CFK Knife update and company history

Probably a somewhat controversial place for my first post here, but have been lurking extensively and made an account entirely to attempt to find druid's review of this knife before the one I ordered arrived.

Won the auction for a "D2" tanto roughly 8 inches long for camp use may 7th (thursday) and it was in my mailbox may 9th (saturday) Shipping and order processing gets a solid 10/10

Finish of the knife, Everything lines up, solid, no gaps or any other issues I can find, I'll deburr the lanyard hole on my own, all pins perfectly smoothed over no edge between handle and tang. Edge grinding was about a 5/10 the stock edge while quite sharp was less than impressive, somewhat uneven but there were no huge issues with it some time on the stones didn't fix.

The steel, I don't have a ton of knives laying around, I have a few kershaws, recently lost my beloved leek so I couldn't test against that, my benchmade is D2 and the benchmade will scratch the steel of the CFK knife, the CFK knife will not scratch the benchmade. The 420HC of the kershaws can be scratched by the CFK, the kershaws cannot scratch the CFK. A pair of Klein scissors I have are rated at 56 HRC, the scissors can easily be scratched by the CFK.

Based on the benchmade being rated at 61-62 HRC and the other testing I'd guesstimate the blade on this knife is right around 57-58 HRC.

I'm not entirely convinced the blade on this really is D2, but I was quite impressed with what I put it through on my 2 day camping trip, the only thing that dinged the blade was cutting meat on the grill, which also put a slightly smaller ding in the benchmade.

Another interesting note, it took FOREVER to get a final edge on my king stone with it, the steel cut nicely on the diamond stones, but it took me roughly 2 hours on the king stones to get the edge where I wanted it, much tougher than most stainless I've come across
 
Welcome to BF.

"[M]uch tougher than most stainless I've come across"

Faint praise. Most SS knives are junk. Sorta' like, "More honest than most politicians."
 
Thank you, after thinking about it in the shower, I'd assume it's not 420HC, unless CFK has figured out how to make it harder and tougher than kershaw's heat treat, these are the ken onion made in the usa line ones, I'm almost edged into believing they really are made of D2, with a less than optimal heat treat.

Not that it really matters a whole lot, I bought it to be a camp knife I could use to cook or do light chopping with, it held an excellent edge through 2 nights and 3 days of camp, including batoning through a fair amount of fire wood during which it performed better than really any bog standard stainless steel knife I've ever used.
 
pineyjustice said:
Probably a somewhat controversial place for my first post here, but have been lurking extensively and made an account entirely to attempt to find druid's review of this knife before the one I ordered arrived.

Won the auction for a "D2" tanto roughly 8 inches long for camp use may 7th (thursday) and it was in my mailbox may 9th (saturday) Shipping and order processing gets a solid 10/10

Finish of the knife, Everything lines up, solid, no gaps or any other issues I can find, I'll deburr the lanyard hole on my own, all pins perfectly smoothed over no edge between handle and tang. Edge grinding was about a 5/10 the stock edge while quite sharp was less than impressive, somewhat uneven but there were no huge issues with it some time on the stones didn't fix.

The steel, I don't have a ton of knives laying around, I have a few kershaws, recently lost my beloved leek so I couldn't test against that, my benchmade is D2 and the benchmade will scratch the steel of the CFK knife, the CFK knife will not scratch the benchmade. The 420HC of the kershaws can be scratched by the CFK, the kershaws cannot scratch the CFK. A pair of Klein scissors I have are rated at 56 HRC, the scissors can easily be scratched by the CFK.

Based on the benchmade being rated at 61-62 HRC and the other testing I'd guesstimate the blade on this knife is right around 57-58 HRC.

I'm not entirely convinced the blade on this really is D2, but I was quite impressed with what I put it through on my 2 day camping trip, the only thing that dinged the blade was cutting meat on the grill, which also put a slightly smaller ding in the benchmade.

Another interesting note, it took FOREVER to get a final edge on my king stone with it, the steel cut nicely on the diamond stones, but it took me roughly 2 hours on the king stones to get the edge where I wanted it, much tougher than most stainless I've come across
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Is it getting a patina from cutting meat/fruit etc? If not...then it's not D2.

D2 has some corrosion resistance....but not great and will turn colours when coming in contact with meat juices/fruit acids etc.
 
It's amazing we've come this far and we still don't know about CFK's knife steel. From what I've read D2 is air cooled and doesn't have the chromium content that stainless has. And it seems like I read something about about CFK admitting that they used a special concoction of D2 that better resists corrosion. If that's true, that steel is no longer D2.

But if it can be shown that the knives are a type of stainless steel and not D2, what happens then? Can they be sued? How many here who have bought their knives would want their money back? Also, have any of you with CFK knives found that they're difficult to sharpen with ceramic sharpeners? I use a SharpMaker sharpener and find them a pain to put a decent edge on.
 
pineyjustice said:
Not that it really matters a whole lot, I bought it to be a camp knife I could use to cook or do light chopping with, it held an excellent edge through 2 nights and 3 days of camp, including batoning through a fair amount of fire wood during which it performed better than really any bog standard stainless steel knife I've ever used.
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I guess some would argue that the steel is usable and serviceable so it is all good. Mine hold an edge long enough to chop and cut what I want. They do even better with a convex edge put on with a Work Sharp or similar belt system.

My outlook is that nothing is good, because they are Pakistani knives with mystery steel and all the origin and manufacturing stories from the company are BS.
 
I don't know what all the negative fuss over the CFK km8ves are all about but OMG...Who freaking cares where they are made or who made them? Bottom line is if they are high quality knives made with high quality steel...And folks can save a few dollars by buying them, and as long as they aren't thieves and stealing others' designs, and actually Delivering knives to folks instead of making someone wait 3 years all for Nothing...Then I would say they are way ahead of the game and better than some bs knifemakers.

I happen to own about 4 knives from CFK...used to have 5 but gave one as a gift...And I've been very happy with every one of them that I bought!!

It does not matter if the guy's named Jason, Joe, James, or Sue...Ohhhh wait...Sue? That's a song ain't it? Lol!!

Anyway, none of that matters. What matters are customers!! And I would say that CFK has an Excellent Customer Rating...I am definitely One Of them!!

I just recently got a huge awesome handmade Bushcraft style knife from CFK...No IPAK name or anything...Just their squared AR-15 logo...I think it's an AR- 15! And that is one serious badass knife and takes and holds an edge like Nobody's Bizz!!

I stand fully behind the CFK knives!! If you have not owned or used one, then I don't understand your judgment against them...or any knifemaker for that matter!!
In a few mins I will be back to post pics of my massive quality CFK beast!
 
20160611_153332_zps5r9uer0z.jpg
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There it is!!! PIC of my handmade Bushcraft CFK knife!!
 
As if things couldn't get any stranger with this thread and CFK.

From here:
CFK Knives said:
CFK's knife steel is not from Pakistan, India, or China. I think our competitors really want us to give up our private sources and knife making process, so that they can go and do the same. I have started to see Buck and other brands offering D2, aluminum rod pin handles, exotic wood, etc... since we began and they are now "copying" CFK. Nice having the big boys following suite of the little guy, CFK.
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So now J. Baker (Mr. CFK) has the illusion he has made such an impression on Buck Knives that they are in some way following his trend.

But J. Baker hasn't forgotten some here at BladeForums.

Same place:
CFK Knives said:
I also tip my hat to the 10-15 CFK terrorists over at BF.

J. Baker
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Buck Knives are not even made in the USA anymore. Just like Old Timer and Gerber, they became sellouts too, and moved their production Overseas!!

And like those others, Buck Knives, which was an all-American boy/man household favorite, became household lackluster knives!!

Ya gotta love that awesome trade...Trading high quality for lazy, incompetent, non-knowledge lower paid workers and wages!!
 
May we assume your facts about CFK are as accurate as your facts about Buck?
TAKE A TOUR
Come by and see how Buck Knives are made. We offer tours year-round, free of charge Monday through Thursday at 10:00 a.m., 12:15 pm, and 2:00 p.m.
Tours last about 45 minutes. Fully closed shoes are a must (closed toe and heel). It is a knife factory, after all. Children seven-years-old and up are welcome. Please call ahead for a reservation, 800-326-2825 x172.

We are located at 660 S. Lochsa St. in Post Falls, Idaho (between Spokane and Coeur D' Alene). Take I-90 to Exit 2 (Pleasant View Road), go south to Lochsa, turn right and follow Lochsa to the plant. Visitor parking is available.
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Again, as one cannot see heat treatment, one must rely on the integrity of the maker. Here the maker is, at best, a secret, and more likely we are being lied to about where the knives are made and of what material. Oh that's right, D2 forged for hours by expert UK/German makers.
 
thedemonbeast said:
Buck Knives are not even made in the USA anymore. Just like Old Timer and Gerber, they became sellouts too, and moved their production Overseas!!

And like those others, Buck Knives, which was an all-American boy/man household favorite, became household lackluster knives!!

Ya gotta love that awesome trade...Trading high quality for lazy, incompetent, non-knowledge lower paid workers and wages!!
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In one post you ask who cares where CFK knives are made as long as they work well, yet you follow that up with a post about how other companies have sold out and moved overseas with production... What happened to who cares as long as they work?
Look, I don't care if they are Zues' gift to Perseus the owner has lied time and again as to where they are made. ON THIS THREAD, BTW. Buck is a proven company that has been around and trusted. This guy can't answer the most basic questions of steel source. That is why I won't buy. Feel free to tote his wares, but don't sit there and sling crap at proven trusted companies.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
 
wesmanthetiger said:
In one post you ask who cares where CFK knives are made as long as they work well, yet you follow that up with a post about how other companies have sold out and moved overseas with production... What happened to who cares as long as they work?
Look, I don't care if they are Zues' gift to Perseus the owner has lied time and again as to where they are made. ON THIS THREAD, BTW. Buck is a proven company that has been around and trusted. This guy can't answer the most basic questions of steel source. That is why I won't buy. Feel free to tote his wares, but don't sit there and sling crap at proven trusted companies.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
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Correction: Once- proven companies!! And I can say whatever I want to on here. Anything that I want to say, I can say!

If Buck Knives are so good then why did so many people who bought the Buckmaster 184 back in the day...end up with broken tips on it, or chipped or broken serrations?

That is all the drama that I am going to involve myself with here. I said what I wanted to say.

Ohh, one more thing...As far as "wearing the chunk of CFK knives around," you obviously don't know me that well! And I am sure glad of that!!!
 
That's a very awkward looking bushcraft knife. Do they not know what the intended uses are in the Pakistan factory?
 
Danke42 said:
That's a very awkward looking bushcraft knife. Do they not know what the intended uses are in the Pakistan factory?
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IDK Danke...Couldn't tell ya! Do you know what a bushcraft knife is used for?? Then I am sure it's meant to be used how You would use one!

Do you even Have a bushcraft knife? Do you even have a knife at all? Are you a drama queen? You just come and sit around on forums trolling, looking for drama so you can put your worthless 2 cents in? Or possibly you are a jealous hater...Envy of others?

That's the kinda vibe I'm getting about you anyway!! I Coooluld be wrong but I don't think so.
 
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