CRKT M21 / Tactical Flipper and Thumb Stud

C

CanDo

Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
913
Hi guys,
I religously EDC a Leatherman Wave right now, but am looking for a dedicated EDC/Outdoors/SD blade. I'm looking for a solid, but relatively cheap knife with a 4" blade, and have a couple questions.

On the CRKT M21 or the tactical version, will some one please fill me in:
Is there some sort of assist mechanism? I see it is supposed to open with the flipper easily, but is that true? Is it gravity, spring, or just the leverage of the flipper? Looks like a great feature if working with gloves or whatnot, but I really want the ability to open like an axis lock or assisted thumb stud. So first, can this knife be opened with the thumb stud? If so, can/does the flipper catch on your hand while opening with it? Is either version assisted while opening this way?

To anyone who owns the normal and tactical: is there a reason you prefer one or the other?

Thanks very much for the help!

P.S. Any and all suggestions for a 4" folder with sturdy lock in the 50-130 price range are welcomed!
 
Its the leverage. I have used flippers and the axis lock on Benchmade, I like the axis better.
 
No, the thumb stud is very hard to use. The carson flipper opens the knife very well, i don't even find a problem with not being able to use a thumb stud. When I first got it i thought it was assisted opening, but it's just incredibly easy to open. I like the knife, but it's my bad luck knife, somehow I've closed fingers on my left hand in it 2x. Nothing remotely close has ever happened with any of my other blades. I'm thinking it might be a combination of user error and the AutoLAWKS. That being said, if I ever get over my now heightened hesitation of using that knife, it's a great knife.
 
Thank you, Joe and Smash, for your input. Any more is welcomed.
Just to clarify, can you open the blade with your thumb a crack ( Less than 30 degrees ) and simultaneously flick your wrist to open it without the flipper getting in the way?

Has anyone used this knife for a year so? Could you speak to it's durability?

A slightly random aside to anyone who may have one: is the CS Recon 1's edge length close to the 4" advertised blade length?
 
Well, i haven't owned it very long, and I'm very hesitant to carry it due to my "history" with it.

As for flipping, yes it can be done. It's hard to just push on the thumb stud as it's flush with the handle, but with a wrist flick it's doable. But, I'm still going to hold to the fact that it opens incredibly smoothly with the flipper and that's how it's designed. It's effortless to unconsciously flip it open, but when you use the thumbstud you tend to rub different parts of the knife (at least I do).
 
The M21 is one of my favorite knives and opening quickly is not a problem. No springs or assist is required. The only problem is that the AutoLAWKS locking system can cause the lock button to nip one's index finger every now and then.

I undersrand CRKT has a black tactical version (the M18) available and of course there's the M16-14LE with the tanto blade, which also is a beautifully crafted knife.

Unfortunately, none of these knives come with a razor sharp blades but, rather, what is called a "working" edge, so don't start trying to shave your arm. At the same time, don't start fingering the blade too much or you may end up needing a band-aid.

P.S. -- Forget the thumb studs. They're useless.
 
Ok this one has double flippers, extremely easy and very fast to flip open. It will wave open out of pocket readily and easily.
The blade is not so sharp, I ran it on spyderco sticks and got it to just barely shaving sharp. This blade is not going to easily get to a very sharp edge like a spyderco or emerson would for instance. I have the black model and the coating on the handles is too slippery for my tastes. I once had a CRKT double flipper with the camo color (I thinkw as same knife) and it gripped much better but this was some time ago. The push forward lock is small but most workable.
For the money it is a real good value. I used the camo version I had for years as a beater opening packages etc and it held up well but would take a better edge it seems from my memory.
Overall a more than decent knife.
 
The M21 is a great knife for the price. opens easily with the flipper or with a start and a flick of the wrist. I don't like assisted openers for a couple of reasons, over time gunk gets in the action and slows it down and the biggest reason is that sooner or later the spring will break. The m21 i had went to a friend of mine who could mess up an anvil in a sandpit with a rubber hammer and after close to 2 years the knife is doing fine. later,ahgar
 
The flipper works very very well on the large M21 because of the weight of the blade.
Like nearly every liner-lock, the only thing keeping the blade closed is the ball-bearing divot system.
The flipper allow you to free the blade from the ball-divot and gravity or wrist action does the rest.

On my old M21 (traded awhile back) I did notice that the grooves on the flipper were alittle too aggressive and tore my thumb's skin alittle....the thumbstuds were much rougher than necessary too.

But it is a very good knife design and I really liked it.

Good luck,
Allen
 
One reason the blades may be difficult to sharpen is that these knives have a chisel edge, which means you really sharpen only one side. If you try to sharpen both sides, you'll just make things worse. I'm still trying to figure out how best to sharpen these kinds of knives, but the Emerson website says they're the most efficient edge and are the easiest to sharpen. The trick is, you have to know how to sharpen them. Oddly, the sharpener that CRKT sells doesn't sharpen these knives at all. The angle seems to be wrong. I hear the blade scraping the rod, but the knife just doesn't sharpen. I suspect it's designed to keep the blade at a "working" edge only.

If anyone has any info on this, I'd like to hear it. Thanks!

crkt_slidesharp_more.jpg


CRKT's Slidesharp will sharpen most knives, but it seems to have
problems sharpening chisel edged knives.
 
There may have been a change but my M21 did not have a chisel edge it had a conventional V edge. I hope they haven't changed, I'm not a big fan of the chisel edge. ahgar
 
All,
Thank you for answering all of my questions! You've really helped a lot.

~CanDo
 
Well, come clean are you going to pull the trigger or what? We gots to know,ahgar
 
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