I wouldn't go so far as to say that the Sebenza is a holy grail knife for me. I would, however, say that it is just about the perfect EDC for me.
A lot of people like to talk about fit and finish, but it seems unusually rare for anyone to comment on anything other than surface appearance. Finish is just that--surface appearance. For example, I have a CF ZDP-189 Caly 3 that is an awesome little knife, but the fit and finish are far from perfection. The lamination on the blade is slightly off, so that lamination line on the right side of the blade is about 2mm higher than on the left side. The carbon fiber is not uniformly milled (the pattern in the carbon fiber shifts and distorts in sections), and although the finish of the stainless steel used for the back spacer, lock bar, and liners are uniformly polished, they are not perfectly fitted. You can see small gaps and imperfections in the lines when you inspect the knife closely.
To provide another example of fit, I can think back to my Sage 2 (which many tout has equal fit and finish to the Sebenza). Upon disassembling the knife inspect the pillar standoffs more closely. They do not match up perfectly, so an admittedly small amount of fiddling is required to seat the screws back into the standoffs correctly. Further, the stop pin appears to be soldered onto one scale, with a 0.5mm hole drilled into the other side for it to slide into. The phosphor bronze washers fit loosely over the pivot, and when looking closely at where the stop pin and the tang of the blade connect, one can see that it has contact on less than half of the contact area. Additionally, to the best of my knowledge, the end of the lock bar was not heat treated. As the original owner, I also had the opportunity to watch as the end of the titanium lock bar began to compress and indent as the RIL on the Sage 2 wore in. Overall, the construction (the fit) was not as high as the Sebenza's, nor was the finish nearly as good--small tooling marks could be seen on the interior of the titanium scales.
To provide yet another example, I would urge Busse owners to examine the micarta slabs on their knives. In my experience, I have yet to see a perfectly uniform and symmetrical set of scales; all the scales I've seen have been asymmetrically ground/milled/machined.
So far, my Sebenza has had none of the fit and finish issues that I've seen on other high-end knives I've owned. Disassemble a Sebenza, and take a look at the standoffs: you will not be able to put them back on the appropriate chicago screws until they are perfectly aligned. The same goes for the bushing system on the pivot--the tolerances (the fit) are so tight that sometimes I've had difficulty sliding the bushing back over the chicago screw. In comparison to the Para2's bushing system, I cannot over tighten the pivot or the stop pin screws to the point that the blade tension changes. Loosening or tightening the screws affects the lock-up percentage on my Sebenza, making it noticeably earlier the tighter they get. Even without a pivot screw, my Sebenza opens and closes, and locks up solidly enough that the knife is completely safe for light uses.
But impeccable fit and finish aren't the reason why the Sebenza is just about perfect for me. As a lefty, I appreciate the fact that a high end knife manufacturer acknowledges that lefties exist in the market, and are willing to produce a true left-handed version--just providing a set of holes for left-handed carry DOES NOT provide for a completely left-handed knife. The ease of maintenance and cleaning is another enormous plus (even compared to the relatively open backed Sage 2, and its straight forward disassembly/reassembly). The high hollow grind allows for more of the knife blade to be sharpened away before aggressive re-profiling is needed, and it also provides for greater tip strength than a fully flat ground version a la Spyderco's style.
But, like everything else, the Sebenza has its downsides. Of which I can list two: cost, and the difficulty of immediately procuring the exact version one desires.
