S-2 From Columbia River

Fresh from Columbia River Knife and Tool id the Frame lock S-2
This has an integral lock where the handle actually bent to keep the blade locked in the open position.

The style is similar to the Apache and the finish all around is gray bead-blast. This is a very attractive knife in a flat gray sort of way.
The web site text:
4-7/8" closed. ATS-34 Stainless Steel drop point blade with bead blast finish. Titanium handles with lanyard hole. Titanium pocket/belt clip.
The handle actually has a section which flexes over to hold the blade in the open position. Moving that piece of the handle aside with your thumb releases the blade so you can easily close it. The handle material is Titanium for strength and weight considerations. This is a very well made and designed knife and a real value at this price."

It has a good feel- not too heavy for its size. The lock is very secure as the blade thickness matches that of the handle and so it shouldn't fail. There are torx nuts holding the simple construction togther including one in the thumb stud and so it is likely reversible.
It's slightly larger than a large Reeve Sebenza and the engineering is very similar. Of course there is a noticable difference in smoothness and the steel is different.

S2.JPG






[This message has been edited by Dexter Ewing (edited 02 December 1998).]
 
Dexter Ewing

Dexter Ewing

Joined
Oct 3, 1998
Messages
4,670
Howard - thanks for posting your impressions of the S-2. These look like well made knives, can't wait to try one out for myself.

------------------
Dexter Ewing
Knife Reviews Moderator

"The keystroke is mightier than the sword"





 
What a great-looking little knife. I like the extreme positive included angle, and the overall looks are sleek. And it's not a liner lock, that makes me happy. Thumb stud looks reasonably grippy, thumb ramp looks like it's in the right place, grind on blade is reasonably high. Very nice.

However, I'd like to ruin the party by throwing out some cautionary notes, perhaps the first batch of reviewers can address them.

- The handle looks positively enormous for the blade size. Now that Benchmade has gotten their blade-to-handle-ratio in check with their new models, it looks like CRKT is going to take the title of worst b-t-h ratio in the biz. For a blade this size, the handle should be 1" bigger. 1.25" bigger is acceptable, though I'll grumble. More than that is just bad design.

- The integral lock really narrows towards the pivot. It's probably still plenty strong, but it's worth checking.

Joe
jat@cup.hp.com

[This message has been edited by Joe Talmadge (edited 03 December 1998).]
 
Joe, you are right about the thumb stud- it is well designed and placed. There is a bit too much handle to blade, but the image is shrunken and the real knife does fit nicely in a medium hand. A straighter handle and more drop point design would allow a sharter handle. The lanyard hole actually may have been part of the inspiration for some of the excess length - and that may be kind of useless to most, I don't know. Overall it is a beautiful knife. IMO
Howard
 
I was very lucky and walked in the day my local knife shop got their S-2, and got the last one of three, he sold out in a day....

This knife is very cool, I spent 2 hours driving around to get a Torx to fit the clip screws, but that is another story altogether.

Anyway, the S-2 is so very cool, the handle has good ergonomics, and the titanium feels real nice.

More to come when I get my thoughts together...

------------------
Marion David Poff fka Eye, one can msg me at mdpoff@hotmail.com

Patiently waiting for the Spyderco SpydeRench, Lum Chinese Chopper Folder, Rolling Lock, Benchmade M2 Axis, M2 Axis AFCK, M2 Pinnacle and the REKAT Escalator and Pat Crawford Design.

"The victorious Warrior wins first and then goes to war, while the defeated Warrior goes to war and then seeks to win" Sun-Tzu














 
The only obvious problem I can see with it is that the thumbstud isn't ambi, making it less usefull for lefties like myself, but this definately looks like a knife worth checking out.

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
Given my dislike of beadblasted surfaces, especially those with corrosion potential, I am thinking of sending mine to Birdsong to make it Black-T.

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Marion David Poff fka Eye, one can msg me at mdpoff@hotmail.com

Patiently waiting for the Spyderco SpydeRench, Lum Chinese Chopper Folder, Rolling Lock, Benchmade M2 Axis, M2 Axis AFCK, M2 Pinnacle and the REKAT Escalator and Pat Crawford Design.

"The victorious Warrior wins first and then goes to war, while the defeated Warrior goes to war and then seeks to win" Sun-Tzu














 
Does anyone know what the RC of the blade is? I read on some other posts on new CRKT knives that the ATS34 wasn't being hardened beyond 56-57.

Also has anyone managed to reverse the thumb stud yet for us lefties??
 
I have seen hardness ratings of 57-58 and 55-58 on two different web sites. I have not called CRK&T to confirm, but the data on the sites looked to be direct promo from CRK&T.

I am also lefty, but have not investigated the thumb stud swap.

Best Regards,Todd
 
I disassembled mine the other night and found that the stud does go left if you like.

I also e-mailed CRKT, and got a response from them indicating that the Rockwell should be 59-60.

------------------
Marion David Poff fka Eye, one can msg me at mdpoff@hotmail.com

Patiently waiting for the Spyderco SpydeRench, Lum Chinese Chopper Folder, Rolling Lock, Benchmade M2 Axis, M2 Axis AFCK, M2 Pinnacle and the REKAT Escalator and Pat Crawford Design.

"The victorious Warrior wins first and then goes to war, while the defeated Warrior goes to war and then seeks to win" Sun-Tzu














 
Hi guys,

As I'm thinking of buying the S2 for Xmas and have it send to the Netherlands by a friend in San Diego I was wondering what you all think about the quality/price compared to the Benchmade pinnacle Titanium piece that is listed to cost about $150 I think. I have a K.I.S.S. and several STIFF KISSES and I like what I get for my money. Please advise!
Best regards, Bagheera

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Bagheera, Very few people can advise you in this instance because both are pretty new.

But my bet would be that the Pinnacle woudl edge out the S-2, but not by enough to tip the scales.

So I woudl go with the one you like better, and let me tell you, the S-2 is very nice....

------------------
Marion David Poff fka Eye, one can msg me at mdpoff@hotmail.com

Patiently waiting for the Spyderco SpydeRench, Lum Chinese Chopper Folder, Rolling Lock, Benchmade M2 Axis, M2 Axis AFCK, M2 Pinnacle and the REKAT Escalator and Pat Crawford Design.

"The victorious Warrior wins first and then goes to war, while the defeated Warrior goes to war and then seeks to win" Sun-Tzu














 
Marion:
What are the Torx sizes for the pocket clip. Looks like a nice folder.

Thanks.

*** Yeah, I know the feeling of calling & driving around to get the right Torx <grin>.
 
The pivot and frame screws are T10 if I remember correctly, and the clip screws are T6, I think, I don't know...

I finally used a T7 that barely fit in the top of the head, screwed them in and partially stripped a screw, luckily I LocTited the screws in. Then I used a nail file to remove the burrs made by me stripping the top of the head.

And the whole source of the problem is the clip....

The end is pretty pointy, catches on things rather easily.

All that, and other things aside, I love this knife......

------------------
Marion David Poff fka Eye, one can msg me at mdpoff@hotmail.com

Patiently waiting for the Spyderco SpydeRench, Lum Chinese Chopper Folder, Rolling Lock, Benchmade M2 Axis, M2 Axis AFCK, M2 Pinnacle and the REKAT Escalator and Pat Crawford Design.

"The victorious Warrior wins first and then goes to war, while the defeated Warrior goes to war and then seeks to win" Sun-Tzu














 
I was looking closely at the S-2 but I have since sworn never to buy another knife with a bead-blasted blade. The cause of this rash decision is sudden enlightenment into why bead-blasting accelerates corrosion. The details are in my post in the <a href="http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000545.html">Rust on Beadblast blade-what to do?</a> thread on the general forum. Now if the blade had a satin finish
smile.gif
.

Cheers,
Clay
 
Hi Clay - have you tried to use Tuf-Cloth to treat a bead blasted blade? It leaves behind a thin protective film that guards against corrosion. There are a lot of guys, including myself, who are sold on this accessory! Go to http://www.sentrysolutions.com for more info on this product. Simply the best corrosion protection that's out there right now IMHO.

------------------
Dexter Ewing
Knife Reviews Moderator

"The keystroke is mightier than the sword"





 
Thanks Dexter, actually I do have a Tuf-Cloth. Frank Norman from Little River Trading Co. kindly sent me one with my last order. My problem is that I regularly use my knife for cutting food. Last time I used the StiffKISS was to cut up some take-away spring rolls to share amongst the kids at a picnic, boy did that cause some corrosion problems. So, I don't like the idea of chemicals on the blade. I could take Joe's advice and use mineral oil but, given my inherent laziness, it makes more sense to just have a finish which doesn't require as much TLC.

Cheers,
Clay
 
Clay, since you got into it, I will say it..

I too hate bead-blast blades, that is why I am going to get mine Black-T'd(the real stuff) by Birdsong.

When I first got my S-2, in the first week it started rusting bad, but I Flitz'd it, which polished the grind transitions, and then hit it hard with the Tuf-cloth, and now there is no problem.

I think the issue was that they used ferrous tooling or there was ferrous particulate in the media of the blaster, or they didn't use the glass beads that seal the pores....

Anyway, all is well now. No more rust, but I am going to get mine Black-T'd.

If you wnat a S-2 bad enough, I could expidite the Black-t'ing here in the states, so you wouldn't have to ship it to and from Oz.

------------------
Marion David Poff fka Eye, one can msg me at mdpoff@hotmail.com

Patiently waiting for the Spyderco SpydeRench, Lum Chinese Chopper Folder, Rolling Lock, Benchmade M2 Axis, M2 Axis AFCK, M2 Pinnacle and the REKAT Escalator and Pat Crawford Design.

"The victorious Warrior wins first and then goes to war, while the defeated Warrior goes to war and then seeks to win" Sun-Tzu














 
David,

Thanks for the offer, but I think I will just use it as another excuse to wait for the Chinese folder
smile.gif
. Also I just received a Spyderco Viele (courtesy of Brian) so I have something new to play with for a while.

Seriously, if the S2 rusted that quickly, it probably just means that the blasting medium was fairly coarse resulting in large or deep pits, so the Galvanic cells set up are more effective. However any pit, no matter how small, will cause this type of corrosion. It will even occur between phases in the metal which have different electrode potentials. Ferrite has a higher potential than Iron Carbide so a micro cell can be formed even within a single grain. Why make the problem worse by bead-blasting?

Cheers,
Clay

[This message has been edited by Clay Kesting (edited 12 December 1998).]
 
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