folders, flipers, automatics...

Although I’ve collected knives for most of my adult life, I didn’t get serious about it until the 1990’s.

That’s when I started to concentrate on tactical folders, with an emphasis on automatics and flippers. Custom made were the rage in those days, as manufacturing had yet to catch up to the kind of precise fittings and finish that were unique to customs back then.  

Those custom knives usually started in the $400. range and went up from there depending on materials used. Stainless Damascus, petrified bone, jeweled art pieces, all competed for shelf space on the connoisseur’s display table. But I never cared about the ornamentation, I was chasing functionality. 

These days, exacting factory tolerances have changed the knife world. Computer guided lasers make for unbeatable fit & finish at prices that are half or a quarter of what their custom counterparts were.

But sometimes, beauty and functionality are simple and hard to improve upon. Lately, my carry preference has been this Chris Reeve titanium beauty. It doesn’t mind salt water or abuse. Reeve was one of the first to introduce a frame lock instead of the liner locks that had been, and still are, so popular.

Liner locks can fail. I used to wrap my open blades in a t-shirt and try to make the locks “fail”, that is, “break” the lock, make it fold. That was possible with even a high-end custom like an all titanium Crawford liner lock I still own. It’s a $500. Knife with an unreliable lock up. Not a good thing if you were in a jam, deployed quickly, and hope to come out of a situation with all five fingers intact.

This Chris Reeve is solid as a rock; the titanium frame wouldn’t fold without being subject to more pressure than any human is capable of producing. It sits well against the body with a flat profile, the titanium is inert, unfazed by salty skin, and the grooves on the scales are deep and sharp edged, perfect for establishing an iron grip. A super hard stainless blade is among the best of the new steels available today.

In many ways, my newer, manufactured knives, hog the spotlight. They’re affordable race cars that deliver both high-end functionality and affordability, with an extreme cool factor.

That said, I’ve been carrying this Chris Reeve beauty for a few weeks now. The frame lock system it employs and the steel used have been copied for years, but this original? 

It’s simply the best at what it does.