🚨CRK HOT 🔥 TAKE ALERT 🚨

So today I had some free time so I decided to cut down my massive pile of cardboard boxes in the garage. It was filled with those double walled cardboard boxes for furniture and big items so not the easy kind to cut through. This Inkosi has been with me for about a year and I haven’t cut much heavy duty stuff with it, just the occasional amazon package or maybe a few sheets of cardboard, nothing crazy. I was reluctant to use it for this heavy job, I didn’t know how it would perform or endure the abuse. I had to cut through 20 MASSIVE cardboard boxes taller than me, all double walled, so not the fun kind. I could’ve used a box cutter but I reluctantly decided I’d use the CRK.

The Inkosi was incredible. No lock failures or anything like that, I stropped the s45vn blade on the cardboard I was cutting a couple times to get it a little sharper, and had no issues. What surprised me the most was how locked in the finger grooves made my hand feel, the knife was secure in my hand at all times even with thick gloves. The shape of the blade was perfect and predictable, and the hollow grind kept slicing despite being gunked up with tape. Any thinner and I would’ve been scared to chip or break the tip of the blade, any thicker and I would’ve had a very hard time cutting through the cardboard.

That’s when I realized something that may be a hot take. To all the people wondering why CRKs are touted so much, despite their simple design and construction, trying to justify the price point in comparison to other similarly priced knives, hear me out. What I can say, is that CRKs, namely the inkosi, are so well built they feel like fixed blades when they’re used. And I stand by the statement that unlike many other knives, you can often appreciate a CRK truly for what it is, after you put it through its paces and cut with it. These knives only get better with time. I’m not saying safe Queen vs user or whatever, I’m just saying CRK are knives that you’ll appreciate even more with time and use. The simple action on them gets more and more buttery with each deployment, and even if there’s dirt packed into the grease, it feels smooth! I think the Inkosi is great for these types of tasks because the thinner Seb blade isn’t very confidence inspiring for these kinds of tasks (even though I love my small Seb for smaller tasks), and the Zaan doesn’t really have great ergos (had 2 Zaans, they look better than they perform in my opinion).

Using a CRK, cleaning the simple design, sharpening the elegant drop point blade, these are all things that make me love it more with time.

So to the CRK guys who are new to the CRK world just like how I was a few years ago, I urge you to take that step and use your knife. Put those scratches on there, cut through that cardboard, it can take the abuse. At the end of the day, every mark and scratch you put on there only makes it more uniquely yours. If that’s not your vibe, that’s completely fine, we all have different mottos in this cool hobby.

Cheers knaf bros!

by PHANTOMX0071