Ken is the author of two books, including the forthcoming title Striving For Honor--An Intimate Look At The Philosophy and Products of Spyderco.
One of the marks of the knife enthusiast is knowledge of lore about cutlery and its makers. Chris Reeve, a South African maker who migrated to Idaho about nine years ago, has added to that lore the Zulu tribe's term for "work":Sebenza. The knife that bears this name lives up to it.
But even if Chris hadn't invested his knife with any South African heritage, and had merely called it the Reeve Folder, it still would have several entries in the lore. Before we examine the knife, however, let's introduce its designer and maker.
Two elements of Chris Reeve's background prepared him well for his current role as purveyor of unique highend cutting tools. First is his training as a tool and die maker, followed by a thirteenyear stint honing his skills working for a householdappliance manufacturer in Pinetown, near Durban. It was in 1975, during his second year of apprenticeship, when--as the lowestpaid employee in the company--he prepared to go on military service near the Angola border: too poor to buy the only good knife available, a Puma at $60, he decided to make his own: it had a stick tang and a wooden handle. During the next couple of years he made another similar knife, but both it and the original lost their handles due to shrinking.
During the following two years Chris became attracted by the onepiece models made by Ted Dowell and Jimmy Lile. In 1981 he made his own version of this style, which led to his line of onepiece knives that gained him notice as far away as the U.S. Before long Chris was selling knives here and exhibiting at shows.
A second influence was at work in this latter period that would markedly affect Chris' approach to the business of design: involvement in racing grandprixstyle motorcycles. Here he learned the need to make instantaneous right decisions, the need to maintain one's equipment, and also to get smart in a hurry or else lose sponsorship. We see these lessons learned in Chris' obsession with quality and precision which has led to everlowering tolerances and evercloser fit that customers appreciate immediately upon handling his knives.
Chris Reeve basically has only two types of knife on the market, but they are so good that he has created his own niche. About ten years ago he decided to design a folder, and in so doing improved on the linerlock by integrating the liner and the scale into onepiece, considerably strengthening the mechanism and making it almost undefeatable. But this was only one improvement this perfectionist made
First Impressions
The most striking impression of the Sebenza is the passion for excellence, precision and fit it exhibits in every aspect. No facet or angle has been overlooked or left to chance in this clean, effective design. Even the box it comes in is practical and nononsense.
Some people would say the Sebenza is overbuilt. At 4 3/4" closed and 4.5 ounces in weight, it's ready for work, but you can opt for the smaller (4inch, 3ounce) version if you plan to carry it in a business suit.
Handle and Integral Lock
Made from two heftybutlight slabs of sandblasted 6AL4V titanium, the handle seems large enough for any hand, yet is only 4.75" long. Its most remarkable feature is its integral lock, which is created by machining two relief areas in the handle to make the material bendable, then by drilling a pilot hole and cutting out the lock shape. Next the lock is bent to give it a closing bias which can be overcome by thumb pressure. Titanium will "remember" this bias without being heat treated. Because lefthand models are also made, both scales receive a pilot hole.
As the blade is locked, the movement of the integral lock creates a narrowing of the handle that functions effectively as expansion, providing a surface to keep the hand from sliding forward, in addition to the ribbed gripping areas machined into the titanium.
Liner locks function by blocking the blade from moving at three points: the pivot, the face of the lock, and the stop pin. This forms a triangle, an inherently strong shape. To eliminate pointloading at the stop pin, the mating portion of the blade is ground concave.
Chris bead blasts the surface of the handles for enhanced grip. No additional pattern is required. It simply works.
Clothing Clip
A useful clip is provided for attachment to clothing, typically the edge of the pocket, keeping both weight and bulk away from the bottom of the pocket. Chris furnishes each Sebenza with an attached lanyard that's knotted into something like a watch fob (actually it's just tied in a simple hangman's noose). Tugging on it is a good way to start the knife out of the pocket.
Blade
The blade, and more specifically the edge, is the only part of any knife the user really wants--all the rest is just baggage that we need to support the edge--and Chris excels here. He recently turned away from ATS34, which he'd used for some years on the Sebenza, and adopted BG42, a martensitic, ultraclean vanadium stainless from Latrobe Steel, a subsidiary of Timken, that is primarily used to make turbine bearings for jet engines--a high temperature, dirty working environment.
|
Alloy Analysis
of BG42
Steel
|
| Element | % |
| Carbon | 1.15 |
| Chromium | 14.5 |
| Vanadium | 1.2 |
| Molybdenum | 4.0 |
| Manganese | 0.5 |
| Silicon | 0.3 |
Chris heat treats the blades to a very hard Rc 6162, because he wants the edge to cut for a long time. For toughness, Chris tripledraws the blades, and claims that BG42 is just as tough at Rc 6162 as ATS34 is at Rc 5758.
Now that we've broached the subject of the edge, let's talk about the Sebenza's edge bevel, one of its most delightful aspects. Even the photograph shows that this blade is ground to cut easily: the narrow (1618°) bevel flows easily into the high hollow grind with little shoulder to get in the way of cutting.
You have to be very confident in your steel to grind such a narrow bevel, and Chris has good reason to be. One can walk the aisles at knife shows without seeing any edges like this one. However good the Sebenza may feel in the hand, the full pleasure of use doesn't begin until one starts cutting with it, so let's move to the
It's difficult to report anything less than excellent in using the Sebenza. I'll start with the single inconvenient feature I discovered: due to the construction of certain pants pockets, some may have an inside seam which will snag the Sebenza's thumb stud and start the blade opening prematurely on its way out of the pocket. Chris told me this is caused by machining one groove too many in the stud, and that a number of the original Sebenzas got out the door with that problem. Owners of these Sebenzas should have a new stud fitted by returning such knives.
Having said that, I can state that in every other respect the Sebenza was a joy to carry and use. The feeling of precision and competence that this knife imparts is uncanny; what's more, others want to hold and admire it as well! People derive obvious tactile pleasure from simply operating the silkysmooth action, made possible by an oversized pivot bearing and unusuallyclose tolerances throughout the mechanism. In addition it can be fully stripped for cleaning with a supplied Allen wrench.
I interpreted its name ("work") to mean ordinary chores, not tasks appropriate to larger fixed knives or hatchets, so my tests approached from both the small and large ends of the spectrum. Remembering that I was testing suitability, not ultimate strength, and not just brawn but delicacy and maneuverability, my first test was in preparing a meal: here the Sebenza proved itself capable of both subtlety and efficiency, thanks to its sweeping, ultrasharp edge. I was pleasantly surprised to find that its tumbled finish doesn't attract food to stick to it.
The point is nicely shaped--and quite sharp enough, thank you Chris--to cut sewnon tags off garments, and to help remove small wood splinters from my fingers. I whittled away effectively on an old redwood board until I became bored with it. The Sebenza's narrow edge bevel made cutting any kind of paper, including my favorite comic strips out of the newspaper, actually fun instead of a pain; it was tempting to find more and more things to cut! Chris Reeve supplies this knife sharp--the kind of an edge many of us would gladly pay a professional good money to create. The only knives I've handled that are sharper than Chris' are Bill Moran's.
Another part of everyday work is opening and disposing of cardboard boxes, a task which will quickly dull most knives. I had just received a heavy book order in an especially tough packing carton, and I made about a hundred cuts
by simply pushing the blade down through this material--not by sawing back and forth: Other than having to stop twice to remove glue from the blade, the edge showed little effect and would, I'm certain, have gone through a few more such boxes had they been available. After this the edge would no longer pop hair, so I honed the narrow bevel on a Spyderco Galley "V" sharpener (about 15° angle). About 25 light passes brought the edge back close to the out of the box keenness. You could use the TriAngle Sharpmaker (about 22°) as well on the Sebenza, but it would create a secondary, wider bevel; this could be reserved for heavyduty work.
Although I had no way to test this realistically, the Sebenza has an inline point that is easy to thrust in a tactical situation.
Like some of the Japanese auto makers, Chris introduces an improvement when he has researched it, rather than waiting to offer a new model. Thus the "new" Sebenza's most important change, BG42 blade steel, was actually begun on the "old" Sebenza. The rest of the new features followed shortly thereafter: additional gripping surfaces on the handle, and a slightly shorter blade (1/16") and handle (1/10"). At least five other subtle improvements are evident on close inspection.
Let's say you buy a Sebenza. It's at its performance peak right out of the box: no deshouldering of the edge bevel is required to get it to cut like a dream. You might wonder, "Would I ever really use this knife?" Go right ahead: Chris Reeve offers to recondition it at any time for less than 5% of the retail price. And he's not going to stop improving--reducing tolerances, improving materials, tooling and repeatability--so his competitors had better get a move on if they expect to catch him.
Overall: a robust, efficient knife with the tolerances and fit of a fine Swiss watch; one of a very few that don't have to be reworked to achieve a great edge bevel.
| Specifications - Chris Reeve Sebenza |
| Large Model | Small Model |
| Blade Material | 1/8" BG42 Stainless, Rc 6162 |
| Handle Material | 0.150" 6AL4V Titanium, sandblasted |
| Handle Length | 4 3/4" | 4" |
| Blade Length | 3.5" | 2 7/8" |
| Weight | 4.5 oz. | 3 oz. |