CRKT Cottidae

Workingsloth777

Workingsloth777

Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
306
image.jpg So over the past few years I have pretty much fallen out of love with CRKT due entirely to disappointment of seeing great design ruined by crappy build quality/materials..... with that being said.... I was recently at my local knife shop and handled this knife....
Design is... well it’s a voxnaes so it’s amazing, D2 steel (a big step up from the 8cr stuff I’ve been seeing from them) and to top it off the gen 2 field strip tech is awesome! So much better than the gen 1 and the over all build quality feels a little better than what I’m used to from CRKT...

I’m still not entirely back on the CRKT band wagon (the bevel is a little uneven by the way) but I’m certainly going to be paying better attention to what they release.

So I’m basically throwing out that metaphorical fishing line for thoughts here :)

Thx,
Sloth
 
Workingsloth777 said:
View attachment 1513514 So over the past few years I have pretty much fallen out of love with CRKT due entirely to disappointment of seeing great design ruined by crappy build quality/materials..... with that being said.... I was recently at my local knife shop and handled this knife....
Design is... well it’s a voxnaes so it’s amazing, D2 steel (a big step up from the 8cr stuff I’ve been seeing from them) and to top it off the gen 2 field strip tech is awesome! So much better than the gen 1 and the over all build quality feels a little better than what I’m used to from CRKT...

I’m still not entirely back on the CRKT band wagon (the bevel is a little uneven by the way) but I’m certainly going to be paying better attention to what they release.

So I’m basically throwing out that metaphorical fishing line for thoughts here :)

Thx,
Sloth
Click to expand...
Yeah ! I completely understand this . ;)

I also keep getting suckered in by CRKT's cool designs , even with their , at best , hit or miss production values . :oops: :p
 
tiguy7 said:
View attachment 1513950 Try the Titanium Homefront (M-390 steel).
Click to expand...
I’ve heard some great things about it but never really pulled the trigger.....

It was much easier with the cottidae seeing as it’s much more affordable but I really dig the home front none the less. Ken onion designs some pretty awesome knives and he seems to be a pretty cool cat himself.
 
DocJD said:
Yeah ! I completely understand this . ;)

I also keep getting suckered in by CRKT's cool designs , even with their , at best , hit or miss production values . :oops: :p
Click to expand...
Yes, it’s very disappointing.... Frankly I’m amazed that the skilled designers they work with don’t
Just place those designs in some better hands.

So I’m really glad to see knives like the cottidae or the home front mentioned above, because a change is desperately needed over at CRKT and it seems to be underway.... to me at least.
 
As a self-appointed CRKT advocate, I guess I should weigh in.

My experience (20+ knives over the years) is that one out of every ten knives you buy from them will not get even satisfactorily sharp. I'm not talking about mirror edges, either. I'm talking about 220 grit is the best you get.

Now, I have bad luck with everything from knives to toasters, so if there's a defective one, it's going to end up at my door. My Large Batum, and both of my M1s, would shave hair with a little patience and some quiet words of encouragement, which tells me CRKT can get it right. It just seems like it's a matter of luck rather than investment on their part. I've never had one which was objectively bad, just a couple that were disappointing.

That seems to be the entire story of CRKT, when you think about it: "not bad, just disappointing". They get great designers (I love me some Voxnaes!), interesting concepts, their build quality is consistent, but somehow they never manage to get a handle on all the details. It's as if they do all the design and prototype work in house, but then all the production gets farmed out, and the finished products are shipped directly to dealers, without any further intervention by Columbia River's home staff.

I'm still a fan of their knives, and I will still buy something if it interests me. But my enthusiasm for their collaborations and my nostalgia for CRKT (they were my first step up from Mtech and the like) are tempered by the fact that I don't really know what I'm buying.
 
I love my Cottidae! D2, 2.6”, alum handles, field strip 2, perfect!
 
For whatever reason, CRKT has never appealed to me. Just something about the bill boarding instantly turns me off to their designs.

As for quality, my philosophy is that I’d rather have one nicer knife that I take joy in than a few cheaper offerings that just don’t do it as well.

I mean, they’re getting up there in price now with some of their stuff, (and tell “cheap” to a Xoc) but I just get the cheap feeling from them.

I’ve also had too many people tell me that CRKT stuff just isn’t so hot.

Oh, and one of the Homefronts I handled in a knife store just kinda fell apart on me. And not in the right way.
 
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