Sebenza 31 Lock Rock?!

brownshoe said:
CRK recommends just cleaning washers not removing any metal.
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This is essentially what you’re doing when you break in a new knife. That first couple hundred or thousand openings polishes the washers to perfection. If you’re careful you can speed this along manually. Of course, its easier for crk to just say don’t do it rather than filter out who does it right
 
My brand new Small Sebenza, born in October 21. Is it worth sending it in? Or is this in the range that CRK will say is normal and simply return it?

This is my first CRK and I love the knife. But this is disappointing. I have a table full of sub-$100 knives, and none of them do this.


 
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I'm very sorry for your frustration. I wish I had an answer for you. I'm just wondering if this is luck of the draw or if the lock bar flex is more common among small Sebenzas than large. I've bought two large 31s in about the last month and neither exhibits this trait. Mine were born in September and October
 
matto6 said:
My brand new Small Sebenza, born in October 21. Is it worth sending it in? Or is this in the range that CRK will say is normal and simply return it?

This is my first CRK and I love the knife. But this is disappointing. I have a table full of sub-$100 knives, and none of them do this.


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Wow! That's bad! I guarantee you that thing would go back if it were mine.
 
I was hesitant to add to this thread but having bought both a new Large and Small 31 I have observed the Small exhibits much more flex than the Large. I also compared against a Large regular (not a BG-42 but fairly "vintage" and not used since going in for a Spa), and a small Sebenza 21: the new Small 31 exhibits the most amount of flex, very similar to the video uploaded. After speaking to both the dealer I bought from (whom would not take a return) and to Chris Reeve CS (VERY professional, helpful, and pleasant to deal with) I've decided to keep both. If sent in and deemed within spec they will simply return the knife to you, and I think this amount of flex must be within tolerances as many have reported this. As the Chris Reeve CS rep also advised me, the lock bars are hand tuned so there is slight variation. Many have commented, it's a personal decision and depends on what you can live with. Although the new 31s are still rad, my favourite Chris Reeve knives have been the old Regulars.
 
matto6 said:
My brand new Small Sebenza, born in October 21. Is it worth sending it in? Or is this in the range that CRK will say is normal and simply return it?

This is my first CRK and I love the knife. But this is disappointing. I have a table full of sub-$100 knives, and none of them do this.


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Send it back.

If that is within spec I'm staying far away from any 31..
 
matto6 said:
My brand new Small Sebenza, born in October 21. Is it worth sending it in? Or is this in the range that CRK will say is normal and simply return it?

This is my first CRK and I love the knife. But this is disappointing. I have a table full of sub-$100 knives, and none of them do this.


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What a bummer. I too was quite disappointed also when I received my small 31 and it displayed such bad flex.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I decided not to send mine back and while the lock flex remains, it is not nearly as noticeable after some break in time. Still, this will likely be my last purchase of a CRK.
 
matto6 said:
My brand new Small Sebenza, born in October 21. Is it worth sending it in? Or is this in the range that CRK will say is normal and simply return it?

This is my first CRK and I love the knife. But this is disappointing. I have a table full of sub-$100 knives, and none of them do this.


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I would find that to be unacceptable. It may be safe to use and never cause any problems but that would still bug me to no end.
 
matto6 said:
I mailed this video to CRK asking if I can return it to be fixed. I will report back what they say. They aren't open until Monday so it'll be a few days.
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By any chance, do you have a small 21 to compare it to? When I compare my large 31s to my large 21, I can see that the lock bar scallops are oriented slightly closer to the pivot on the newer knives. I don't know if this is official, but there has been chatter in this thread about tweaked geometry being the cure for the lock rock. I'm wondering if the small 31 features the same change?
 
matto6 said:
My brand new Small Sebenza, born in October 21. Is it worth sending it in? Or is this in the range that CRK will say is normal and simply return it?

This is my first CRK and I love the knife. But this is disappointing. I have a table full of sub-$100 knives, and none of them do this.


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I also have a small sebenza that has this particularity, taken a year ago for Christmas used for about 6 months almost consecutively, in practice in its normal use you will never notice this peculiarity, the use of a knife does not provide this type of evidence.
 
Modernflame said:
By any chance, do you have a small 21 to compare it to? When I compare my large 31s to my large 21, I can see that the lock bar scallops are oriented slightly closer to the pivot on the newer knives. I don't know if this is official, but there has been chatter in this thread about tweaked geometry being the cure for the lock rock. I'm wondering if the small 31 features the same change?
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The small 31 was also updated.
 
Is this issue specific to the small 31? The other angeled pocket clip knives don't seem to do this.
 
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