CRK vs Hinderer quality

They both have their pros and cons....

Hinderer Pros:

> Lockbar seemingly does not wear and is never sticky.

Hinderer Con:

> 2/5 of the xm18's I've owned were visibly off centered.

CRK Pro:

> Blade is always PERFECTLY dead centered.
> Blade is rock solid no matter how hard you wiggle it, it's almost like a fixed blade.

CRK Con:

> Lockbar wears rather quickly, and doesn't stop until it's almost at 100%.
> Lockbar has been sticky on one of the sebenzas I've owned, so bad that I had to send it in.

Overall I personally like the Hinderer's more, but they are very different knives so it's like comparing apples to oranges.
 
Don't own either, but had the pleasure to handled both at the local B&M, F&F wise they are both equally well made, but IMO balance wise CRK has the upper hand.
 
I don't own either - but my impression is that the Sebenza, or most of Chris Reeves knives, are "gentlemen type folders" -- especially when compared to the Hinderer's. The Hinderer XM's look a lot like the Strider SNG/SMF's, so I'm curious as to what people who have experience with all 3 might have to say about the Strider's in comparison?
 
olybears57 said:
Awesome! I actually just scored my first hinderer from the batch of 50 they put up for the Christmas sale! Should have it by Friday and I am PUMPED! And very cool to see a fellow Olympian on the forum! Merry Christmas friend.
Click to expand...

That's very cool! You will love it.
Merry Christmas to you, here's to hoping all are enjoying the morning!
 
I think part of that is marketing. Hinderer and Strider are obviously trying to market more to the tactical/hard use folks and big heavy "overbuilt" looking folders are the fad right now, with Strider's marketing being even more shifted to the Rambo personality types. Reeve has responded more subtly to that trend with the 25/Umnumzaan that are a little more beefy than the original Sebenza but no one is calling them a tank of a knife.

From the samples of all three I've handed and it's less than 20 of each, I'd put fit/finish/consistency with Reeve, Hinderer a close second, and Strider third. For years Reeve has been the standard for consistency/fit/finish that everyone else gets compared to and there's a reason for that. I've heard Strider has improved over the years, but there's still a lot of love/hate for their knives. It appears Hinderer has tried to find the middle ground between the two, keeping very high quality and consistency but marketing an overbuilt looking folder that appeals to a wider audience than Strider.

The secondary market would appear to support this, you don't see a lot of old Sebenza's on the marketplace, those that do pop up sell almost instantly and for at least as much as they cost when new. You see a lot of Striders being sold well under new cost. There's only two plausible reasons we see multiple Hinderer's brand new on the for sale forums every day. Either LEO/MIL guys are buying them at lower prices and flipping them for the profit which evidently Hinderer takes steps to try and discourage, or knife enthusiasts are buying them at the secondary/dealer market $600-700 prices and are not impressed enough to keep them. I'm sure some guys buy them and decide they just can't bring themselves to use a $600+ knife, some guys overstep their financial bounds etc. but there's just way too many of them being sold continuously to support just those last two.
 
I did owned them and they are both great knives but CRK is a notch better especially in fit and finish and overall feel when handling,feels more tight.Of course the simplicity of the CRK is the key to their perfection.Get them both,ad Rockstead and that is all you need.;)
 
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