Thanks to CRKT I have these Ken Onion Ripple Aluminum
shown here with a standard 91mm Victorinox SAK (Swiss Army Knife)
As someone has said - Ken Onion design and IKBS (Ikoma Korth Ballbearing System) in an affordable knife has to be something special.
In more typical company -
Closed
The Ripple Aluminum differ from the original CRKT Ken Onion Ripple (link to review).
These (obviously) have aluminum handles/scales, and therefore are liner-locks -
instead of the steel handles and frame-locks of the original Ripples.
Locks -
Lock details -
The liner-locks are well put together.
These are IKBS ball-bearing race pivots, with a very definite ball-bearing detent hole -
so the flipper action is very positive and authoritative.
However I disassembled one and I have to report it is definitely NOT something to be done in the field - unlike the CRKT Ikoma Sampa (link) that I reviewed previously -
This time the ball-bearing races are set in the liners, and there wasn't that much grease to hold them in place:
In fact some of the ball bearings fell out of place -
see highlight red circle, and inside the pivot hole.
Fortunately I was being careful and working on a contained surface,
so I think I managed to retain all of them - when I put the knife back together I would pack the ball bearings with grease to help keep them in place.
I have many knives that I have never disassembled - and they have continued to work fine for years.
I can't think of many reasons why I would want to disassemble this knife other than for this review -
so it's not really a problem -
but one should be aware of the way the ball-bearing races are used -
and be very careful during dis-assembly.
The steel is 8Cr14MoV at 58-9 HRc perhaps not quite as good as the more premium Acuto+ in the all steel Ripples - but it is quite serviceable I have read it is similar to AUS-8.
With the low street price hovering around $30 delivered for Ripple Aluminum this is really good value for money for a Ken Onion designed and IKBS pivot system knife.
I've run out of picture allowance -so will continue in the next post.
--
Vincent
http://picasaweb.com/UnknownVincent?showall=true
http://UnknownVincent.Shutterfly.com
http://UnknownVT.Shutterfly.com
http://UnknownVT.multiply.com/photos

shown here with a standard 91mm Victorinox SAK (Swiss Army Knife)
As someone has said - Ken Onion design and IKBS (Ikoma Korth Ballbearing System) in an affordable knife has to be something special.
In more typical company -


Closed


The Ripple Aluminum differ from the original CRKT Ken Onion Ripple (link to review).
These (obviously) have aluminum handles/scales, and therefore are liner-locks -
instead of the steel handles and frame-locks of the original Ripples.
Locks -

Lock details -

The liner-locks are well put together.
These are IKBS ball-bearing race pivots, with a very definite ball-bearing detent hole -
so the flipper action is very positive and authoritative.
However I disassembled one and I have to report it is definitely NOT something to be done in the field - unlike the CRKT Ikoma Sampa (link) that I reviewed previously -

This time the ball-bearing races are set in the liners, and there wasn't that much grease to hold them in place:

In fact some of the ball bearings fell out of place -

see highlight red circle, and inside the pivot hole.
Fortunately I was being careful and working on a contained surface,
so I think I managed to retain all of them - when I put the knife back together I would pack the ball bearings with grease to help keep them in place.
I have many knives that I have never disassembled - and they have continued to work fine for years.
I can't think of many reasons why I would want to disassemble this knife other than for this review -
so it's not really a problem -
but one should be aware of the way the ball-bearing races are used -
and be very careful during dis-assembly.
The steel is 8Cr14MoV at 58-9 HRc perhaps not quite as good as the more premium Acuto+ in the all steel Ripples - but it is quite serviceable I have read it is similar to AUS-8.
With the low street price hovering around $30 delivered for Ripple Aluminum this is really good value for money for a Ken Onion designed and IKBS pivot system knife.
I've run out of picture allowance -so will continue in the next post.
--
Vincent
http://picasaweb.com/UnknownVincent?showall=true
http://UnknownVincent.Shutterfly.com
http://UnknownVT.Shutterfly.com
http://UnknownVT.multiply.com/photos