New CRK owner

EZ Bake

EZ Bake

Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
1,752
So I've always seen the CRK knives and even handled a friend's large Sebenza and though I appreciate the quality, workmanship, and simplistic/minimalist beauty in Chris' knives, I've never considered them worth the high price-tag (no disrespect intended) and I just never saw myself owning one.

I bought a Strider SNG CC model and felt like I didn't really get my money's worth out of it (again, no disrespect to Strider). I just didn't care for the fit/finish, and it just didn't seem like it was worth what I paid for it at the time.

I've been a little frustrated with some of the Benchmade offerings of late and wondered why it was so hard to find everything I was looking for in a single knife for a decent price (under $200). I'm a Spyderco nut, but appreciate a sleek design that you can't really get with a Spyder-hole, so I've been looking for something with a really good fit/finish, but that is very thin/narrow in design, has a pokey tip and good blade-shape, while being pretty simplistic and made from decent materials.

I should preface this next part by saying that I sold my Sage 2 because I just really didn't like the naked Ti scales (loved the Ti frame-lock, loved the ergos). So I had pretty much counted most of the CRK's out (I liked a few of the models with various designs on the scales, and loved the CF models, but those seem to be extremely hard to find).

So I'm over in Oklahoma City looking at a new place that is supposed to have a good selection of traditionals and I'm thinking that I may pick up an Al Mar Hawk, or a GEC Congress or something and I figure out that they sell some modern knives too. I saw some CRK knives and wanted to handle a small Sebenza 21 (I knew if I ever bought a CRK, it would be a small Sebenza). Once I handled it, that was it - I knew I was buying one, it was just a matter of which model.

I don't know what it is about the difference in finish over the Sage 2, but I love this thing - plain-Jane no frills (other than the anodized blue hardware), but it's just perfect. I've heard folks complain about the pocket-clip, but I love it too.

I love pretty much everything about this knife and it's done a good job of kicking out some of my favorite knives for EDC. I originally just intended to throw it in the rotation for dress-up knives, but it's already earned a few scratches and wear marks from getting first pick in the "what am I going to carry today" draft every time no matter what the situation.

My go-to knives before this one have been one of my Para-2s, or one of my Natives (a 4 in CF, and a 5 with custom CF scales), and I really like them, but I still go to this little 21 every time I leave the house.

I always thought that if I pulled the trigger on another higher-end knife, it would be a Galyean Pro JYD small, but this thing has me considering another CRK already.

I definitely understand the appeal of these knives now.
 
Good for you EZ Bake! Congratulations on your first Sebenza, but probably not you only one. ;)

I sold ten of my (then) favoirite knives to finance my first Sebenza, which was a Large Sebenza with Unique Graphics.
I have never regreted that decision and since then 3 more Sebenzas, both Large and Small have been added.
I edc both a Large and a Small Sebenza and would not be without either of them.

You have made the first step of which will be an incredible journey into Chris Reeve Knives.
Welcome! :)
 
What did you like about the small vs the large? I would think that if a PM2 was your EDC the large would be perfect. I'm just curious because my experience was the opposite of yours. Didn't care for the small but fell in love with the large. Either way congrats and enjoy the new knife :thumbup:
 
Yeah - I'm not going to lie - it hurt to let go of a few of my favorites to pick this one up. It cost me a CF ZDP-189 Stretch, and a Manix-II in CTS-XHP, but I've got to say... I still don't regret it.

If I honestly didn't have so many pre-orders coming in (or recent purchases because I'm such a CF junkie), I'd probably be on the hunt for another small Sebenza in CF. Speaking of... I've seen some of the Damascus models and some of the carbon fiber models, is there a carbon-fiber Damascus small 21 out there?
 
That's the thing about the Sebenza, you really have to see and handle one in person to fully appreciate it. I won't name any names, but there are a lot of custom knifemakers out there making folding knives that were clearly inspired by the Sebenza. There's a reason for that - Chris Reeve's commitment to innovative design, top quality materials, and precision machining led him to create a damn near perfect folding knife that is timeless and classic. :thumbup:
 
ndeezl said:
What did you like about the small vs the large? I would think that if a PM2 was your EDC the large would be perfect. I'm just curious because my experience was the opposite of yours. Didn't care for the small but fell in love with the large. Either way congrats and enjoy the new knife :thumbup:
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Well, that's a good question. I guess part of it is that I prefer grippy larger knives (love rough-textured G10) and don't mind the smooth surface on my smaller knives. Also part of the appeal of the Small Sebenza was that it was not only a smaller knife with a lot of cutting-edge vs. one of my smaller Spydies with their choils (which don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the finger-choil, but in smaller blades, I appreciate the extra cutting-edge), but it was also narrow/thin - which gives it some advantages over my Natives, Sage, and Delicas (even though, they're about the same length).

Also, on larger knives, I don't really mind the extra large-ness (i.e. wider/thicker handle). My work-horses are my Para-2s and my Superleaf (I've got a Kershaw Rake blem that gets its share of hard-use as well) and I don't see a larger version of this little guy beating those out when it comes time to doing the dirty jobs. I've used my S30V Para-2 when helping to roof my father-in-law's car-port, as my exclusive cutter for backpacking, and when doing some remodeling around our house. I'm sure a large 21 would do fine, but I don't know that I could bring myself to work a knife that expensive like I do my $100 or less knives and per my new knife-owning policy, I'm trying not to have any show-knives or collectors. Not that there's anything wrong with folks who do that, it's just that I gathered up quite a collection at one time of knives that I didn't ever use and felt like it was a waste - so I've began only keeping the ones that I use.

I may well end up with a large Sebenza or Umnum eventually, but I just don't have an itch for a larger folder that is also sleek/slim and smooth-scaled right now.
 
Grats EZ Bake. The small 21 is definitely in my top five favorite knives now. You made a fine first CRK decision.
 
Congrats on your purchase and your journey sounds similar to mine. Bought a few others, but then once I held the Sebenza.....I was hooked.
 
A local gun shop owner was nice enough to let me fondle a new large Sabenza. Of course it is an excellent knife. It is probably better than any in my collection, but I don't understand why a person would be willing to pay $450 +. Financially speaking, I hope I never understand.:D
 
I dunno how to explain it. Maybe there is none. Once you carry a knife in the F&F genre' of a CRK (there are others as well) not price dependent - it's a Quality thing.
You will not go back, you will not need to explain (you won't care) IF someone "gets it" great, if not - so what.
I have a couple of makers (CRK is one) that I carry their knives. Always will.
Thank the Man above for that.
 
mwhich50 said:
A local gun shop owner was nice enough to let me fondle a new large Sabenza. Of course it is an excellent knife. It is probably better than any in my collection, but I don't understand why a person would be willing to pay $450 +. Financially speaking, I hope I never understand.:D
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We all spend money somewhere man. Not to go all Dr. Phil with my story here, but I feel like it's a good explanation.

I actually just recently spent right at a year unemployed. We sort of saw it coming and prepared for it. We lived in a modest home, I made decent money at the time (had very little in the way of bills), and we saved up as much as we could (though my wife was half-way through college - which sort of sucked with the timing).

While I was out of work, I had a lot of free-time at odd-times during the day. I had some freelance jobs, and was working with a group of folks to get a startup off the ground that really just cost me money and didn't pay anything - but I did a lot of work after hours or on the weekends when I wasn't traveling. Turns out that I had all of these material things laying around that I just had to have when I bought them... and here I was with all of my free time and I still didn't want to use any of them. That's when I realized that like so many other folks in the world (especially in the good ole United States) I had fallen prey to consumerism in a big way.

None of those things made me happy (not the high-quality toys, and not the large-quantity toys) and I ultimately began selling a lot of them. I sold several handguns, more than a few rifles, several shotguns, and a lot of the knives I had at the time. I sold quite a bit of hunting stuff and all my archery goodies (still have bows for each of my sons though) as well as my fishing boat (that I used all of 4 times in the entire two years that I owned it) and a ton of other hobby-related stuff that was almost completely unused and sitting in the closet or garage (two brand new unused racket-ball rackets that I just had to have back when I was going to play "every day" are still mocking me).

Turns out that a lot of the decisions I made for what to buy were to impress others, or because I had read how awesome they were in an online review, or even just because "everyone has to have one of these", and there was really no good reason to own them. I had to examine what I wanted, and what was going to get sold and as a result, I ended up enjoying what I had left a lot more.

Fast-forward to now, and I've began to think about things differently. I don't buy material things to impress others, I buy them because I have a genuine desire to own or use them. I've stopped collecting a lot of things and actually started making sure that I will actually use something (or at least have a good reason to own it) before purchasing a non-essential material item.

Using that same line of thinking, I've decided to pair down my hobbies to just the few that I actually participate in (and enjoy). I've realized that I really only have time for so many hobbies for myself, so why not enjoy those things by doing them right and avoid spending money on the things that I don't really need (or don't have the time/energy to do)?

As of right now, I'm down to just hiking/camping, shooting, and knife-collecting (and when I can actually make it out, deer-rifle or duck hunting with my kids). I don't really go anywhere or do anything else unless it's with the wife and kids.

All that being said, since knives are probably highest on the list of hobbies for me right now, I'm working on getting my little gaggle of blades down to only what I enjoy using. Not as many as I can collect, and not just a few that impress others (I'll be honest, that was 90% of the motivation to get that SNG), but what I actually want and will use.

This small Sebenza is worth more to me than the few knives I sold to pay for it (and my unused Bow, my unused hunting gear, and for darn sure, those racket-ball rackets :D ).

So if you don't understand spending the money on a Sebenza, that's cool. I didn't used to understand it either, but then again, at one time, I couldn't live without these (to be fair, I still have a few of them :) ):

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Congrats on your new purchase. Remember it may cost more but the higher end stuff usually cost more for a reason and usually retains it's value!
 
Well, I can thank tacticalhunter who posted a couple above this for my first. Got my Umnum from him last week and am in the process of buying a Damascus large Seb right now. I was in the same boat, always said that I'd never spend that much on a knife but damn those are some fine knives. Congrats btw!
 
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