Inkosi vs. the 25

dkblade said:
Still just stuck with the trusty 21 and don't think CRK will ever come out with a better knife and I'm fine with that....they made a virtually perfect knife with the 21! I guess if I had to choose I'd take a large Inkosi with some sort of inlay...but I am concerned about those washer pockets because it really is just inviting dirt and grit onto the blade tang.
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I was really concerned with this as well. Even sent CRK an email to see if the exposed pockets would be filled in (like they are on the Small Inkosi) prior to large scale production, but never even received a response. Went ahead and bought an early release Large Inkosi anyway, and I'm so glad I did. I'm happy to report that I haven't experienced any contamination of the exposed pockets after 3 weeks of EDC, even after using it to pry up weeds from the dirt.

I will say that the Large Inkosi benefitted greatly from my initial cleaning / relubing. Moreso than any knife I've cleaned before. For some reason it came from the factory with almost no grease on the washers, and they were kind of dirty (black smudges from dirty fingers all over the bronze washers). After I cleaned and lubed it I couldn't believe how smooth it became. The smoothest CRK I've ever handled.

I still love my 21's, but the Large Inkosi has quickly become my favorite.
 
An update on the large Inkosi over the Sebenza 25 was supposed to be a groove in the tang for detent ball to slide into. My new large Inkosi doesn't have it. Did they silently revert back to the 25 design or is my knife defective?
 
Homo habilis said:
An update on the large Inkosi over the Sebenza 25 was supposed to be a groove in the tang for detent ball to slide into. My new large Inkosi doesn't have it. Did they silently revert back to the 25 design or is my knife defective?
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The groove in the blade tang on my Large Inkosi is pretty deep and very noticeable. When the ceramic ball falls in there it makes a satisfying click, and feels rock solid.

For what it's worth, mine is from Blade Show. Did you buy yours recently? Can you post a photo of your blade tang?

 

Yes, I got mine just today from KnifeArt. I assume this is an early regular production model. Hopefully you can see the tang is completely smooth.
 
Anarchy84 said:
The groove in the blade tang on my Large Inkosi is pretty deep and very noticeable. When the ceramic ball falls in there it makes a satisfying click, and feels rock solid.

For what it's worth, mine is from Blade Show. Did you buy yours recently? Can you post a photo of your blade tang?
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Quoting from an email I just received from CRK:
"The "ball track groove" was an attempt to enhance the already proven ceramic ball lock up, and we were committed to delivering it in the small and large inkosi production knives. After 1 year of the feature being included on the small inkosi, and after including it on the first run of large inkosi's, we determined it was in line with the L25 and umnumzaan lock up rather than an enhancement to it."
Guess that feature is history. You got yourself a collectors piece. Congrats!
 
Homo habilis said:
Quoting from an email I just received from CRK:
"The "ball track groove" was an attempt to enhance the already proven ceramic ball lock up, and we were committed to delivering it in the small and large inkosi production knives. After 1 year of the feature being included on the small inkosi, and after including it on the first run of large inkosi's, we determined it was in line with the L25 and umnumzaan lock up rather than an enhancement to it."
Guess that feature is history. You got yourself a collectors piece. Congrats!
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Interesting. I'm not sure I understand their response or the reasoning behind it. Does this mean the feature is being ditched on the Small Inkosi as well?
 
Homo habilis said:
Quoting from an email I just received from CRK:
"The "ball track groove" was an attempt to enhance the already proven ceramic ball lock up, and we were committed to delivering it in the small and large inkosi production knives. After 1 year of the feature being included on the small inkosi, and after including it on the first run of large inkosi's, we determined it was in line with the L25 and umnumzaan lock up rather than an enhancement to it."
Guess that feature is history. You got yourself a collectors piece. Congrats!
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Wow, thanks for posting that. Very interesting that they went back to the non groove.
 
I'm actually pretty happy that they abandoned it. Of the three smalls I've had, all three had a somewhat sticky lock. The ball was always slightly off center in the groove to make a divot that would click. Two of them ended up returned and CRK fixed the other and now it's somewhat better. It seems to me that if they are hand tuning a lock, having a pre-machined groove probably isn't going to help.
 
If they're indeed getting rid of it on the Inkosi line, I'm a little surprising, the groove works very well at stabilising the lock on my small Inkosi, the lock shifting on my Zaan is quite noticeable (but I guess not detrimental...) whilst the little Inkosi's lock feels rock solid! My sample is also silky smooth without a hint of stick so my impression was that this lock was the lock of CRK's future as it's a step up from both the Sebenza and the Zaan IMO.
 
Jimbo75 said:
If they're indeed getting rid of it on the Inkosi line, I'm a little surprising, the groove works very well at stabilising the lock on my small Inkosi, the lock shifting on my Zaan is quite noticeable (but I guess not detrimental...) whilst the little Inkosi's lock feels rock solid! My sample is also silky smooth without a hint of stick so my impression was that this lock was the lock of CRK's future as it's a step up from both the Sebenza and the Zaan IMO.
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I agree. My large / small Inkosi lockup feels more solid than my Umnumzaan's. Not that the Zaan's lockup is weak, just not as strong. The blade tang groove is a wonderful improvement in my eyes.

This seems like a time / money saving move. Nothing more.
 
Anarchy84 said:
Interesting. I'm not sure I understand their response or the reasoning behind it. Does this mean the feature is being ditched on the Small Inkosi as well?
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Same here- I don't understand the reply. Unless they meant to say the lockup with the groove was determined to be the same as the S25 and Umnumzaan without the groove, so there is no benefit to adding the groove?

In any case, I have a large Inkosi with the groove and I really like the way it locks up. The sound it makes is also pretty "bank vault".
 
Wavicle said:
Same here- I don't understand the reply. Unless they meant to say the lockup with the groove was determined to be the same as the S25 and Umnumzaan without the groove, so there is no benefit to adding the groove?

In any case, I have a large Inkosi with the groove and I really like the way it locks up. The sound it makes is also pretty "bank vault".
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I believe that's exactly what they meant. I'd be interested in hearing what lead them to that conclusion, especially after a year of touting its benefits, but we'll probably never know.
 
My micarta 25 has the groove.

IMG_6317_zpsqpewcei5.jpg


IMG_6316_zpsqyojopvl.jpg
 
Now, its a bad news. I will receive my Large Inkosi today from KnifeArt. But I was very curious about blade tang. :(
 
Very interesting.
From the pictures posted I see that the groove has changed, to me it looks like it got wider.
If so, you can leave it away.
I may be wrong.
 
LMT66 said:
My micarta 25 has the groove.

IMG_6317_zpsqpewcei5.jpg


IMG_6316_zpsqyojopvl.jpg
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Well, not really. The groove would be where you see the ball riding on the tang lock face. I see your's is the standard flat face.

Here is what the "prototype" groove looked like on the pre-production large Inkosi before it was discontinued:

28704564671_27baf48295_b.jpg


28497371110_fc3c405d4d_b.jpg
 
Wavicle said:
Same here- I don't understand the reply. Unless they meant to say the lockup with the groove was determined to be the same as the S25 and Umnumzaan without the groove, so there is no benefit to adding the groove?

In any case, I have a large Inkosi with the groove and I really like the way it locks up. The sound it makes is also pretty "bank vault".
Click to expand...

When I had your Inkosi in hand, and my 4 25s in had, there was no real difference in the feeling between them, more variability between then 25 alone actually and still had the tiny bit of lock stick pretty much all 25s do, with the rare exception out there.

My guess is it's much harder to tune the action with the grove there, and it adds another potential problem if something is not done exactly right, as lots of things are lately, so removing it would be a cost cutting measure.

So I think having one of these early models with the holes in the washer, tang grove, and whatever other feature they change next makes it more of a collectible I suppose.

The only downside I see immediately is it make it closer to a 25 and less of an Inkosi.
 
I'm guessing I have a rare 25, I have had absolutely no lock stick on it. It is probably one of the smoothest opening and closing knives I own. I have a small 21 that gets a very tiny amount of lock stick, nothing major at all.


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