Crkt sub 400 dollar range?

Comeuppance said:
How CRKT stays in business is entirely beyond me.

The most interesting thing about this is that, almost certainly, multiple people looked at the design and production process and said "yes, this is an excellent idea"
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CRKT was my first one-handed opener, a Kit Carson M-16 or M-21, I believe. I was traveling a lot a the time and had 2 of them stolen from suitcases going in and out of Brazil on different occasions. I liked them so much I'd just go buy another one. I still have the last one I bought, some 15 years ago. it wasn't until years later I realized what crappy steel it is (can't hold an edge for anything).

It's the brand that got me into knives, so maybe that's their cachet.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
Yeah, it makes me slightly nervous that they have a few upcoming designs that I'm cautiously looking forward to. I'd like to try the Seismic and the production version of the Caswell Karambit, the Provoke, but...CRKT.
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It's going to be bad, and you know it's going to be bad. Why do you torture yourself like this? We've been over this, and I'm very disappointed right now. I just...just go to your room. We'll talk later.
 
It may look like crap, but since it's manufactured by Lionsteel, it will almost certainly be high-quality crap. In my experience, Lionsteel is one of the premier quality knife manufacturers. Like all makers, I'm sure they have lemons, but they do make some truly outstanding knives.
 
Meh I just like the Blur lol

Also, if it’s made by Lionsteel using a steel that really only they use and made in their factory then doesn’t that make it a Lionsteel?
 
It looks terrible, when I first saw it I couldn't believe the price they were selling it at too. The ergos look great though!
 
Quiet said:
It's going to be bad, and you know it's going to be bad. Why do you torture yourself like this? We've been over this, and I'm very disappointed right now. I just...just go to your room. We'll talk later.
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:oops::oops::oops::oops:
:D

I figure I'll wait and see what reviews say before I put my money on the line. Looking at their upcoming lineup, they seem to be pushing higher quality materials and hopefully some higher quality manufacturing will come with it. I'm a sucker for weird, innovative designs, so the new Deadbolt lock and morphing karambit have me super curious.
 
rje58 said:
It may look like crap, but since it's manufactured by Lionsteel, it will almost certainly be high-quality crap. In my experience, Lionsteel is one of the premier quality knife manufacturers. Like all makers, I'm sure they have lemons, but they do make some truly outstanding knives.
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Well, this is really the crux of the matter for me. I like things that have names on them of the people who actually made them. It's why I like Emersons, and Olamics, and Zero Tolerance, and Benchmade, and, and, and. You know, quality knife companies whose products are made by people who work for them, there at those companies. CRKT knows their product is trash, and why they outsource high level knives to other companies only to turn around and slap their own name on it, I'll never understand. What pride of ownership is there? I mean, what does a CRKT fan feel about that? "Check out my beautiful CRKT Motley! It's so amazing! Well, I mean, no, it wasn't made by CRKT, that's true. What? Oh no, it wasn't made by anyone who works for them, nor was it designed by them, or even made in America where CRKT comes from. Huh, you know, you have a good point. Man, Lionsteel makes great knives, I'm going to need to get some more of them!"

For the record, it's the same for me with all these companies you see having their products made by We or Reate Knives (or another Chinese maker). I don't buy those knives. If I wanted a We/Reate Knife, I'd buy one.

P.S. Yes, I know CRKT doesn't actually produce ANY of their knives themselves, that actually continues to make my point.
 
Comeuppance said:
The most interesting thing about this is that, almost certainly, multiple people looked at the design and production process and said "yes, this is an excellent idea"
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This is exactly what leaped into my mind.

.18” thick + medium height grind, recurve, subpar steel for the price point, handle with too much shaping to be universally good in terms of ergos, and polarizing aesthetics.

This checks a lot of boxes that specifically narrow your market and generate poor reviews.
 
John_0917 said:
Also, if it’s made by Lionsteel using a steel that really only they use and made in their factory then doesn’t that make it a Lionsteel?
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True. Though it occurs to me that in this case rather than two entities getting their cut (Ken Onion, Lionsteel) three entities have to get their cut (Ken Onion, Lionsteel, CRKT). It probably means that, for no good reason, this knife will be more expensive than if Lionsteel just made it themselves.
 
Except that Lionsteel would be very unlikely to bring something like this to fruition themselves. Lionsteel has a strong emphasis on quality manufacturing, CRKT has a strong emphasis on marketing.

SpySmasher said:
True. Though it occurs to me that in this case rather than two entities getting their cut (Ken Onion, Lionsteel) three entities have to get their cut (Ken Onion, Lionsteel, CRKT). It probably means that, for no good reason, this knife will be more expensive than if Lionsteel just made it themselves.
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Quiet said:
Well, this is really the crux of the matter for me. I like things that have names on them of the people who actually made them. It's why I like Emersons, and Olamics, and Zero Tolerance, and Benchmade, and, and, and. You know, quality knife companies whose products are made by people who work for them, there at those companies. CRKT knows their product is trash, and why they outsource high level knives to other companies only to turn around and slap their own name on it, I'll never understand. What pride of ownership is there? I mean, what does a CRKT fan feel about that? "Check out my beautiful CRKT Motley! It's so amazing! Well, I mean, no, it wasn't made by CRKT, that's true. What? Oh no, it wasn't made by anyone who works for them, nor was it designed by them, or even made in America where CRKT comes from. Huh, you know, you have a good point. Man, Lionsteel makes great knives, I'm going to need to get some more of them!"

For the record, it's the same for me with all these companies you see having their products made by We or Reate Knives (or another Chinese maker). I don't buy those knives. If I wanted a We/Reate Knife, I'd buy one.

P.S. Yes, I know CRKT doesn't actually produce ANY of their knives themselves, that actually continues to make my point.
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This x 1,000.

Crkt doesn't make anything. They are a marketing company. This same thing went down with the hi-jinx. Knife of the year doesn't mean squat if you didn't design or make said knife and no one can get one (limited to 500). Then, the people who bought one try to flip it and realize the rest of the knife enthusiast community doesn't want a $500 crkt.

History keeps repeating itself with crkt. They haven't learned. Since they're still in business it would seem they don't care to learn. And with that, the will never be well accepted by most knife enthusiasts.
 
This is a classic case of I'd rather buy the original. To me actual Lionsteels have a much more clean and classy look to them. And you can get one for much less where I live.

I own a few CRKT's. And to me they are kind of gimmick knives. As their top models always have some gimmick to charge a premium for.
For example I have a M-21 and at the time being new to knives I really liked the double lock. Or I bought a used Home Front the gimmick is taking it apart easily without tools.

I guess the gimmick here is its made by Lionsteel?
 
Quiet said:
Well, this is really the crux of the matter for me. I like things that have names on them of the people who actually made them. It's why I like Emersons, and Olamics, and Zero Tolerance, and Benchmade, and, and, and. You know, quality knife companies whose products are made by people who work for them, there at those companies. CRKT knows their product is trash, and why they outsource high level knives to other companies only to turn around and slap their own name on it, I'll never understand. What pride of ownership is there? I mean, what does a CRKT fan feel about that? "Check out my beautiful CRKT Motley! It's so amazing! Well, I mean, no, it wasn't made by CRKT, that's true. What? Oh no, it wasn't made by anyone who works for them, nor was it designed by them, or even made in America where CRKT comes from. Huh, you know, you have a good point. Man, Lionsteel makes great knives, I'm going to need to get some more of them!"

For the record, it's the same for me with all these companies you see having their products made by We or Reate Knives (or another Chinese maker). I don't buy those knives. If I wanted a We/Reate Knife, I'd buy one.

P.S. Yes, I know CRKT doesn't actually produce ANY of their knives themselves, that actually continues to make my point.
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I actually feel like alot of the best designed knives out of WE, Kizer and Reate are the ones by third party designers. Kizer does collabs under the Kizer name but WE and Reate seem to be especially geared towards producing knives for companies that in all likelihood wouldn’t mind if you never knew WE built it.

I get what you’re saying about pride of ownership and definitely there is something funky about the CRKT fan who wants to buy a premium knife from them and so buys a LionsCRKTeel. Other knives like the Boos Blade Smoke or the Bodega Steelcrafts I do have some desire to own.

I just think of it as I am buying a WE knife by another designer. Like I may buy a Spyderco designed by Gayle Bradley. Maybe its because I am not partial to many of WE’s in house designs though.

Insipid Moniker said:
:oops::oops::oops::oops:
:D

I figure I'll wait and see what reviews say before I put my money on the line. Looking at their upcoming lineup, they seem to be pushing higher quality materials and hopefully some higher quality manufacturing will come with it. I'm a sucker for weird, innovative designs, so the new Deadbolt lock and morphing karambit have me super curious.
Click to expand...

You want awesome ambitious designs done disgrace? Crkt is your brand. They’ll always come out with another cutting edge mechanism to make you go “pleaaaase get it right this time, I don’t wanna spend 500$ to try this.” and without fail they will flub it.

Too bad I really think if they would just raise their prices just enough to do these designs justice they could have had a really good brand. As it is they have probably already spoiled their relationship with most knife enthusiasts.
 
I have no problem with CRKT being a "marketing company." Spyderco is one Golden, Colorado facility away from being a "marketing company." With Spyderco we all know the quality progression (Taiwan > US, Japan > PRC) and take that into account when deciding if a knife is worth the price. If CRKT operated along similar lines, they'd have no problem selling to knife enthusiasts.

In this case, it's exactly what they are doing. "Here is our Italian-made knife." And it's worked -- we knife enthusiasts are the ones who have noticed and care that it's made by Lionsteel rather than whatever unknown PRC factory most of their knives are made in. Furthermore, it's not uncommon for brands to create a "halo" product intended to showcase the top performance capabilities of their company even if that halo product is much higher quality and much more expensive than their normal products. Sometimes, they even sell these halo products at a loss. In their minds, the marketing value of having such a nice product in their catalog is worth more than actually making a profit on it.

The only thing that baffles me is why they chose such a bad-looking knife to be their halo.
 
I just don't think these are going to sell.

When I bought my first CRKT. I was pretty new to knives. I looked at many better made knives like Spyderco, Benchmade etc. And honestly it came down to price. At the time I just didnt understand enough to want to pay over $100 for a knife. I think a lot of CRKT owners are like me and first time buyers.

I think you have to understand who your target audience is even if your showcasing what your company can do.

To me IMHO this should be a $200 knife for a chance to sell even with its premium features. There's too many other excellent knives in this price range that have a excellent rep.
 
SpySmasher said:
I have no problem with CRKT being a "marketing company." Spyderco is one Golden, Colorado facility away from being a "marketing company." With Spyderco we all know the quality progression (Taiwan > US, Japan > PRC) and take that into account when deciding if a knife is worth the price. If CRKT operated along similar lines, they'd have no problem selling to knife enthusiasts.

In this case, it's exactly what they are doing. "Here is our Italian-made knife." And it's worked -- we knife enthusiasts are the ones who have noticed and care that it's made by Lionsteel rather than whatever unknown PRC factory most of their knives are made in. Furthermore, it's not uncommon for brands to create a "halo" product intended to showcase the top performance capabilities of their company even if that halo product is much higher quality and much more expensive than their normal products. Sometimes, they even sell these halo products at a loss. In their minds, the marketing value of having such a nice product in their catalog is worth more than actually making a profit on it.

The only thing that baffles me is why they chose such a bad-looking knife to be their halo.
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With no golden, spyderco would still be far from the marketing company that crkt is. Crkt doesn't care enough about the products they are marketing. Spyderco does in their foreign facilities. You left out Italy btw. Crkt's problem is not being able to operate as spyderco. That ship has sailed. They keep making crappy gimmick knives that are too expensive for what you get. Then, every once in a while they come out with a high end super expensive knife and expect us to forget about all the crap they have been marketing for decades.

It all comes down to this....crkt aren't knife people. They don't care . Bottom line is all they care about. And I guess it is working for them as a business, or they wouldn't still be around. For knife enthusiasts in the know? They are a joke of a company. I'd even dare to say sog laughs at them.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
Yeah, it makes me slightly nervous that they have a few upcoming designs that I'm cautiously looking forward to. I'd like to try the Seismic and the production version of the Caswell Karambit, the Provoke, but...CRKT.
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I hope you didn't miss out on the MSRP $750 CRKT Buy Tighe!

https://www.crkt.com/buy-tighe.html

It's a like a knife, but twice as good since it has 2 blades.
 
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