Sebenza 21 work performance.. opinions?

ti lock said:
EricNPeterson, I do a lot of heavy use with my large seb 21 and it with no question holds an edge and does so very well... I just finished a job requiring me to open up 80 boxes IFBs... the residual will dull the hell out of any blade but my seb 21 will still cut flesh if I am not careful.. I have spyderco natives too and there is no comparison between the two... the spydi is a toy in comparison

send the knife to me and I will sharpen it up and send it back to you.... You pay shipping both ways.... I use the Wicked Edge... I used to use a sharp maker but now you couldn't give me one
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I can get an edge on the Seb, it just doesn't perform as well as my other knives. All of my Spydies are sharp as a razor... and hold an edge for a few days of work... same with my new Griptilian. Thanks for the offer though!
 
I got a couple of S110V and zdp189 spydies just for cardboard, because it tore up my Sebenzas. But for pretty much all other tasks, I'm quite happy with them.
 
I don’t know if this applies to CRK knives, but some factory knives come with edges burnt during machine sharpening. These edges perform poorly at the first, but do a lot better after several sharpening sessions.
 
Chris Reeve runs the hardness of their S35VN to the same range as Spyderco, at least since mid 2013, and you never hear anyone complain about Spyderco running theirs soft. For some reason everyone thinks it is soft for CRK to do the same. In a non-scientific comparison between CRK and Spyderco (S30V and S35VN for the latter) I did not see a difference cutting cardboard.

If it is new and you haven't sharpened it enough times to get a full V edge on it (assuming you are not trying to keep a convex edge) the edge may not be fully developed or you might not be hitting the apex due to the convex shoulder.
 
Vg10 on endura shouldnt outperform your sebenza. When is your blade made?
 
Sergeua said:
Vg10 on endura shouldnt outperform your sebenza. When is your blade made?
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My Seb blade was made last year. The Endura is amazing... what a work knife. I've been very happy with Vg-10 steel, my Delica 4 is outstanding as a worker, as well as my Stretch.
 
you may want to try contacting CRK and talking to them ... I bet they would gladly have you send it in and check it out and they would sharpen it and make sure its right before sending it back.
If you just aren't happy with the knife and like I said before it's not the knife for everyone I'm sure you can sell it fairly easily ... just be straight forward about the conditioon and use and you shouldn't take a big hit on the price.
I will also say I never really got the hang of the Sharpmaker ... after growing up using stones and ceramic rods I dulled a blade on the sharpmaker instead of sharpening it.
If you are wanting a knife to hold up longer check out M390 or some of the S110V or some of the Carpenter steels hold an edge for a long time but can be a pain to sharpen.
 
I'd definitely pursue having CRK take a look at it.

My L21 insingo is crazy sharp from my sharpmaker and holds an edge really, really well. And I don't believe that's an anomaly. It came only so-so sharp. My inkosi was also only so so sharp, and I couldn't get it as sharp as the sebenza. With the inkosi, the score was one really sharp, on not so much. Finally, the unmumzaan came so I could get a tiebreaker. It gets very sharp and holds really well, very much on par with the L21. Score 2 to 1. All three are 2016 blades or newer.
 
I love benchmade, as well as CRK. When I got my first sabenza I was such a huge benchmade fan that I didn't hesitate in really putting the sabenza to WORK. And I have to say it has a held up like a champ for years now. Sorry to hear your having troubles with yours. My sharpmaker with the ultra fine stones keeps mine just fine friend.
 
My large sabenza that is. I have recently bought two small sabenzas that do seem much different i must say
 
Lapedog said:
I think the CRKs are fair knives for work, but definitely far from the best. I think most of it is I just can't bring myself to use my Sebenza to scrape or pry or do anything too rough with it. I'm sure it could handle it, I just have a problem withe

A great work knife is the Spyderco Gayle Bradley.
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I wish I could say that but my EDC small plain Jane 21 Sebenza get used for all those things but not to the point it compromises my edge. It's not because it's a Sebenza I'm not abusive it's because I'm like that with all my knives. Probably one of the reasons I carry more than one knife. My Sebenza gets used for all those things and I touch it up on the strop at the end of the day, the ceramic bench hone once a week or as needed and finally if I can't push cut newsprint after the hone and the strop I'll touch it up with the fine Lap-Ezee diamond bench hone and after a few strokes, a few swipes and a polish on the strop it'll shave and cut like it's meant to.

Now when I first got mine and all the subsequent others I jade to put my own edge on it. The high hollow grind bring the bevel down to a thicker apex than the Edura does, correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the endurance have a flat ground blade? The blade geometry cuts a lot different for both those edges but it should still hold up.

One thing I noticed that prematurely dulled my Sebenza was the open back and the proximity to the sharpened edge pocket detritus got and came in contact with. Key's and change were dulling the edge. One of the great engineering feats for Chris was the fact that he could pack so much blade into so little handle, maximize the real estate and fit the largest blade to handle ratio for a folder out there for years to come. So what can you do? Dedicated pocket with nothing but the Sebenza in it but I doubt that, you sound like me and my pocket always have all kinds of junk in em. You could try my way, use the sheath it came with or one of the multitude of other aftermarket sheaths available and keep it in there. Someone makes a fitted leather s heats with a pocket clip that takes up barely more space than the naked knife does clipped to your pocket but it protects the edge from all the pocket debris hellbent on flattening the edge of that S35VN that comes in at 59-60hrc.

I also have a 551 and it does eat a lot of stuff but the edge is toothier and again IIRC it has a flat grind which is designed for that type of work. The Sebenza's got a more refined edge. Try protecting it while in between uses and see if that doesn't increase your edge's lifespan. As always YMMV ;).



miso2 said:
I don’t know if this applies to CRK knives, but some factory knives come with edges burnt during machine sharpening. These edges perform poorly at the first, but do a lot better after several sharpening sessions.
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I've haven't seen that but I only have 3 Sebenzas, my small 21 sees the bulk of the use right now and granted I don't work like I used to before I was forcefully retired but I pull and use my Sebenza at least 20 times a day so take that for what it's worth.

here's my well worn, well used Sebenza and it's homemade slip sheath.

CYGOrxZ.jpg
 
TRfromMT said:
I'd definitely pursue having CRK take a look at it.

My L21 insingo is crazy sharp from my sharpmaker and holds an edge really, really well. And I don't believe that's an anomaly. It came only so-so sharp. My inkosi was also only so so sharp, and I couldn't get it as sharp as the sebenza. With the inkosi, the score was one really sharp, on not so much. Finally, the unmumzaan came so I could get a tiebreaker. It gets very sharp and holds really well, very much on par with the L21. Score 2 to 1. All three are 2016 blades or newer.
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For some reason I wasn't able to get my Inkosi sharp at all. My large and small 21s I got sharp no problem using my sharpmaker stones freehand, RAZOR sharp like cuttinf paper with the weight of the knife alone.

I took the Inkosi to get it professionally sharpened and now I can get the Inkosi sharp.

I theorize it had something to do with for some reason my Inkosi having a more convex grind possibly due to the thicker blade. It is hard to free hand a convex edge much easier a flat edge.
 
OP: been exactly in your predicament a couple of times. Got frustrated each time, sold my Large 21 and 25 and then I missed them! Not to sound sacrilegious and blasphemous to my CRK friends on here, I will have to side with the OP that every Spidie which I had received out of the box was a pure cutting demon as compared to my Sebies. Doing a lot of shipping, packaging, unpackaging, cutting off tape, straps and then cutting boxes to shreds, I have had to maintain my CRKs more than my Military 204P (gone since too). However, whenever I was without a CRK, I was also a sad folding knife enthusiast.

I really think that different metal alloys respond differently to different sharpening stones and strops. The Sharpmaker also turned out to be very frustrating and quite useless to me. It wasn't the so much the Sharpmaker as it was me. Being right handed, I could get the left side of the blade done reasonably well but I sucked at positioning my body for the right side of the blade. Really awkward for me. I have spend lots of time reading the tinkering subforum and I also got very frustrated with trying to be precise with the freehand sharpening angles, etc. I don't use guided system as I want to get as good as I can with freehand.

What I have found which works the best for me is just marking edge with a black marker and then I just use the Fallkniven DC4 and CC4 pocket stones like an eraser to erase the ink! The erasing motion is back and forth across the secondary bevel and edge, not up and down unless I hit an area near the heel which proves to be troublesome. I am also very, very careful around the tip. What I do and the way I do it is certainly not pretty but it works for me. I don't use the diamond side of the DC4 just for maintenance but I do use the sapphire side (about 1200 grit I believe) and also the ceramic side of the CC4 which I think is about 2000 grit (?). I use the marker trick for both grits. I also have a Spyderco 306UF plate which I will use with the conventional freehand technique if I want a more polished edge, but toothy seems to work fine for my application and use. I don't put a microbevel on the edge but I could if I wanted to with that 306UF plate. I have not found a strop that works for me. I do have the Knifeplus block with the green which many people seem to like, but again perhaps it is all on me as I have never felt that strop does very much for anything that I use it for. I may go with an emulsion based liquid and the kangaroo leather from KME instead.

In closing, as much as the grief I give myself about the same issues which bother you, I can not be without a CRK. They just need a little bit more attention from me.
 
May or may not be the case but I do believe some of us, maybe even my self included, get overly hyped about the sabenza. Is it one of the greatest knives of all time.... absolutely!!!!! But is it going to sharpen itself and shapeshift to your fingerprints... haha no. Damn good knife, and that's that.
 
Another possibility is that the OP was not successful to remove the burr. In my limited experience, I found that S35VN and its kinds tend to develop lingering burrs or wire edge. They feel sharp right after sharpening, but it goes away with a few swipes into cardboard.
 
A good 10X loupe is your friend when sharpening. Find a knife you feel is sharp then look and memorize what sharp looks like, then compare the two, what you want and what you have. When you can't tell the difference between the two it's sharp. ;)
 
miso2 said:
Another possibility is that the OP was not successful to remove the burr. In my limited experience, I found that S35VN and its kinds tend to develop lingering burrs or wire edge. They feel sharp right after sharpening, but it goes away with a few swipes into cardboard.
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This gives me a note to self to use my Spyderco 306 UF plate for shearing off the burr after my wacky yet preferred sharpening technique as described above.
 
My advice is to spend some money on a wicked edge and not blame the knife... I found a used WE for $100
 
A lot of useful insight has been posted already. Here's what I've learned so far concerning any knife that's going to be used for difficult cutting tasks.
A full flat grind will be better at cutting more material because of the blade geometry, less resistance equates to more cutting ability. A thinner blade makes for an impressive slicer. A full flat grind has less steel behind the edge and will out perform a hollow grind everyday.
Not all cardboard is the same, some of it has stronger binding material, especially if it's being used for things like appliances, fixtures, heavy hauling.
Those card boards will dull any knife fast.
What I've found to improve the performance of my work CRK's is to thin the edge a couple of degrees compared to the factory grind. I also leave the edge toothy. It helps with the cutting. A polished edge looks all pretty and impressive, but ain't worth a crap as a worker.
Some appliances/fixtures I open, I don't even bother to pull out a knife, go straight to a box cutter and usually dull the blade after one use.

One question to ask, when you touch up or sharpen your CRK, do you use a sharpie? If not, how do you know you're hitting the apex. Once again, a full flat grind is easier to touch up and hit the apex opposed to a hollow grind.
 
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