CRK Warranty Experience--Need advice

[nyefmaker]

I tried to get the best picture as I possible could, while keeping the orientation straight. I choose to take the picture with the computer screen as a backlight as the lamp would create reflections and shadows that would make the centering hard to see. In this picture, it is a tiny bit off center to the right. Am I just being picky or am I justified in being, not unsatisfied, just slightly disappointed.

And in case if anyone misses it, I did say I would try to call or email CRK and inquire about the source of the off centering.

Also just to ease the mind of any doubters, I'll try to retake the picture showing the entire knife if you think I'm intentionally pushing the blade off-center with my thumb.

Wow, Honestly, I don't see that as bad at all. Just a washer being slightly thicker on one side would cause something like that to happen. Perhaps your looking too hard at it....lol. It obviously will not affect function in any way.......Now that I see the pics, I really don't see them replacing a blade or anything like that to fix it. Like I said, perhaps your looking too hard at it........Nothing is ever perfect, Nothing. Especially not in the mfg. world that I have worked in for almost 25 years. But from my experience, CRK is as good as it gets in the knife industry.

 

[Bladenoobie1]

I would definitely say that I'd be just as dissatisfied as you are, if my new blade came off-centered. I would expect the manufacturer to remedy the issue, regardless of what it takes--it should never have left the factory that way in the first place. THAT SAID, based on ur pictures, I don't see it... is it slightly to the right? Maybe I just don't have an eye for these things...

I do realize that its hard to see of off centering in the picture, reason being the scales became blurred as the camera focused on the blade. I can assure everyone it is off center to the right and even my invoice says, "re-centered blade to best of our ability" so without a doubt, the blade is off center. I will try to get clearer pics tomorrow, but in the meantime, the photo hondahirny took when he had a problem similar to mine is a very good representation of how off centered my blade is.

 

[Sharpski]

Yea just call about that, the knife seems like it was never used or abused. Call and see if you can't work something out, but I am betting you can! Also we all would appreciate a report back in case we run into this in the future!

I'd also like to say I really like the responses I've been given! All of them have been pretty mature and reasonable. I'll be sure to report back to this thread as soon as I get a response from CRK, phone or email!

See this is why I love CRK subforum, and is why comment here the most! Members can bring up "problems, concerns, and modifications" without getting an infarction or getting a thread closed down. This is not the case everywhere! Thanks CRK posters and Mods!:02.47-tranquillity:

 

[Bladenoobie1]

Just a quick update to everyone, in the picture almost appears as if the blade was not off centered at all. Reason being, is that the camera focused on the blade tip while blurring the scales. It is off center, and when I get a clearer picture, it will become more obvious.

I left an email for the time being, since CRK is closed right now, when possible, I'll attempt to shoot them a call.


At the moment, it can be inferred right now that CRK knew they were sending the blade out off centered, yet found it acceptable per the words on my invoice "re-centered blade to best of our ability."
With that said, more specifically, I'm asking them why it was off centered and why they weren't able to get to centered. I am not overly disappointed and I still really like this knife. Some may never even notice the knife was off centered and some may say I'm picky. Regardless, the definition of a centered blade is not the topic of this thread.

 

[kaosu04]

Dont know if I'm the only one who judges based on this, but when it comes to centering I don't care about where the tip falls in relation to the handles. I care about where the entire blade falls I'm relation to the handles. This is a far better indication of proper centering imo. My small 21 seems to be just as off as your picture shows. But spacing along the entire length of the blade is simply perfect. That being said, $400 is a whole lot of money for a folding piece of metal. But even at that price range, you will probably never find a sebenza free of any percievable imperfections. CRK does go above and beyond with customer service very often. But my personal opinion, the issues you are having are not beyond reasonable expectations

 

[sintro]

If you have the time there's no bad things to come about from just calling them up like you plan. Maybe if you send it in again with specific instructions saying something like "second time in, blade centering wasn't totally fixed" they'll fix it perfectly. I wouldn't want to be away from a knife for two weeks though, I would just try to fix it myself provided I had the right tools.

 

[nyefmaker]

Dont know if I'm the only one who judges based on this, but when it comes to centering I don't care about where the tip falls in relation to the handles. I care about where the entire blade falls I'm relation to the handles. This is a far better indication of proper centering imo. My small 21 seems to be just as off as your picture shows. But spacing along the entire length of the blade is simply perfect. That being said, $400 is a whole lot of money for a folding piece of metal. But even at that price range, you will probably never find a sebenza free of any percievable imperfections. CRK does go above and beyond with customer service very often. But my personal opinion, the issues you are having are not beyond reasonable expectations

:thumbup:

 

[Bladenoobie1]

Dont know if I'm the only one who judges based on this, but when it comes to centering I don't care about where the tip falls in relation to the handles. I care about where the entire blade falls I'm relation to the handles. This is a far better indication of proper centering imo. My small 21 seems to be just as off as your picture shows. But spacing along the entire length of the blade is simply perfect. That being said, $400 is a whole lot of money for a folding piece of metal. But even at that price range, you will probably never find a sebenza free of any percievable imperfections. CRK does go above and beyond with customer service very often. But my personal opinion, the issues you are having are not beyond reasonable expectations

In your terms, the blade is centered. The reason why I though the off centering was due to uneven grinds is because the blade between the handles was centered, it was only when it reached the tip that it was off centered. Perhaps I am being a bit picky, but this topic is a bit subjective. Anyhow your opinion is well accepted and fairly reasonable.

 

[BBW]

call CRK. Off course its not 100% but what in life is? if this bother you then talk to them to see what can they/you do to enjoy your Sebenza.. its a great knife

 

[Haze]

Edit: Just read your post above :foot: That does sound like it would be the grind that is off rather than washer spacing.

If you look at the spine of the knife when closed does the edge run down the centre or can you only see it being off at the tip ? That will help give you some idea of what is causing it, as mentioned it could be one washer is thicker than the other or the grind on the blade. It doesn't look too bad in your pics but it is clearly a little off and I can totally understand your point.

 

[Bladenoobie1]

If you look at the spine of the knife when closed does the edge run down the centre or can you only see it being off at the tip ? That will help give you some idea of what is causing it, as mentioned it could be one washer is thicker than the other or the grind on the blade. It doesn't look too bad in your pics but it is clearly a little off and I can totally understand your point.

My best guess is uneven grind, my reasoning explained before. Anyhow I've already shot an email to CRK and will likely call them too. The reason I'm so picky about this, is that I see having my CRK for a long time and hopefully as a user. With something I plan to own so long, I'd like it to be perfect as possible--the main reason why I choose to purchase a CRK.

A explaination from CRK to why it was off centered and why they couldn't get it perfect would be good enough for me.


EDIT:

To repeat this again, so it doesn't get skipped or buried under all these posts, please keep the this thread calm, mature, and respectful. I really like the majority of the responses I've seen and turned out a lot better than what I expected. I've seen threads go to hell for irrelevant posts, comments, and remarks. Lets keep things the way they are! Thanks

 

[Haze]

We're a fairly level headed bunch here, no need to worry about a lambasting. You have a genuine concern and it was presented in a way that is far from the trolling we have seen here before. :thumbup:

 

[FW JSB]

I'm really into knives and have learned to live with their imperfections. This includes CRK. All three of the Insingos I've owned have had slightly off center blades. I currently have a large Insingo. I like it a lot, but have had to turn off my OCD about every little detail

Part of the "problem" out there is that many people talk about how "perfect" the Sebenza is. This creates an image of the knife that just doesn't meet some folks expectations.

Not only that, at the Sebenza's price point there's no question in my mind that it's completely reasonable for the OP to expect at the very least a centered blade. Regardless of the talk and hype surrounding CRK knives, that does not give them a pass on an obvious visual issue like an off-center blade, especially after sending it in to have that very issue resolved.

OP, I would do as others have suggested and contact CRK and calmly explain your concerns and expectations. If at that point they tell you they've done all they can, then I'd start to get a little heated about it. I suspect they will take care of you and the knife.

 

[FW JSB]

I can see the blade is not centered in your pic. It's not much, but if it bugs you it bugs you. I hope you can get it sorted out.

 

[Bladenoobie1]

Thanks for the responses. I didn't want this thread to become a heated debate of whether I was too picky or not and so far it seems its not going that way--despite a few remarks, the response turned out better than I expected.

 

[TTTis]

I, like a few others here tend to look at the whole blade up against a lighted background. If the spacing is even on both sides of the blade relative to the scales then the blade is centered. More than likely you are dealing with an uneven grind which causes the tip or last 1/8th of the blade to look off. Getting a truly off centered blade is probably fairly rare given how they are produced. I guess in the final fitting steps one of the washers could be sanded a little thinner than the other, throwing the entire blade off. But usually it is just the grind that is uneven. Funny though, on my Full Ti models the blade is always perfectly centered (tip sometimes just a nipple hair off). But on my only CF model, the blade is just slightly closer to the CF scale as a whole.

Sadly the only knife I expect to have perfect blade centering is a CRK. This probably came from years of reading about perfection on forums and elsewhere. Best course of action is to hit them up and ask. You've already received good advice in here and I think you already have a plan of action. Let us all know what comes about.

Once it is resolved, use that sucker!

 

[NjHart]

I'm sorry to hear your experience has been less than you hoped so far! I'm far from an expert of these things, but what a few other folks have suggested about an uneven grind seems the most likely. We all know how tight the tolerances are and with such a minute gap to work with it seems pretty unlikely it would be anything else. I only own one sebenza (and for a very short period of time at that), but if it is in fact an uneven grind I don't think I would send it in personally. That is something that years of use and sharpening will sort out perfectly well, and if they did sharpen the blade again and deeper to fix it you would lose some edge life. I know I'm probably less particular about this than you, and if it bothers you that is perfectly acceptable, but if it turns out to be a grind issue I'd use it, sharpen it, and carry it all the same. And one day if I never could get it right, I'd send it off to CRK for a new blade knowing that even with a minor imperfection it served me well. Of course all of that is hypothetical based on it being a grind issue. I think I would be more concerned if it were a washer issue, but that is just my ill educated opinion on the subject.

 

[Mal2]

If you get it fixed by CRK, be very careful to keep the washers in their same location side to side. If I were fixing it, I'd take the pivot and the high side washer and the front spacer down a few thou and I suspect it would center up. It would do so by reducing the blade clearance on the larger gap side while maintaining the smaller gap clearance. It would be interesting to know how the mid blade spacing looks on both sides now. If the mid blade spacing is good now, it is definitely the grind and likely the only fix is a new blade.

Having said that, I agree with both points of view, that it is close enough never to be a problem and that, for the price, you have every right to want more.

 

[Bladenoobie1]

I don't really want to sand down the washers. I wasn't able to give CRK a call today being busy with school; however, they did respond to my email I shot last night. They didn't really tell me nor did they know the origin of the off centering. They just gave me a list of possible causes....all of them with no relevance to me. I mainly wanted to know why it was STILL off center, why they could not fix it, but I received no direct answer. Additionally they mentioned that I did purchase the knife second hand and the source of off centering could have been from the original owner. Assuming that this is true, is it still acceptable for them to send out the knife still off center due to user error? They said if I wanted to know why the blade couldn't be centered any more, I would have to send it back and Chris would inspect the knife...

At this point, its a case of whether I'd be willing to send in the knife or not. I feel fairly confident, should I send it out again, they'll take care of me; however, to invest another 2-3 weeks and an additional $15 not including my shipping expenses is something I don't really want to do. I would have been satisfied if I could know why the blade was off center. Its seems that I can even know that.. I'll probably just hold on the starbenza for the time being and possible sell it in the future.

What I want to ask is that do you think CRK should have notified me that they could only center it to a certain extent before they sent it out? CRK knew that the blade was still off center (I can infer that from the note left on my receipt) yet they found it either appropriate or assumed that I would be content with the centering on the blade. All I'm left with at this point is the note saying re-centered to the best of their ability with no explanation. There is nothing much else to be said. And please, if anyone still wants to chime in on this thread, keep the comments relative to this question and the one in my topic post. I really don't want to hear comments telling me that I should be content or that because I won't send out my knife again, its my problem/fault. At this point I just want to move on with this situation.

That aside, I want to say thanks for the relatively helpful and calm responses I've received and hopefully this will be neither my last nor my best CRK experience.

~ Bladenoobie1

 

[orixa]

I can see why this would bother the OP. I had a Spyderco Leafstorm with the same issue, (the Leafstorm used a similar pivot-bushing setup as the Sebenza)...I took the knife apart, polished the washers on both sides, flip them, then clean the blade and scales with soap and water. After reassembly it was 100% back to center, not sure if this helps but good luck!