Well.. she arrived on Monday! Small Sebenza 31.
Being completely honest, I have such mixed feelings about this knife that I've put off making any sort of comment on it until now.. Granted, I've only had a couple days with it, but I think I'm finally able to process some of my thoughts on it.. here are some of my initial impressions..
I love the overall aesthetics of this knife. I've always appreciated functional simplicity and this knife is absolutly that..for such a "simple" handle shape, the ergonomics are fantastic.. even with the "small" size, I'm able to get a full, comfortable, grip on the knife in a variety of positions. Excellent, simple ergos. The blade is absolutely gorgeous.. immaculate grinds, beautiful crowned spine, and even with the convex edge giving a little bit different cutting feel, I find the blade to be sharp enough to cut quite well right out of the box.. I have no issues with the blade.. It’s beautiful.
The action is a different story.. it’s not “bad” per se, but I was expecting much better.. out of the box, it was very stiff. Smooth? Yes, sure.. but VERY STIFF. Not anywhere close to phrases like "hydraulic," "butter on glass," etc that I've heard floated around about CRK knives. I got my knife on Monday and took it apart immediately to remove the lanyard. Dis/re-assembly was very easy which I appreciated. I greased the pivot and the action seemed a little better, but it was still quite stiff. Displeased with the action, I disassembled the knife again on Tuesday.. I noticed some strange, very faint, circular machining marks on the washers, so I gave them a few light passes on the fine side of my Double Stuff to smooth them out a bit, added a little bit more grease than the day before, and reassembled the knife. I should mention here, that I am quite impressed by how the blade and pivot assembly can be removed from and inserted into the handle without disassembling it.. nice. After my second assembly the action was noticeably better.. still very smooth, and less stiff than it was before. There is still a ways to go before I'd throw around that "hydraulic" word, but as it continues to break-in, I think it’s headed in that direction..
My knife also has the lockbar flex, or "lock rock" that many have talked (complained) about on the 31s.. it is fairly minimal, but I can detect vertical play when I put pressure on the spine of the blade. Horizontal play is non existent. There is no play at all when pressure is applied to the edge (cutting). The lockbar/ceramic ball engages the blade tang at roughly 65-70%, and in spite of the perceptible “flex” in the lockbar, I don’t think there is any chance of the lock disengaging during normal use. Apparently, the response from CRK has been that this lock-rock/lockbar flex, whatever you want to call it, is a normal because of how the ceramic ball (rather than the lockbar itself, like in the 21) in the 31 engages with the tang. I don’t think that response is ideal coming from a company that claims “bank vault” tolerances, but because the knife is solid in all the ways that matter (force applied to the cutting edge/lockbar safely keeps blade open), I can accept it. I also have a $30 Ruike P801 with less perceptible rock.. just saying..
Another thing about this knife that rubbed me the wrong way was the pocket clip. In use, it’s actually quite excellent, but when I fully disassembled the knife, the clip was nearly impossible to remove when unscrewed. I have a little spudger tool that I use for disassembly and had to wedge that underneath the clip and use
significant force to finally dislodge it. Reinserting the pocket clip during reassembly required the use of pliers (used a cloth to protect the finish) to seat the clip properly. I looked online to see if anyone else had this issue and, sure enough, it seems relatively common (or at least.. not uncommon). Of course, CRK fanboys come to the defense of CRK explaining this away as being “due to the extremely high machining tolerances” of CRK knives. Riiight… haha idk why we can’t just call questionable machining questionable machining here.. Idk, maybe I’m just not used to the world of high-end production knives, but I can’t say that I’ve ever needed pliers to install a pocket clip before. Not the end of the world I suppose.. my clip is reinstalled in the correct position.. no harm, no foul I guess?
For me, the $375 elephant in the room with this knife is absolutely the price. Generally, the max I’ll pay for a knife is ~ $200. If I think I’ll really really like the knife, I might go a little higher than $200.. but usually not much. I’ve always wanted a CRK and loved the look of the Sebenza family, so when I got my tax return, I figured “why not?!” and ordered my first knife over $300. I expected to be knocked out of my socks at the quality. Don’t get me wrong.. it’s good. Great even. But not perfect. For $375, I expected perfection.. action out of the box, solid lockup, a pocket clip that I can remove and install without giving myself a hernia.. all of that should be perfect! At double the price of the average knife I buy, I think I was expecting this CRK to be twice as good.. I think my expectations were too high and I’m still having trouble rationalizing that with the cost.
Overall though, I really do like this knife a lot.. but the mental gymnastics I’ve had to do to in my head to justify the price-tag compared with other knives I own are Olympic level. I understand that values are subjective and some of this may just be me being a cheap b@stard haha. I think if you’re willing to spend the money, you’re getting a quality product from CRK. For me personally though.. my feeling is that I have so many knives of comparable (or better!..my opinion) workmanship and materials (yes, I know, my opinion.. ) that cost HALF (not my opinion..FACT) the price of my CRK. Don’t get me wrong, I think my 31 is great knife and I’m happy that I finally have a CRK. I don’t see myself ever selling this knife. I enjoy it more and more each day that I carry it and use it.. I think when in breaks in more completely, it's going to be an
excellent knife. I also just don’t see myself adding any more to my collection.
Alright, maybe one more.. I might need to try out a Large Sebenza… :D
Wow, sorry everybody for that long rant :o ..
Rick H.
..well, that escalated quickly..
's in 10 different steels
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