Question for Jeff --- Sebenza?

[Cliff Stamp]

Bagheera :

Also has anyone seen reports, read stories about someone having his Military or Crosslock or AFCK etc. fail under survival conditions and subsequently injure him/her or even worse?

I could easily disengage the liner on the Military I had with only a moderate amount of "white knuckling". I use more force than that doing a lot of hard cutting so for me it was unusable, it simply had no lock, and thus a simple test prevented me from ever becoming a statistic about folder failure.

Drop Joe Talmadge an email about lock failures, he has had several reports of them failing under very low stress cutting. Obviously from people who didn't do a few simple locks tests on the blades on a regular basis.

Marion, there is quite possibly a significant variance in terms of edge grinding in production knives. However if your inspection is visual, unless you have a lot of experience in terms of machining, I would be very surprised if you could actually visually spec the edge of a knife in anyway accurately. Even a factor of 2, angle wise is not trivial to spot, especially complicated by the convex vs flat profile.

-Cliff

 

[matthew rapaport]

Bagheera wrote...

<quote>
I once did this with my Sebenza (factory edge) and had to an edge that had rolled badly
</quote>

This is very much out of line with my experience and for that matter with Chris Reeve's reputation. Even the best QC can miss a defect once in a while I suppose, and I suspect you got a very rare example of a badly heat treated blade on a Sebenza.

I bought a sebenza a few years back, and the only folders I've bought since were for very specialized uses - tiny things that would pass through airport security or fit the more formal look I have to have working in the city these days.

I never pamper my benz! I've cut food, plant stems, split wood, and even used it as an ice pick. The edge has never rolled, chipped, or otherwise shown signs of other than normal dulling from hard use. I've taken it appart and cleaned it a half dozen times too and it always goes back together easily opens and closes smoothly, and locks up tight, something I can't say for any of my other folders some of which I couldn't take apart even if I wanted to.

When I'm in the woods, I do like a fixed blade at my hip, but if I had to take a folder and nothing more into the woods it would certainly be my sebenza.

 

[Hoodoo]

Matthew,
Glad to hear of the robustness of the blade on the sebenza. Actually, I've never had a problem with mine but still, I'm somewhat careful not to abuse it. For instance, it's not the knife I use to strip wire or remove heavy staples with or scrape metal. So I don't really know what it's capable of. I have used it to chop up starfish. They have a calcareous endoskeleton and are tough on scalpels, but the small sebbie didn't work up a sweat and showed no signs of chipping or rolling. Still, I do baby it somewhat. That's why I have beater knives with me, like a trusty SAK or something, to do the grunge work. And if I'm lucky, I have a good fixed blade like the Busse Mean Street. Next to duct tape, it's the handyman's friend.

------------------
Hoodoo

I get some pleasure from finding a relentlessly peaceful use for a combative looking knife.
JKM

 

[matthew rapaport]

Agreed, I don't use it to strip wire or lift staples and things like that. I try not to use any knife for those sorts of jobs.

 

[matthew rapaport]

I haven't made bread sticks in the manner described by Bagheera for many years. I realized I hadn't used my sebenza in for this kind of cut (sort of a plaining with the blade held perpendicular to the surface being scraped), so I went out this morning and cut a few willow branches about 2' long and scraped them both clean this way. The blade plained them cleanly and showed no sign of rolling.

Bagheera you must have gotten a rare example of a badly heat treated blade. You should go out and plain a few sticks, roll the blade, and then send the knife back to Chris R. with an explanation of what you were doing. I'm sure he will make it up to you with a brand new blade on your knife. His reputation for customer service is second to none!