La Griffe vs. CRKT Bear Claw

J

Joe S

Joined
Jan 25, 1999
Messages
188
Just wondering, for anyone that has handled the two, or even made the decision I am making now, which did you pick?

I'm aware of the better sheath and steel of the Griffe, but worry about the small size, especially of the handle, since this seems to bet the biggest complaint of La Griffe owners. The CRKT also looks like it has a thinner grind (cuts better), and is cheaper no matter how you cut it.

So, for a pocket/belt carry, light utility and possibly defensive blade, which would you choose and why?

Thanks.

Stay Sharp,
Joe S.
 
I have both. Sounds kinda like you want to be "convinced" into buying the Bear Claw. For pocket/belt carry, light utility, and possible defense I'd carry neither... with many better pocket/belt options. These are, after all, supposed to be neck knives... which is where the Bear Claw was too large for me (though plenty carry much larger neck knives). In my case, I'd get the Griffe since it would be a dedicated neck knife and fills that role better for me. Whereas with the Bear Claw you get a worse neck knife and a strange pocket knife. Just my humble opinion!
 
I'd go with the Griffe. Personally, I found the handles on the CRKT Claw to be a little too thick to hide under the shirt in a neck knife position. But you're right, it is cheaper and slices better because of its thinner grind.

I fixed that by thinning down the grind of the Griffe a little, probably 5 degrees. It slices better now and the chisel grind was really meant for defense anyway. Didn't find any problems with the skeleton handles, but that's probably because my hands are what you would call a medium asian's.

Supposedly, when you sharpen the Griffe, you keep the chisel edge and bring it to the point where the coating on the flat side forms part of the edge and you will get a very long lasting edge because of the high hardness of the coating. But I haven't got there yet.

By all means, get the Claw if you really like it, but IMHO, the Griffe is a better knife all round, especially after modifying the edge angle.
 
Originally posted by Xian
I have both. Sounds kinda like you want to be "convinced" into buying the Bear Claw. For pocket/belt carry, light utility, and possible defense I'd carry neither... with many better pocket/belt options.
Click to expand...

Well, certainly, they are not the best options in the world, or even that I would pick. I have plenty of other options already, and if I just wanted to carry what would work for me, I would never buy another knife again. However, I've been looking at the small "claw" type fixed blade(s) since they hit the market, and decided on getting one. Now, the only question is which one.

Joe S.
 
I have a Griffe and like the ergonomics quite a bit. I have short thick fingers and large hands overall, and I think my pudgy fingers might fill the index-finger hole better than that of those with longer, thinner fingers. As to its cutting performance, it's fine for cutting tape and the like, but it really excels at slashing and stabbing cuts. I wouldn't use it for slicing a ham or anything like that.
 
The size of the bear claw defeats the purpose of a small concealed neck knife. If thats your intentions, the Lagriffe is the way to go. A North American Arms mini-revolver on a neck chain is a comprable size to the Bear claw.

As far as a utility knife? There is a lot of other nice styles to choose from. I like the Microtech medallion for an EDC utility type.

I'm not trying to be biased, just help. So, I'm setting aside my personal issue with S&W. If your wanting a less expensive neck knife in the claw style a happy medium might be the S&W clone of the La Griffe.
 
I have Bear Claw and the friend of mine has La Griffe.
The Bear Claw has thinner edge, lower price and far more comfortable grip. Worse steel shouldn't be an issue for light utility - self defense oriented knife. Sheath certainly is not the strongest side of this knife. After I have replaced grips and sheath on mine it works nicely and looks pretty.
The La Griffe out of the box has so thick and obtuse edge (single side ground) that it can't not only to cut but even to rip. The gun bluing finish is unforgivable for the knives, just try to cut pickled cucumber with this knife and you will see what will occur with such finish.

In my opinion the single reason to buy La Griffe is if you want to have La Griffe...
If you will buy Bear Claw you will get better cutter and save money for custom sheath and for pretty large amount of beer ;)
 
I have a Bear Claw and where it really shines is as a boot knife. I clip it to the top of my boot, inverted. It is very easy to pull out and because the length of the knife is short, you don't need high top boots to wear it.

I agree that the handle makes the Claw too thick for use as a neck knife, but it works great as a boot knife.
 
Serguisz,
There you are. I was lurking when you posted about making your Bear Claw handles and sheath. Haven't seen you post in a while. Do you have a link or approximate time frame for that sheath and handle? I wanted to try it.
 
I think that the bear claw makes a great neck knife or belt/pocket knife with just a little modification. In my mind its a better deal. I also prefer the handles on the bear claw and the blade shape. just my opinion though
 
I had a bear claw and sold it at the last gun show. It was too heavy around my neck and the handle was too thick (although that made it comfortable). 2 other complaints about it I had were the sheath held on too hard to the knife so hard that the clip on the sheath was useless so when you go to draw the knife out of the sheath the clip lets go of the belt or pants instead of the sheath letting go of the knife so you,ve just drawn a sheathed knife. The liability lawyers and the PC crowd probably love that draw but I lean more to the practical-tactical side of things and that sucked. Also when drawing from the neck cord position you have to either hold the sheath with your off hand or yank so hard that the sheath bounces back up and into your face.

I am looking now at the Griffe and the S+W griffe clone(a little bigger and fully serrated) though being a gun guy I'm not sure I can bring myself to buy something with the S+W name on it (even if it is made by Taylor cutlery and even if the company's been sold since their sickenning capitulation to the CLINTONISTAS) Now that i think about it I can't stomach that so looks like a La Griffe for me.
 
lagriffe.jpg


LaGriffe out of the box has an edge that is far from being sharp. I had to reprofile the edge on my La Griffe to 15-17 degrees aprox. Now it cuts with ease - razor sharp. But because 154CM on LaGriffe is really well hardened it took me some time to do that. As you can see in the picture the "sharpening area" is considerably wider than on standard La Griffe. Here you can find some more pictures and a movie of my LaGriffe.

BTW, Sergiusz - you're right about me... I just wanted LaGriffe !!!

Piter
***********************
Airguns & Knives Page
http://www.Guns.com.pl
***********************
 
don't know about the la gtriffe but my crkt bear claw is nice. it came with a razor sharp edge, that is tough enough to use as a can opener, it hides well in my front pocket and draws fast, it also has multiple lasking holes on the sheath which is kydex. there is a removable roundtop bolt that allows the blade to be held inthe sheath an any position, te blade pops out very easily though with a tug or an push off of the thumb (in the pocket) the clip is removable and can be put on in either vertical direction. the handle scale are also easily removed aal part use small allen bolts with the allen rench provided for customizing.
 
I was sure I had saved the pix of Sergiusz' modified Bear Claw but I can't seem to find them ... but I found this pic named "griffe5 leather.jpg" on my hard drive ... is that really a Griffe, or is it one of Sergiusz' Bear Claw pix I mislabeled, or what? I don't know....
 
I also found this pic of a Bear Claw sheath that somebody skeletized -- I don't remember who, but somebody posted it a while back.
 
Here's the pic that didn't get attached to the post before last -- if it works this time....
 
no, that's not Sergiusz's bear claw, you can still see the pictures if you copy the url for the pic and paste it in a separate window. Photopoint checks the referrer to see what page you came from. Here's one of the pics.

- Pete
 

Attachments

  • lagriffe.jpg
    lagriffe.jpg
    34.4 KB · Views: 252
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top