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Limited Run of Sebenzas with Super Steel Blades

Joined
Jan 21, 2008
Messages
412
I absolutely love my 2 Sebenzas, but after having some other knives with newer "Super Steels" like M390, I'm really spoiled by the performance of those steels and their incredible edge holding.

After seeing this thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-M4-Wharcliffe-Sebenza-Blade!!!-Pics-included!

Pretty ugly looking but still quite neat, indeed.

Can we have a custom run of Super Steel blades for Sebenzas in the future. Maybe a Bladeforums Forum special knife, pretty please? :) Something unique like same great blade shape, but Flat Grind, and Super Steel like M390 or maybe CTS-XHP (easier to machine and grind than M390?)

Couldn't hurt to ask. I know I'd be interested in a Large Sebenza in that form. It would be the holy grail knife for me. I love the handle, lock, and pivot design so much. "Better"/tougher steel with a flat grind would make it the ultimate touch knife as well.

-Ed
 
I think that looks horrible. I can't understand people who say they love the sebenza and then want to redesign it.....
 
Just to clarify, I don't want a different blade profile shape design. (just Flat grind rather than hollow grind). I would like a Sebenza with a better steel.
 
Not the first time this has been mentioned, but I dont think it will happen, neither a full flat grind (do a search on that, shortly, Chris was not satisfied with a FFG).

Personally, ATS-34 was a supersteel on its day, now some feel its not good enough, one will never be up to date with steels and they will come and go.

CRK chose S30V, 35VN because he feels it works for the design and purpose.
 
I thought he picked it as he helped in the development of the steel. I think the BG42 was good enough.
 
Remember, Chris was a tool and die maker before he was a knife maker. He is always looking at new ways to do things, both in knife design and manufacturing processes, which will bring a good product to the market at generally reasonable prices. I may be wrong, but I always had the impression that he was very satisfied in BG42. However, in consideration of the continually rising costs of production, if he could find a steel that was slightly less expensive to work with yet yielded similar real-world performance, then in his mind that's the route he'd take. When Crucible asked his opinion, he gave it to them. They produced S30V and most major production houses soon saw similar production benefits without suffering from reduced product performance compared to other stainless steels available at the time. I know that if I was a production house, and I found a good performing steel that I could grind in 15 minutes, as opposed to a similar performing steel that took me 25 minutes to grind, my choice would be easy.

There are myriad opinions about the matter, but it is what it is. I'd love to have a Seb made with one of the new high-performance steels currently in production - M390, S90V, CTS-20P, Vanex 35, etc., but in my world, S30V has been fine, and I'm sure S35VN will be too.
 
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I think that looks horrible. I can't understand people who say they love the sebenza and then want to redesign it.....

+ 1 I agree completely! Not my cup of tea as they say. I love the look of the Sebenza just the way it is! Why mess with perfection!
 
Yes yes yes xhp sebenza ! Where can I pre order?!don't hold your breath though,Mr. Reeve has a good partnership with crucible. He even worked with them in producing the new s35vn . What I do think is fair to ask for is a LE run of s35vn at 61rh. With the thirty percent improved toughness chipping should be less of an issue and you will see quite a jump in edge holding ability
 
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I feel there is another big factor....production capacity. They are +- 25 people working on the knives and to fill orders, they have great customer service and very helpful. I just do not think CRK would have the capacity to do this while still filling orders and Chris being (described) as "anal" about perfection and experimenting with things to tweak or improve.

CRKs are also 100% USA made (but with South African spirit). Steel, bolts, everything. I also think this is something that CRK prides themselves on so that limits their choices to USA companies. I would love a S90V blade but I also trust Chris in his choices and it has been good to me.
 
I really like the idea of a Bladeforums LE.
The hard part would be getting us to agree on what we would want.
 
I imagine that Chris would do it. They've produced small batch, unique designs for Plaza Cutlery, Usual Suspect Network, Doug Ritter, and a couple of others in the past. Changing the blade steel would probably not be an option, but I bet they'd do a run of 10-20 similar "Unique Graphic" Sebenzas if someone asked really nice and had the money up front.
 
I would love to see a higher performance steel in a Sebenza, not saying that the S30v hasn't held up well, because it's great, hold a great edge and not impossible to sharpen at the lower RC that Reeve puts on, but some S90v would be cool.
 
I imagine that Chris would do it. They've produced small batch, unique designs for Plaza Cutlery, Usual Suspect Network, Doug Ritter, and a couple of others in the past. Changing the blade steel would probably not be an option, but I bet they'd do a run of 10-20 similar "Unique Graphic" Sebenzas if someone asked really nice and had the money up front.

I think all we'd have to do is talk to Heather and order some customs. I ordered a small set (3) for my brothers and I once, no worries. All we need to do is come up with a design we agree on, one person set it up and collects money, place the order.
 
I think a small run of some limited steel would be awsome. And of course some limited edtion handles to match would be great too =)
 
It's funny; the guys in the Hinderer forums are all going nuts about wanting S35VN, while they already had 20CV and CTS-XHP, and then the people here already have S35VN but they want M390 (pretty much 20CV, IIRC) and CTS-XHP.
 
It's funny; the guys in the Hinderer forums are all going nuts about wanting S35VN, while they already had 20CV and CTS-XHP, and then the people here already have S35VN but they want M390 (pretty much 20CV, IIRC) and CTS-XHP.

Right on, funny how things like that go huh? :)
 
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