I like ray’s design language, and I like MBK, but the sebenza 31 is an objectively finer made knife, with a lock bar insert, and tons of options and better availability, backed by by far the best warranty I have ever used, not to mention it is also made in the US. I can honestly not see a reason to buy this knife besides preferring a quick action or already owning a Seb.
A big Mac costs $18 in California, take a guess how much it costs to pay machinists to run CNC, QC guys, assembly guys. It's a 200 peice minimum for bevel grinding ect. Because these are being made in California is why it costs $400 for everyone to get paid a fair wage. People whine and complain about having to tip servers, and how low the minimum wage is ..."people deserve a living wage" But then refuse to pay the prices necessary because you can get the same of better products made in china specifically because the Chinese workers DONT get paid a "living wage"
Hey knife manufactures? It's 2024, could you possibly start cutting the relief for the lock bar on the inside of the frame? Ya know, where I won't feel it every time I use the knife.
Great review Nick. Everything you said is spot on. I was lucky enough to score a MBK Sea lion. Despite the price to feature drawbacks in comparison to similarly priced overseas knives, there's just some intangible quality to the US made MBKs that give them a certain charm or "soul". You can tell that Sanford, Ray etc. put a lot of love into producing the knife, and that intangible quality is apparent when holding/ flipping/ using it. I thought about selling it a few times, but I know I would regret it. It's a special knife in a sea of mass produced products.
@Nick - thank you for another great review! I'm always grateful for a new Shabazz video! I know your time is precious these days, but I've got my fingers crossed that you'll do a review of the TRM Bulldog! Either way, I hope all's well!
You know..At first I just thought you were a pretentious bastard..a knife Karen..but over time I realize you’re on another level with knives..a aficionado..you tell it how it is..I appreciate that..great video..Thank you for sharing..not that you’ll ever see this comment lol
Nick, please drop all other knives and get ahold of the new Fox/Terzola Original Gangster to review. The comedy gold this would provide would be monumental
Hi Nick! Thanks for the review. I've been wondering what do you think of cheap Scandinavian knives.. I know that's not your thing, but classic fixed blade Hultafors is very good at what a knife needs to be good at, and Mora is getting better recently, too. And there are a lot of traditional knives with a long history of craftsmanship, like the Finnish Puukkos from Kauhava and other towns as well.
Excellent review Nick. Not my style @ $425, but obviously a nicely made piece. I certainly “get it”, the production costs run higher here, but still feel like this price point is high. Thanks as always.
I love the sillouette, but that’s about it.. Price talk is often tiresome, but I’m truly struggling to see the value here. I guess as you suggest it’s closer to a custom. The brutal simplicity is super attractive, but I would expect that to be paired with perfection
i like the knife, but honestly, after buying an all us made ti-framelock with a magnacut blade from sharps bros. for 220 bucks this feels...very steep.
Twosun shows how cheap knives can be when you throw testing and warranty out the window, Sharps Bros shows how cheap knives can be when your throw skilled designing out the window, and just machine as simplistic as possible to minimize material loss.
@@CNYKnifeNuthave you even tried the knife? bet you haven't, cause it's very well made, easily on par with a zt and better than my $450 spartan harsey any day of the week. btw: the machining on the monterey bay is much more simplistic than on the sharps bros. you have no clue what you're talking about, buddy.
@@ix8750 you are right, there was no inlay on mine. i sold it 2 days later, detent was horrible (kinda nonexistent but still very sluggish and slow) and they didn't chamfer the edges on the handle at all. all in all it felt very clumsy and chunky, every spyderco, zt or hogue has much better fit'n'finish lol.
The blade is a little thicker than the Cerbenza? Am I the only one who thinks the blade looked demonstrably thinner than the Cerbenza in that comparison?
I had been interested in this knife, and tried to get one on a couple of the drops but wasn't successful. Now after watching this review, I am sort of glad that I didn't get one.
Wanted to get the river otter but now after the review, I. Rethinking that. the shortcomings in quality are hard to ignore. I'd pay an extra $50 bucks if they put a lock bar insert and made the stand offs more secure. Lack of a lock bar insert is a deal breaker.
Seeing as I live in Ireland the knife is being made overseas respective to my angle and so I can laugh about the price without hinderence. 600 miles down the road is not considered "local" on our little island.
I must be ignorant, I can't see what makes this worth the price or what makes the Sebenza worth its price. If you have one and love it, that's great, but I just don't get it. If I'm spending $400 on a knife like this, I would feel like the majority of that is me "tipping" the maker for keeping their business in the US.
No Lockbar insert, no countersunk screws, mediocre finishing, no bearing. Why would anyone pay extra money for a knife of this spec just because it's made here? In the US, the idea is that people are being paid more to make a better knife, which is not the case here.
If you need to defend a knife's price point that much it's probably overpriced. The components are probably like 60 bucks, as you saw assembly probably takes 10 minutes and grinding the blade $300?? Even being American made way overpriced for what you get.
