What made you...

The below is copied from the original February 2006 British Blades thread where I purchased my first CRK. Sold by Stuart Ackerman/Zackerty to help fund his casting project, now famous as the "Serrata" and made under licence by Spyderco. I was in the process of focusing my small random collection from mainly tactical to mainly utility and hunting knives..... The sort of thing I may actually use.... I new the name "Chris Reeve knives" and associated it with well made but that was about it.... It was to slowly but completely change my knife collecting focus, now it's solely early Chris Reeve hand made/custom knives.....

Sorry for the long post!

CRK Skinner #11
SOLD!!!!
Herewith one near mint CRK Skinner # 11 from 1985...with birth certificate...
Blade is 88mm to bolster, width is 35mm, grind is 28mm high...
Handle is 120mm long, and 20mm at widest point...
Brass tubes are 9mm OD, with 0,4mm thickness...

Near mint, 'cause although it has only cut a few sheets of paper, there is a minor corrosion mark in the foremost brass tubing "pin". The knife hung from a wooden dowel in a showcase for a few years, and some varnish in the dowel leached into the tube. I have not made an attempt to aggresively clean it out, apart from a light polishing with Autosol.
The rest of the knife is mint...
The entire knife is now Polier waxed.
Chris was on his way to the USA, and this knife was sold at the Durban Easter Knife Show, without a sheath. He made three different profiles, and it was his last Skinner made, as he was converting to the one piece knife range completely.
The handle is Pakkawood.



Nick
 
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Fall of 1998, this forum was newly calved off KF (which grew out of rec.knives, but I digress). I had been steadily working my way up the food chain since I was in High School, from SAK to Buck 110 to Spyderco Worker to BMW AFCK. I was looking for the right knife to make the jump to custom when I saw her on the sale forum:



It kind of snowballed from there.
 
Started with a Dalton, carried it many years, wanted something sturdier, got a Randall Galbreath, carried it a few years, then the Sebenza was similar, but much closer tolerance, and even more robust, been carrying a SEB for 7-8 years at least… an Um when I travel sans .45 to the Golden state.
 
I didn't really start looking at knives until the mid '90s. Of course, I had all kinds of pocketknives which I would promptly lose or misplace, but not anything high end at all.
I would see Chris in the shop talking to the owner of the shop I was working in now and then..He would sometimes bring in projects,..but not too often. Anyway, the owner of the shop I was working in would give a Large Sebenza for some service term or milestone his employees would reach..I thought it was pretty cool to see some of the parts and actually would be even better to have a knife that was designed and built in the area I reside. Long story short, I saved up and bought my own..Right around 1996. I never made made the time needed to get one from my employer..That would take far too long..and I could buy many more with the very large bump in pay.

Lets see..I have either sold, or lost alot of the sebs I have had throughout the years. Probably a total of 10 or so. 2 of them were lost or stolen..not sure which. Let's not get started on the ex ;)
 
I was an engineer early in my career when a friend at work introduced me to high end knives. Chris and Anne hadn’t been in the US for long, and my friend took me to a knife sharpening seminar put on by Chris. My buddy introduced me to Chris, I asked him some embarrassingly stupid questions that come to mind (and should stay there) when sticker-shock of a high quality product sets in. Chris graciously answer w/o throwing me out of the seminar. Within a couple weeks, I purchased Mountaineer II #52.

Shortly after the Sebenza was introduced, P184 became mine. I remember showing P184 to some servo writer designers in the R&D lab where I work. (A servo writer is a tool that enables the writing of reference dibits, with tracks just 100s of nanometers apart, on the surface of a disk drive platter – these designers go to extraordinary lengths and mind-blowing expense to create some of the highest precision equipment on the planet.) They examined P184, and after a while, exclaimed, “If we were to design a knife, it would be like this.” Quite an endorsement, I remember thinking.

Later, as Chris was inventing the unique graphics process, I purchased my first UG from him.
Chrisunique.jpg


I’ve purchased a lot of other high end factory and custom knives. They're all good (well, most ;) ) -- I've just not found anything that scratches the itch like a CRK.
 
This little Cold Steel got me into CRK's. I have always carried a pocket knife (since I was 9 or 10 ). Well in the mid 80's I saw this knife in a gun shop and had to have it. It served me well for about 20 years. It did all that I asked and more. But after enough abuse even it said "I am done". I sent it to Cold Steel and they said "forget it we do not work on knives this old". Something you would never hear from CRK's. So the search started. I got several inexpensive knives which were a bust. Got a Bench Made which was nice but not what I was looking for. Then some research on the internet and found CRK's. Yea like I would spend that kind of money on a pocket knife. Little more research. UMMMM well maybe but really what could be so special, I mean really it's a pocket knife. Darn it does look nice and most of all QUALITY. I know I am crazy if I buy one......well being crazy never stopped me before......ok hit the button and get it I will cry latter....never have cried. Still have the Zaan that arrived on July 5,2010 and always will. But the little tanto Cold Steel got me there. It has a special spot on a shelf in my gun room.
 
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I've always had knives, I can remember when we would get a new pocket knife(Uncle Henry, Case among others, I liked the trapper models) and cut a lemon or an orange to condition the knife, of course that was when carbon steel was the norm and every shied away from stainless. Then one day my Henry folded on me and cut to the bone. That's when I went to a lock blade and have been there ever since. When I started collecting knives, everything I watched, read, and heard about was compared to a sebenza. I bought one to see why the comparison and knew after holding on why all others are compared. Been hooked BAD ever since.

 
For years I liked the quality of the Sebenza, but felt I couldn t spend that much for an edc. When the umnumzaan became availble, I liked the build but not so much the style compared to the Sebenza. When the Sebenza 25 arrived, I knew I had to hold one. I got that chance at Blade last year and pulled the trigger. I dont even think it s a bad value for the money. That s how good it is. Very nice.
 
I have always been a knife fan but did not carry one everyday as I worked in an environment where people dressed in suits. My wife rekindled my desire to carry a knife more often when she purchased me a William Henry with a Damascus blade. That first William Henry lead to a few more. All the WHs can be carried at work. While buying the WHs I started reading more on knives. My searches lead me to BF and the CRK sub forum. Decided I wanted a high quality folder that was larger than the WHs. Bought a large Insingo as my first CRK and the rest as they say is history.
 
I read about them in a knife book, back then it was a one piece hollow handled survival knife that was making all the headlines. That was nearly 40 years ago, I've always wanted one but could never rationalize the cost in my head so it took me over 35 years to trade my way up to a Sebenza, a small plain Jane 21, I'm very happy with the knife, I wish I would have come around sooner to had been able to enjoy them earlier in my knife collecting life..

Oh well live and learn
 
In around november or october of 2013, I FINALLY pulled the trigger on Sebenza 25. I got it, and played with it a bit, edc'd it for about a month. Somehow I convinced myself to trade it off for a Strider SMF, which I did. I regretted it so DAMN much I bought another one, this week :D
 
Back in '98 or so a friend "borrowed" my little Gerber folder I had EDC'd for 15 years and managed to bend the tip . . . so I went looking for a replacement. Over the next year or two I went through about ten folders from various manufacturers from $35 to $175 and more. Nothing really worked for me.

I'm mature and tend to not lose things so I began looking at more expensive knives and ran across the Sebenza mentioned on this forum. Bought a large used regular. It was a little too big for EDC but I was sufficiently impressed to purchase a small regular. Within a year I also had a Mnandi and soon after had ordered a Damascus blade for the small regular.

Since about '06 or so that small Sebbie with Damascus blade has been my EDC, saving the Mnandi for wear with slacks and such.

Not a collector and never thought I'd spend that sort of money on a tool but . . . the absolute minimalist genius of the Sebenza makes it well worthwhile.
 
I wish I still had all of the CRKs I've owned. Folders, one pieces, fixed blades. Sebenzas, Umnumzaans, Mnandis. I've gotten heavily into slipjoints, don't carry my CRKS that much anymore, but can't seem to give them up. I still have one of the first Sebenzas I bought, a large micarta classic. I don't know the exact reason why I got a CRK, but the biggest influences were this forum and the Jerzeedevil forum. Just wanted the top of the line I could afford.
 
I purchased my first CRK in 1992, a Shadow II when I was a young PFC in the army. I got the recommendation from a couple of senior NCOs in my company. Great field knife and used it religiously till I started going to college and needed some funds. Would love to find another.

Purchased my first large regular seb in 1998 while I was finishing up my reserve time and in college. I own a few still but wish I could buy back the ones I sold. I have used many folders since but always come back to the CRK for carry and the collection.
 
I got my first crk last year, it was my 21 birthday and I decided to get myself a 'proper' knife (was carrying spydies and benchmade back then), something I can carry and use until the day I die. Was choosing between the SMF-CC and the Sebenza and........ got myself a 21 on my 21st birthday :D This year I added a Zaan to my slowly growing CRK collection.
 
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