Where are all the Cheburkov Knives??

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evancamp13

Joined
Aug 17, 2012
Messages
845
I recently picked up a Cheburkov Scout off the forums here, and I'm blown away by the quality of this knife. It's an outstanding blade with great materials and outstanding workmanship, at a reasonable (IMO) price. So, my question, why aren't these far more popular??? It seems the Russian knives have a near cult like following and brands like Shirogorov are incredibly popular, so what's the deal with Cheburkov?? Is he just a much smaller outfit? Not near the quantity being put into the market?

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Cheburkov is an interesting company. I picked one up about 2 or 3 years ago via a random Russian dealer out of Chicago. The detent ball fell out of the first model I owned, thankfully the dealer was able to coordinate/communicate with Cheburkov to replace my knife. Quality was good, but they used to have a few quirks like asymmetric designs and rather brick like in hand. But, they offered incredible value having timascus type materials and damascus blade steel for very reasonable prices.

They have since put their designs more in line with the US Market, but still lack an established dealer (in the way Shiro does) to deal with the US market. Which is a must, since they only speak Russian (not sure if they have since brought an English speaker on staff).

So lots of potential, really nice knives, but need an established English speaking conduit in the US market.
 
FE339637-C2A7-4CC2-BF26-E27AA2C2AC88.jpeg How do you and what kind of tool would you use to dissasemble Cheburkov Toucan.
Those pivot screws look pretty unworkable.
 
I've been eyeing them, availability here is very low. The Hudson and Pike have my attention.
 
I'm really pleased with the two Cheburkovs I own. I don't know about the earlier knives that austonh austonh mentioned, but their current models offer an interesting variety of sizes and styles at prices way lower than Shirogorov. (BTW, I'm a big fan of Shiros and own 6.)

I bought my Scout over a year ago and posted a review here last year using my F95T as a comparable as it's a knife that many are familiar with. The Scout is solid, features premium materials, has excellent action, nice detailing, came very sharp, and feels great in hand.

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Last fall I purchased a Strizh (Swift), mine being the smaller of the two sizes available. That knife is a thumb stud opener, "linerless liner lock" in CF--very light, wicked smooth, disappears in pocket, and came with a stupidly sharp Vanadis 8 blade. It makes a great gentleman's carry and a very credible EDC for those who like a small-to-midsize, lighter knife. Here's my Strizh next to my NeOn UL for comparison's sake.

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For sure Cheburkov has no marketing outlet in this country at this point. It wasn't all that many years ago that Shirogorovs were really hard to find and buy here in the US. Shiro actually has only one authorized dealer worldwide, that being the CA-based company (not a supporting dealer here). The Workshop sells to the rest world directly, but North American authorized purchases can only come through the CA dealer.

A little Googling will reveal one German firm and one Finnish that are authorized Cheburkov dealers. I bought both mine from the German firm, they were easy to deal with by email in English, and both transactions went very smoothly. The Finnish firm offers a broad selection of Cheburkovs, has excellent prices, fast free shipping, and their site is easily navigable and understood for English-only speakers.

Like Shiro, Cheburkov will also sell directly from their Workshop. While it's true that they're not English-speaking per se, I've been able to email back-and-forth with Alexander Cheburkov and he's had my messages and his responses translated at his end. We've had some cordial communication to the extent that I've been able to order a custom build from him of his Raven (Voron) model, made to my specs at what I think is a very affordable price for such a quality, made-to-order piece. Think Spyderco Military for size and blade (actually bigger), but a Russian tip-up flipper in M390 and red C-Tek. Like this one without the Damascus.

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I like that they offer unique steel types like Vanadis

But yea they need a dealer for more outreach. However if they did that they would cost alot more.
 
The Eastern European/Russian makers need to do more to tap into the North American market. Manly, for example, from Bulgaria, has an office in Pennsylvania with an English speaking associate and a user friendly website in English, with good customer service directly through them. Makes dealing with them very easy and straightforward. Don't know why the others don't follow this model, to better take advantage of our buying power and spending habits.
 
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