Where did you first learn of CRK?

I heard of them here and there on other forums. Didn't really know much about them until I began lurking here.
 
I never heard of CRK and Sebenzas until I came here.

This place has cost me a fair amount of money!
 
T. Erdelyi said:
I started readin' about 'em in the knife magazines back in the 80s, before the Sebenza while he was makin' the one piece knives before he moved to the USA.

Took me till three weeks ago before I got my first one.
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Do you like it? What model?
 
Here on the forums. I already had a couple of Spyderco's a Kershaw's. It didn't take long after to start getting into CRK. I'm in the process of getting rid of some of the older collection to get my first Mnandi. Yeah, BF has cost my bank account a bit, but in a good way.
 
I learned about CRK here on BF and other sites while researching higher end knives. My search ended (or maybe it is really just a pause) with a couple William Henry knives for the office and CRK on the weekends. My Spyderco and Benchmades see little pocket time these days. The older I get the more I get in the fewer/better knife mode....
 
cargar62 said:
I would have to thank the the boys at HOB in Ft. Worth!
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What or where is this? I'm familiar with DFW, lived in D until fairly recently. I for one would like to step inside an actual store. Buying something online can be such a guessing game sometimes..
 
Great Thread.................. In the early 2000's I remember looking through a large thick annual type book of tactical and survival knives. I had already had the famed Buck 184 and upon reading this book and seeing pics, it stated how strong the One Piece Knives were since they were one piece. Awhile later, I got a knife magazine with an article about the CRK OPK. I had put it on the back burner for awhile as I did not have much $$ at the time. Upon working a lot of over time during the summer of 2003 and having renewed interest in getting such a knife, I began to do lots more research on the OPK. I finally settled on the small Shadow III OPK. I looked on ebay and got one off a CRK Dealer. I figured if I did not like it, I could always sell it. I was hesitant to pay at the time $175 for such a small knife, but it immediately won me over upon opening the package. Shortly thereafter, I bought the much larger Tanto I. I was as you could say HOOKED at that point. I bought a total of 15 CRK One Piece Knives before I finally decided I needed to try the famed sebenza. I bought all those OPK and even my first sebenza before I ever heard of Bladeforums. In 2008, I discovered bladeforums and joined immediately as I had become quite the CRK collector by that time, especially with the OPK..............As for the first sebenza, it was another ebay purchase and I ended up getting a mint Large Regular Sebenza a few days before Christmas of that year. Later, I found it had the famed BG-42 blade steel. I carried it lightly and after seeing how much I loved it and how special it was, I kinda retired it and bought a Large Regular with S30V. This sebenza later because my NCIS Sebenza as I had CRK engrave it......And so it began. I have since owned 86 CRK and counting God Willing. I would say half to slightly more than half have been sebenzas, in all configurations. I wish I had all 86, but some were sold to buy other CRK's. The CRK I have now are pretty special in different ways and the collection will continue to grow as always.
 
Found CRK after becoming a member of this forum.....great knives and a great maker!
 
J85909266 said:
Do you like it? What model?
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I traded for a small Sebenza 21 and I love it, the knife is a testament to Chris Reeve's ingenuity and skill as a machinist and knife maker. Having been a machinist in a previous life ;) I can appreciate the work that has to go into making a knife with such tight tolerances, as fabricator/millwright/machinist/mechanic/pipefitter/electrician etc... I've taken apart and put back together everything from robotic transfer equipment to high speed packaging equipment and everything in between. As a result I've come to appreciate when something has been properly engineered, when you can take it apart and put it back together with no variance from the original spec, that is a well made well designed machine.

When you pay over $350 for a dial test indicator accurate to 0.0005" you begin to understand the reasoning behind the difference in price between a Sebenza, a Spyderco and a ZT. I'm not saying they are not good knives or worth the money but the tighter tolerances and the fantastic QC backed by superior customer service comes at a price and I gladly paid for it, (traded for it).

It is a perfect EDC for me or as close as any production knife has come, it fits perfectly in my hand and if I had one complaint it would be for a slightly more rounded thumbstud, the current one leaves a dent in my thumb when I obsessively thumb it open and closed while watching tv at home.

All the little things that went into the design of the knife still blow me away, the blade centering and lock up are unparalleled.

The attention to detail, like the slight rounding of the blade spine, the jimping and the placement of it that allows you to open the knife like you were flicking a bic lighter, the fact that the only sharp edge is the part of the blade meant to cut, they break all the edges,(relieve them) so the knife is more comfortable in hand.

The phosphor bronze washers with the holes allowing the knife to stay lubricated longer by allowing the lube to fill the void where the holes are.

I can go on but I think you get the idea, I just wanna add that it's not the perfect knife, (I don't think there will ever be a "perfect" knife) but the Sebenza comes as close as any production knife I own and at 300+ knives I think I'm giving an educated opinion but in the end it'll always come down to o individual preferences.

Hope this answered your question.

BTW, I'm not a CRK rep and I don't play one on tv, I'm just a lowly tradesman who grew up building and fixing things and was lucky enough to be able to make a living doing what I really enjoyed.
 
High-Gear said:
My wife is very understanding of my gun / knife habits. I guess she is happy I don't have any other vices!
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Amen...and cheaper than a mistress. Well, maybe.

I knew nothing of CRK until I found this forum. I had always appreciated nice knives. It took a few years before I ponied up the money for my first Sebenza, a small regular with a polished blade. A client had given me a bonus and told me to get a toy. And so it began. The dangerous part was my first inlay Sebenza, wow are they nice. And about the 25....must resist....
 
The first time I ever heard of CRK was on the Modern Vespa Forum where we were comparing pocket knives. That eventually led me here.
 
I first read about CRK in a magazine in the early 90s and it was an article on the Project I and II. I still have that magazine and read the article often as I was a teenager at the time scraping together lawn money for Buck knives. I read everything I could about CRK and I would go into Stoddards in Boston and handle the CRKs and Randalls (with parental supervision of course) and dream of owning one some day.

Fast forward to around 2003/4 when Cheasapeake Knife and Tool in the DC area went out of business and I snatched up a Mnandi for $280 as they were liquidating their stock. It was my first CRK. I would turn that knife over and over in my hand every day and marvel at the fit and finish of it and it was all down hill from there. I've purchased several CRK folders and fixed blades, but I never got that Project II that I lusted after all those years until just before they were discontinued. There were simply too many other CRKs (and Randalls) to buy before that.
 
I was fortunate to have some knife shops around that carry CRK. Still never quite got the value until owning one.

I think what actually helped was owning a bunch of other knives. Not the cheapest approach in the long run, but gave me an appreciation for what's out there.
 
About a year ago, I came across a YT vid quite by accident. I thought a person must be criminally insane to spend that kind of money on a knife.
Just bought my second CRK on Friday.
 
It has been so long that I can't remember exactly. I know I was aware of the early fixed blades from knife catalogs in the 1980s. I am pretty sure that I had been looking at Sebenzas in ads in knife magazines, but it was Kim Breed's review in Blade that pushed me to buy my first Sebenza. He drove the blade of one partially into a log and the lock was unaffected. After that I bought my first CRK at a NKCA show in Louisville, a brand new large Sebenza with a P on the handle. I was totally perplexed by what the P meant for a couple of years. :D
 
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