Would You Tell Me What is So Special About Chris Reeves Knives?

ScarFoot. I do not think I have ever seen that CRK fixed blade. Very nice looking.
 
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hardheart said:
Makes me wonder whatever happened to Noss after knifetests went away. I think the videos are all lost to the ether.
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I think that Joe X guy has taken up the mantle. He's a bit hard to follow. Between the gas mask, the random sped up video, and the thick accent. His videos do not claim to be scientific. It's a lot of "Can you believe that freaking f$@*ing $hit!?" as he breathes heavy and beat the piss out of knives until they break...then he shoots them with a Glock 19.

While I will never be on board with destruction videos as empirical proof, I like when something actually surprises him. He did a destruction of a Cold Steel Marauder and the tip of the AUS8 blade legitimately pokes a crap ton of holes through a car without damage. While I wouldn't base whether I purchase a knife due to this, it's nice to know that a knife designed around self defense can hold up pretty well to the stresses a blade one would logically expect.

Now...slamming a knife over and over on a stone? That kills nearly everything.
 
I have no dog in this fight but just wanted to say that Sebenzas locks have never been steel against Ti, and they haven't been Ti on Ti for quite some time. Although I do love me a nice straight Ti on Ti framelock. I didn't watch the video as I'm not a big video guy and the few cold steel videos I've watched were kinda weird, but I have wanted to get me an American Lawman for many years just because I think they're cool. Ive already shared why I like Sebenzas.
 
LimpCroissant said:
I have no dog in this fight but just wanted to say that Sebenzas locks have never been steel against Ti, and they haven't been Ti on Ti for quite some time. Although I do love me a nice straight Ti on Ti framelock. I didn't watch the video as I'm not a big video guy and the few cold steel videos I've watched were kinda weird, but I have wanted to get me an American Lawman for many years just because I think they're cool. Ive already shared why I like Sebenzas.
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You might want to watch the video if you suffer from chronic insomnia. The guy’s got all the allure of a reheated fart.
 
LimpCroissant said:
I have no dog in this fight but just wanted to say that Sebenzas locks have never been steel against Ti, and they haven't been Ti on Ti for quite some time. Although I do love me a nice straight Ti on Ti framelock. I didn't watch the video as I'm not a big video guy and the few cold steel videos I've watched were kinda weird, but I have wanted to get me an American Lawman for many years just because I think they're cool. Ive already shared why I like Sebenzas.
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They’ve almost always been Ti on steel and have never been Ti on Ti. Now they’re ceramic on steel.
 
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DayofReckoning said:
Sorry, I didn't have a chance to read the whole thread, but I was just wondering if it's been mentioned yet that the Sebenza's inferior lock is amongst some of the weakest you find, regardless of price, and that Cold Steel's testing showed it produced one of the worst results they've ever recorded, with the lock collapsing under a mere 45lbs, and the knife closing on the very first spine wack? Was it mentioned that magnitudes of far "inferior" and vastly cheaper knives have much stronger locks than the Sebenza? Titanium on titanium lockup is not good engineering, no matter how many fanboys say otherwise.

Now, I'm certain the typical flood of strawman's are going to start flooding in, things like "Sebenza's lock is strong enough for whatever anyone would ever realistically need", or "those tests are unrealistic and have no value", blah blah blah. Imagine the responses if the Cold Steel failed and the Sebenza survived the test.

The supposed "tight tolerances" of the Sebenza are another talking point we see regurgitated time and time again at nauseum. All that's required is a simple google search and you will see the laundry list of Quality Control issues that appear on these knives, seemingly more in recent years, The "tight tolerances" are nothing more than a myth, at least now that is. Maybe there was a time when that was true, but far, far too many Quality Control issues pop up far too often.

The reality is the Sebenza is an overpriced POS with an inferior lock that gets massively outperformed by knives costing a fraction of the price, both in overall strength as well as heat treating of the steel. It's a knife that became and stayed popular not because of substance, but because of hype.
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They perform every day for years for 1000s of people.


Strangely I had a Cold Steel Voyager fail while in use when accidently spine whacked, so it's a test I do. Not with 35lbs and an ~18" lever. Just with my hand against wood. I've had a Terzuola, Spyderco, and a Vantage fail. With use or adjustment they passed. I'm sure you can adjust a knife to make it fail many stress tests.

I work in testing, and some tests are made to show a product's performance in an area that's irrelevant to its actual use, strictly for marketing. Case in point. Some times products are adjusted to fail or pass.
 
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CoryMc said:
They’ve almost always been Ti on steel and have never been Ti on Ti. Now they’re ceramic on steel.
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Oh jeezus, I got my words mixed up sorry. What I meant to say was they were never steel on steel as in a lockbar insert, and rather were instead straight Ti on the lockbar mating with the blade tang. And yup, now have the ceramic ball interface.
Edit: I typed that comment right before falling asleep after a very long week haha.
 
Knives&Lint said:
I hear the term overpriced thrown around alot, particularly in hobbies. The fact is that markets set prices. When is something overpriced? When a company cannot stay in business because they are sitting on inventory that's not selling at the price they are asking for it. On the other hand, when products sell out faster than a company can manufacture them, by the simple laws of economics, they are not overpriced. This goes for Sebenzas as well as it does for Demko 20.5's.
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Very well said!
 
Knives&Lint said:
I hear the term overpriced thrown around alot, particularly in hobbies. The fact is that markets set prices. When is something overpriced? When a company cannot stay in business because they are sitting on inventory that's not selling at the price they are asking for it. On the other hand, when products sell out faster than a company can manufacture them, by the simple laws of economics, they are not overpriced. This goes for Sebenzas as well as it does for Demko 20.5's.
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Couldn't agree more. If anything market demand would suggest they are underpriced but I dont want to say that too loud.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
I think that Joe X guy has taken up the mantle. He's a bit hard to follow. Between the gas mask, the random sped up video, and the thick accent. His videos do not claim to be scientific. It's a lot of "Can you believe that freaking f$@*ing $hit!?" as he breathes heavy and beat the piss out of knives until they break...then he shoots them with a Glock 19.

While I will never be on board with destruction videos as empirical proof, I like when something actually surprises him. He did a destruction of a Cold Steel Marauder and the tip of the AUS8 blade legitimately pokes a crap ton of holes through a car without damage. While I wouldn't base whether I purchase a knife due to this, it's nice to know that a knife designed around self defense can hold up pretty well to the stresses a blade one would logically expect.

Now...slamming a knife over and over on a stone? That kills nearly everything.
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I watched that guy’s video of the Victorinox Hunter Pro and was amazed that he wasn’t able to break it.
 
VorpelSword said:
My remarks above were about the customer service from the RRK operation and Randall Made. RK seems more responsive and supportive of their product line. That is pretty much it.

I'll tell it as often as the opportunity permits. It happened. Randall Made hasn't changed as far as I know.

Randall still trades on their WW-II reputation, which was well deserved in 1945. Randall knives are just as good today as they were in 1945. With the passage of time, the needs of our warfighters became somewhat different . . .and Randall Made did not come along.
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As present day marine, admittedly in 29 palms I carried my winkler which is a coated blade, but I've never heard of anyone not being allowed to take their knives to the field for being too shiny. I definitely saw some uncoated knives out there, and I don't think anyone would have had anything to say even if I had an ultra polished blade but who knows. Anyways, now that our anticipated theater of operations is the pacific theater, I don't know how big of a difference a shiny blade is going to make in a tropical environment, would probably rust real quick but I doubt anyone would have anything to say, especially since the thing is gonna be sitting in a sheath 99% of the time. Anyways, if your son was in around 2005 he probably saw some of the worst fighting in Iraq, dudes probably one hard motherfucker, much respect and hope he's doing alright, sorry to hear of your negative experience.
 
DayofReckoning said:
I never said it was my opinion, it's fact. Please see the video. Note the video is not displaying properly for some reason at the moment, I'm not sure why. But one can see the result of some of the testing. They have put countless knives under the exact same testing. You must understand that the Sebenza OBJECTIVELY produced one of the poorest results EVER. That's real DATA, but again the same strawman "it's strong enough for me and all my buddies on Bladeforums (though 95% of Sebenzas are shelf queens, lol) therefor those spine Wacks and weigh hang tests mean nothing" always appears.

Funny you accused my post of being opinion, and that I should get a grip, when I actually have proof of my claims, whereas in your defense, you used "many who can attest for being served well" as being your proof.

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I don't think anyone is disagreeing with you that in Cold Steel's testing, they found that the sebenza had a "weak" lock compared to others. I think what people have an issue with is that you seem to have the notion that lock strength is the only measure of how "good" a knife is. How often do you actually whack the spine of any knife when using it? People like the sebenza because of the blade design, the hollow grind, the smooth action, the great cutting performance, the beautiful inlays, etc. Lock strength is just one factor in determining how good a knife is, and in my opinion, not a super important one for a thin, slicey knife like the sebenza that I'm only ever going to carve, cut and slice things with. My Sebenza locks up good enough to do what I need it to. In fact I was intrigued by your claims about the spine whack test so I took my sebenza and smacked it hard spine first into the edge of a wooden table and it held solid. I've done similar with a mini adamas, a knife marketed as a tank and it failed. That was enough to prove to me the sebenza will hold up to any cutting tasks I put it to, and if somehow I manage to smack the spine of it pulling it out of some material, it won't close on my hands. I also promise you the force of that smack was more than 45 lbs. If I need a knife to baton, pry, potentially smack stuff and do general hard use shit with, I'll put my winkler fixed blade to the task. If I need a thin, slicey knife with good geometry, I'll use my sebenza. I don't think you would've gotten the negative response you did if you didn't judge the sebenza as being a "piece of shit" just because of it's allegedly weak lock, which still holds up fine with any work you'd realistically use the knife for.
 
DayofReckoning said:
Sorry, I didn't have a chance to read the whole thread, but I was just wondering if it's been mentioned yet that the Sebenza's inferior lock is amongst some of the weakest you find, regardless of price, and that Cold Steel's testing showed it produced one of the worst results they've ever recorded, with the lock collapsing under a mere 45lbs, and the knife closing on the very first spine wack? Was it mentioned that magnitudes of far "inferior" and vastly cheaper knives have much stronger locks than the Sebenza? Titanium on titanium lockup is not good engineering, no matter how many fanboys say otherwise.

Now, I'm certain the typical flood of strawman's are going to start flooding in, things like "Sebenza's lock is strong enough for whatever anyone would ever realistically need", or "those tests are unrealistic and have no value", blah blah blah. Imagine the responses if the Cold Steel failed and the Sebenza survived the test.

The supposed "tight tolerances" of the Sebenza are another talking point we see regurgitated time and time again at nauseum. All that's required is a simple google search and you will see the laundry list of Quality Control issues that appear on these knives, seemingly more in recent years, The "tight tolerances" are nothing more than a myth, at least now that is. Maybe there was a time when that was true, but far, far too many Quality Control issues pop up far too often.

The reality is the Sebenza is an overpriced POS with an inferior lock that gets massively outperformed by knives costing a fraction of the price, both in overall strength as well as heat treating of the steel. It's a knife that became and stayed popular not because of substance, but because of hype.
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DayofReckoning said:
I never said it was my opinion, it's fact. Please see the video. Note the video is not displaying properly for some reason at the moment, I'm not sure why. But one can see the result of some of the testing. They have put countless knives under the exact same testing. You must understand that the Sebenza OBJECTIVELY produced one of the poorest results EVER. That's real DATA, but again the same strawman "it's strong enough for me and all my buddies on Bladeforums (though 95% of Sebenzas are shelf queens, lol) therefor those spine Wacks and weigh hang tests mean nothing" always appears.

Funny you accused my post of being opinion, and that I should get a grip, when I actually have proof of my claims, whereas in your defense, you used "many who can attest for being served well" as being your proof.

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DayofReckoning said:
That's the exact same elitest, snobbery attitude that is associated with Chris Reeve knives. Despite owning more than a few knives costing as much or more than a Sebenza, and having the ability to purchase one no problem, I take pleasure of shattering the myth of the Sebenza's superiority because of attitudes and comments like this.
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DayofReckoning said:
Yes, brain fart moment there. Steel on steel lockup is stronger than steel on titanium lockup. The Sebenza lockface is titanium and "slips" much easier than steel on steel.
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DayofReckoning said:
My rant is because of watching an inferior product being praised for something it's not. You can take it any way you want.

Watch the video and maybe your opinion might change.
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DayofReckoning said:
Andrew Demko is an idiot? His Labatory like testing and conditions are what I base my facts on.

Guess who you tend to listen to? I don't know, enlighten me. Who do you listen to?
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DayofReckoning said:
They buy a slipjoint, who cares about lock strength? And not my opinion again, results of testing. Just because you don't like, or won't open your mind long enough to look at valid data doesn't make it go away.

Ah, so being hot sellers is what constitutes something being a good knife, huh?

With thinking like that above, no wonder they are hot sellers.
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DayofReckoning said:
The lock is still weak and fails at 45lbs, no matter how many feel good, "my Sebenza is so awesome" posts Sebenza owners make
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DayofReckoning said:
The lock still failed at 45lbs, and produced one the worst results EVER in testing magnitudes of knives. Sorry if that hurts your feelings.
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DayofReckoning said:
2. Two brand new samples, both of which were flicked open several times after being pulled from the box.
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DayofReckoning said:
That's rich coming from the guy that wouldn't even watch the video and thinks good sales constitute what's a good knife.
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DayofReckoning said:
This is THE EXACT strawman I alluded to in my first post in this thread. What a silly argument.
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Thank you for this trash opinion. It’ll save me the time I might have spent reading anything you ever post.

Btw, got any hot stock tips? I wanna know what to not invest in…
 
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