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Photos Sharing CRK Art - My CRK Collection
- Thread starter Lone_Wolfe
- Start date
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- May 3, 2011
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Thank you, glad you enjoy them!
I have no real system, except to grab when I can. Because my collection has headed in a direction that's very hard to find at times, I have to snag when I can. For example the box of 10 knives that I posted here, was a once-in-a-lifetime find that was just dropped in my lap. I had to either crap some serious coin or get off the pot.
Some of my favorites are often the ones that look like something without being an actual drawing. I'll be posting a lot more of that when I get to the UG groups, there's some real artistic talent for sure!
Thank you for that PM, I couldn't be any happier for you and yours!
About helping choose, it's not as unexpected as you might think. One thing that I get quite a bit is a PM or email asking "What do you know about this knife?" "Do you think this one is worth $xxx?" "Would you trade ..... for .....?" I'm not the expert some people think I am, but I do my best to help, and I give my honest opinion. And as long as folks remember that it's just one person's opinion, I'll happily help anyone I can.
But I'm really glad it helped you choose, and you made a great choice. The Raindrop pattern has changed a lot over recent years, evolving in a way that not everyone likes although I do. It went from a tight pattern where the closed circles were almost square, then it stretched out a bit like in your new beauty, and even more so in my inbound mammoth, pictured below. That's what drew me to it. A few years back, the pattern got very loose, more of a pebble beach than a raindrop look. Now it's tightening back up, but with a still different look. The pattern you are getting may never return, and you're getting a great example of it.
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- May 7, 2012
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Thanks so much LW,
You are 100% right. I love the older pattern, but for my taste if I could chose one style, I would take the one I'm getting. It's a little bit stretched, a little more organic, more like rain, where as the new ones have too many layers between the "drops" and not enough in them for my taste.
Maybe we can get a thread going showing the evolution of the Raindrop Damascus....
You are 100% right. I love the older pattern, but for my taste if I could chose one style, I would take the one I'm getting. It's a little bit stretched, a little more organic, more like rain, where as the new ones have too many layers between the "drops" and not enough in them for my taste.
Maybe we can get a thread going showing the evolution of the Raindrop Damascus....
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I'd love to, there's several versions out there that I don't have. It'd be nice to see them all in one thread.
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A couple of us have talked about this knife elsewhere, but I decided to bring it over here to post pics. I brought home my office knife, a small CGG Freedom for the weekend to include it in my CGG group for this thread.
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lisantica
Gold Member
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Over the weekend I traveled to Houston (now you folks see why I was so far behind on my PM's!) and had a chance to get this professionally done pic of my carry knife. If Lisantica could see it now!!
WOW! Not sure how I missed seeing the updates to this thread!
Just lovely LW!
Every time I read something of this nature, I think of....
[video=youtube;-l9Ph6y4jNY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l9Ph6y4jNY[/video]
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I decided to redo the group of Mammoth Sebenzas, as I've added to the group since I did it before. I'm now sitting at 7 Mammoths, one large and 6 small Sebenzas. 2 are Ivory, 4 are bark, and one is a striking combination. Without further ado....
The fronts, from lightest to darkest.
The backs, also lightest to darkest.
And now for some closer looks. The white on the bottom is new in this thread, having arrived here a few months ago. The white with bark cracks and the creamy with ladder damascus have been seen here the fist time i showed off the mammoths.
The top 2 of 3 in this pic are new to this thread. The top is a small that's very dark, and has a very barky feel. Materiel from the outer edge of the tusk. The large is also very dark and barky, but doesn't have quite the texture that the small does. The green and blue beauty has made appearances here before.
This is my newly arrived small with Raindrop damascus. Great looking bark here, with green showing in the streaks.
A couple close-ups of the blue and green, showing off it's stunning color.
Yes, it's really that blue.
2 of these have damascus blades, the creamy has Ladder, the mid-color bark has one of the nicest patterned Raindrop blades I've ever seen. I'm supposed to be on a hiatus from buying, but I allowed myself that one!
The fronts, from lightest to darkest.
The backs, also lightest to darkest.
And now for some closer looks. The white on the bottom is new in this thread, having arrived here a few months ago. The white with bark cracks and the creamy with ladder damascus have been seen here the fist time i showed off the mammoths.
The top 2 of 3 in this pic are new to this thread. The top is a small that's very dark, and has a very barky feel. Materiel from the outer edge of the tusk. The large is also very dark and barky, but doesn't have quite the texture that the small does. The green and blue beauty has made appearances here before.
This is my newly arrived small with Raindrop damascus. Great looking bark here, with green showing in the streaks.
A couple close-ups of the blue and green, showing off it's stunning color.
Yes, it's really that blue.
2 of these have damascus blades, the creamy has Ladder, the mid-color bark has one of the nicest patterned Raindrop blades I've ever seen. I'm supposed to be on a hiatus from buying, but I allowed myself that one!
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Not going to redo the Mnandi group since I only sold one and added one, but I did want to bring this one into this thread. As I've shown before, I love to get righty-lefty pairs. Last week I scored a lefty Mnandi that makes this the coolest and rarest righty-lefty pair that I have. So what is it? Drumroll, please......................... 
It's #195 of the first run of 200 Mnandis!
Here it is, with #61. Like #61, it's also Ziricote inlayed, and BG-42. However, this one wasn't born until 2002, and it's a lefty model. July 29th, to be exact. It seems CRK didn't release the leftys right away, which is usual. However, they held the last 10 slots from the numbered BG-42 run, so that lefties wouldn't be left out. They were already making SV30 bladed normal production run Mnandis in various wood and Mammoth, but they held back some Ziricote to finish this run. The original owner of this one must have been waiting so (im)patiently, I have the receipt showing it shipped directly from CRK on July 30. The ink was barely dry on the birthcard when a happy CRK fan had it in hand.
The color difference you see here is accurate, and the finish is different. #61 looks and feels like the bare wood, #195 appears to have wax of some protective finish. In this pic you can see the differences in the finish a little better.
It's #195 of the first run of 200 Mnandis!
Here it is, with #61. Like #61, it's also Ziricote inlayed, and BG-42. However, this one wasn't born until 2002, and it's a lefty model. July 29th, to be exact. It seems CRK didn't release the leftys right away, which is usual. However, they held the last 10 slots from the numbered BG-42 run, so that lefties wouldn't be left out. They were already making SV30 bladed normal production run Mnandis in various wood and Mammoth, but they held back some Ziricote to finish this run. The original owner of this one must have been waiting so (im)patiently, I have the receipt showing it shipped directly from CRK on July 30. The ink was barely dry on the birthcard when a happy CRK fan had it in hand.
The color difference you see here is accurate, and the finish is different. #61 looks and feels like the bare wood, #195 appears to have wax of some protective finish. In this pic you can see the differences in the finish a little better.
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Soooo........... Who here would kick this knife out of bed for eating crackers?......... 
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What is that inlay? [emoji54]Soooo........... Who here would kick this knife out of bed for eating crackers?.........
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Not going to redo the Mnandi group since I only sold one and added one, but I did want to bring this one into this thread. As I've shown before, I love to get righty-lefty pairs. Last week I scored a lefty Mnandi that makes this the coolest and rarest righty-lefty pair that I have. So what is it? Drumroll, please.........................
It's #195 of the first run of 200 Mnandis!
Oh I missed this post. Very interesting!
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I keep my spreadsheet at work, so I may be one or 2 off, but I think I'm back up to 87, with one inbound, and one being very generously being held by the folks at Plaza cutlery for one more week. There's really only 2 knives I 'need' for my collection, so I'm hoping to stay under 90. I topped out at 105, that was too many.
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