Crk's Factory sharpness

T

Turnerjustin401

Joined
Jun 27, 2015
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I ordered a small sebenza awhile back, and when I tested the sharpness it didn't really seem that sharp. When trying to shave a arm I had to apply a lot more pressure than I do with say the usual spyderco factory edge. I just thought they can't get every one hair popping sharp. Well I just received my large inkosi today, and I checked the sharpness. It was the exact same way. At least they seem to be consistent, at least between the two I bought. You would think for the price they could at least put a rather sharp edge on them, so I wouldn't have to touch up a brand new knife before I carry it. So I was wondering how sharp do your crk knives come from the factory?

Thanks
By the way the knife is awesome
 
I've had good luck in this department, especially with the 4 Insingos I've purchased brand new. They came insanely sharp, as did my large Inkosi.

My small Inkosi came pretty dull. Not terrible, but it definitely needed a touch up. My Mammoth Mnandi came so dull it couldn't cut printer paper. The dullest factory edge I've ever seen. I actually sent it back to CRK the day after I got it because it made me kinda angry, to be honest.

This is the one area where I feel CRK lags behind other manufacturers. For some reason their sharpening personnel and/or techniques are all over the board. It's just luck of the draw, sadly.

For what it's worth, every knife I've ever sent in for spa treatment has come back razor sharp. Maybe their new knife sharpeners are different than their spa treatment sharpeners. Not sure.
 
I have the same experience as Anarchy. Factory edges are Meh, but ones coming back from spa or warranty are very sharp.

One thing I will give them credit for is consistent edge grinds. At the end of the day, I'd rather have a perfectly ground edge, that needs a little stropping to bring up the sharpness, than a wonky uneven grind that is hair-popping. CRK makes very few mistakes when grinding edges, other than final sharpness, which most of us have the ability to resolve ourselves.
 
kidcongo said:
I have the same experience as Anarchy. Factory edges are Meh, but ones coming back from spa or warranty are very sharp.

One thing I will give them credit for is consistent edge grinds. At the end of the day, I'd rather have a perfectly ground edge, that needs a little stropping to bring up the sharpness, than a wonky uneven grind that is hair-popping. CRK makes very few mistakes when grinding edges, other than final sharpness, which most of us have the ability to resolve ourselves.
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+1

Usually a good run over the strop and they are good to go.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
A spyderco sharpmaker can touch up a CRK factory edge pretty well too. Or if you're looking to reprofile it into a more rigorous slicer, there are lots of good sharpening folks who can do that on the forums. Maybe I'll join them in offering my services some day.

I like to take the CRK factory bevel down just a bit, from the usual 20 degree edge to around 18 or maybe 17 depending on the knife, using a wicked edge, and bring it up to a very high polished finish. That's worked out really well for me.
 
Both my folders and all 4 fixed blades from CRK were "out of the box" sharp enough to be scary.
 
kidcongo said:
I have the same experience as Anarchy. Factory edges are Meh, but ones coming back from spa or warranty are very sharp.

One thing I will give them credit for is consistent edge grinds. At the end of the day, I'd rather have a perfectly ground edge, that needs a little stropping to bring up the sharpness, than a wonky uneven grind that is hair-popping. CRK makes very few mistakes when grinding edges, other than final sharpness, which most of us have the ability to resolve ourselves.
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Good point, Cody. I agree.
 
Thanks for the replies I'll probably touch it up on the sharpmaker or send it back for spa.What's the turnaround time for the spa?
 
I've experienced everything from razor sharp to barely sharper than a butter knife. For some reason, the UG's and CGG's I have, have all came razor sharp (and with extra-smooth actions). 99% of them have arrived very sharp, but not insanely sharp.
 
Anarchy84 said:
I've had good luck in this department, especially with the 4 Insingos I've purchased brand new. They came insanely sharp, as did my large Inkosi.

My small Inkosi came pretty dull. Not terrible, but it definitely needed a touch up. My Mammoth Mnandi came so dull it couldn't cut printer paper. The dullest factory edge I've ever seen. I actually sent it back to CRK the day after I got it because it made me kinda angry, to be honest.

This is the one area where I feel CRK lags behind other manufacturers. For some reason their sharpening personnel and/or techniques are all over the board. It's just luck of the draw, sadly.

For what it's worth, every knife I've ever sent in for spa treatment has come back razor sharp. Maybe their new knife sharpeners are different than their spa treatment sharpeners. Not sure.
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I agree with this. As long as it's even I'm good. I've gotten rather good at sharpening over the years and have my own edge on every knife I carry except for two that came super sharp from the maker. My sharpest knife ever received is my Oeser Native. My Madagascar Rosewood Small Sebenza came very sharp though.
 
I'll probably try the sharpmaker. I'm not to confident in my sharping ablities, especially on a knife that price. I'll probably be shaking, but I think I may give that a go. How would y'all go about touching up a new knife on the sharpmaker? I think I'll try it on the 40° setting. Do y'all know the factory bevel angle for the large inkosi?
 
Turnerjustin401 said:
I'll probably try the sharpmaker. I'm not to confident in my sharping ablities, especially on a knife that price. I'll probably be shaking, but I think I may give that a go. How would y'all go about touching up a new knife on the sharpmaker? I think I'll try it on the 40° setting. Do y'all know the factory bevel angle for the large inkosi?
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Why don't you try stropping it first before sharpening? Or is it really that dull? If so, then you really need to sharpen it on your SM...
 
Cover the edge with a sharpie to see where your sharpmaker is removing metal. Alternately, send it to me :)
 
To give another data point, my 6 new CRKs came only kinda sharp. All were competent at my EDC tasks right out of the box, but none were really sharp, or could push cut newsprint. To be fair, I don't think they were going for a push-cut edge.

And the first few I bought had some areas of the blade with angles of greater than 20 dps, so the sharpmaker wouldn't work well for a touch up. So I just started to reprofile new CRKs down to 12-15 dps, and then finish on the sharpmaker at 20 dps.

This isn't a slag on CRK. I don't generally stick with any factory edge for long. Usually the first sharpening involves a reprofiling to lower angles. I think knife companies in general send out obtuse edges because a great amount of clientele don't know how to sharpen a knife, and obtuse edges are less fragile, which means fewer angry customers with chipped/rolled blades.
 
Just my humble $0.2 but all my CRK's came with exceptional edges.

I guess "sharp" is a relative term, but I have always been happy with the factory edge that doesn't last more than a couple of days, maybe a week, depending on what I need to do...
 
Both my 21Large and Umnumzaan did come in quite sharp however would not be comparable to a wicked edge sharp. However I do appreciate that the bevels on both are very even not unlike other brands which do come with mismatch bevels. Prior to the wicked edge, the sharpmaker was the system that I used for sharpening all my knives. Just be careful when nearing to the point of the blade and not to overshoot, in order to avoid round it off.
 
None of my CRKs came sharp, spyderco would beat it hands down (southard and paramilitary 2).
Yeah it's a fine grind like mentioned.
 
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