Columbia River Knife & Tool

[Voodoochild]

Anyone have any experience with these knives? Looking to add one to my collection.

[EDinFL]

I have a M21-04 I carry everyday, no problems with it so far, opens with a flick of the finger,built pretty solid, locks securly when opened.

[LOKNLOD]

I've carried an M16-12M for a while now. It's been a very good knife, and has held up really well. My only caution is that the aggressive checkering on it has eaten holes in all my jeans.

[AMMOTECH]

Been using a CRKT M1 for a couple of years now; great knife.

http://www.knifesite.com/photos/CRM1-13K-2T.jpg

http://www.knifesite.com/CRKT-M1-Lightfoot-M1-13K-Zytel-Handle-ComboEdge-p/crm1-13k.htm

[shark31]

For the price, they are OK. I had a M16 shit the bed on me in the sandbox.

[Dave L.]

I would never carry one as my primary knife. I only buy 3 brands: Strider, Emerson, and Benchmade (automatic)s. You can get a cheap Benchmade for the same price as a "high-end" CRKT.

A knife is a cutting tool, get one that's strong and holds and edge.

[SethB]

A knife maker named Jim Burke told me that these are the best knife for under 100 dollars. Jim makes very large folders. His exact words were "it ain't a knife 'less you can cut your way out of an airplane with it."

I like mine. The clip fell off, but they will evidently replace it for free. Mine is an M1-13K.

[rhino]

Anyone have any experience with these knives? Looking to add one to my collection.

I have several and they are all good knives.

CRKT is a company like Benchmade that has a range of price points with materials and construction that match. They have low end knives that are good values, and they have stuff in the medium price range that well exceed what you'd expect for the money.

One of the multiple knives I carry every day is the M21. It's one of the several designs by Kit Carson (like the M16) that is just a superbly designed tool. It's plenty strong where it needs to be, has a redundant lock in case the liner lock fails (which can happen with any liner lock, regardless of who made it), and the design of the blade is excellent.

The blade is fairly thick at the spine for strength, but it's also relatively wide so that the edge can be thin for better slicing and push cutting. It combines both a drop point (very useful) with a modest recurve, the latter of which gives better slicing ability and give a tiny bit more useful edge for given length of blade.

Another key feature to CRKT is that their heat treatments are excellent and you can expect the knife you get to have the same heat treatment as the one your buddy gets. My favorite stain resistant steel for knives is AUS8A (which is used in the M21 and SOME of the M16s) and CRKT is one of the companies that does a really good job with it. It won't hold an edge as long as some of the pricier steels like CPM S30V, but you can get it just as sharp (not always true with other steels) and it's easier to sharpen once it gets dull. If you're not at home with your sharpening tools, that could be an issue.

You just have to make sure you select a model (including the materials from which it is made) that meets your needs. If you do that, you'll be happy with your purchase and probably get more knife than the pricetag shows.

Again, if you want to learn a lot more about knives, their use, and construction, register at www.bladeforums.com and poke around for a while. It's unlikely that you won't find at least one discussion (or even an entire forum) for the brand and model of your interest.

[LOKNLOD]

I had a M16 shit the bed on me in the sandbox.

In what way did it fail?

[shark31]

The screw that controls the tension fell out during a LONG movement to contact.

[El Cid]

A coworker brought me his CRKT folder to look at because it closed on his fingers. It is one of the M16 "Special Forces" models. When I looked at it the liner lock was not properly engaging and under moderate pressure, popped out of the way letting the blade close. It does have a secondary lock that I told him to use (while he finds a better knife to replace it). No idea how long he's had the knife.