First Sebenzas: impressions and a couple questions

[griff443]

Hi all,

So in the summer I decided to order my first CRK knives, a large 21 and a 25, directly from CRK and wait it out until mine were produced. Well they shipped last week and now they are here. First the 21:

I love almost everything about this knife. It is elegant and beautiful and feels really solid in the hand. I have a few problems with it though - not with the design, but with my individual piece. First of all it is not perfectly centered; I usually don't mind on cheaper knives, but am I wrong in feeling it should be dead centered when I spend $400 on a knife, especially given the way CRKs are advertised as having excellent tolerances and being exactingly built? Here's a pic to show how the centering is:



Could I send it back to CRK to have this remedied or would they say that this is acceptable? I am a bit OCD with blade centering, especially on more expensive ones.

Second of all the lockup is probably around 60%. I don't know if this is how the 21 is supposed to be, but most other frame locks of mine don't have such late lockup. Is this how they are supposed to be manufactured?

Here's a pic of the lockup:




Okay, with regard to the 25:

I really want to like the Sebenza 25; I love the looks of it, it is perfectly centered, and it indeed does feel like a bank vault when deployed. My central issue with it is that I have a huge amount of trouble deploying it one handed with my thumb. It seems that in order to apply force at the proper angle to bring the blade out, I need to position my hand so that my thumb no longer has enough range to bring it to its lockup position, and I have to reposition my hand to do so (hopefully that makes sense). It also appears to have late lockup, but I think that is due to the ball bearing being what makes contact with the blade tang.

One final thing with both of them is that I seem to want to push on the clip when deploying, and it moves laterally a little bit and scratches against the frame. Am I deploying it wrong, or is this to be expected?

I don't want to seem too harsh - I love the Sebenza and handling these has only strengthened my desire to acquire more; this is just a big investment for me and I want to know what I should be expecting.

 

[jstn]

I no longer own a Sebenza, but the one I did own was perfect. The 21 being off centered would bother me and I would send it in. A $400 knife that is touted as having great QC and tight tolerances should not be that off center IMO. They are great knives though and I would imagine CRK would fix you up. Hopefully some more knowledgeable members will chime in here.

 

[justsomedude]

I recommend loosening the pivot a bit. I don't have a 25 but I know over tightening my Umnumzaan can push the blade a little off center. This would also make it easier to open.

Edit: Sorry, after re-reading I realize the centering is off on the 21 and the 25 is too tight. I'd still say loosen the 25 and see what happens, but on the 21 I too would consider sending it in to CRK.

 

[Muaddib1116]

I have 6 CRK's, and none of them have perfect centering. That being said, if you get close enough to something there is no such thing as perfect, and the centering of my knives have a range, some of them damn near perfect. None of them rub, and while my picky self will always wish for them to be a little more "perfect", there's only one that's off enough that I might want to eventually contact CRK about.

That picture looks a little off-center, but even so, I would say that it probably has similar centering to my "worst". If it rubs at all, I would definitely contact CRK about it. Keep in mind that the tip is not always the best way to look at centering, because the grind isn't perfect either. I think the most accurate way is to hold the knife horizontally and look at the space between the flat of the blade and the non-lock scale. The gap should be the same near the tang and closer to the tip. If it's even and the tip is off-center, then it's the grind that is off. If it's not even, then it's the flats of the tang not being parallel to the center-line of the blade. Holding it up to the light helps.

As for the lock-up, that's perfectly normal in my experience. I have some that are later, and two that are only a hair earlier.

At first, I had some trouble with the sebenza's thumbstud. Are you having trouble only with the 25, or both? I use the nail of my thumb, not the meat. I wouldn't stress about the clip, it's not uber-stiff so it will flex a bit and rub on the scale. If it ever gets to the point that can't stand the wear, you can send it in for spa treatment.

 

[justsomedude]

Ya, the lock up looks fine from my experience. I have an Umnumzaan, a 21 and an Mnandi and the centering is perrrrrrrfect on all three, fwiw.

 

[Ernie1980]

The centering is a little off, they would fix that for you if it bothers you. But first I would mess with the pivot and maybe take it apart and lube it up. There might just be a little something in the pivot that is throwing it off.
As for the centering, CRK specs are between 50% and 75%, so yours is perfect!
Enjoy your new toys:thumbup:

 

[kaosu04]

+1 on not judging centering from the tip as you show in the picture. I don't think either of my sebenzas are centered. Not something that concerns me unless it is way off. If I were in your shoes I would simply wait until you have another reason to send it in like a spa treatment to address it.

My 25 was incredibly smooth. They do not have the same pivot system the 21 does and are meant for you to choose what torque you want like most knives. My 25 was easy to adjust to a point where it opened with the famous smooth hydraulic feeling all sebenzas have and with 0 blade play whatsoever. It is possible yours is simply too tight. Sebenzas also simply require a little bit of learning and adjusting to proper opening technique. Before too long it will be second nature.