Knife News

CRKT Adds Two Knives and One New Tool to Online Catalog

CRKT has just added three new products to its online catalog in a 2019 Product Preview. The company expanded its lineup of gear with a knife care tool, The Forged By War program obtains its latest fixed blade offering, and a new assisted opening folder bolsters the main line. CRKT expects all three knives to be launched and live at Blade Show this weekend.

Knife Maintenance Tool
Designed by Tom Stokes, the man behind multiple CRKT gadgets, the Knife Maintenance Tool is just that: a compact solution for most day-to-day knife care operations. The 2.2 oz. piece of kit includes T6 and T8 Torx bit drivers (two common screw sizes in knife construction), a flat head driver, tungsten carbide field sharpener, ceramic hone, and a bottle opener for good measure.

Portability is a key feature of the Knife Maintenance Tool. It manages to pack these knife care essentials into a product with an overall footprint of less than three inches long. An ideal solution for outdoorsmen or campers, it comes with a key ring for painless attachment to packs, pockets, zipper pulls, or even keys.

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Why Fit and Finish Matters

As a reviewer, and griper in the cutlery world, I’m pretty obsessed with ‘fit and finish’, that is, makers’ treatment of the little details that may not be a big deal, but, when done right, show mastery.

Now, to be clear, I’m not talking about big, deal-breaking issues. Problems with the lockup, blade sharpness, or the folding mechanisms aren’t ‘crappy finishing’, they’re just problems with a ‘crappy knife’. Calling a folding knife with these kinds of problems ‘poorly finished’ is like calling a car with no brakes ‘an exciting driving experience’. Yeah, it’s true, but much like a sheepsfoot blade, it’s completely missing the point.

Instead, to me, good fit and finish is all about the effort put into the details of construction that aren’t crucial but do show that you, as a maker, give a damn. These are details like the smoothness of the action, with an effortless glide on bearings, or a smooth consistent open on phosphor-bronze washers. Details like a smooth, consistent grind with symmetrical edge bevel(s). Details like a well-centered blade when closed, tight, gap-less fit with backspacers, and smooth transitions between scales and liners. Heck, even niceties like well-done engraving and etching, non-free-spinning screws, and any number of my other knife gripes are fit and finish issues, and when done right, show masterful work.

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Böker and Pro-Tech Team Up for Auto Burnley Kwaiken

Böker, Pro-Tech, and Lucas Burnley surprised dealers at SHOT Show 2018 by teaming up to produce the new Kwaiken Auto. This co-branded release hits a premium price point and marks the first US-made production Kwaiken model to date.

Burnley’s Kwaiken design is his most popular custom knife, and it became a smash hit when Böker first picked up the model several years ago. They’ve released the Kwaiken in many different forms, including a compact model and a fixed blade, but never an auto until now. “That feels like a big milestone for me and the Kwaiken,” Burnley tells us.

Collaborations between a custom maker and a production company are nothing new, but it’s unusual to see two companies joining forces. Burnley tells us the partnership materialized because it made sense on multiple levels. By making the knife domestically, Böker avoids US customs restrictions on switchblade imports. Pro-Tech also has a well-earned reputation for quality and a deep expertise in this field. “I’m honored that two companies that I hold in high regard decided to collaborate for the first time on a product of my design,” Burnley says. “There were a lot of little details I was worried about. But Pro-Tech nailed it.”

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Spyderco Unveils Six New Folders at SHOT Show 2018

The Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas is the place where knife and gun companies unveil their new products, hoping to leave with more orders this year than they booked last year. In 2018, the biggest change we’ve noticed is the show floor is much busier. That comes as no surprise, given the good health of the industry but it does make navigating the SHOT Show venue, which measures in at an enormous 630,000 square feet (that’s over twelve miles of ground to cover) a greater challenge. Visit our SHOT Show 2018 Knives Newsfeed for up-to-the-minute coverage of all the new knives.

The biggest news to come out of the first day of SHOT Show 2018 came at the Spyderco booth. Those who speculated that their 2018 catalog wasn’t painting the whole picture were right. Spyderco unveiled no less than six never-before-seen folders. First among them is the Smock, a collaboration with knifemaker Kevin Smock, who caught Spyderco’s attention with his button-operated compression lock folder. The Spyderco Smock, based on Kevin Smock’s custom SK23 model, will be entering the company’s production queue. And, like it has for so many others, a collaboration with Spyderco will catapult the Smock name into the knife making mainstream.

The company also revealed the Techno 2, a sheepsfoot blade riff on the original micro-sized Marcin Slysz collaboration; the Mantra 3, a line extension of Spyderco’s signature flipper knives with carbon fiber and a compression lock; and the Brouwer, an elegant, modestly sized titanium framelock. These, along with the rest of their new catalog should give Spyderco fans plenty to chew on in 2018.

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CRKT Knives Available Ahead of SHOT Show 2018

In October, CRKT surprised the knife community by revealing their new for 2018 lineup months ahead of schedule. And, even before we’ve had a chance to start our SHOT Show 2018 Knives Newsfeed coverage next week, the company has already made their products available for purchase through dealers like KnifeCenter.com. The massive industry event is the standard launching pad for new knives from most of the biggest brands with dealers often placing orders on the SHOT Show floor in Las Vegas.

“CRKT is known for innovation and not just in our knives,” Douglas Flagg, Vice President of Marketing & Innovation at CRKT, tells us. According to Flagg, the new release schedule follows the practice of other major Oregon-based companies like Nike and Adidas, who have streamlined production processes and downtime between reveal and delivery. “We’ve significantly reduced the delivery time between announcing the new products and actually shipping them.”

Last year some new CRKT products didn’t hit the market until the March-June window, many months after their first announcement. “Market forces demand earlier cycle entry to secure interest and opportunities,” Flagg explains. “E-commerce has revolutionized the market and this innovative step is a reaction to the new reality. If a specific knife design peaks your interest, you should be able to instantly make the purchase.”

Here’s our guide to the new knives to help you jump in on this first batch of 2018 CRKT products.

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Canada Border Services Agency Seizing One-Handed Opening Pocket Knives

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has sent shock waves through the knife community after it announced that its interpretation of a ‘prohibited weapon’ had changed to include most everyday folding pocket knives.

The organization points to a November ruling by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal(CITT) which denied an appeal (AP-2017-012) to reclaim an imported shipment of seized Kershaw Skyline knives. The tribunal determined that the knives were outlawed because they could be ‘wrist-flicked’ after minimum manipulation to partially open the blade.

According to Section 81(1) of Canada’s Criminal Code a pocket knife is a prohibited weapon when it “has a blade that opens automatically by gravity or centrifugal force or by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in or attached to the handle of the knife.” The scope of Canadian enforcement originally targeted automatic knives and balisongs. But, in 2015 the CBSA began seizing flipper knives after a similar CITT ruling.

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