What makes a Hinderer great?

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Askurato

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Aug 6, 2013
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So I'm a relatively new knife collector and have recently been bitten by the crk bug. I own a small micarta sebbie and a large 25. I love them both.

Recently I've been eyeing a large 21 cocobolo, but part of be feels like I should branch out and try an xm-18 3.5".

Why do people love Hinderers so much? Tell me why they are so great and why I should get one rather than a third sebbie. :) Thanks!
 
Overbuilt. In fact I and many others find it too overbuilt for EDC. The sebenza is a workhorse, but does not stand well to super hard abuse (think prying and just trying to baton/destroy things with it). The Hinder excels at this. But to do so requires a much thicker, much larger blade, thicker handles, and with the choil you don't actually get a larger cutting edge either.

There is no perfect knife for everything. You should get one and try it...but if you EDC a knife and use it primarily for cutting, the thick blade stock is likely to disappoint you. The sebenza fits best for me (light to medium EDC with more cutting and no prying), which is why I own a dozen of them. The Hinderer will cut rope and a bunch of other things just fine, but when you start to try to slice food you are going to dislike the thick blade stock and the sebenza will really excel in cutting where the Hinderer physically cannot. You can however really just have at it on things like a 2x4 with the Hinderer (especially the spanto grind) and it is extremely unlikely the blade will fail you.

Besides that its got great fit and finish and will last a life time. You know it is a good knife if the first people to get them are FF/LEO/EMT/MIL... you just need to decide what you are looking for in a knife and what you are going to use it for.

I think the 25 is a bit beefier than the 21, so it is actually kind of bridging the gap between the sebenza and xm.
 
Great Guy!!!!!!!!!!!! Good knife, and currently in the lime light, Rescue peeps also ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An XM is always nice for a collection.
 
au5t3n5 said:
Overbuilt. In fact I and many others find it too overbuilt for EDC. The sebenza is a workhorse, but does not stand well to super hard abuse (think prying and just trying to baton/destroy things with it). The Hinder excels at this. But to do so requires a much thicker, much larger blade, thicker handles, and with the choil you don't actually get a larger cutting edge either.

There is no perfect knife for everything. You should get one and try it...but if you EDC a knife and use it primarily for cutting, the thick blade stock is likely to disappoint you. The sebenza fits best for me (light to medium EDC with more cutting and no prying), which is why I own a dozen of them. The Hinderer will cut rope and a bunch of other things just fine, but when you start to try to slice food you are going to dislike the thick blade stock and the sebenza will really excel in cutting where the Hinderer physically cannot. You can however really just have at it on things like a 2x4 with the Hinderer (especially the spanto grind) and it is extremely unlikely the blade will fail you.

Besides that its got great fit and finish and will last a life time. You know it is a good knife if the first people to get them are FF/LEO/EMT/MIL... you just need to decide what you are looking for in a knife and what you are going to use it for.

I think the 25 is a bit beefier than the 21, so it is actually kind of bridging the gap between the sebenza and xm.
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Perfect, thank you. I went with the large 21 w snake wood. I'm an office worker and don't need that kind of heft.
 
the xm-18 is so great because it is the cheapest of all "high end knives". however it is designed by picture, not by preformance. its not a tool, its something that can preform heavyer tasks, but if you are looking for a good tool i would recomend a "opinel 8" shure it dosent have a titaniumframelock and g10 handlescales but it will out preform most modern folding knives.
 
Hinderer only sells to a certain class so I have no idea Im just a plumber. Must be great knives if people were paying for them at a premium and still do. If he expands his facilty and they become readily available to common folk at his MSRP without silly lottery sales I'll jump on one. ZT's Hinderers I find to be awesome knives.

I have experiences with CRK's and I like Sebenzas very much. Prefer the Umnumzaan though, instead of buying a third Seb maybe try a Zaan?
 
They are good production knives but not worth the prices they go for. Just a lot of hype because you cannot buy them, as stated above, unless you have a specific occupation.

I've noticed the prices for them on the secondary market have been steadily plummeting these recent months. You can find on for $500 now no problem. A year ago it would have cost you $800.
 
Yeah they are getting closer to MSRP, I want to try one out like the OP maybe its the best time to get one. Any Hinderer heads hear if they will become more available to non Leos? Or is this always going to be a secondary market deal?
 
FCM415 said:
Hinderer only sells to a certain class so I have no idea Im just a plumber. Must be great knives if people were paying for them at a premium and still do. If he expands his facilty and they become readily available to common folk at his MSRP without silly lottery sales I'll jump on one. ZT's Hinderers I find to be awesome knives.

I have experiences with CRK's and I like Sebenzas very much. Prefer the Umnumzaan though, instead of buying a third Seb maybe try a Zaan?
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I have a sebbie 25 which his pretty close the feel of a zaan as I understand it?
 
FCM415 said:
Yeah they are getting closer to MSRP, I want to try one out like the OP maybe its the best time to get one. Any Hinderer heads hear if they will become more available to non Leos? Or is this always going to be a secondary market deal?
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I would wait. The prices are trending lower and lower on the secondary market as the desire dries up for these overpriced knives. It also seems like the output has increased over the past year, though that may not continue. Hinderer and his crew have always seemed to try and keep their products artificially scarce to keep demand high.

Honestly, you can get a great true custom knife for what you'd spend on one of their production knives on the secondary market.
 
mctrinket said:
I would wait. The prices are trending lower and lower on the secondary market as the desire dries up for these overpriced knives. It also seems like the output has increased over the past year, though that may not continue. Hinderer and his crew have always seemed to try and keep their products artificially scarce to keep demand high.

Honestly, you can get a great true custom knife for what you'd spend on one of their production knives on the secondary market.
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I'm not sure that's the case. From what they say, they have been steadily increasing production every year since the XM came out. There really is just that much demand.

Think .22lr. There is more being produced now than ever before...and it is still fairly scarce. That is due to demand.
 
There is some opinion regarding Hinderers being presented as fact in this thread but everyone is entitled to their opinions. OP you can't go wrong with the sebenza. I had a 21 and now have a 25 and they are fantastic knives. I am sure you will be pleased. I have said time and time again that my 25 is the best knife I have ever had in many aspects. It made me realize what I want in a folder. That being said, the two knives I have kept are:

Both worth every penny I paid.
 
They will drop in price as supply grows. I wouldn't drop that much for a production knife. That's custom pricing levels.
 
I never was really motivated to try a Hinderer, i wanted to of course but with the prices they were being sold at i wasn't gonna budge. I got the chance to get a XM-18 3.5 recently at a fair price and so i thought okay let me see what this knife is all about.

I like it a lot, the quality is outstanding, really well built and fit together. It's definitely on par with CRK quality. The blade is so smooth to open and close, the lock disengages so smoothly. I think it does just fine as a edc knife, it's not too chunky in my opinion, i was expecting it to be bigger actually from all the talk and pics, but in hand it's not huge like i thought it'd be, still plenty sizable knife but manageable size. Carries just fine too, it's not a brick in weight.

Another cool thing is the customization you can do with a Hinderer, there's all sorts a parts to change up the look of your Hinderer. But yeah i do think Hinderer is definitely worth checking out at some point if possible just because the quality is amazing. I think even if you work an office job you would enjoy a Hinderer, it's not like taking a sword to work, it's just a little more stout than your sebenza 25. As far as price goes though personally i wouldn't pay more than $600 and that's pushing it.
 
I've had two Hinderers: a 3" slicer-grind and a 3.5" spanto-grind; both XM-18's. Paid $625 and $725; sold them both within two weeks. Like au5T3N5 said above..."overbuilt."
For some folks, perhaps emergency personnel...okay.
For the more common casual EDC guys/girls, no way.
Went back to my CRK's, and happy.
 
I had one for about half a year. I liked it but never loved it. It's so overbuilt that the spanto grind and the bulk of the folder didn't really add anything in fact it was almost a brick in my pocket. Great knives though, but I don't think they're worth the secondary market price. Definitely my most over paid knife, but you live and you learn.
 
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