I agree with most of
Chronovore
points, yes, these days CRKT should use better steel. With this said, the Curfew lines and composition is much more appealing to the eye than probably 80% of the Civivi
and most of the in house designed knives of WE, at least to me... Considering AO and the bearings, the price tag seems fine on this one.
M16 with the new grind, I like, wouldn't pay $160 for it but on the other hand, if we
assume that this is a "tactical" (let's not elaborate if folder can be good for this) knife, any steel, sharp enough to
punch and slice easily through barrier material will do it, the geometry of the blade and handle are much more important. I would prefer to have two guards, because then you can wave naturally this model...
I usually follow Burnley, Mah and Tighe lines from CRKT, along with few other models that catch my eye. The Lany is very nice knife even with the 13moV steel, everything I like is priced below most of the Civivi or WE lines
so I don't really understand what's the issue here...
The Esprit, which is Laconico design, have 20CV and cost you $220, in the same time the equally appealing (to me as a size and form) Liong Mah Lany is only $60...
So is the steel makes the difference, the name of the designer or just WE are exploring the current wave of the Chinese flood of decent knives, marked up because of good craftsmanship ( if you call CNC machining good craftsmanship )
and supposed to be fancy materials and steels ?
I don't know, what I know is that as much as I love Laconico's clean and elegant forms, I won't shell out $260 if I can get Mah's knife for less. In fact most of the knives that he is selling on his site are about $100 or so more than WE Laconico models,
and if I have to choose, I'd go with his knives for little bit more $$ because he is actually manufacturing those, not some Chinese fella on the CNC rig, but this is just me...
Even Kizer's models designed by Laconico are about $100 less than WE sells, why the difference ?
Another example: MBK Swayback, outstanding model, is less than $200 with great design and execution by a Chinese company, why WE would be so expensive ?
Most of the CRKT knives I personally like ( and I perfectly understand that this is subjective but it's my opinion after all) are priced just fine, mostly because of the not so fancy steel they use, their policy I think is to sell volume,
why bother about the steel (materials) if the design is spot on ?
With comparing CRKT to let's say in this case WE and Civivi, looks to me that after all we are moving the point to materials used and execution, not to the design, where the point should be because as I mentioned before in another thread - very few people are buying knife based on sum of materials and price, most of us, I assume, are buying it based on the elements of the knife you find useful. IMO, CRKT have enough good knife makers collaborating on their models that make those more appealing to me, than the other two Chinese companies... Are they good ? Absolutely, no doubt WE and Civivi are producing quality knives.
Looking at the WE and Civivi lineup my only grape, besides some of the prices, is that most of their models are around 3" blade and at least to me this is not usable...
I know, smaller blade is suited better for carry and small everyday jobs, I'm just used to 3.5" blades...
Lots of plain, decent designs from WE, I prefer them over Civivi. But again, they all look the same and no thrill in the models, unless we get to the over $100-$150 line where the foreign designers have WE manufacture their models.
These are knives appealing to people (no offense at all) who like gizmos like ball bearings, easy to produce flipper blades, some CF inlays, some mid-grade steels, non-traditional blade geometry with pointless elements as the finger choil that I love so much on most of the new Chinese made knives, and price below $100. Same people that will tell you that the purpose of the knife is to cut and nothing else...
Beacon, Sentinel and Snik appear very nice, Saakshi and Esprit too. Eidolon is very elegant model but sub 3" blade is just plain nonsense for this knife... Most of them are too small for me, too suited for Gentleman's EDC, and plain or pointless at least to me designs.
There are other, probably legitimate Chinese companies I came across that you can buy on Amazon (well, yes...) that have much more appealing designs and good materials, priced even below $50-$60 where IMO those knives should be.
Google: Sitivien ST102, it has D2 steel, ball bearings, 3.3" blade and natural G10 scales and it sells for the astronomical sum of $28... I personally find it to be much better design than most of the Civivi line...
I actually tagged
Chronovore
in IG with this account, I was curious to hear his opinion on it...