CRKT Crawford/Kasper Folder...opinions?

H

headroom

Joined
Nov 10, 2007
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176
Happy NewYear all,

Have been unable to find one of these Crawford/Kasper folders to handle...also seems to be getting difficult to find them for sale anywhere. The design intrigues me, but without handling the knife, I am reluctant to take a flyer on this one without a bit more input. I understand it is no longer being manufactured, no?

Lil hep appreciated...
 
My buddy has the small and the large one...they feel great in the hand and seem to be quite well made. The larger one is black I believe and the coating isn't that great though. He prefers the larger one, I prefer the smaller one...guess it is a matter of hand size and taste. You can pick these knives up very cheap right now...make sure you don't overspend and you should be happy with them.
 
I have both the zytel handled and the all aluminum handle. In the large models. The cheaper zytel handled one has aus-6 steel and the other aus-8 steel.
They are copies of the custom knife and it was designed to be the ultimate defensive folder.(the custom) I had the zytel model first and when they discontinued the pro model with it's all metal handle, I jumped and bought it as well. They are well made for CRKT knives and open fast, with an excellent blade shape(big, wide and pointy) and the handle is very secure. Mine both came shaving sharp and IMO were great values at less than 40 and 60 dollars. Lock-up with their liner locks is spot on, plus they have the manual CRKT safety. I read an article in Tactical Knives once about the zytel handled model and the author repeatedly stabbed it full power into a tree trunk with no damage to the knife, or loss of grip due to the well designed handle.
 
I bought this one a few months ago as part of a package deal with some other knives. I like it a lot. It is very sharp, very smooth, functions well and feels good in the hand. If I had to find a complaint it is a little bit heavy. You can get these for not much $$ and you will get a quality knife for the price.
 

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One online place selling them had the blade steel listed as 420J2 ?

Another had it listed as Aus6.

:confused:


Not a bad looking knife at all , I am just real bored of zytel.
 
A little off topic, but SMKW has the CRKT Lake Signature on sale for $24.99, free
postage. It's a very nice deal! AUS8 blade.

CR7103.jpg
 
The egros for my size hands (small/medium with respect to gloves) are perfect. LOVE this thing, especially in custom form.
 
It was my first CRKT (and first that my fiancee bought me). Still love it even though I have many more better material knives. There is a reason Tactical Knives still uses it as a masthead. Just sad I never got the all steel one.
 
rebeltf said:
One online place selling them had the blade steel listed as 420J2 ?

Another had it listed as Aus6.

:confused:


Not a bad looking knife at all , I am just real bored of zytel.
Click to expand...

I read that CRKT went from using AUS 6 in the blade to 420J2, without any announcement.
And there's no marking on the knives to distinguish which one used which steel.

Big, well made, inexpensive folder. Too heavy IMO for EDC.
And no 420J2 blades for me, thanks.

That stuff is handle or liner material at best as far as I'm concerned.
 
I got one. Nice design and a small fit and finish issue on mine.

Would make for a good user knife if it wasn't 420J2. Sadly, it is 420J2.

Didn't know better at the time. Oh well, live and learn.
 
I have four of them, two large and two small.
One large is the Professional Model with the aluminum scales and AUS8 blade.
The other is the Zytel Model with AUS6.
One small is the "Tactical" model with the black blade.
The other small is a miniature of the second one listed.

I love them. The large are too big for EDC in my work environment (office work). The small ones are okay size-wise in anything but my suits.

REALLY sharp out of the box. Great ergonomics for me. I can "snap" open the large ones.

I have no experience with the new steel as the newest one of these I have is at least two years old, but I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.
 
Gerber and CRKT both reserve the right to change specifications without notice, and both have done so in the most niggardly fashion. Nothing on the box, nothing on the steel. There were a lot of people selling CRKT products on eBay using the OLD specifications. The least they could do is punch it into the steel.
 
i have had a few CRKT kaspers/kasper pro's, i prefer the kasper pro due to the '8A but the std one isnt bad, they are remarkably close dimensionally to a crawford kasper, i liked the CRKT version so well i now have 2 kaspers & a perfigo.

do watch the liner lock on any CRKT, they are not the best, i haver had LL issues with 2 of my CRKT kaspers, CRKT replaced them both for free FWIW.

it seems like any kasper designed knife fits my hand very well, & i think the CRKT versions of his work are all good knives (i include the polkawski designed CRKT companion on this list as its designed by kasper too FWIW, its is with the addition of a custom sheath one heckuva value as far as a SD fixed blade goes, as good as knives costing 3X the price or more) the only con being imho the weak LL.

for the $$ a pretty good folder imho.
 
headroom said:
Happy NewYear all,

Have been unable to find one of these Crawford/Kasper folders to handle...also seems to be getting difficult to find them for sale anywhere. The design intrigues me, but without handling the knife, I am reluctant to take a flyer on this one without a bit more input. I understand it is no longer being manufactured, no?

Lil hep appreciated...
Click to expand...

Early on I bought one back when I thought CRKT made good knives. I was very disappointed in mine- the lock was not secure and I never felt safe using the knife. Maybe I had a bad copy. I sold it a couple of years ago.

Bill D.
 
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