Not only can you pass your Chris Reeve knife down to your children, you can also pass your Chris Reeve knife order down to your grandchildren! Thank You for an inside look to your current challenges. Hang in there.
I have 17 of your knives - there are no other knives that compare, no other knives I care about and I simply love your products! I am thrilled that your orders are so robust, even more thrilled that my favorite knife maker is beyond healthy and strong! Love you guys!!!!
I wondered for years what the big deal was with CRK and why so many people were obsessed with them and paid those prices. I just bought my first one a few weeks ago when a bunch of retailers got their resupplies of the main bread and butter models. I grabbed a large Inkosi with Magnacut insingo blade because that’s the model I’ve always loved the looks of and I’ve always wanted to try Magnacut. I can say that I now see what the fuss is about and am sooooooo in love with this knife!!! It’s one of those things where you have to get one and feel it in hand and just stare at it for hours and see just how finely made they are. Now I’m already on the lookout for my next CRK. I am keeping my eyes peeked for a drop point Zaan to come in stock. They pop up every now and then.
Thank you Tim . Bought my first one a small Sebenza exactly 10 years ago for a birthday reward. There was a 4 month wait at that time and you guys came through for me . Thanks again for the no bs report. Sending most to the dealers makes the most sense
Wow, that's just crazy with the lead times! I have a dozen Sebenzas and the last one was purchased back in 2018. I remember talking with Alycia back then and I would have my knives in about a few months. I'll tell you this much, I own and carried a bunch of Benchmades, Spydies, Striders, ZTs, etc., and my favorite is my plain Jane Large Sebenza. Excellent knives and well worth it. I especially love the birth cards and have a Sebenza with my daughter's birthday. I remember calling CRK the day she was born. Puts a smile on my face every time I think about it. 😁
Got my small inkosi in 2020 from a dealer and haven't carried another knife since. Love the ergo on the inkosi which is why I picked it over the sebenza. Absolutely lived up to my expectations and everything I'd always heard. It's a simple but extraordinarily reliable knife and I love it to death.
Tim you guys make a great product and with your orders through dealers people will get what they want in time. You look a bit tired, make sure you take care of yourself homie. Keep up the great work. Glad to be a proud owner of a Chris Reeve knife!
In the past month I've purchased 5 blades from you guys. I can't find a better knife that I'd rather have. I have 2 of the same model and I plan to pass the extras down to my son which is 1 year old right now. I'm content with what I'm doing. Hang in there guys! You're doing something big in the community!
Your knives are extremely popular and well made and every time I can purchase one of your knives I do so! I currently own one and I plan on getting many more! 🤩 Also please, as you mentioned, don't ever go down on your quality which you are renowned for at Chris Reeve Knives!! 🥰
Thanks for this very informative video Tim. I got my small sebenza 31 for Christmas last year and just love it. I brought it with me to Blade Show this year and had the honor of showing it to you and telling you how much I loved it and sharing a few words with you during your very busy show, that was a highlight for me. Thanks for everything and keep up the great work!
i guess it’s still reasonable to wait that long for a heigh quality knife. I own the Sebenza 31 and a Umnumzaan. I never bought something that "expensive" before that I enjoyed for so long after purchase. Now I know that it’s worth to wait that long but I also get it if someone who never experienced a CRK isn’t that patient. trust me guys - you will not regret it, even if it takes 10 Years. @Chris Reeve Knifes: keep up the great work! Love you guys - greetings from 🇩🇪
I was SO CLOSE to buying a Magnacut Umnumzaan from DLT. Clicked the restock email from them the minute it went out but had to add some shipping and card info and by the time I clicked order it was already gone. Hopefully I’ll be able to get my hands on one soon.
Thank you for covering this. I placed my initial Pacific order “roughly” a year ago. Looking forward to it regardless. Very very well done lines/design.
Just got my first CRK. A large inkosi in S45VN and I'm extremely happy. I've had many really expensive knives and for some reason this one just does it for me.
I'm a big fan of CRK, would love to see a small umnumzaan one day !! It would also be awesome to see the current umnumzaan brought out in a military style format with black hardware and pocket clip and a cerakote blade finish identical to the Pacific for a full non reflective finish. Anodised hardware would also be extremely popular with the CRK community, possibly in black blue and gold. These are such worthy ways of enhancing the brand and they are very achievable. Either way keep up the great work.
“Just hire more people” - people who don’t understand how difficult scaling even low skill production is. I know you guys are doing all you can to keep quality and service at the level that has made CRK what it is today. Worth the wait for sure.
As a 2nd year machinist apprentice. I must say this is my dream job! Rightnow i run a mazak quick turn nexus 450my. Knives are my passion . Not oil filed mandrels
Waiting is frustrating, as is dealers out of stock……but I’d much rather that than the business be risked on too great expansion, too quickly. Keep it sustainable. That said, have you ever considered a production forecast/calendar with expected dates of availability from dealers; it’d help those on the lookout plan better and be ready when the model they’re looking for becomes available.
Great company staffed by great people. Have a CRK in my pocket every day. Have experienced some of the best customer service from them as well. Knives worth the wait.
The small Macassar wood sebenza 31 was my gateway knife to the upper Echelon of the knife world. Since then I’ve also acquired the large plan inkosi insingo. Definitely worth the wait time because they are lifetime quality tools
I called CRK about 10 days ago inquiring about buying a Sebenza 31 small Insingo, they said they only have 3 knives available and none were the Small Insingo! They said there's around a 4-5 year wait! FOUR to FIVE YEARS. They suggested to check with their "dealer network" Incredible... this was Nov 2023. I got email from KnifeArt and there was a "Exclusive" Small Insingo 31 which is their model exclusively so I bought it. t'll be my last CRK I have five others one large 21 and the rest are small 21's and a lonely small Inkosi which I don't care for probably due to size it just doesn't fit at the finger cut outs, if those finger cutouts didn't have such a pointy edge it'd be ok.
keep it up, love these knives. ive got a *few* crk's. few being more than a couple. anyway, a crk is my go to, whenever I cant decide which knife to carry. the simple, well made elegance is what I love about them. a large sebenza 31, with black micarata is what ive been carrying for the last couple months, and I dont see anything replacing it, except maybe my large inkosi. I live in wa state, near seattle, about 5 or six hours from boise. I pass through there, every year, and I plan on stopping in, in the near future, just to say ive been to Chris Reeve knives.
Been wanting an Inkosi insingo for a few years now. Have multiple dealer email alerts setup. Not a whiff of one in stock. Now your site says a 6.5 year wait to order one? Wow. No doubt they are good knives but that’s ridiculous. Don’t see one of these in my future unless one falls in my lap. Sad.
I love your company's knives and don't have any issues with the recent price increases. One thing that I do take issue with is that I ordered an Umnumzaan when the projected lead time was summer of 2023 and just received an email from the company stating that my knife is now projected to be finished 2-3 years from now. Why were the projected lead times so far off? That adds another year or two to the wait time.
Your position of slower, paced expansion is totally understandable. It sounds like you're well aware that this is a plateau and this level of demand probably will not always be that high. Expand too quickly and next thing you know you're, A) compromising on your quality, and B) eventually having to lay people off. Both are extremely undesirable. Some folks are going to be unhappy with the lack of availability, but that's just how things are at the moment--the scalability for high-quality products that necessitate highly-skilled labor is not something of immediacy.
I’ve run two pallet machines before and a five pallet machine is mind boggling. Wish my family was closer or I would be knocking on your doors asking to play with some of your toys!
Check Sooner Knives in Oklahoma. I just ordered a plain large 31 in Magnacut today, they have several in stock. Life is wayy too short to wait 4 to 6 years for a productiin knife. Custom? Yes...Production? No way...
Im most surprised that the top 2 items are the smalls… those are almost always available at online dealers. I would have bet Umnumzaan and Mnandi are the most ordered because least available
Really glad your demand has grown but it sure screws me. Can’t find a sebenza anywhere. I just went on a hunting trip and believe mine got pushed out of my pocket as I was putting on a climbing harness. I was crushed to lose that knife and even more crushed I can’t replace it anytime soon
Six year wait now for a Mnundi. And I can’t find an international stockist anywhere in the world that will ship to the UK. Plus you only have one stockist in the whole of the UK. That’s a long wait…
I don’t know why I decided to get into knives at the worst possible time in history. Earlier this year I really, really got into knives, and I can barely get one single one that I want
Tim, the increased demand that you and other companies are experiencing right now might simply be the Forrester effect (aka bullwhip effect). Take care!
Y’all are doing the right things I love that I can still buy a sebenza I had a spyderco slysz bowie and I shoulda kept it I want another one but I can’t just buy one You can say x y z is better but where can you get them still? Hyped up aftermarket only. I can find something similar but I don’t want similar to a slysz bowie I want that I also wanted a sebenza Bought one last week
Public Affairs, Budgets, Supply Chains, Staffing, Capital, Growth Risk (current economy),etc... understandable. Six (6) year wait for the Zaan - ordered yesterday.
If you have a 4 year lead time, and you knives are basically all sold out with you dealers. Tim, it's time to expand production. Bottom line. If you don't know how, hire a consultant. Fear is holding you back here.
Hello! Thanks for the feedback. In short, we are expanding. Hiring in a market where there are more jobs than people; bringing in machining centers that are backordered 6-9 months minimum; waiting for more square footage to open up, planning for inflation and shortages: these are all things that are not impossible; they just take time. We also know that the market could change over night. Demand could diminish. For now, we're growing as logically as possible and we're so thankful for the many people who continue to support our brand. As for growth: so far this year, we've acquired 7800 more square feet. We've added to our mill shop and have more machines on the way. We're investing in a remarkable staff. We're growing steadily. Thanks for your support!
@@chrisreeveknives7828 Thank you for taking time to answer. I own 4 CRKs currently and have had multiple others over time. I'm also left handed, and appreciate that your company didn't cop out, just ignore us, and leave us out of your production line because we're not cookie cutter. Rather you chose to produce hand tools (knives) for your entire potential customer base's hands. Bottom line, I've been and will remain a customer. Can't wait for the future line of LH Sebenza 31 Insingos.
I know you have the 4 year wait … but do you ever think of designing a flipper version of your knifes? I know that’s outside your wheelhouse, but just wondering if you think of new models like that?
Large surface contact area washers with ridiculously awesome tolerances do not make for a fast flippity dippity flipper. Your kind of missing the point of the whole design and function. If CRK knives were just another fast action ball bearing knife they’d just not be what makes them so awesome for the people that enjoy them as they are. I have, appreciate, use all kinds of knives. Fast, slow, in between... but nothing else is a Chris Reeve Knife. Not even close.
Man that's crazy! When I saw that a umnumzaan's wait is 6 years I wanted to throw up! That's my grail knife and can't find one Anywhere!!! Sad but happy for you guys!
These people have chosen not to honor existing orders and the price agreed to in those orders by upping their prices AFTER a lower price had already been accepted. They are hiding behind inflation as an excuse, but if the previous prices were unsustainable then they shouldn't have been offered and agreed upon during order placement. There are countless knife makers that don't participate in this type of disgusting behavior. Don't reward this behavior by giving them your business.
The “other foot” is going to drop, ha? 😂 I think you guys are simply manufacturing demand by crimping supply. Congrats on taking a page out of Rolex’s book.
Really wish there was a store for buying used knives so we outside the Us could buy some knives. I've bought knives from all over the world,but americans just refuse to ship outside the Us...too much reading & writing involved i guess.
Don’t worry about what people say to you guys your knives speak for them selves and no matter what!!!! People support and love you Ps I know this is a year ago but I thought it was worth saying
7 years it'll be shut down. Y'all have forgotten where you came from and what truly matters. And all I hear from your ass is "can't, won't, don't, never, refuse to,and so on!...so keep this mindset up and see what I said come to life. Already your employee turnover rate is unacceptable.
