box the second

The second package had all of three total days of transit from Kalifornistan, including the sending and receiving days… Occasionally (very occasionally), USPS Priority Mail actually works out alright. At any rate, this one included items that bore no relation to the first one – in fact, only two of the four boxes will be even loosely related to each other.
Anywise, the first item out of the box was an identical cousin to the Kershaw R.A.M. I lost back in July. You can read my short comparison review of the R.A.M. here, but given my proclivities to try new and different toys when I get the opporutnity to do so, for me to purchase the same thing over again indicates that I really like the item in question. I will get around to writing a more-comprehensive review of it in the future, but suffice to say that the R.A.M. is a good knife, made by a good company, and one that I would be more than willing to depend on if I had to.
I wish I could say the same of the other knife in the box.
That one is a CRKT Neckolas, designed by Terry Renner, and produced by Columbia River Knife and Tool. The knife caught my eye for its pecular sheath-locking system, best described by its creator:

The Neckolas sheath is really the secret to the system. Terry says, “I wanted a retention system that would release and capture the knife with the same motion. It occurred to me that composite materials would allow the sheath to act as its own retaining spring. The key to easy re-insertion is the thumb notch on the sheath top edge. Just insert the blade into the sheath and ‘pinch.’ The knife clicks into place. To release the knife and draw it, just ‘pinch’ the springbar extension with your thumb, which allows the blade tang notch to clear the sheath’s retaining pin momentarily.”

Sounds like something even I would be hard-pressed to lose. Anywise, here are some gratuitous sharp-and-pointy pictures for your enjoyment before I move onto my first-impression review:









Despite the whole rig measuring in at about 6.125″ x 1.75″ x 0.75″, the knife blade itself is only 1.8125″ long, and is comprised of 8Cr13MoV steel – for utility purposes, it is probably not ideal, but for white-water rafting (what it was originally designed for), every-day carry (EDC), or survival knives, this little thing would seem to be almost perfect.
That is, until you have it in your hand. First, the clip only allows you to carry with the handle down, and while CRKT advertises that the clip is reversible, for the life of me, I could not get the clip installed when reversed. Basically, as shown in the picture, the clip is just one of five parts necessary, the other four being the backplate, the micarta sheath itself, and two screws. The two holes through the sheath are not equally spaced, so when you flip the whole rig around, one of the three items is not going to line up properly, and the clip ends up not being nearly as reversible as advertised. Oh, and those screws? Torx screws. Memo to knife manufacturers: STOP USING GORRAMED TORX SCREWS. Mini-hexes will do the job almost as well, and do not have the propensity to strip their heads if you even look at them funny.
Second, when sheathed, the knife can twist back and forth in its Micarta holder along the z-axis, making a funny clicking noise. I cannot tell if it is the spine or the blade of the knife catching on something inside the sheath, but the noise is not good, and if it is the blade itself, that will dull the unholy hell out of it.
Third (and this is more of a style complaint), there is no jimping along the spine of the blade or the back of the handle, which can leave your thumb without good purchase or control, especially given the spear-point design of the blade.
On the good side, the Micarta looks really good and will probably hold up quite well, the combination molded and ring-grip gives you very good control over the knife, the specially-designed detent-lock holster definitely locks the knife in place, and the unique deisgn of the clip provides a very interesting/effective lanyard retention system (as shown in the pictures above).
I guess I can only expect so much for a $30 knife, but even at that price, I am sorry to say that I cannot really recommend it. If you are really interested in the unique sheath-locking mechanism found in this knife (which is the prime reason I purchased it), though, I would suggest that you consider its designer’s “Green Monster” – just be aware that while he is currently trying to get it mass-produced through Benchmade, it is currently a $400 custom job.
Both of these knives came from J’s Knives-and-More, who I found by way of the Every-Day Carry Forums (yet another useful forum I lurk at). The turnaround time between ordering and shipping was less than 12 hours, and as I mentioned, I had the box in my hand less than 72 hours after I ordered it. Also, if you poke around the EDCForums, you might just find a discount code for J’s… Just sayin’.