Need Help: Regular Large Sebenza, Real?

[tkent]

It looks good to me but you can't be too sure nowadays. Please let me know what you guys think. Thanks.

 

[JPR984]

yep looks good to me what is the date stamp?

 

[DallasSTB]

I think it's real. In fact it looks like one of the earliest, non-numbered Regulars by the blade shape and finish. For my part though, I've become cautious to a fault when birthcards and documents are lacking. Regardless, this one appears to be legit.

To answer JPR - if it is as early as I'm guessing, it won't have date stamps.

 

[tkent]

Thanks guys. Thats a relief. Sorry, I don't have it in hand at the moment. Just purchased it a few days ago at a great deal. I should have it in a couple of days. I was a little concern because the blade does not have the typical stonewash. It looks like a satin finish?
Anyway, I can follow up when it arrives with more detail.

Thanks again.

 

[DallasSTB]

Thanks guys. Thats a relief. Sorry, I don't have it in hand at the moment. Just purchased it a few days ago at a great deal. I should have it in a couple of days. I was a little concern because the blade does not have the typical stonewash. It looks like a satin finish?
Anyway, I can follow up when it arrives with more detail.

Thanks again.

NP. In the period 1995-1997 Chris was working with different blade treatments. The original Sebenza's had polished hollows and satin finished flats, but that gave way to stonewashed flats and polished hollows on the graphic and inlay models later on. He even tried a couple of bead-blasted versions, that those were short lived.

You can see the different experiments with these two. #172 has the satin finished flats and #188 has the stonewashed flats.

There were a lot of variations among these "transitional" models, which makes collecting them so interesting. Great catch with this one!

 

[tkent]

Wow, Dallas, you're like the wikipedia of Sebenza. Great info! Thanks. I'm even more excited now to get the knife in hand. That satin finish is cool.

 

[DallasSTB]

Well, you're welcome - but I think I just chimed in first. There are lots of CRK scholars around here - nyefmaker, fooj, st. james, MVG, dinokay, to name a few. There is also a very informative sticky thread at the top of the forum that has some great historical info (thanks to nyefmaker).

For what it's worth, that blade is probably ATS-34. Most of one's I've seen (Originals and Regulars) with that type of finish typically are.