What happened to CRK???

The demise of CRK threads come up every few years. Recently with Chris's departure they like to highlight Anne . CRK puts out a decent amount of knives and a few are going to be less then perfect. Those features that are manually done will vary more and be more prone to mistakes. People change over the years and at some point there is going to be the new person in the position, and may not be as steady as your predecessor at 1st. If you have a problem they ask you contact them and give them the chance to fix it.
I wouldn't worry much about it
 
SpySmasher said:
In June of 2016, he was reported to have been in reduced capacity at CRK for almost two years. Which means unless your CRK predates June 2014, your knife was not truly made in the "Chris Reeve" era at CRK.

Which as Bill points out, may not really mean much at all. I have two CRKs from before that date but even knowing what I know I still plan on picking up a brand new Inkosi Insingo.

On the other hand, you'd have to be a fool not to wonder how CRK will change without CR being there at all. It has to change.
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Good to know and thank you for the response, BTW.

Here is the reason I ask. Next May I turn sixty and then in June I will be dropped from the military's IRR list. In a nutshell, that means I will be officially retired from military service even though I got out in 2002. As a present to myself, I plan is to order a Sebenza Insingo. I'm thinking a small insingo with plain scales. But, I am not crazy about spending four bills for a knife if the quality control is lacking
 
sabre cat said:
Good to know and thank you for the response, BTW.

Here is the reason I ask. Next May I turn sixty and then in June I will be dropped from the military's IRR list. In a nutshell, that means I will be officially retired from military service even though I got out in 2002. As a present to myself, I plan is to order a Sebenza Insingo. I'm thinking a small insingo with plain scales. But, I am not crazy about spending four bills for a knife if the quality control is lacking
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If the quality is not there then contact them. That is what costumer service is for.

Give a chance for the maker to make it right. That is part of this hobby.
 
Maybe I'm just lucky (or maybe not), but I've got three post-Chris knives; two 2015 knives (large and small Insingos) and one 2016 small Inkosi, and mine have zero problems.

My very first CRK, a large regular Sebenza back in 2002, came with an edge so obtuse and dull it literally couldn't cut anything at all. But that was the only issue, and that was remedied when I completely reprofiled the edge. The only knife I've ever had that equaled it in dullness out of the box was a black-bladed Benchmade Stryker, which I also had to reprofile.

Jim
 
Unfortunately, these threads always have the form: "Here is a bad example that should not have made it through QC. Are standards gone at $COMPANY?"

There's just not enough data to know. No matter how good the process, there have always been isolated lemons.
 
What about when Cold Steel tested two brand new Sebenzas and both failed to hold 45 pounds? I still have trouble believing they failed at that weight. They certainly seem a lot stronger than that when I use mine.
 
A bit off-topic but I couldn't believe my eyes what I have been just reading.

I was looking at Chris Reeves Wikipedia page and one sentence said "His knives are bought by absolute dangers to society."

What?!
 
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JBradley500 said:
Chris's obsessive nature about perfection was what intrigued me about his knives most of all. With him gone, i've lost most of my interest.
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Same here. I guess if I ever were to buy another Seb it would have to be a used Chris era model, not a post Chris one.
 
I must be losing my mind. I'm on BF daily, and this is the first I've heard of this. Full disclosure, I have never looked at the CRK mfgr's forum. Maybe I would have picked up on this if I had. It makes me sad to hear about Chris, but at least my knives are pre '14 if, well, you know.........
 
Peter Hartwig said:
The demise of CRK threads come up every few years. Recently with Chris's departure they like to highlight Anne . CRK puts out a decent amount of knives and a few are going to be less then perfect. Those features that are manually done will vary more and be more prone to mistakes. People change over the years and at some point there is going to be the new person in the position, and may not be as steady as your predecessor at 1st. If you have a problem they ask you contact them and give them the chance to fix it.
I wouldn't worry much about it
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Agreed.

Look, guys. Even if he had stayed in charge of the company, Chris Reeve is not immortal. He won't be around forever. If people's interest and loyalty in a knife company and its products depends on the presence and leadership of the original founder(s), then that company is in trouble regardless. EVERY company will eventually change hands if they plan to stay in business. And there will likely be some kind of learning curve. Hopefully, there would have been plenty of experience and preparation for the company's inheritors before the changeover, and the transition will be as smooth as possible. Just in the experience of the post-Chris knives I have, I'd say that CRK is doing pretty damn well.

This is not unique to CRK. Whether anybody likes it or not, ALL of the knife companies will experience a changeover: Spyderco, Emerson, Benchmade, CS, etc., etc., etc. All of the old knife companies like Victorinox, although staying in the family, have changed leadership post-founder. In more modern knives, Al Mar and Kershaw have already changed hands, for better or not.

BTW, I have heard that Chris remains in an advisory role (or something to that effect) at CRK.

Jim
 
I have a thread in the crk subforum that showed my issues before Photobucket took a turn for the worse.

But.......I had purchased a brand new inkosi the beginning of this year from KA and upon receiving it, the tip was burned up and the grind was so uneven it was hard to believe. The grind on my 19$ Ontario rat was flawless but the 400+$ crk was messed up from the factory.

This was the first crk that I ever had an issue with.

I received the knife at my doorstep less than 12 days after it was made at ARK/CRK

I ended up sending it in to ARK and, I will have to look, but if I remember right, it took a month to get back.

I was really frustrated with the whole situation...... Bought a new knife, it was messed up and then had to wait a month to get it back.

With all that said........They fixed the grind, I actually talked to Matt Reeve a few times, and I still have the knife now. But things are definitely different from when I first started buying crk's.

I will try to get some pictures up if you guys want.


pyreaux said:
Wonder if he or anyone else who has a grind issue has asked for it to be fixed or replaced.
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User17 said:
A bit off-topic but I couldn't believe my eyes what I have been just reading.

I was looking at Chris Reeves Wikipedia page and one sentence said "His knives are bought by absolute dangers to society."

What?!
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Are we reading the same wikipedia page because I could not find the wording anywhere on this page? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Reeve

Or maybe there are two Chris Reeve/Reeves who are both knifemakers?
 
Lord_Balkan said:
It looks like that line has now been removed. Was definitely there when I checked earlier today.
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OK - thanks. Not that I don't trust you guys but the way that wikipedia articles are created, it would be very rare to see a line like that to be used to describe Chris Reeve.
 
abcdef said:
I must be losing my mind. I'm on BF daily, and this is the first I've heard of this.
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Industry insiders apparently knew all along that he was on his way out but most of us only found out when his retirement was officially announced last June.

So there were two years of his reduced involvement at CRK where none of us -- picky knife enthusiasts -- noticed anything going wrong systematically at CRK. Now that we know he's out, we're going to notice every flaw. :) Which I think dovetails into James' point.

James Y said:
Look, guys. Even if he had stayed in charge of the company, Chris Reeve is not immortal. He won't be around forever. ...
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Losing CR from being involved in the knifemaking community is a huge loss. He deserves every bit of credit that he gets. But there's no reason to think that CRK as a knife-producing entity can't or won't continue to make great knives. Only time will tell. *shrugs*
 
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