-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Hollow Handles models
- Thread starter caine
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2013
- Messages
- 3,195
From my understanding, from watching those "Legendary Blade" videos, the making of the one peice knives was an entirely different process, involving a legacy operation in South Africa making the blanks, and a separate CRK operation in Idaho finishing the knives. It's not just a matter of asking the CNC computer to start spitting out OPKs again. They are cool, and they made thousands of them, so they are not that hard to come by. Ultimately I think the hollow handle is more novelty than need, and the functionality of the knives as cutting tools suffered from the one piece design more than anything. I would rather see CRK offer an expanded range of fixed handle knives of new designs, rather than re-introduce the one-peice range. Would really love to see more outdoors type knives from them.
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2008
- Messages
- 5,777
The machine shop in Durban that Chris used to produce all the blanks is no more. (the owner retired)
Also I have to say that without Chris to actually set up the process, reproducing them is going to be hard.
I very much doubt that you will ever see them made again.
Also I have to say that without Chris to actually set up the process, reproducing them is going to be hard.
I very much doubt that you will ever see them made again.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2005
- Messages
- 1,806
I have a few of the OPKs and was collecting them at the time they were discontinued a number of years back. I'm no machinist and know very little about CNC work, but can really appreciate the work that went into creating them.
My favorites are the Sable line and the Skinner (aka Ubejane). What initially drew me to them, not knowing CRK, was the look of the sheath setup for the Aviator/Shadow III models. I was looking for an old Buck Nemo dive knife (still want one) that had this awesome leg sheath and thought these were a vague homage in some way to that rig.
I shouldn't say this out loud, but think the OPKs are underrated and am surprised the US manufactured knives do not command a higher price for what you are getting.
My favorites are the Sable line and the Skinner (aka Ubejane). What initially drew me to them, not knowing CRK, was the look of the sheath setup for the Aviator/Shadow III models. I was looking for an old Buck Nemo dive knife (still want one) that had this awesome leg sheath and thought these were a vague homage in some way to that rig.
I shouldn't say this out loud, but think the OPKs are underrated and am surprised the US manufactured knives do not command a higher price for what you are getting.
Compared to an original Lile, the Chris Reeve handle capacity is actually quite small, especially because it is narrower from overly thick walls... Making this worse is that the buttcap has thick inner edges without much relief, which pushes things down and makes packing the internal space very inconvenient. I could never pack anything really useful in my Jereboam Mk II, and whatever was there was hard to get out, while if you remove the compass, a Maglight AAA with twenty matches around it, and many other things can be put in the Lile handle...
Another thing was that the longer chopping blades were all quite narrow, and this, combined with the sabre grind, meant that chopping with them often produced vicious glancing blows as the knife bounced from the sides of the cut...: Relatively poor choppers, and getting worse fast as the piece to cut gets thicker...
Finally the edges were 0.040" thick at the base of the secondary grind, getting way thicker towards the point, and this is just too thick.
The handles and the knurling were comfortable, and, contrary to what you keep hearing, they didn't require any gloves even under heavy use... Anybody you see wrapping the handle in rubber you know has never used them...
Because of the thick tube walls in the handle, my Jereboam seemed incredibly heavy for its volume, and that felt way worse than the actual weight figure indicated: I would have guessed at least 5 ounces more than the quoted figure of 17 ounces for my Jereboam... It still felt 5 ounce heavier whatever the figure is...
I would be curious in a new run only if a wider bladed model came out...
Gaston
Another thing was that the longer chopping blades were all quite narrow, and this, combined with the sabre grind, meant that chopping with them often produced vicious glancing blows as the knife bounced from the sides of the cut...: Relatively poor choppers, and getting worse fast as the piece to cut gets thicker...
Finally the edges were 0.040" thick at the base of the secondary grind, getting way thicker towards the point, and this is just too thick.
The handles and the knurling were comfortable, and, contrary to what you keep hearing, they didn't require any gloves even under heavy use... Anybody you see wrapping the handle in rubber you know has never used them...
Because of the thick tube walls in the handle, my Jereboam seemed incredibly heavy for its volume, and that felt way worse than the actual weight figure indicated: I would have guessed at least 5 ounces more than the quoted figure of 17 ounces for my Jereboam... It still felt 5 ounce heavier whatever the figure is...
I would be curious in a new run only if a wider bladed model came out...
Gaston
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2002
- Messages
- 7,265
Did you weigh your knife Gaston or are you just speculating that it was 5oz heavier than the stated weight? Just trying to make sure I am clear in this area as a data point.. Guessing, while useful when you don't have the tools required to measure is still just a guess that is almost completely worthless in the review you posted in this thread.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2013
- Messages
- 3,195
I think you are misunderstanding Gaston, Bhyde. I think he means the knife feels heavier than it is due to its abnormal balance point. That's what I got from his comment, that the knife felt about 5 oZ heavier than it actually weighed.
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2002
- Messages
- 7,265
Perhaps that is the case- It would be easy to misinterpret this given the tone of his post and of course, one of the other posts he had posted in this particular sub.
nyefmaker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2008
- Messages
- 6,257
I have had a couple dozen OPK and never had the issues mentioned. I have never had a Lile, so can't compare handle size. I have been able to put a fire starter in the handle or a small Swiss Army knife. I never intended or thought I could put everything including the kitchen sink in it either. I have chopped with them also. I was able to chop down a 6" diameter ironwood tree with my shadow III. Took awhile and the only damage was a cut lanyard, which bummed me out. I have had nearly All the OPK and deeply miss the ones that I have sold. Great Line that I would welcome their return.
Yes that is what I meant. The quoted weight is 17 ounces, and it does seem to match this actual weight comparing to other knives. The really big difference is, I always carry fixed blade knives inside the pants, no matter what size, and the "slimness" of the CR knife makes it seem very "dense" and uncomfortable to carry that way: Because of its slimness, and especially the lack of a real guard, the whole package wants to "sink" into the pants compared to even much heavier knives that have guards... Hanging from the belt loop, this perceived "heaviness" of the Jereboam might be less of an issue...: Sorry if I did not go into detail explaining this...
The balance point of the Jereboam is about 1/4" into the blade, while the Lile "Mission" is 3/4", and the Lile Sly II is basically guard-balanced.
The Sly II is closer in size and blade width to the Jereboam, so in theory the 1/4" blade-heavy balance point of the Jereboam is quite superior for the same size. In practice there are mitigating factors in favour of the Sly II...:
In weight the Sly II is -supposedly- around 15 ounces (but it feels like less: You cannot count on the Lile figures because the "Mission" is quoted as 20 and is in fact 16.9), so barely lighter by 2 ounces than the Jereboam: They were both initially equal in secondary edge grind thickness, both having a 0.040" edges. On 2" diameter or less the Jereboam was definitely a better chopper, while on 3" and above the ability to hit into previous cuts, and the lack of sabre grind "bouncing", made the Sly II about equal, but safer and more predicable. There is a caveat that makes the Sly II better than it would seem as a chopper:
There are two ways to chop with this kind of "marginal" chopping knife: 1-Swinging the too light blade with a loose wrist: Low effectiveness but comfortable. Or 2-Hitting close to the guard with a locked wrist, bringing the weight of the arm into the cut: Far more effective and deeper-biting, especially when the knife is basically too light to begin with (well under 20 ounces).
The Sly II is far safer hitting close to the hand because of its large guard... This protects the fingers very well, while the almost absence of guard on the Chris Reeve Jereboam makes it dangerous to use by hitting close to the hand, and this leaves the hand unprotected when the knife does bounces "out" because of the saber grind...: This hand protection from the guard is a big issue, since there is often protruding branches or rocks nearby, and the Sly II has a very large guard despite two ounces less weight... (This is another reason why the CR feels so "heavy")
The flat-ground Sly II was easier to have professionally re-ground to 0.020" at the edge than the hollow grind on the Jereboam (and I guess similarly thinning the Jereboam would have had a less obvious positive effect, unless you raised the primary grind line, changing the whole knife). After that thinning was done, the chopping performance of the Sly II got much better, and while now equal in branches under 3", in thicker branches it was now much better than the CR, owing the sabre grind bouncing issue...
A thing to remember is that thinning the edge from 0.040" to 0.020" on a knife over 20 ounces will usually have a relatively modest effect on its chopping performance, since the blade weight/balance is there to drive the edge into the wood, even if the edge is 0.040" thick... But on knives that are really a bit too light for chopping, say 14 to 18 ounces, and balanced close to the guard, the effect of edge thinning is just dramatic, especially on a flat ground blade...: The penetration in the wood is much greater...
Note I am not saying the Chris Reeve one piece knives are poor knives (although the edges were too thick). It's just that the narrow handle capacity, narrow blades and lack of a serious guard make them less useful to me. (I also prefer stainless steel.)
I find the whole notion of strength from the one piece concept to be more of a psychological factor than actually useful: In reality, I suspect a separate tube handle can be made thinner and more capacious, and it will not transmit vibrations, despite being thinner, precisely because it is a separate part damped by the "transition" between parts isolated by resin or soldering. To be fair, the one piece Chris Reeve handle also did not transmit any vibration, quite unlike other full tang knives I have tried, so I don't know if its walls were so thick because of that...
Gaston
Last edited:
