Talk CKF to me. Your experiences?

R

RBid

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Apr 6, 2014
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Thread title pretty much says it. I’m curious about your experience with CKF knives. I’ve handled the Satori and Morrf5, and am very interested in the Baugi or SSE. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

What do you have? How have they performed?
 
I've got a sohkoi2.0 and like it.

They are made in China by Kevin john which is off putting but the end result is decent. I'm not a fan of many of there designs but the action on most of them is good. Very well known for ig photos and fidgeting rather than use.
 
I hadn’t heard it was Kevin John doing production. Interesting.

On IG vs use: That’s probably true of any $300+ folder for most people. I enjoy mine most through use. Always looking for good high end users.
 
My ckf gratch is a good user. Carries very nicely in a pocket. The blade stock is pretty thick and will split apples, but it's thin behind the edge at the same time. Makes very straight cuts. You start the cut and it just keeps going in same direction.
It's got that finger choil and knife thickens around the pivot, makes it very comfortable and like my favourite grip. With the blade stock being thicker it's gives you great control with this choil.
It looks edgy, but it doesn't hurt my hand exerting force near pivot. It's well designed.
I like the exclusivity factor with this one as it's kind of limited. Lots of good Russian designers are behind these blades. Russians like long blades too. They don't care about Nick shabazz :D
Some cf https://imgur.com/a/xgGuazX
Sometimes I wish for some grippier g10 scales on this one and it looking less glamorous is fine with me.
 
I like my SSE. It was pretty stiff, at first; and I found it easiest to use the side of my index finger to flip. It's much better, now that it's "broken in"; but I still find myself opening it that way out of habit.
 
I have a half dozen of them at least and have been very happy with them. Fit and finish and build quality has been consistent on all of them, really.

I liked them enough to buy a couple of the Stas Bondarenko customized versions, you can see them in the left column of this shot of some of my favorite knives from last year's purchases:

Bm9xppE.jpg
 
I have four versions of the Morff. It may be my favorite knife design in its size. I've bought two knives directly from CKF (one Morff and a Kadat). I returned the Kadat because it was too big for my taste. The customer service was stellar in every respect. The knife quality has been consistently very high. I would cheerfully buy from them again.
 
evilgreg said:
I have a half dozen of them at least and have been very happy with them. Fit and finish and build quality has been consistent on all of them, really.

I liked them enough to buy a couple of the Stas Bondarenko customized versions, you can see them in the left column of this shot of some of my favorite knives from last year's purchases:

Bm9xppE.jpg
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to change the subject, but which Buck is that at bottom right?
 
That's the 197 Yellow Jacket. Limited edition, they were ~$300ish. The mirror polished blade is 154CM wrapped around a CPM-S90V core, the handle is ironwood, honey jasper and black G-10. It's one of my all-time favorite knife purchases. Here's another photo:

3mfOFvE.jpg
 
Hmmm, didn’t realize they were manufactured in China, for some reason I thought it was elsewhere.
 
Accelerator said:
Hmmm, didn’t realize they were manufactured in China, for some reason I thought it was elsewhere.
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They admit that the knives are made in China, or at least that the parts are machined there. I believe they've said they're assembled or finished at some level in Russia, though whether that means they're actually building them or just that they're inspecting finished knives to ensure they meet their standards or they're referring to the ones they have customized or what, I don't know.

In any case, they're at least designed and sold by Russians, and I'm feeling very supportive of Russia these days (I discovered a couple of years ago that I am apparently, unbeknownst to myself, a Russian troll/bot). The knives are fantastic though. I've had CRK knives come and go where the CKF knives have stayed, but I'm biased towards flippers . . .
 
^^^That probably explains my confusion about thinking they were made elsewhere. I seem to recall the Russian connection from something I read previously. Thanks for the clarification.
 
I own a Morrf-5, Spectra and a Kwaiback. Fit and Finish is excellent, action is very good to great. I am probably going to add a few more models from CKF to my collection. Out of the box they are some of the sharpest knives I've gotten, the only downside is the rather limited warranty due to them doing just short runs and not really doing any service that I know of a year after purchase (Seeing how well they treat customers I could see them giving you store credit if you knife fails after warranty is up but that's just a guess). I only dealt with them on IG a few times and they were always quick to reply and nice enough about it.
 
The feedback so far has been very informative and awesome. Thank you for everything to this point, and for future comments.
 
Hey R RBid

CKF makes incredible knives. Better than all of the Hinderers/Striders I've owned. Fit finish on par with Hoback, Reeve, Reate, etc.

Pros -
Fantastic customer service on the buying side of things. They are very motivated to sell knives and will provide you with coupons and plenty of incentive for future purchases. This may sound more or less worthless as it's in their best interest to move product but lately I've had more than one experience in which I've had trouble handing a company my money...

Fantastic fit/finish. All have been centered, sharp, and early rock solid lockup. They also stay on top of all of the current innovations so you can expect premium materials, lock bar inserts, bearings, etc.

Packaging is well thought out and executed. They provide a nice pouch, cloth, spare insert, screws, bearings, etc. Oh, and chocolate!

Cons -

Location. They're out of Russia which means if you needed to return the knife it would be costly and take time.

Warranty. They do small batch runs therefore do not offer a warranty outside of a year. I have no doubt they'd set things right if neccessary, their customer service is very motivated, however, I have no first hand experience with this.

All in all, I'd recommend them highly.
 
SeppukuSamurai said:
Hey R RBid

CKF makes incredible knives. Better than all of the Hinderers/Striders I've owned. Fit finish on par with Hoback, Reeve, Reate, etc.

Pros -
Fantastic customer service on the buying side of things. They are very motivated to sell knives and will provide you with coupons and plenty of incentive for future purchases. This may sound more or less worthless as it's in their best interest to move product but lately I've had more than one experience in which I've had trouble handing a company my money...

Fantastic fit/finish. All have been centered, sharp, and early rock solid lockup. They also stay on top of all of the current innovations so you can expect premium materials, lock bar inserts, bearings, etc.

Packaging is well thought out and executed. They provide a nice pouch, cloth, spare insert, screws, bearings, etc. Oh, and chocolate!

Cons -

Location. They're out of Russia which means if you needed to return the knife it would be costly and take time.

Warranty. They do small batch runs therefore do not offer a warranty outside of a year. I have no doubt they'd set things right if neccessary, their customer service is very motivated, however, I have no first hand experience with this.

All in all, I'd recommend them highly.
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Thank you! I’m sitting on a $100 gift certificate at bhq, so I’m looking at a big buy once I pay some things down. Maybe early next year. The Liong Mah Eraser in CF and a CKF Morrf5 or Baugi are frontrunners.
 
RBid said:
Thank you! I’m sitting on a $100 gift certificate at bhq, so I’m looking at a big buy once I pay some things down. Maybe early next year. The Liong Mah Eraser in CF and a CKF Morrf5 or Baugi are frontrunners.
Click to expand...

My Morrf-5 showed up today, and it's fantastic, FWIW:

XRs9n4Q.jpg


It's really, really well done. Awesome flipping action as with most of their models, and the fit and finish is great.
 
evilgreg said:
My Morrf-5 showed up today, and it's fantastic, FWIW:

XRs9n4Q.jpg


It's really, really well done. Awesome flipping action as with most of their models, and the fit and finish is great.
Click to expand...

I handled a couple samples at Blade West. It blew me away. The fit of the inlays in the textured ti is incredible. I love that knife. It’s likely between that and the Eraser.
 
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