Please explain appeal of Sebenza to me

Status
Not open for further replies.
They are good knives and the hate for them is stupid and the ridiculous fanboy stuff is ridiculous. It won't be a life changing experience but they are a level above regular productions. And for some they make it out to be the best thing ever because in there budget it just might be and that's cool we all have our limits financially. Or maybe it's the one that makes you happy to each their own. And the buck vantage statement is ridiculous sorry its not even close. It's like saying my 13 inch tv plays the same channels as yours why yes it does but I would rather watch it on a 55 inch hd tv. But if I can't afford the 55 inch yes the 13 will do the same thing you'll just be squinting lol. And if the stories going around about Chris reeve treating people shitty are true then maybe the hate is warranted. I don't know first hand so.
 
Last edited:
gwebb said:
Alright man. Not cool. OP, here are some thoughts from wolf5391 last year, obviously before the warranty issue. Wolf5391, you basically give someone else the same advice that i have given the OP. See below:

"The way I look at it is there is so much hype over a sebenza that people think its the end all knife. When they get it they realize its just like every other blade but the tolerances are just better. They then feel underwhelmed as you are. The knife is designed to be simple which I find is a sexy design. Some people think its plain and are turned off by the knife or dont get the hype at first. Then the knife is used and then is truely appreciated. I found my first experience with a sebenza was kind of like yours but the knife greatly grew on me and it hasnt left my pocket in over 2 years. Since then I have bought 2 more and am looking at another. In the end the knife just is meant to do work (Sebenza means "work" in Zulu). Its meant to be used. It a very functional piece of art. If it doesnt grow on you sell it and youll get your money back."

Come on man. I thought you were cool for a minute. Sorry for derailing the thread a bit OP. I am out. Hopefully you take something useful from all of this.
Click to expand...

"China still cool.. you pay later! Later!" hope you get that reference :D

anyways yes this post was when I used to like the knife and when I first got it. I had carried the sebenza and used it. I have never said the tolerances were not good. I have always stated the blade steel could be harder.

I also used to praise the crap out of and recommend Chris's knives which made me even more PO'd when Chris got belligerent on the phone with me. I Never liked the steel but was willing to accept it because the tolerances were nice. After that I was done though.

I sold all of my sebenzas except one (for sentimental reasons), because Chris was D!$% to me and I don't respect him. I have always stated that someone should get the knife and check it out for themselves and to make there own decisions.

I did use my sebenza for "work" and when it came time for warranty, Chris didn't honor it like he does all the fan boys who are the second owner of knives (another example of how he chooses who he wants to help warranty wise).

anyways no big deal. what happened happened and people can make there own decisions on how they want to go about his knives.
 
To me the appeal is the slimness, the lock up and perfect blade centering. Never any blade wobble because of the design. Tighten the pivot screw and it is perfect. The pocket clip is extremely well thought out and I think the handle is very comfortable. There seem to be a few people with an agenda here that want to smear Reeve's name for whatever reason.:jerk it: Some people are just too cheap to spend that amount and that is fine but don't slam something you have never even tried.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Scurvy092 said:
It's just like anything else in life...

A Corolla can get you back and worth to work just as well as a Mercedes

A Casio can tell time just as well as a Rolex

A paper plate will hold your food just as well as fine china




There isn't a lot of friendliness in General. It's too wide of a spread of the knife population. Everything from the 'I won't spend anything over $50 for a knife' people up to the 'Hey, check out the 1300 custom I just bought' people.



You understand that car manufacturers actually DO this all the time right?

If you buy a sports car and then blow the motor while racing it on the track, they won't honor the warranty...

Heck, Ford wasn't honoring warranties for people who bent the frames of their SVT Raptors because they were jumping them when Ford showed the Raptor jumping in a ton of it's marketing.
Click to expand...


the only thing your proving to me is that ford sucks and I made a good choice with my camaro :D

all joking aside, just because manufactures do it doesn't make it right. I choose to buy from honest and straight forward good guys who deserve my money.
 
Scurvy092 said:
...Heck, Ford wasn't honoring warranties for people who bent the frames of their SVT Raptors because they were jumping them when Ford showed the Raptor jumping in a ton of it's marketing.
Click to expand...

I swear I only jumped a curb with it...
[video=youtube_share;JKQdlXvbWSU]http://youtu.be/JKQdlXvbWSU[/video]


... is this in the W&C yet...:rolleyes: EDIT: ^^^ some one even used the jerkit image above, its gotta be moved now:D

-sh00ter
 
gwebb said:
You said in that post that "it hasn't left my pocket in over 2 years". Were you talking about a different knife?
Click to expand...

no that was the truth. that's the sentimental one I still have.

That post was posted a while ago. and it was more like a year a 8 months at that time.
 
These "Sebenza Love/Sebenza Hate" threads are funny.

My knife is sharper than yours!

My knife has more bearings than yours!

My knife costs 1/4 of yours and it cuts envelopes open just as well!

I have a motto: if it works for you, use it.

I myself am definitely a Sebenza guy. Own a few and use a few. Love every minute of it. Go CRK!
 
MostMenAreRuthless said:
These "Sebenza Love/Sebenza Hate" threads are funny.

My knife is sharper than yours!

My knife has more bearings than yours!

My knife costs 1/4 of yours and it cuts envelopes open just as well!

I have a motto: if it works for you, use it.

I myself am definitely a Sebenza guy. Own a few and use a few. Love every minute of it. Go CRK!
Click to expand...

See, that's what I'm saying.

Take me for example, I suck, so I buy skill. Only way I can be as good as the fellas with great grand pappies ole slipjoint is to buy a knife for 700 bucks. :(
 
I will say that my damascus sebenza was perfect and didn't have any issues with HT. At least he can HT that right?
 
You can spend a lot of money on any nice versions of items. Do the ladies I work with need a $500 purse? No. Do I need a $500 knife? No. D we both like and appreciate our hard earned "toys"? For certain!
The sebenza is a well made, well planned knife that does exactly what it was designed for.
 
AmericanEDC said:
I for one have learned what I posted to learn. Little did I realize it was a contentious issue.

Anyone care to suggest a great fit and finish alternative for this lefty? A 3" or so blade. As of right now I don't see myself using this particular $400 knife as a daily carry. I know that's a topic for another post but I've been looking at a Caly 3 satin blade in s30v. I own mini Griptilian, nice perhaps a little thick. I'd like to get something in CF. For whatever reason I like CF; I use a CF money clip. But I also like grippy g10. My "tolerance for pain" is probably $200 for this purpose....a knife I won't think twice about putting use marks on the blade.

Thanks all.
Click to expand...

There aren't really many alternatives for a lefty. CRK makes left handed version of all of their knives. Spyderco recently discontinued their left handed Military (definitely pick one up if you can) and Lionsteel has a left handed version of one of their framelocks (though not the SR-1 or the Ti-spine).

At this price point you pretty much have to go custom or CRK. Personally I'd lean more towards CRK due the fact that they are more likely to be around in a decade or so for warranty work than a custom maker.

Why not give the Umnumzaan a look? If you can wait a bit, left handed versions of the 25 should be coming out.
 
I'll refer you to a post I made almost two years ago that I still stand by:

The Sebenza is so simple and so perfect. People always say that you can find other knives by other makers that compare overall for much less money but that's just false, IMO. There is not one Benchmade or Spyderco on the market that is made to the same tolerances or level of perfection that CRK's are made to. Granted, I love Spyderco and appreciate Benchmade and I'm sure any one of their knives, even down to the Chinese models, would last any normal person a lifetime.

I'm talking about refinement and nuance that can only be experienced by holding, using or taking down and cleaning a CRK. If you hold a Sebenza in your hand and really look at how perfectly it's made and how tightly everything fits and how simple and robust the construction is and you still can't understand why a Sebenza is placed on this pedestal and considered a cut above, you simply shouldn't own one.

As much as I love the Spyderco Para 2, for instance, not only would it void the warranty if I was to disassemble one, who knows if it would go back together the way it came apart. Knives like the Para 2 and most other production designs can require a certain amount of adjusting to get the knife re-assembled and centered the way it came new. While I agree that this doesn't make the Para 2 a bad design, I think the fact that CRK gives an Allen wrench with every Sebenza speaks to how simple and well built the Sebenza really is. I'll take simplicity and perfection over anything and that's what the Sebenza provides. I've taken both of my Sebenza's apart a couple of times for cleaning or lanyard tinkering and both have gone back together flawlessly with everything tight and centered.

You can surely find other knives that cut just as good as a Sebenza or maybe look better, in your opinion, and at a fraction of the cost. Personally, if that was all I cared about, I wouldn't be a knife enthusiast. Who cares about having the bare minimum of what you need when you can indulge in what you want?

Why buy a Porsche when you can spend the same money on a Honda Civic and make it a 10-second race car? I suppose that's for each individual to decide for themselves.

The Sebenza is greater than the sum of it's parts and I'd guess that when you ask 98% of people who own CRK's, they'll agree that you get what you pay for.
Click to expand...
 
As others have said, try it and sell it if it doesn't float your boat. They hold value well.
 
AmericanEDC said:
I've been doing some searches but haven't found the answer.

Can some of you please explain the appeal and pricing of Sebenzas to me.

I'm getting the impression it's a grail knife for many people and would be interested to learn why. It seems to be carried and even used by many. I haven't seen many LNIB being sold on the exchange which tells me people who have them use them or at least keep them. It seems like there are tons of other brands sold LNIB or lightly carried/used.

It is a premium priced knife. Is it considered a semi custom?

Thanks friends.....
Click to expand...


Here is my take on this. :)

The Sebenza is an excellent knife that is well designed with extremely tight tolerances and fit and finish with a long distinguished history of being the standard that other knives are judged by.

As with most things that are considered expensive by people who can't afford them there will be haters, and yes that is were the hate comes from if those people want to admit it or not... And they never will by the way.....

Comparing expensive items to cheap ones is nothing more than another way to hate because they can't afford the expensive item....

Sayings like just as good as are red flags and one really needs to completely ignore those posts because for the most part they are worthless...

The bottom line is this.

If you like the knife and have the money to get one then get it, you more than likely will enjoy using it for a very long time to come.

But make no mistake, it won't move mountains or do anything else amazing as it's still just a knife so if you do decide to get one then use it just like any other knife and forget how much it costs, you will enjoy it a lot more that way.

if you can't get over how much it costs then don't get one because you will never use it and just end up selling it.....
 
Last edited:
A couple of months ago I bought my first CRK knife, a sebenza, after wanting one for an awfully long time. Well...now I've got 4.

Status symbol? hardly. Matter of fact, nobody i know knows who Chris Reeve is or what the heck a sebenza is, and they'd all laugh me out of town if i ever told them how much I paid for the knife. I pretty much have to lie if i'm ever asked how much it costs.

I've got lots of $150-200 knives, and yes, the sebenza is 2x's as good. It's just made better. Honestly, the packages I open with it don't really care, but I like it, and it makes me happy every time I flip it open. It's a small piece of perfection and it's neat to carry that around in your pocket. You can build prettier knives, and you can build more expensive knives, but you're not going to build a better knife, quality wise. It's right at the top.

Many don't care about that stuff and are more practical. I wish I was that way, sometimes, but I'm not. So, I'll use my sebenzas, and I'll likely buy more.

If you buy one...it won't be your last.
 
Just a few that I own/have owned. The Ivory/Damascus is my daily carry & is used and still looks 98% after several years; reason for using/carrying is when I am 100 years old & pull her out of my pocket the memories will come back. My description of the Sebenza appeal is like an Lexus; It is not the highest end "status" or "luxury" and not the "cheapest" or "poor man's" car. Where the Lexus strikes a balance is with workmanship & material quality, ride, resale value, etc. Other knives are appreciated & owned as well and the $$$ amount has no bearing on how much I like them as a Kershaw Leek to me is a great little knife. Enjoy all your blades and also knives that other friends have or appreciate as it is a common bond that some folks just will never get. Anthony ==================================================
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top