What happened to CRK???

newdebate said:
That "test" by Cold Steel was a joke. Go to the 01:00 time mark on the video; Demko sheepishly shows where they drilled through the Sebenza. He them mounted the knife by torqing a bolt at the base of the lockbar; causing the lock to slip. Deceptive would be an understatement of that video.
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With all, due respect, that's nonsense. You are saying that out of the many, many knives tested in that video series, many with the same Chris Reeve designed integral lock, the Sebenza is the only one where their test jig assembly compromised the lock?

Edit: I just watched the video, they try a BRAND NEW out of the box SECOND Sebenza and it fails the same way.

No drilled hole, so what are you talking about? :)

You think the test is rigged, watch the last 10 seconds from 11:07, look at Demko's face.
 
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Just because he's showing the CRK box there doesn't mean the Sebenza was completely new (or previously untampered with) out of the box.

Jim
 
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James Y said:
Just because he's showing the CRK box there doesn't mean the Sebenza was completely new out of the box.

Jim
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Jim he SAYS it's brand new. I don't like calling people I don't know liars, just because I don't like the results of a test on an online video. So I take him at his word.

Do you know something I don't? If so, don't be shy, please share.
 
craytab said:
They are trying to sell you their product by putting down competitor's products. If that is the kind of marketing you believe go right ahead. Doesn't mean the rest of us have to believe it.
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I prefer Sal's "leave shiny footprints", but thanks for the incorrect assumption.
 
I didn't use the word liar. But I do not take every person completely at their word, when it comes to anyone working with and promoting a particular brand, and comparing that brand against another.

I already said I don't care what people think about CRK. I have no personal or financial stake in CRK. Personal experience in life has taught me to make up my own mind about things, regardless of what anyone else might want me to believe or disbelieve. I'm not saying the Sebenza was definitely tampered with, with or without his knowledge. But it could have been. For me, the jury's still out. I only know through actually using CRKs that they are NOT weak knives like CS is implying.

Do you believe everything every politician says because they say they're telling the truth?

Jim
 
OrangeJoe said:
I prefer Sal's "leave shiny footprints", but thanks for the incorrect assumption.
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I like sal's approach too. I made no incorrect assumption. That is a cold steel marketing video. Are you not familiar with them? They destroy stuff. This time it was their competitor's products in a ridiculous manner. Nothing really new but see it for what it is at least: marketing. Far from any sort of scientific test that proves anything.
 
I'm good with CRK. They lost their luster a bit, but I still see them as a benchmark for production pieces. But I am holding off on any future CRK purchases until next year, the decision driven in part by how they respond to some of the issues touched upon in this thread.
 
Oh good..another CRK demise thread.

When there is a problem, people will shout from the rooftops..the opposite is hardly true except for mediums like forums. That's is a very small subset in relative numbers.
Anyone that believes that Chris has inspected every knife needs some work..this hasnt happened in a very long time.

I have stated this before. Design for a problem that doesn't exist..such as lock failure. If you use any knife where the use goes against the design, aka pressure on the spine rather than the cutting edge, you get what you deserve. The wrong tool for the right job and all that.
Also, if you want anyone with any mental capacity to believe what you are testing, you have a third party complete the test..otherwise doubt will always be a part of your test..Sure, there are people that don't have any critical thinking skills that will take the tests at face value..but for them, the marketing obviously worked.

Word of wisdom..if you are going to ask how many people you pissed off with your post, make sure someone..a mod for instance doesn't see it as trolling and has a big bag of chiclets to hand out.

Typing all this on a cell, so forgive some of the errors :)
 
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bhyde said:
Oh good..another CRK demise thread.

When there is a problem, people will shout from the rooftops..the opposite is hardly true except for mediums like forums. That's is a very small subset in relative numbers.
Anyone that believes that Chris has inspected every knife needs some work..this hasnt happened in a very long time.

I have stated this before. Design for a problem that doesn't exist..such as lock failure. If you use any knife where the use goes against the design, aka pressure on the spine rather than the cutting edge, you get what you deserve. The wrong tool for the right job and all that.
Also, if you want anyone with any mental capacity to believe what you are testing, you have a third party complete the test..otherwise doubt will always be a part of your test..Sure, there are people that don't have any critical thinking skills that will take the tests at face value..but for them, the marketing obviously worked.

Word of wisdom..if you are going to ask how many people you pissed off with your post, make sure someone..a mod for instance doesn't see it as trolling and has a big bag of chiclets to hand out.

Typing all this on a cell, so forgive some of the errors :)
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Errors? I only counted 3 syntax, arguably 5 total. Pretty damn good for a cell phone post that long. Ok I'll move on...

Regarding that Cold Steel video test....I think it is plausible. I know framelocks are a strong design, but the grip on the lock is what makes it strong, not the lock itself.

Baasically, due to the extremely low lock face angle, even a moderate lateral force on the frame lock (caused by friction, grip, etc) would increase the disengage force via blade spine by several times.

The CS test only locked up the Sebenza with the natural (weak) lockbar tension, from him flicking it open. This is why it failed. I am positive that if he had pushed the lockbar in a bit to increase that static friction, it would have failed at a much higher weight, simply due to the lock face angle geometry.

So basically, your Sebenza will not fail as long as the lock is engaged sufficiently.
 
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Look - I think the test is a joke, not because Demko cheated by tampering the Sebenza but because whats being tested (spine whacking) is ridiculous. I mean, under what circumstances would one need to put that much (brute) force on the spine of a folder, and without a firm grip on the handle?

However, I think it is a weak argument to kind of imply that a framelock would take as much force of spine whack as a tri-ad lock by saying Demko faked the test.
 
bhyde said:
Oh good..another CRK demise thread.

When there is a problem, people will shout from the rooftops..the opposite is hardly true except for mediums like forums. That's is a very small subset in relative numbers.
Anyone that believes that Chris has inspected every knife needs some work..this hasnt happened in a very long time.

I have stated this before. Design for a problem that doesn't exist..such as lock failure. If you use any knife where the use goes against the design, aka pressure on the spine rather than the cutting edge, you get what you deserve. The wrong tool for the right job and all that.
Also, if you want anyone with any mental capacity to believe what you are testing, you have a third party complete the test..otherwise doubt will always be a part of your test..Sure, there are people that don't have any critical thinking skills that will take the tests at face value..but for them, the marketing obviously worked.

Word of wisdom..if you are going to ask how many people you pissed off with your post, make sure someone..a mod for instance doesn't see it as trolling and has a big bag of chiclets to hand out.

Typing all this on a cell, so forgive some of the errors :)
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Very well said. Cold steel does an excellent job marketing their products, perhaps the best in the business. It's still just marketing though. Reminds me of the folks who got bent out of shape when their zt didn't act literally as a tank. Again, just marketing...
 
Fascinating thread.

A few weeks ago I had never heard of CRK. I'm not a collector, after all. Just an outdoors guy who pretty much always has a blade on him. But I'm not averse to quality. I've got a couple Anschutz rifles to go with the usual lot of Rugers and Mossbergs and Remingtons and Winchesters.

Still, 410 bones is a lot for a pocket knife. Especially for a frugal fellow (my wife would use other terms) like myself. And balanced against all the breathless euphoria, there was a quiet murmur of disquiet. The now infamous Cold Steel video. Reports from various guys who had never experienced a Sebenza, were curious and excited, and had pulled the trigger... only to find it all a little disappointing. The JTDavis cutting-rope video where the edge had rolled over in a "catastrophic" failure.

Probably most concerning of all was one tiny subtlety in the two-part YouTube shop tour of CRK, where Chris himself spoke at length about his operation... Chris mentioned personally performing a final QC step, examining as many of the outgoing knives as he had time for, and - I'm paraphrasing - finding a fair number of faults. Doesn't say a lot for quality control when a sometimes-there, sometimes-not QC check finds stuff with any frequency.

Even that little niggle didn't really dishearten me, though. It was apparent that Chris Reeve hasn't actually made the knives his company sells for many years. The equipment he bought and the employees he hired do that. Chris' contribution was the design, the tolerances, and the ethos of perfection. Those were the heart of the knife.

My Sebenza Large 21 arrived a couple days ago. The little card said it was made on May 30, 2017.

Mindful of the disappointments that apparently come to some, I opened the box hesitantly, with at most a cautious hope.

You hold this thing, a thing with a gentle heft and an understated elegance, and you instantly like it better than all the pictures and all the words and all the videos that pretended to explain it. You turn it over slowly, a smile pulling at your lips.

It's a moment later, though, that you know. When your thumb presses on the button and the blade sweeps around in a gentle arc and snicks into place. Yeah, you know, like the first time the sear breaks on a great trigger. And then you close it and suddenly you know why guys just keep doing that... opening and closing it.

Your eyes take in the graceful lines of that drop point, maybe the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Your thumb comes up to the edge, like it yet will a million more times. And you know this knife will be with you for a long, long time.
 
Regaj said:
Fascinating thread.

A few weeks ago I had never heard of CRK. I'm not a collector, after all. Just an outdoors guy who pretty much always has a blade on him. But I'm not averse to quality. I've got a couple Anschutz rifles to go with the usual lot of Rugers and Mossbergs and Remingtons and Winchesters.

Still, 410 bones is a lot for a pocket knife. Especially for a frugal fellow (my wife would use other terms) like myself. And balanced against all the breathless euphoria, there was a quiet murmur of disquiet. The now infamous Cold Steel video. Reports from various guys who had never experienced a Sebenza, were curious and excited, and had pulled the trigger... only to find it all a little disappointing. The JTDavis cutting-rope video where the edge had rolled over in a "catastrophic" failure.

Probably most concerning of all was one tiny subtlety in the two-part YouTube shop tour of CRK, where Chris himself spoke at length about his operation... Chris mentioned personally performing a final QC step, examining as many of the outgoing knives as he had time for, and - I'm paraphrasing - finding a fair number of faults. Doesn't say a lot for quality control when a sometimes-there, sometimes-not QC check finds stuff with any frequency.

Even that little niggle didn't really dishearten me, though. It was apparent that Chris Reeve hasn't actually made the knives his company sells for many years. The equipment he bought and the employees he hired do that. Chris' contribution was the design, the tolerances, and the ethos of perfection. Those were the heart of the knife.

My Sebenza Large 21 arrived a couple days ago. The little card said it was made on May 30, 2017.

Mindful of the disappointments that apparently come to some, I opened the box hesitantly, with at most a cautious hope.

You hold this thing, a thing with a gentle heft and an understated elegance, and you instantly like it better than all the pictures and all the words and all the videos that pretended to explain it. You turn it over slowly, a smile pulling at your lips.

It's a moment later, though, that you know. When your thumb presses on the button and the blade sweeps around in a gentle arc and snicks into place. Yeah, you know, like the first time the sear breaks on a great trigger. And then you close it and suddenly you know why guys just keep doing that... opening and closing it.

Your eyes take in the graceful lines of that drop point, maybe the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Your thumb comes up to the edge, like it yet will a million more times. And you know this knife will be with you for a long, long time.
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giphy.gif
 
Regaj said:
Fascinating thread.

A few weeks ago I had never heard of CRK. I'm not a collector, after all. Just an outdoors guy who pretty much always has a blade on him. But I'm not averse to quality. I've got a couple Anschutz rifles to go with the usual lot of Rugers and Mossbergs and Remingtons and Winchesters.

Still, 410 bones is a lot for a pocket knife. Especially for a frugal fellow (my wife would use other terms) like myself. And balanced against all the breathless euphoria, there was a quiet murmur of disquiet. The now infamous Cold Steel video. Reports from various guys who had never experienced a Sebenza, were curious and excited, and had pulled the trigger... only to find it all a little disappointing. The JTDavis cutting-rope video where the edge had rolled over in a "catastrophic" failure.

Probably most concerning of all was one tiny subtlety in the two-part YouTube shop tour of CRK, where Chris himself spoke at length about his operation... Chris mentioned personally performing a final QC step, examining as many of the outgoing knives as he had time for, and - I'm paraphrasing - finding a fair number of faults. Doesn't say a lot for quality control when a sometimes-there, sometimes-not QC check finds stuff with any frequency.

Even that little niggle didn't really dishearten me, though. It was apparent that Chris Reeve hasn't actually made the knives his company sells for many years. The equipment he bought and the employees he hired do that. Chris' contribution was the design, the tolerances, and the ethos of perfection. Those were the heart of the knife.

My Sebenza Large 21 arrived a couple days ago. The little card said it was made on May 30, 2017.

Mindful of the disappointments that apparently come to some, I opened the box hesitantly, with at most a cautious hope.

You hold this thing, a thing with a gentle heft and an understated elegance, and you instantly like it better than all the pictures and all the words and all the videos that pretended to explain it. You turn it over slowly, a smile pulling at your lips.

It's a moment later, though, that you know. When your thumb presses on the button and the blade sweeps around in a gentle arc and snicks into place. Yeah, you know, like the first time the sear breaks on a great trigger. And then you close it and suddenly you know why guys just keep doing that... opening and closing it.

Your eyes take in the graceful lines of that drop point, maybe the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Your thumb comes up to the edge, like it yet will a million more times. And you know this knife will be with you for a long, long time.
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Great final assessment! Just be careful mentioning jdavis. He's a verified troll known for starting steel controversy of well liked companies.
 
Regaj said:
Fascinating thread.

A few weeks ago I had never heard of CRK. I'm not a collector, after all. Just an outdoors guy who pretty much always has a blade on him. But I'm not averse to quality. I've got a couple Anschutz rifles to go with the usual lot of Rugers and Mossbergs and Remingtons and Winchesters.

Still, 410 bones is a lot for a pocket knife. Especially for a frugal fellow (my wife would use other terms) like myself. And balanced against all the breathless euphoria, there was a quiet murmur of disquiet. The now infamous Cold Steel video. Reports from various guys who had never experienced a Sebenza, were curious and excited, and had pulled the trigger... only to find it all a little disappointing. The JTDavis cutting-rope video where the edge had rolled over in a "catastrophic" failure.

Probably most concerning of all was one tiny subtlety in the two-part YouTube shop tour of CRK, where Chris himself spoke at length about his operation... Chris mentioned personally performing a final QC step, examining as many of the outgoing knives as he had time for, and - I'm paraphrasing - finding a fair number of faults. Doesn't say a lot for quality control when a sometimes-there, sometimes-not QC check finds stuff with any frequency.

Even that little niggle didn't really dishearten me, though. It was apparent that Chris Reeve hasn't actually made the knives his company sells for many years. The equipment he bought and the employees he hired do that. Chris' contribution was the design, the tolerances, and the ethos of perfection. Those were the heart of the knife.

My Sebenza Large 21 arrived a couple days ago. The little card said it was made on May 30, 2017.

Mindful of the disappointments that apparently come to some, I opened the box hesitantly, with at most a cautious hope.

You hold this thing, a thing with a gentle heft and an understated elegance, and you instantly like it better than all the pictures and all the words and all the videos that pretended to explain it. You turn it over slowly, a smile pulling at your lips.

It's a moment later, though, that you know. When your thumb presses on the button and the blade sweeps around in a gentle arc and snicks into place. Yeah, you know, like the first time the sear breaks on a great trigger. And then you close it and suddenly you know why guys just keep doing that... opening and closing it.

Your eyes take in the graceful lines of that drop point, maybe the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Your thumb comes up to the edge, like it yet will a million more times. And you know this knife will be with you for a long, long time.
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And here I wasn't gonna carry a CRK today. But when the bard speaks, we must listen.

kUeuLqL.jpg
 
Great picture. I'm looking forward to buying a bunch of newly minted CRK's that folks, after reading many of the posts on this thread, will be dumping on the for-sale forum. I'm curious to see what they think they can get for these folders, which many seem to think are way overpriced and lack a good fit and finish. I still like my Zaan.
 
Regaj said:
Fascinating thread.

A few weeks ago I had never heard of CRK. I'm not a collector, after all. Just an outdoors guy who pretty much always has a blade on him. But I'm not averse to quality. I've got a couple Anschutz rifles to go with the usual lot of Rugers and Mossbergs and Remingtons and Winchesters.

Still, 410 bones is a lot for a pocket knife. Especially for a frugal fellow (my wife would use other terms) like myself. And balanced against all the breathless euphoria, there was a quiet murmur of disquiet. The now infamous Cold Steel video. Reports from various guys who had never experienced a Sebenza, were curious and excited, and had pulled the trigger... only to find it all a little disappointing. The JTDavis cutting-rope video where the edge had rolled over in a "catastrophic" failure.

Probably most concerning of all was one tiny subtlety in the two-part YouTube shop tour of CRK, where Chris himself spoke at length about his operation... Chris mentioned personally performing a final QC step, examining as many of the outgoing knives as he had time for, and - I'm paraphrasing - finding a fair number of faults. Doesn't say a lot for quality control when a sometimes-there, sometimes-not QC check finds stuff with any frequency.

Even that little niggle didn't really dishearten me, though. It was apparent that Chris Reeve hasn't actually made the knives his company sells for many years. The equipment he bought and the employees he hired do that. Chris' contribution was the design, the tolerances, and the ethos of perfection. Those were the heart of the knife.

My Sebenza Large 21 arrived a couple days ago. The little card said it was made on May 30, 2017.

Mindful of the disappointments that apparently come to some, I opened the box hesitantly, with at most a cautious hope.

You hold this thing, a thing with a gentle heft and an understated elegance, and you instantly like it better than all the pictures and all the words and all the videos that pretended to explain it. You turn it over slowly, a smile pulling at your lips.

It's a moment later, though, that you know. When your thumb presses on the button and the blade sweeps around in a gentle arc and snicks into place. Yeah, you know, like the first time the sear breaks on a great trigger. And then you close it and suddenly you know why guys just keep doing that... opening and closing it.

Your eyes take in the graceful lines of that drop point, maybe the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Your thumb comes up to the edge, like it yet will a million more times. And you know this knife will be with you for a long, long time.
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Dude, it's just a knife. It's not like you're reviewing hors d'age Cognac from Napoleon's cellar.
 
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