BladeCommander
Basic Member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2012
- Messages
- 2,446
Prologue: Several years ago knife collecting was one of my main hobbies. Back then Chris Reeve Knives, Strider, and Hinderer were what I considered the "Big 3" in popular Midtech knives. This was before WE and Reate really took off in the market of Ti framelock folders. At that time CRK was one of the more affordable of the 3, Hinderer's being scarce and expensive, with Strider sort of all over the place based on model and features. The last few years I got into guns and scopes, which consumed my disposeable income and I stepped away from knife collecting for a time. Now circling back I see that Hinderer's are much more accessible than in the past I was able to trade into my first Hinderer, and Eklipse. Having it for only a short time I was trying to determine if it would get a permanent place in the lineup. Looking at other knives I own and doing a little comparison. I have distilled my likes and dislikes quite well over the years, so now it comes down to whether I emotionally like a knife, after I weed out everything that doesn't meet the physical specs I prefer.
On to the comparision. I found that the Eklipse shares a significant number of physical specifications to one of the larger knives in my rotation, the CRK Umnumzaan. Both being part of the "Big 3" as I called them, I thought a more in depth look at these two would be worth something. I didn't find a thread on this exact comparisoin in the search bar, but I didn't try all that hard. Apologies if this has been done before.
Too Long Didn't Read: Overall if I just told you I had a Ti Framelock Midtech made by a very popular USA brand with a drop point blade, hollow grind, smooth action with a 3.6" blade and 4.8" handle with a slim profile, but built to be used hard, either one of these knives might enter your mind. Others too I'm sure, but in general if you wanted to try a Zaan, but are a flipper guy, or want a bit more customization, or just don't like the blade shape, the Eklipse is 100% worth a look. And you can get a thicker blade option in the standard, but I'm definitly partial to the skinny. Honestly I found more similarities than differences in these two knives. Aside from the visual differences, I would consider them cousins in Midtech framelocks in the mid-size category. I don't have a favorite just yet. I've owned the Zaan for years and the Eklipse for mere days, so time will tell, but I expected a catch-and-release on the Eklipse, but may have ended up landing a keeper.
1. The 'Zaan: Drop Point
The Zaan is on the larger side of my standard carry rotation. Most of my go-to knives are 3-3.5" blades with 4-4.5" handles. So the Zaan at 4.85" closed is what I consider max on the closed length. What helps here is the relative slim profile in the pocket, where the blade hides well in the handle and the thickness is sub 1/2". It also has good blade:handle ratio, which I look at regularly. What originally drew me in was the blade shape. I'm a sucker for the harpoon style blade shape, and the action is extremely smooth for a knife on washers. One thing about CRK, is that the lockbar tension is pretty stout, preventing the "drop shut" feel unless you depress the lockbar, then the blade falls free. This has a great hydraulic feel to it. Smooth, but not loose. You can thumb flick it, but the detent isn't so strong to make it hard to open slower if desired.
Ergonomics on the Zaan isn't my ideal handle shape, but it does well, and doesn't bother me at all. While I appreciate knives with great ergos, my use case means I'm going to give more emphasis into profile in the pocket more than absolute comfortability in the hand. Might sound backwards, but the knife spends 90% of the time in the pocket and only 10% (or less) of the time in my hand.
Grind: I tend to gravitate towards knives on the thin and slicy end of the spectrum. Most everything with blade thickness over 0.14" has moved on, barring maybe one or two exceptions. That's the reason I moved several ZT's that I really liked carrying, but the blades were so thick. The Zaan sits at 0.14" thick, which when partnered with the deep hollow grind creates a robust but capable cutter. I would say behind the edge thickness is pretty standard based on many other knives I've had. Could be better, but not overly thick.
Options: CRK is known for having scant few options for customizing, they always had the Computer Generated Graphics, Unique Graphics, and Inlays for the Sebenza, but the graphics were at a pretty large premium, and the handles were generally Titanium slabs with an option for Carbon Fiber. With the Zaan, you can have any handle material you want, as long as it's flat Ti with a little milling. They did come out with a new blade shape, so props for that. Still the customization is either minimal, or extremely expensive with the special edition milling patterns.
Specs:
Blade Length: 3.66"
Handle Length: 4.85"
Blade Thickness: 0.014"
Behind the Edge Thickness (approximate): 0.025"
Closed Width: 1.28"
Handle thickness: 0.467" / 0.606" with pivot
Grind Type: Deep Hollow
Pivot type: Washers
Deployment: Thumbstuds
2. Eklipse: Skinny Hollow Slicer
As stated above, I am not a fan of overbuilt or "hard use" knives. I just don't have a use case for a sharpened pry bar. Hinderer has a reputation for strong, hard use folders for first responders, with blade thickness and grinds to match. Enter the "Skinny" models and the new hollow grinds. I just learned about the skinny option, but I was familiar with the "Slicer" grind option. Hinderer shines in their customization, with like 6+ different blade shapes and grind options, dozens of colors and finishes, Ti scale options, G10, Micarta, anodized colors, you can really make it your own. I always thought an XM-18 3.0" slicer looked like a nice knife, but got a chance at the Eklipse Skinny Hollow Slicer and was immediately impressed with the grind, blade thickness, and flipper action. This was a quality knife built to cut! Thickness in the pocket is a little wider than the Zaan, but not obnoxiously so. The thumb shelf/ramp/depression thing helps make a little releif area for the flipper tab so it doesn't add a huge amount of width and snag on things.
Ergonomics on the Eklipse is better than the Zaan for me. The thumb depression on the top of the knife fits well and hides the flipper slightly when closed. The finger grooves fit me well, and I perfer the lack of finger choil here to give me more cutting edge. The pocket clip does ride right on my middle finger, where the Zaan clip tucks between my fingers, but there is not much to really be done about that. The handle is pretty straight, but so is the Zaan. I give the Eklipse a leg up on the Zaan for ergos based on the thumb ramp (?) and the slight drop to the but of the handle
Grind: The Eklipse has the same blade thickness as the Zaan, but the hollow slicer grind really works well here. The hollow is pretty subtle, I probably would call it a flat grind if it wasn't labeled on the flipper tab. But the behind the edge thickness is noticeably thinner than the Zaan. I measured 0.018-0.020" but it's hard to get a good measurement. The edge is noticeably thinner, but one thing I didn't check was the edge angle. So that is something I did not equalize across the two knives. Both blades come to a fine tip, but the Eklipse is thinner. Be careful with this tip, it's not for prying open car doors or breaking loose screws. Which is perfectly fine by me.
Action: The bearing flipper action is great. The detent is strong and you are not going to missfire by not getting the blade into lockup after getting past the detent. The flipping is snappy and strong, as you would expect for the price. Overall quality is very high, with the standoffs, screws, pivot, and all hardware very well made and put together very well. Phillips head screws on the pocket clip are a bit dated, but I understand it's a bit of a design choice with Hinderer.
Specs:
Blade Length: 3.60"
Handle Length: 4.80"
Blade Thickness: 0.138"
Behind the Edge Thickness (approximate) 0.020"
Closed Width: 1.49" / 1.52" with flipper tab
Handle thickness: 0.456"
Grind type: Shllow Hollow
Pivot type: bearings or washers
Deployment: Flipper
...continued in the next post
On to the comparision. I found that the Eklipse shares a significant number of physical specifications to one of the larger knives in my rotation, the CRK Umnumzaan. Both being part of the "Big 3" as I called them, I thought a more in depth look at these two would be worth something. I didn't find a thread on this exact comparisoin in the search bar, but I didn't try all that hard. Apologies if this has been done before.
Too Long Didn't Read: Overall if I just told you I had a Ti Framelock Midtech made by a very popular USA brand with a drop point blade, hollow grind, smooth action with a 3.6" blade and 4.8" handle with a slim profile, but built to be used hard, either one of these knives might enter your mind. Others too I'm sure, but in general if you wanted to try a Zaan, but are a flipper guy, or want a bit more customization, or just don't like the blade shape, the Eklipse is 100% worth a look. And you can get a thicker blade option in the standard, but I'm definitly partial to the skinny. Honestly I found more similarities than differences in these two knives. Aside from the visual differences, I would consider them cousins in Midtech framelocks in the mid-size category. I don't have a favorite just yet. I've owned the Zaan for years and the Eklipse for mere days, so time will tell, but I expected a catch-and-release on the Eklipse, but may have ended up landing a keeper.
1. The 'Zaan: Drop Point
The Zaan is on the larger side of my standard carry rotation. Most of my go-to knives are 3-3.5" blades with 4-4.5" handles. So the Zaan at 4.85" closed is what I consider max on the closed length. What helps here is the relative slim profile in the pocket, where the blade hides well in the handle and the thickness is sub 1/2". It also has good blade:handle ratio, which I look at regularly. What originally drew me in was the blade shape. I'm a sucker for the harpoon style blade shape, and the action is extremely smooth for a knife on washers. One thing about CRK, is that the lockbar tension is pretty stout, preventing the "drop shut" feel unless you depress the lockbar, then the blade falls free. This has a great hydraulic feel to it. Smooth, but not loose. You can thumb flick it, but the detent isn't so strong to make it hard to open slower if desired.
Ergonomics on the Zaan isn't my ideal handle shape, but it does well, and doesn't bother me at all. While I appreciate knives with great ergos, my use case means I'm going to give more emphasis into profile in the pocket more than absolute comfortability in the hand. Might sound backwards, but the knife spends 90% of the time in the pocket and only 10% (or less) of the time in my hand.
Grind: I tend to gravitate towards knives on the thin and slicy end of the spectrum. Most everything with blade thickness over 0.14" has moved on, barring maybe one or two exceptions. That's the reason I moved several ZT's that I really liked carrying, but the blades were so thick. The Zaan sits at 0.14" thick, which when partnered with the deep hollow grind creates a robust but capable cutter. I would say behind the edge thickness is pretty standard based on many other knives I've had. Could be better, but not overly thick.
Options: CRK is known for having scant few options for customizing, they always had the Computer Generated Graphics, Unique Graphics, and Inlays for the Sebenza, but the graphics were at a pretty large premium, and the handles were generally Titanium slabs with an option for Carbon Fiber. With the Zaan, you can have any handle material you want, as long as it's flat Ti with a little milling. They did come out with a new blade shape, so props for that. Still the customization is either minimal, or extremely expensive with the special edition milling patterns.
Specs:
Blade Length: 3.66"
Handle Length: 4.85"
Blade Thickness: 0.014"
Behind the Edge Thickness (approximate): 0.025"
Closed Width: 1.28"
Handle thickness: 0.467" / 0.606" with pivot
Grind Type: Deep Hollow
Pivot type: Washers
Deployment: Thumbstuds
2. Eklipse: Skinny Hollow Slicer
As stated above, I am not a fan of overbuilt or "hard use" knives. I just don't have a use case for a sharpened pry bar. Hinderer has a reputation for strong, hard use folders for first responders, with blade thickness and grinds to match. Enter the "Skinny" models and the new hollow grinds. I just learned about the skinny option, but I was familiar with the "Slicer" grind option. Hinderer shines in their customization, with like 6+ different blade shapes and grind options, dozens of colors and finishes, Ti scale options, G10, Micarta, anodized colors, you can really make it your own. I always thought an XM-18 3.0" slicer looked like a nice knife, but got a chance at the Eklipse Skinny Hollow Slicer and was immediately impressed with the grind, blade thickness, and flipper action. This was a quality knife built to cut! Thickness in the pocket is a little wider than the Zaan, but not obnoxiously so. The thumb shelf/ramp/depression thing helps make a little releif area for the flipper tab so it doesn't add a huge amount of width and snag on things.
Ergonomics on the Eklipse is better than the Zaan for me. The thumb depression on the top of the knife fits well and hides the flipper slightly when closed. The finger grooves fit me well, and I perfer the lack of finger choil here to give me more cutting edge. The pocket clip does ride right on my middle finger, where the Zaan clip tucks between my fingers, but there is not much to really be done about that. The handle is pretty straight, but so is the Zaan. I give the Eklipse a leg up on the Zaan for ergos based on the thumb ramp (?) and the slight drop to the but of the handle
Grind: The Eklipse has the same blade thickness as the Zaan, but the hollow slicer grind really works well here. The hollow is pretty subtle, I probably would call it a flat grind if it wasn't labeled on the flipper tab. But the behind the edge thickness is noticeably thinner than the Zaan. I measured 0.018-0.020" but it's hard to get a good measurement. The edge is noticeably thinner, but one thing I didn't check was the edge angle. So that is something I did not equalize across the two knives. Both blades come to a fine tip, but the Eklipse is thinner. Be careful with this tip, it's not for prying open car doors or breaking loose screws. Which is perfectly fine by me.
Action: The bearing flipper action is great. The detent is strong and you are not going to missfire by not getting the blade into lockup after getting past the detent. The flipping is snappy and strong, as you would expect for the price. Overall quality is very high, with the standoffs, screws, pivot, and all hardware very well made and put together very well. Phillips head screws on the pocket clip are a bit dated, but I understand it's a bit of a design choice with Hinderer.
Specs:
Blade Length: 3.60"
Handle Length: 4.80"
Blade Thickness: 0.138"
Behind the Edge Thickness (approximate) 0.020"
Closed Width: 1.49" / 1.52" with flipper tab
Handle thickness: 0.456"
Grind type: Shllow Hollow
Pivot type: bearings or washers
Deployment: Flipper
...continued in the next post
