Ever seen a James Morris(on) "Sebenza"?

I see the CRKT "Sebenza" just gives some different
feelings. I don´t know much about it I just run into
it a Ebay and put a bid on it.

Ted the frame is nylon and there is some steel at the
end of the locking and it looks like this:

ebs8.jpg


And the blade with this hole where the locker will
keep the blade in place when it´s open.

ebs9.jpg


It´s a bad quality knife but it´s a fun thing to play
with and it´s a little special and rare.

Thanks for your kind words guys.

Later

Jocke
 
This place has some kind of "brain trust" where knives are concerned! ;) I never expected to get this much info on what I thought would be a pretty obscure knife. Thatnks to all of you guys, geegee
 
I expressed my interest to geegee and the JM knife is in my pocket. :)

I should be able to post pictures sometime today. But my impressions are this, it doesn't match what I recall from the AG Russel catalog, and the handle/blade profile does look very similar to a large sebenza.

There are subtle differences though which I'll elaborate on when I get the picture up.

Just as a note, I understand we are not talking about a CRK knife, but it's interesting to trace the cross influences.
 
Here's a summary of differences as compared to a large sebenza with polished blade.:

Although the outline is very similar there are enough differences to be quite noticieable:

Stock is thinner, thumb cutout more like a classic but not as deep, thumb disk (which works pretty well), no pocket clip, there is a strip of blade that's bead blasted. It is just a bit wider, but with the thinner stock a bit lighter in weight.

It locks fine, though a full power opening jams the lock up hard, it doesn't open quite as well, I haven't taken it apart yet to clean/lube. It cuts well and has a pretty good blade bevel.

Overall it's a quite decent knife, I imagine when the first where sold, the asking price of $195 was probably justified.

Since then the market has moved on and you can get the Ti salsa or the Buck/Mayo for $100 and $185 respectively.

I'd put this knife quality wise approximately a step below the Ti Sala or Buck/Mayo.

For those interested, purely on quality I'd rank the Ti knives I have as:

1 - Sebenza
2 - Buck / Mayo
3 - Ti Salsa
4 - JM
5 - CRKT S2
 
Nylon locking bar...

No I won't swear here!:rolleyes:

I guess this was intended as a demo model and the 'real' one was to have a steel/Ti frame?

Oh and the BM 750 when you found a good one is a good knife! I'm the last person who you could call a BM fan and I genuinly think this Sebi copy is one of the best knives they ever made. It took a dozen or so until I found a good one and I am very happy with mine. Makes a great thrashing knife or throw away knife.

Never be a Benza in its wildest dreams, but at 1/3 the price is acceptable.

Getting my Large classic MM (6-50) fitted with a Devin Thomas stainless damask raindrop pattern blade next couple of months... YUM YUM!:D
 
Dave: Thanks for posting those pictures. I just returned from a trip, so I was quite interested to see them. FWIW, I did take the knife apart and lube it, as it was a little gritty. geegee
 
Thanks for the pictures Dave. They do look VERY similar. Seems like a pretty Cool knife.
 
That knife in the pics (Jim Matthes) looks just like a 1st Gen Sebbie (or the Sebbie 2000)...

--dan
 
The outline is the same but it's the refinement and detail that make the sebenza a sebenza.

That being said it's a solid and good functioning piece.
 
Jim Matthes is a recently-retired southern California maker. I would estimate he is in his late 60's; he only made knives for about 8 years, quitting after the death of his wife. He credits Wayne Clark as being his main teacher, and indeed some of his knives are very similar to Wayne's.
Mostly he worked with Ti handles and ATS-34 blades. Many of his designs are, shall we say, derivitive of other makers' designs, but his quality is good and he also made one-of-a-kind custom designs for customers. He did make a number of knives for A.G. Russell of a design that had the strong Wayne Clark influence.

I had not seen the Sebenza knockoff before, but I showed Chris a knife Jim had made that was closely patterned after his old Lock 45. Attached is a REALLY BAD picture of 8 of his knives, where very strong Terzuola, Clark, and Reeve influences can be seen in certain knives.
 

Attachments

  • jm8clips.jpg
    jm8clips.jpg
    22.3 KB · Views: 76
Thanks Matt. A few weeks ago, this knife was a big mystery. At the rate we're going with new information, by the end of the month we'll have the man's social security number! :D geegee
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top