip joints worth selling to meet the needs of their high end customer base (that's making $100k+ and has decent disposable income). But because this knife comes in just over 3", these stores can't sell it.

I just hope that the first two market segments are large enough to support CRK so that they can continue releasing new knives, perhaps even a 2.75" version of this in the future! I really love CRK and have spent thousands of dollars on their knives. I want them to succeed. I'm just really confused as to the length of the knife and what their market research was that led them to this sizing. I almost certainly will buy one, but I fall under the first market segment of die hard fans that would buy any new knife model that they released.

 

That knife is beautiful. I love the closed-in back from the spring, and am glad the knife is "pointy". I am kinda weary of the trend away from pointy. Just refreshing to see a good ol' pointy knife.

My resolve is weakening.....I think I gotta have one.

 

• 
  Support BladeForums!
  Paid memberships don't see ads!

Somebody repost the UG damascus one from Blade! Im getting weak as well..will be hard to resist, especially when they start decorating them. I did notice on the one that was sold in the sale thread, the box said, "plain" on the side...must mean, "fancy" is coming lol