New Sebenza, pathetically dull!

I have always sharpened the knives I bought. Some merely need a stropping but I always want to give a new knife once over. S30V is not that bad to sharpen in my experience and once you can sharpen you are set.
 
I just got a sharpmaker about a month or so ago, i wondered what took me so long. I always used the old vintage "V" crock sticks. They worked great for that $40 buck or schrade knife, but your in a different league when your talking Chris Reeve Knives, Strider, etc. Out of all the CRK I have have and have had, I do not recall any that were less than razor sharp. I am sure some have been sharper than others though. The guy may even have a sharpmaker, I believe he just stated it seems dull is all. If not, he should definately ge one as it will make his life alot easier. I got 3 striders, all 3 would not even slice paper. Two SnG's were very dull and were factory new, how did these make it past QC ? I did not complain though, I got out the sharpmaker and sharpened them. The SMF was pre owned but with factory edge, it was pretty dull. I reprofiled it to 20 degrees each side. Strider grings them at 22.5, an odd angle. My point it, those knives are even more than the sebenza, so it does happen. Though he states its almost there, so it is sharp, just not lazer sharp as some would like on a new knife. Light sharpened like I stated in my previous post, you should be good to go from that point.
 
Okay, okay, some of you are right. I may be making too much out of this, of course I can just sharpen it. The point is when buying a knife at this price and with such a godly reputation I expected more. Like I said, everything else is wonderful but what do you ultimately buy a knife for? To cut! So when it can barely cut fresh out of the box I find that pretty poor and disappointing. I also find it unacceptable that knives which cost a fraction of this are far more sharp out of the box.

Some of you are a bit harsh but I see your point. Hope you see mine as well.
 
MikeyE said:
Okay, okay, some of you are right. I may be making too much out of this, of course I can just sharpen it. The point is when buying a knife at this price and with such a godly reputation I expected more.
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i too expect a factory-fresh knife to be very sharp.

however, i think a lot of folks here see the edge on a knife as being like gas in a car--ultimately the user is responsible for it. nevertheless, it is reasonable to expect that when you sign the papers, you'll be driving off the dealer's lot w/ a full tank.
 
MikeyE said:
Okay, okay, some of you are right. I may be making too much out of this, of course I can just sharpen it. The point is when buying a knife at this price and with such a godly reputation I expected more. Like I said, everything else is wonderful but what do you ultimately buy a knife for? To cut! So when it can barely cut fresh out of the box I find that pretty poor and disappointing. I also find it unacceptable that knives which cost a fraction of this are far more sharp out of the box.

Some of you are a bit harsh but I see your point. Hope you see mine as well.
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I do see your point. If you pay $300+ for a knife, it should be sharp from the factory. I agree 100%. Like I stated, I had 2 $400 striders that I can guarantee were far less sharp than yours. I was more surprised than mad as I know I could easily fix it. I am sure some do get out, with every company. I can speak for all of us that frequent the CRK page here, we are a pretty friendly group of people, I dont think too many of the comments were so much harsh, but blunt.
 
bulgron said:
Oh stop.

How do you expect people to get into the league if they don't occasionally buy stuff that's out of their league?

The OP's point is valid. The knife came dull from the manufacturer. This is not what most consumers expect when spending hundreds of dollars on a knife. Chris Reeves Knives should spend a little bit of time examining their QA processes, if you ask me. I've bought four of their knives but one (a small micarta) came annoyingly dull from the factory. This should not happen, period.
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+1:thumbup:
 
Please kind Sir, show us all some pictures of this blunt factory edge that you speak of. We all know that they are checked by highly motivated, alert and responsible members of staff who have built up a reputation for having the highest QC.... Sebenza is highly sought after and its for good reason....
 
Okay then. I'll send you a close up pic of the edge of my knife. You tell me how sharp it is. That should be helpful.
 
MikeyE said:
Okay, okay, some of you are right. I may be making too much out of this, of course I can just sharpen it. The point is when buying a knife at this price and with such a godly reputation I expected more. Like I said, everything else is wonderful but what do you ultimately buy a knife for? To cut! So when it can barely cut fresh out of the box I find that pretty poor and disappointing. I also find it unacceptable that knives which cost a fraction of this are far more sharp out of the box.

Some of you are a bit harsh but I see your point. Hope you see mine as well.
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I absolutley see your point.

It's sad to hear all these sorry excuses.

The responses you got are far more disapointing than the fact that you got a dull blade. I guess if you got a new Ferrari, and the aligment was off, these guys would tell you that you just need to learn how to fix cars yourself and quit complaining about it.

I really think you should write CRK about this. I think they might be willing to do a very quick turnaround for you. Their customer service is usually top notch.
 
well, I've been saying it for years, not that it matters, CRK ships dull knives. Buy any spyderco, same steel, perhaps harder heat treat, and WAY sharper. If Spyderco can do it why not CRK?

Further, good luck sharpening on a sharpmaker, new sebenzas seem to have a convex edge at GREATER then 20 degrees. You'll spend hours rebevelling the entire edge trying to get it sharp.

Don't get me wrong, I love sebenzas, but they come dull as a rock when new.
 
Ok I will go through some steps with you so that you can get it more sharp than you have ever seen a knife in your whole life. First you need to get what is known as a guide and rod sharpening system that has 3 or more diamond stones. The one that I have uses a 45 micron, a 25 micron and a 9 micron. Use the steepest angle available and keep softly grinding down the edge on both sides untill its all even. This is called re-profiling and the steeper it is the sharper the knife will end up. Use water on the stones so that they are wet all the time. Be very gentle with the 9 micron stone since its the one that will give the edge a polished finish. After you can see it is polished it should be able to shave hair from your arm. Now find a leather belt and learn how to do something called razor stropping. If you can do all this properly it should cut hairs in mid-air like my sebenza does.....
 
bearcut said:
I absolutley see your point.

It's sad to hear all these sorry excuses.

The responses you got are far more disapointing than the fact that you got a dull blade. I guess if you got a new Ferrari, and the aligment was off, these guys would tell you that you just need to learn how to fix cars yourself and quit complaining about it.

I really think you should write CRK about this. I think they might be willing to do a very quick turnaround for you. Their customer service is usually top notch.
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Thank you, thank you. Very well said.

I am drafting a polite but firm email to CRK addressing this issue. Not going to make a big deal out of it.
 
GTG said:
Ok I will go through some steps with you so that you can get it more sharp than you have ever seen a knife in your whole life. First you need to get what is known as a guide and rod sharpening system that has 3 or more diamond stones. The one that I have uses a 45 micron, a 25 micron and a 9 micron. Use the steepest angle available and keep softly grinding down the edge on both sides untill its all even. This is called re-profiling and the steeper it is the sharper the knife will end up. Use water on the stones so that they are wet all the time. Be very gentle with the 9 micron stone since its the one that will give the edge a polished finish. After you can see it is polished it should be able to shave hair from your arm. Now find a leather belt and learn how to do something called razor stropping. If you can do all this properly it should cut hairs in mid-air like my sebenza does.....
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Thanks GTG! I do have a sharpmaker and like it but I'm always willing to take it to the next level. With knives, it seems the more I learn, the less I actually know. Is there a particular system you recommend that does what you described above?
 
They are certainly capable of producing a sharp factory edge. My Sikayo came with an out-of-the-box sharpness that would have had Sal Glesser emitting a low whistle of respect. That thing was DANGEROUS. Of course, it is a chisel grind so it's edge is twice as thin but still... CRK needs the dude that sharpened that thing to spread his talents around and just sharpen 'em all. :)
 
I sympathize greatly with the OP. I picked up a new Seb a couple of weeks ago as well. It was my first one ever and I was really excited to receive it. When I did, it was pretty dull, much as the OP seems to have experienced.

It wasn't a big deal to sharpen it up but in my mind, a knife that costs 400 bucks and is engineered to such precise tolerances should be sharp out of the box, no excuses. I own plenty of knives and sharpening tools, but that is not the point. I just feel like people make excuses sometimes because they are wedded to particular products or brands. It's not a really big problem, but it's something the end user is likely to remember. It could influence future behaviour from that user and I know it coloured the way I thought of CRK a bit, having read up and down this forum and others what near-perfect knives they were alleged to be.

As someone else said, if Spyderco (who makes excellent knives that can cost about 10 times less) can ship new knives that are impressively sharp, why can't CRK? Anyway, once again, it's not a really big deal...more like one of those niggling things that annoys one more than it really should. I still think the Seb is awesome, regardless.
 
MikeyE said:
Okay, okay, some of you are right. I may be making too much out of this, of course I can just sharpen it. The point is when buying a knife at this price and with such a godly reputation I expected more. Like I said, everything else is wonderful but what do you ultimately buy a knife for? To cut! So when it can barely cut fresh out of the box I find that pretty poor and disappointing. I also find it unacceptable that knives which cost a fraction of this are far more sharp out of the box.

Some of you are a bit harsh but I see your point. Hope you see mine as well.
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I see your point, but if you can quickly sharpen it and its as good as you like, i don't see it as a big deal. Not something worth sending it in for. If the edge was impossible to get sharp or required something that most people don't normally have access too, then I would totally agree.
 
somniloquist said:
I sympathize greatly with the OP. I picked up a new Seb a couple of weeks ago as well. It was my first one ever and I was really excited to receive it. When I did, it was pretty dull, much as the OP seems to have experienced.

It wasn't a big deal to sharpen it up but in my mind, a knife that costs 400 bucks and is engineered to such precise tolerances should be sharp out of the box, no excuses. I own plenty of knives and sharpening tools, but that is not the point. I just feel like people make excuses sometimes because they are wedded to particular products or brands. It's not a really big problem, but it's something the end user is likely to remember. It could influence future behaviour from that user and I know it coloured the way I thought of CRK a bit, having read up and down this forum and others what near-perfect knives they were alleged to be.

As someone else said, if Spyderco (who makes excellent knives that can cost about 10 times less) can ship new knives that are impressively sharp, why can't CRK? Anyway, once again, it's not a really big deal...more like one of those niggling things that annoys one more than it really should. I still think the Seb is awesome, regardless.
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I do find it surprising that they do sell knives so dull. Mine was spyderco sharp so I guess I was lucky. I must admit, i wouldnt be impressed if mine came dull either. The OP knife didnt seem super dull to me. It still took hairs off the arm etc. It may not be super sharp, but it has a very usable edge on it. Having a knife that can pop hairs off is not really needed for anything other than the fact you know your knife is killer sharp=P
 
of the 4 sebenzas I've had in the past, 3 were dull. they were all sent out for pimping tho', so when they came back, they had those Krein-like edges that should've been there in the first place.

it could be an old knife (check the dob), rust/oxidation occurs at the edge and dulls the edge.
 
Thalestin said:
I do find it surprising that they do sell knives so dull. Mine was spyderco sharp so I guess I was lucky. I must admit, i wouldnt be impressed if mine came dull either. The OP knife didnt seem super dull to me. It still took hairs off the arm etc. It may not be super sharp, but it has a very usable edge on it. Having a knife that can pop hairs off is not really needed for anything other than the fact you know your knife is killer sharp=P
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Well I wouldn't say it was super dull, but still really quite dull. It would take hairs off the arm but it was quite random. Using fairly heavy pressure it only cut a few hairs and it was more like ripped than really cut.

The above is neither here nor there, fact is, I've paid much less for much sharper knives. Those edges may or may not hold as long as the sebenza but they were a fraction of the cost.

Oh well, even if my knife that is designed primarily for the purpose of cutting can't cut worth a darn it's still superb. I will be in contact with CRK this coming week.
 
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