Professor
Gold Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 1999
- Messages
- 3,431
Just another reason I love CRK folders over all others...
I just received this Boker Anso Whale from another forum member. I could not resist it at what it was selling for, with ti liners/lock and 440C blade steel, G10 scales and ti clip. To boot, the seller, a great person and frequenter to this forum, assured me that it was a fine sample of it's breed, with perfect centering and no blade play. He was right on the money, as it was perfect.
I bought it with the intention of gifting it to my Father. Years ago, I gifted my Father-in-Law, who I'm also close with, a small Sebenza. He's a knife and tool guy, and appreciates fine American craftmanship. My Dad, also a knife and tool guy, is proned to lose things. I gave him a Delica years and years ago that was lost long ago. Hey, at least he carried and used it for a while, right? I figured I'd try him out with the Boker Whale for a year or two and let him work his way up to a Seb.
Anyway, I wanted to break the knife completely down, file the lockbar face on the Whale to mate better with the blade tang, lube with CRK grease, and re-assemble and tune with blue Loc-Tite, which I did. I knew better than to attempt something like this in any place other than my little shop with appropriate lighting and workspace, but ahhhhh, it was soooooo nice outside yesterday. 71 degrees and simply lovely. So against my better judgement, I worked on it outside on our patio table.
Well, during re-assembly, I dropped one of the teeny-tiny pan-headed torx screws on the ground. Naturally, it was one of the smallest parts -- my luck would run no other way. I'm a patient guy (sometimes), so I searched on hands and knees through the grass, leaves, and clover several times, nearly resolving to give up and order another through Boker. The sun was fading fast, and I gave it one more go before giving up. Well, I found the little bugger! After re-assembly and tuning, the knife now operates ultra smoothly and locks up with authority. Cool little knife.
![IMG_0750[1].jpg](https://www.bladeforums.com/data/attachments/131/131369-fa3f3ce3379c77dc7cd51d4500e8273d.jpg?hash=-j884zecd9 "IMG_0750[1].jpg")
![IMG_0751[1].jpg](https://www.bladeforums.com/data/attachments/131/131370-a7c07b0776f8212e929904353d4eb375.jpg?hash=p8B7B3b4IS "IMG_0751[1].jpg")
This experience reminded me why I love CRK Seb construction so much. The smallest screw (the smallest part) of the Seb is still 2-3X as large as the tiny Boker screw, and I never feel "fumbly" during re-assembly of a Seb due to its parts being so few and of ample size as not to make it seem as though you need tweezers and a magnifier. This experience has also compelled me to start composing an upcoming post with pics, "Secrets of the Sebenza: Observations of an Obsessed Tinkerer," where I will share the subjective observations of 10+ years of study, persistent tinkering with, carry and use of these fine folders. The things that make them twelve times better than the other production folders that they cost two times more than. Things like the self-centering screwheads and posts and clamped bushing and standoff (stop pin sleeve and backspacer) construction that eliminate the potential for "blade rocking" that plagues other framelocks. Things like the relationship between and tolerances of the blade bushing, standoffs, and bronze washers and how they impact the action. Things like the relationship between a bead-blasted ti surface area and the bushing and standoffs, and how things are locked into place once the screws are completely tightened. The benefits of CRK's angle-of-interface between the blade tang ramp and the lockbar face, and why this eluded me for so many years given how other folks were doing it. These, and other things that we all know about, but that I've never seen written of in a single post. I'll likely slop it up, but I'll give it a try anyway.
There's so much more to CRK folders than the casual observer will pick up on. Things that were no doubt the culmination of Chris' 20+ year pursuit of perfection with the Sebenza.
Enough rambling (for now).
Have a great week, everyone.
Prof.
I just received this Boker Anso Whale from another forum member. I could not resist it at what it was selling for, with ti liners/lock and 440C blade steel, G10 scales and ti clip. To boot, the seller, a great person and frequenter to this forum, assured me that it was a fine sample of it's breed, with perfect centering and no blade play. He was right on the money, as it was perfect.
I bought it with the intention of gifting it to my Father. Years ago, I gifted my Father-in-Law, who I'm also close with, a small Sebenza. He's a knife and tool guy, and appreciates fine American craftmanship. My Dad, also a knife and tool guy, is proned to lose things. I gave him a Delica years and years ago that was lost long ago. Hey, at least he carried and used it for a while, right? I figured I'd try him out with the Boker Whale for a year or two and let him work his way up to a Seb.
Anyway, I wanted to break the knife completely down, file the lockbar face on the Whale to mate better with the blade tang, lube with CRK grease, and re-assemble and tune with blue Loc-Tite, which I did. I knew better than to attempt something like this in any place other than my little shop with appropriate lighting and workspace, but ahhhhh, it was soooooo nice outside yesterday. 71 degrees and simply lovely. So against my better judgement, I worked on it outside on our patio table.
Well, during re-assembly, I dropped one of the teeny-tiny pan-headed torx screws on the ground. Naturally, it was one of the smallest parts -- my luck would run no other way. I'm a patient guy (sometimes), so I searched on hands and knees through the grass, leaves, and clover several times, nearly resolving to give up and order another through Boker. The sun was fading fast, and I gave it one more go before giving up. Well, I found the little bugger! After re-assembly and tuning, the knife now operates ultra smoothly and locks up with authority. Cool little knife.
This experience reminded me why I love CRK Seb construction so much. The smallest screw (the smallest part) of the Seb is still 2-3X as large as the tiny Boker screw, and I never feel "fumbly" during re-assembly of a Seb due to its parts being so few and of ample size as not to make it seem as though you need tweezers and a magnifier. This experience has also compelled me to start composing an upcoming post with pics, "Secrets of the Sebenza: Observations of an Obsessed Tinkerer," where I will share the subjective observations of 10+ years of study, persistent tinkering with, carry and use of these fine folders. The things that make them twelve times better than the other production folders that they cost two times more than. Things like the self-centering screwheads and posts and clamped bushing and standoff (stop pin sleeve and backspacer) construction that eliminate the potential for "blade rocking" that plagues other framelocks. Things like the relationship between and tolerances of the blade bushing, standoffs, and bronze washers and how they impact the action. Things like the relationship between a bead-blasted ti surface area and the bushing and standoffs, and how things are locked into place once the screws are completely tightened. The benefits of CRK's angle-of-interface between the blade tang ramp and the lockbar face, and why this eluded me for so many years given how other folks were doing it. These, and other things that we all know about, but that I've never seen written of in a single post. I'll likely slop it up, but I'll give it a try anyway.
There's so much more to CRK folders than the casual observer will pick up on. Things that were no doubt the culmination of Chris' 20+ year pursuit of perfection with the Sebenza.
Enough rambling (for now).
Have a great week, everyone.
Prof.
:thumbup:
