For all the naysayers who said it wouldn't work

I'm not the OP but I will say the tone in this thread is definitely staying on the high road. :thumbup:

I am reading these posts and smiling, thinking it is one of those glass half-empty/glass half-full situations. Does very high standards of precision imply parts should be kept together as originally assembled, or that you should be able to disassemble two dozen Sebs, stir the parts randomly, and reassemble two dozen safe, reliable knives? :D

One thought, though, on this:

The fact that all parts of CRK knives are manufactured to 0.0005" tolerances ensures that each part is so close to identical to the next, all of those points will be virtually identical on all sebenzas.
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I would edit it slightly so that it read "...tolerances make it likely that each part..." - I am from Missouri when it comes to words like "ensure." ;)
 
JNewell said:
Does very high standards of precision imply parts should be kept together as originally assembled, or that you should be able to disassemble two dozen Sebs, stir the parts randomly, and reassemble two dozen safe, reliable knives? :D
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Sebenza and Mnandi parts are made to as high of tolerances as possible using state-of-the-art production machining, and THEN specific parts are custom tweeked on a per-knife basis to insure that the fit is perfect. As a result, parts should be kept together as originally manufactured by CRK.

Two examples of this perfect fit:
  • Lockbar engagement between 50% and 75% -- no other manufacturer using the Reeve Integral Lock (some folks call this "frame lock") system keeps a spec this tight with the blade / lockbar bar angle so shallow (the more shallow, the more secure . . .). If you swap blades between Sebenzas, you may get lucky, but will very likely observe lock engagement being out-of-spec.
  • No side/side blade play: When the pivot is properly cleaned and lubed and pivot pin fully tightened, the unlocked blade falls with slight resistance. (The slight resistance is due to the viscosity of the thin layer of lube, not metal-to-metal rubbing.)
Extraordinary engineering. I personally hate to see people throw away that hard-fought workmanship by blade-swapping.
 
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Just to give you guys an idea of how exact these tolerances are (if in fact they are .0005''). The average human hair (also piece of paper) is 4 thousandths of an inch thick, which is .004''. CRK tolerances are 10x smaller than that. In other words, slice a piece of paper along the edge 9 times into 10 equal slices of paper. One of those slices is the amount of error in your CRK knife. It is unbelievable. Anyone who is involved in manufacturing or machining will instantly realize why these knives cost +$300
 
Civility: One of the reasons I love this section of the forum. You guys rock. . . :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
May not be great analogy, but way back when, the renowned bicycle component manuufacturer Campagnolo used to to sort the bearings it used to an insane tolerance--sorry don't recall the exact number. So the bearings were matched sets--not okay to mix. To this day my vintage Campy stuff is amazingly smooth.
 
cmichael said:
Oh yeah, I almost forgot... I was a little disappointed that my new knife didn't come with the blue cloth like my Insingo did. I thought this was standard on all models. Is it not?? Anyway, the shot without the blue cloth is showing both knives' lockup pre-swap.


I got my new Large Sebenza few day ago without the blue cloth, Call CRK, they send me the blue cloth, got it today is nice fit, wrap it the knife and put in the box, CRK is top notch customer service.
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My new Umnumzaan did'nt come with a cloth either.
 
KeithAM said:
May not be great analogy, but way back when, the renowned bicycle component manuufacturer Campagnolo used to to sort the bearings it used to an insane tolerance--sorry don't recall the exact number. So the bearings were matched sets--not okay to mix. To this day my vintage Campy stuff is amazingly smooth.
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I remember my Campy Super Record components from the late 70's -- amazing stuff!
 
I miss my old Campy hubs almost as much as some of the CRKs I've foolishly parted with over the years.:(


;)
 
Medic1210 said:
The fact that all parts of CRK knives are manufactured to 0.0005" tolerances ensures that each part is so close to identical to the next, all of those points will be virtually identical on all sebenzas.
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It is true that the tolerances are that tight, but as FOOJ said a few posts after me:

Fooj said:
...THEN specific parts are custom tweeked on a per-knife basis to insure that the fit is perfect.....
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This is where the key differences come into the knife. With those tweaks each knife becomes different then any other.

I am only recently learning all of the things going into making a good solid framelock from one of our local makers that takes Chris Reeve fit and finish etc as the standard to be measured against (note he is doing it all by hand). It is far more difficult then having pieces manufactured to close tolerances and have them slapped together and they will fit perfect. Those tweaks make all the difference.

The advice given about phoning Chris Reeve is great. He can explain what I am trying to explain much better then I can (it seems I lose some of what I am trying to say in translation).

On another note, owning a large Insingo I can say I would love one with micarta (if I could afford it).
 
Well, hopefully we can all get what we want directly from CRK in the near future. I wouldn't mind having a nice wood inlay with polished blade, but that may never come. In my defense, I did try to go the proper route by contacting CRK directly after Jan 1 to inquire about a Micarta Inlay, and was told they weren't set up to offer the Insingo in different options than offered by knifeart. No sense in arguing or debating the rationale behind that statement, but I don't understand it. At any rate, I did what I had to do to get the knife I wanted. What can I say?? I'm an impatient man... ;) I did wait the month and a half from when I originally planned to do this until January 1 when I thought I could buy one direct, but alas, it is what it is. I'm happy with my unique Insingo. ;)
 
You're a good man Mike, and I think this has been a healthy discussion. I also think that since (IMO) both viewpoints have been honestly presented and responses have been made, it might be a good idea to go ahead and close the thread before anyone jumps in with "I know you are but what am I?" type comments.

Take care buddy.

-Steve
 
Interesting discussion.To all you guys that did not get a cloth with your folding knife go back to the dealer you bought it from and find out why the cloth was not sent with your knife.Every new folding knife that is sent out of our factory has one.You should also get an Allen key.Lock up is 50 -75% the more the safer.
 
Chris Reeve said:
Interesting discussion.To all you guys that did not get a cloth with your folding knife go back to the dealer you bought it from and find out why the cloth was not sent with your knife.Every new folding knife that is sent out of our factory has one.You should also get an Allen key.Lock up is 50 -75% the more the safer.
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Interesting, i've also got a couple that had the cloth missing. Just never gave it to much thought until reading this.
 
I assume it would only apply to relatively recent knives, but I have no idea when the blue cloths started replacing the tissue paper. Obviously a unique graphic from 2008 isn't going to have a blue cloth in the box. :)
 
Shady dealers taking out the cloths and selling them separately lol...
 
I wouldn't consider knifeart.com a shady dealer. I'm sure the cloth missing was a simple mistake or oversight.
 
Medic1210 said:
I wouldn't consider knifeart.com a shady dealer. I'm sure the cloth missing was a simple mistake or oversight.
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Seems odd all of them are missing the cloth and the cloth comes inside the box so they are going out of there way to take it out. I bought my first Seb from Knifeart as well and I trust them but something is off.
 
Yea CRK is probalby the most meticulous and well known for how they get the
details right. I woulcd be hard pressed to believe that they are sending out knives without the cloths. Theres a post that Chris posted stating that there
should be a cloth in every box.
 
kawr said:
Seems odd all of them are missing the cloth and the cloth comes inside the box so they are going out of there way to take it out. I bought my first Seb from Knifeart as well and I trust them but something is off.
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Not sure where the "all are missing" part is coming from. I bought both my Sebs from Knifeart. One had the cloth, the other didn't. Both had a Knifeart patch inside the box. I'm sure if I get the urge to press the issue with Knifeart, they'll send me a blue cloth and an apology for overlooking it's absence. Honestly, I really don't care. I don't need two cloths, and really don't see using my first one anyway.
 
I'd be amazed if any authorized CRK dealer is going to the trouble to remove the cloth from a box that has a +/- $400 or more knife inside...remember that the cloth is very recent and many dealers have knives that pre-date when the cloth started to be included...also consider that CRK may have had a period after they started using the blue cloths when they ran out and had to go back to using the tissue paper.
 
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