The CKF Kremlin

I love this one!
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Here's my humble collection so far. I still can't decide if these are massively overpriced or underappreciated gems 😆

They're overpriced in the sense that a similar level of quality, consistency, and materials are available for much less from high end Chinese makers like Rike, Reate, We Knife, and their own OEM Kevin John (aka Venom Knives).

On the other hand, there really does seem to be something special about CKF knives that those others don't typically have. The high end Chinese brands tend to throw a bunch of designs at the wall and hope that a few stick. CKF seems to put a lot more thought into what they do, and they partner with select talented designers to produce only a few very limited runs. So I can see where the price hike comes from. Also, they tend to have a lot of refinements that are less obvious on first glance, like the intricate skeletonization patterns on the liners and clips that have simple contours but would require a lot of machining time to produce (thinking of the Eagle Rock and Davless).

I'd be curious to hear from others what CKF knives ended up surprising them after giving it more time. The Blava for instance looks like it has a lot more to it than the fairly plain first glance would suggest.
 
Tsujigiri said:
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Here's my humble collection so far. I still can't decide if these are massively overpriced or underappreciated gems 😆

They're overpriced in the sense that a similar level of quality, consistency, and materials are available for much less from high end Chinese makers like Rike, Reate, We Knife, and their own OEM Kevin John (aka Venom Knives).

On the other hand, there really does seem to be something special about CKF knives that those others don't typically have. The high end Chinese brands tend to throw a bunch of designs at the wall and hope that a few stick. CKF seems to put a lot more thought into what they do, and they partner with select talented designers to produce only a few very limited runs. So I can see where the price hike comes from. Also, they tend to have a lot of refinements that are less obvious on first glance, like the intricate skeletonization patterns on the liners and clips that have simple contours but would require a lot of machining time to produce (thinking of the Eagle Rock and Davless).

I'd be curious to hear from others what CKF knives ended up surprising them after giving it more time. The Blava for instance looks like it has a lot more to it than the fairly plain first glance would suggest.
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Ckf is made in China, fyi
 
Chuck_Nunface said:
Ckf is made in China, fyi
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Correct, as I mentioned their Chinese OEM is Venom Knives. They might do some finish work in Russia; I'd be curious if anyone has more info on that.

I think a lot of the cost of a CKF comes from the design phase more than the manufacturing phase, so it wouldn't be fair to compare them directly to Venom. Getting prominent designers to work on your product and work out the kinks through a series of prototypes isn't cheap, especially when you're distributing those costs over relatively few limited editions. Compare that to Twosun, which offers some of the best pricing out there for a given style of knife or materials. On the other hand, they come with little design issues that they didn't work out because they don't prototype at all.
 
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