You really begin to appreciate CRK quality when you take a Sebenza apart.

d.r.h.

d.r.h.

starik
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Feb 13, 2012
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Some of you may remember my Unique Graphic post where I showed a pic of a new small Sebenza UG with its birth card. Birth card showed an April 2012 date, yet the blade was listed as S30V. Seemed strange, since I thought that all the Sebenzas were switched over to S35VN well before this date. Angela, at CR, was going to check this out for me ... to see if it was in fact S30V or there was a misprint on the card. She emailed me today and was pretty sure that there was no misprint and believed the blade to be S30V. She said the best way to confirm this would be to remove the blade and check the stamping on the tang. (Dopey me ... why didn't I think of that!!) Which brings me to the subject of this post. Man, you really begin to appreciate the Sebenza and its precision manufacturing when you take apart and reassemble it. Simple as all get out and when reassembled .... everything works just as before ... perfectly centered blade .... smooth operation. No fiddling, no need to mess with Loctite. Oh .... as for the blade. Plain as day .... big S on the tang. S30V it is! Not that I care much, I don't feel there is much of a difference between 30V and 35VN ... especially since this UG will not see much (if any at all) serious use!
 
I have a new small Sebenza coming in on Wednesday; recent manufacture. I'll probably be taking it apart pretty soon also, just to check it out. But maybe not. I've had my Umnumzaan now for several months and feel no desire to take it apart. I'm a pretty light user also.
Sonny
 
Chris Reeve is the only knife manufacturer that I know of that encourages you to take apart your knife as needed. My CRK's are also the only knives I own that I don't cringe even a little bit when taking them apart. With most other knives, you feel like there are only so many times you can take it apart, because it will just get less and less solid and the threads will get play and the screw heads will get a little bit stripped and not to mention that fact that they often won't go back together perfectly and will take some tweaking to get the blade centered. And even then, you can end up with some issue like blade play or whatever else. It just makes me feel bad to take apart other knives, but I feel like I could take apart my CRK's over and over and nothing will happen, which is pretty much true.

Some people may think they're overpriced, but you also can't find a better built knife for a better price. Most the mid-techs in the same price range aren't even on par. There's a reason CRK wins that award at Blade each year ;)
 
I love the fact that you can take it apart and put it back together so easily. Makes me worry less about getting fruit juice or whatever in the pivot.

You appreciate CRK quality even more when you take other knives apart :)
 
yep, looking and listening on how parts fit perfectly is awesome, really well and precisely built
 
You realize how tight the tolerances are when you go to insert the pivot nut, there just is no slack there.
 
Yeah, the fact that there's no blade play even with the pivot screw completely out of the knife and the fact that you can also tighten the pivot completely and it's still smooth says a lot. I get as solid of a lockup as you could hope for, ZERO blade play, and yet I can hold the knife out and press the lock bar and the blade will swing down freely.
 
Haven't had the chance to disassemble my small 21, yet (no need to at the moment). I'll probably flip the screws around when I eventually do it. Ona side note, I found it really funny that the Allen wrench that came in the box was "defective.". I guess the tolerances on the screws were so precise that the wrench wouldn't cut it ;)
 
I stayed up past my bedtime to ensure I can put my small sebenza back together correctly for the third time. I even bought the CRK grease. Last night at midnight, I did it, but not without the help of the CRK instructions on bladeforums and on his website. In the past I was attempting (using utube) to insert the blade with washers at a 45 degree angle when the right way was straight through horizontal with the handle. I don't know if the grease also helped, but its buttery smooth and my small sebenza and I are best friends again. Also kudos to CRK's customer service again!! I lost a screw last week and they shipped one for free within a week.

Own a CRK Mountaineer 1, snakewood mnandi and a small regular 1998 sebenza.
 
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