what do you guys use for pocket knives?

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Barmoley said:
Prices on many pocket knives are just insane. These days I stick with Spyderco mostly, allows me to play with all sorts of interesting steels, good and useful designs and many are very reasonably priced for what you get.
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After a regrind a spyderco is hard to beat.
 
jedy617 said:
Always a good choice. Good heat treats, and lots of fun aftermarket parts.

Unfortunately even spyderco has gotten pretty pricey these days as well. I remember when the spydiechef was around 200 bucks, now at 280.
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Tbh. I can't blame them. Even scaled up. It's crazy they can keep the prices where they do. And still pay for employees, r&d. Tooling, abrasives, and material costs.

Inflation isnt helping.
 
Blank Blades. said:
After a regrind a spyderco is hard to beat.
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Yeah regrind is essential on the para series. Really miss my customized maxamet para 2.

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jedy617 said:
Haha not your fault, a lot of people don't know about the carbon fiber front scale version, makes it harder to recognize compared to a plain Ti one

They are meant to be beaten to hell and back and be the ultimate work knife though! CRK has good warranty and spa services as well!

What do you think about it? Personally for the money these days they are a tad overrated. Still great knives though. I much prefer mine with a little bit less lockbar tension, and after polishing the washers on a strop.
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Haven’t put it to use yet. It just arrived last night and is supposed to be my Christmas present, so after checking to make sure it arrived safely and play with it a little, I put it back in the box to go under the tree.

I will say I was a little underwhelmed based on initial impressions. The actions on my benchmades and spydercos are smoother and the 940-1 feels just as small in pocket, but has a longer blade. The CR appears to have a thinner grind, and I like the insingo blade shape alot, so looking forward to breaking it in and seeing how it performs before making a final call. It’s very well executed, but overall I expected it to standout more given all the hype about CR and Sebenzas. My tune may change after I have a chance to put it work and carry it for a while. Really excited to try Magnacut for the first time.
 
WCV said:
I will say I was a little underwhelmed based on initial impressions. The actions on my benchmades and spydercos are smoother and the 940-1 feels just as small in pocket, but has a longer blade. The CR appears to have a thinner grind, and I like the insingo blade shape alot, so looking forward to breaking it in and seeing how it performs before making a final call. It’s very well executed, but overall I expected it to standout more given all the hype about CR and Sebenzas. My tune may change after I have a chance to put it work and carry it for a while. Really excited to try Magnacut for the first time.
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I had the same initial reaction to my first Chris Reeve knife. Good knife, a little hard to open, seems well-made, nothing all that special.

Over time, I started to appreciate it more and more, and now I just love it. The more I carried it and used it and sharpened it, the more I liked it. Oh, and the action broke in nicely, after a while.

That made it easy to immediately love the Titanium Insigo I got much later. First and only Magnacut knife. Very nice steel, and as you say, the Insigo knife shape is excellent, really nice slicer.
 
WCV said:
Haven’t put it to use yet. It just arrived last night and is supposed to be my Christmas present, so after checking to make sure it arrived safely and play with it a little, I put it back in the box to go under the tree.

I will say I was a little underwhelmed based on initial impressions. The actions on my benchmades and spydercos are smoother and the 940-1 feels just as small in pocket, but has a longer blade. The CR appears to have a thinner grind, and I like the insingo blade shape alot, so looking forward to breaking it in and seeing how it performs before making a final call. It’s very well executed, but overall I expected it to standout more given all the hype about CR and Sebenzas. My tune may change after I have a chance to put it work and carry it for a while. Really excited to try Magnacut for the first time.
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Yes I can imagine being very underwhelmed based on the online hype. They are really solid knives though and I think you'll end up enjoying it. They are way smoother after breaking it in, can alsop add oil instead of the stock grease
 
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Rangen said:
I had the same initial reaction to my first Chris Reeve knife. Good knife, a little hard to open, seems well-made, nothing all that special.

Over time, I started to appreciate it more and more, and now I just love it. The more I carried it and used it and sharpened it, the more I liked it. Oh, and the action broke in nicely, after a while.

That made it easy to immediately love the Titanium Insigo I got much later. First and only Magnacut knife. Very nice steel, and as you say, the Insigo knife shape is excellent, really nice slicer.
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I’m hoping this is the case for me and expect it will be. It’s clearly a well made tool and it usually takes me a couple months to warm up to a new EDC, so looking forward to seeing how i feel about this one in a few months or years. Should only get better with time.
 
CRK does their own thing.

I will say, I get how Benchmades and Spydercos can wow, but Ive never had a knife from either with as even a grind as on all my CRKs. Especially Benchmade, some of those grinds over the years have just been atrocious on otherwise nice knives.

Not every CRK is perfect and theyve had some to-dos over fixed blades but every Sebenza/Umnuum/Mnandi Ive ever personally touched has been flawless.

Theyre subtle though. Ive had my large 21 over a decade and I just cant imagine any better pocketknife.
 
FWIW my current EDC continues to be the Stretch 2 Lightweight clip point in K390. Ive had a bunch of other Spydercos over the years and I have a Para 2 in s110v in a box somewhere but I really think the Stretch 2 blade is just far more useful than any Para I've owned. I also prefer the backlock to the compression lock even though on paper I think the compression lock is better.

Only bummer is the FRN handle but I guess for the price it's impossible to complain.
 
jedy617 said:
Haha not your fault, a lot of people don't know about the carbon fiber front scale version, makes it harder to recognize compared to a plain Ti one

They are meant to be beaten to hell and back and be the ultimate work knife though! CRK has good warranty and spa services as well!

What do you think about it? Personally for the money these days they are a tad overrated. Still great knives though. I much prefer mine with a little bit less lockbar tension, and after polishing the washers on a strop.
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If it was a flat ground blade I would say yes,but I can't see beating on a hollow ground blade.
 
RRLOVER said:
If it was a flat ground blade I would say yes,but I can't see beating on a hollow ground blade.
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I don't get why the grind would make much of a difference for durability, especially since they aren't super thin behind the edge, have decent stock thickness, and magnacut is tough. Sebenza means to work in zulu, that's why they gave it that name. Hell, I baton with my sebenza and do a lot of stabbing stuff with the tanto tip lol. But it's your knife, I get wanting to keep something more expensive prisitne

Edit: Watch this, and remember Magnacut is tougher than the steel used in this 21:
 
any scenario for which a sebenza wont cut it you want a fixed blade in something like 3V or M4. as it happens, small 3V fixed blades are my actual favorite fixed blades but people are weird about them.

theyre meant to be used. Ive used mine for years. JMO
 
jedy617 said:
Yeah regrind is essential on the para series.
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Are you regrinding yourself or sending it off somewhere?

tcmx3 said:
I also prefer the backlock to the compression lock even though on paper I think the compression lock is better.

Only bummer is the FRN handle but I guess for the price it's impossible to complain.
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100% agree on back lock. I don't like liner locks as I'm often one handed closing when using at work/in the field. FRN feels cheap at first but they've grown on me. Never broken one, and use the butt to pop beer bottles.
 
there are liner/frame locks which are easier to close one handed but back/triad locks and even better button locks (not those stupid axis ones but actual button locks like protech) are just inherently advantaged for uses where you wont have full fine motor e.g. gloves, one handed, etc.
 
SwampDonkey said:
Are you regrinding yourself or sending it off somewhere?


100% agree on back lock. I don't like liner locks as I'm often one handed closing when using at work/in the field. FRN feels cheap at first but they've grown on me. Never broken one, and use the butt to pop beer bottles.
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Nah I'm not a knifemaker. That one was done by AW.bladeworks. my friend transparent knives used to do a lot of regrinds before focusing on his own stuff. A lot of knife makers have their books closed right now for regrinds. Id try bgmknives. Very affordable, books usually open. He did a great job on a protech for me
 
jedy617 said:
Nah I'm not a knifemaker. That one was done by AW.bladeworks. my friend transparent knives used to do a lot of regrinds before focusing on his own stuff. A lot of knife makers have their books closed right now for regrinds. Id try bgmknives. Very affordable, books usually open. He did a great job on a protech for me
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Idk if knife modders are doing any. But maybe them
 
jedy617 said:
Don't remember if they do regrinds, I know they do stuff like mirror polishing etc and they are making their own knives. But yeah they do great work
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I lindy has a video showing her doing a regrind on one.

I was under the impression when they polished they reground before also. But idk that was an assumption.
 
Always thinned own knives don't really care how good they look as long as they cut good. Old habit from working in kitchens for many decades.

I screwed up using my Para 2 M4 steel. Every week hiking. One week cut apple & some small thin branches that fell across trail. Probably wiped blade on sweaty t shirt. I clean out my small backpack after hiking forgot Para 2 in small pocket for two weeks got surface corrosion on it. Sanded most off since I knock shoulders off V bevel on flat grind spyderco's decided to thin M4 para2. My 10 year old S30V have thinned several times over the years. Still going strong.
Old Beater
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PARA 2 M4
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Keithpaints said:
Always thinned own knives don't really care how good they look as long as they cut good. Old habit from working in kitchens for many decades.

I screwed up using my Para 2 M4 steel. Every week hiking. One week cut apple & some small thin branches that fell across trail. Probably wiped blade on sweaty t shirt. I clean out my small backpack after hiking forgot Para 2 in small pocket for two weeks got surface corrosion on it. Sanded most off since I knock shoulders off V bevel on flat grind spyderco's decided to thin M4 para2. My 10 year old S30V have thinned several times over the years. Still going strong.
Old Beater
View attachment 288014
PARA 2 M4View attachment 288015View attachment 288013
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I got some Cl2 on mine and it was only on it for a day ...It pitted pretty deep!!!!...So my Para like yours doesn't go to work with me anymore.
 
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