CRKT M21-04 Review

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This is my first review so if I miss anything please let me know. I would also appreciate any advice on how to improve future reviews that I may post.

I have had this knife for nearly two weeks now and must say that I love this blade. I will admit that this knife isn’t for everyone. It is large for a folder with a 3.9″ blade and a 9.25″ open length, but I have large hands so it suits me. I find the shape of the blade and the look of the handle to be aesthetically pleasing which, in my opinion, is one of the most important aspects of anything we carry every day. If I don’t find something pleasing to look at I’m not going to lug it around but that might just be me. It feels very solid in hand and is fairly hefty at 5.5 ounces which is due in part to the aluminum handles.

The finish on the aluminum is satiny smooth and the cutouts do help quite a bit with weight reduction. The also give some texture to hold on to when pulling it from your pocket. As you can see from the above picture the pocket clip is mounted above the pivot letting it sit fairly low in the pocket. I find the clip to be very tight which is excellent on a pair of jeans. I have been crawling around under dump trucks and other equipment a fair amount in the last two weeks and have had absolutely no problem with it coming lose, working its way up, or flat out falling out. Despite the smooth finish of the aluminum I still find it easy to hold on to when wet. This is largely due to the large size of the handle making it easy to grip since it fills my hand.

The jimping on the back of the blade is solid and sticks my thumb to it like it is glued there. The same jimping is used on the flipper which lets you get plenty of torque in when deploying the knife. Your thumb is not going to slip off halfway through it flipping out. The studs aren’t functional for deployment and are there to lock the blade in place. This seems to be effective however as you can see in the above picture the ones on mine aren’t centered perfect and you can feel the discrepancy in height quite noticeably when running your fingers over them. This is a minor flaw and not something I worry about but thought it was worth noting. Also the indent for the studs when the knife is closed leaves a relatively pointed spot on the handle where my index finger rests. You can see this in the second photo above. I understand that it is necessary for the way the knife rests when closed but it could use some more rounding to make it more comfortable in hand. I haven’t had it get too uncomfortable during use mainly because I don’t put any force up into the handle but you can feel it when gripping the knife tightly.

I bought this knife off of bladehq since it was on sale there and they have the blade material listed as 8CR14MoV but on the CRKT site it is listed as AUS 8. The blade has Taiwan stamped on it which supports the AUS 8 from what I understand since most Taiwanese blades use AUS and Chinese blades use alphabet soup steel. In either case the knife came razor sharp able to shave hair off my arm and slice paper with ease. I have used it on paper, cardboard, and wood in the past two weeks and it has held an edge superbly. Still able to cut paper and shave after significant use even before stropping.

I have read and seen reviews of people complaining about the AutoLAWKS system on many CRKT knives saying that they are unable to close the knife one handed. I have not had this problem at all. There is a bit of a trick to it. With the knife deployed use your index finger to pull the AutoLAWKS safety down. Then use your thump to move the liner lock over. Once the liner lock is moved over you can let go of the safety and use your index finger to move the blade down just like a normal knife. This does make it take a second or two longer to put the blade away but speed in folding it up is not nearly as important as speed in deploying it.

Another thing I love about this knife is the thickness of the blade at 0.14″. With the way the blade is ground and shaped this thickness proceeds nearly to the very tip of the blade. The spear point is nicely shaped and very sharp and the large belly makes cutting cordage a breeze. Feathering sticks was a snap and slicing up cardboard was easy. When holding this knife in hand about 1/2″ to 3/4″ of the handle sticks out from the bottom of my hand leaving all my fingers within the finger cutout of the handle resulting in a very comfortable grip for me. I wear size large gloves and have relatively short fingers but large palms which makes many three inch folders uncomfortable in hand for any significant period of time.

The detente on the deployment is pretty stiff. I have had no problem with the knife working itself open in my pocket at all. There is a ball bearing in the liner and a corresponding divot in the base of the blade that can only be seen through the gap between the liner lock and the pivot where the AutoLAWKS sits. This does an excellent job of holding the blade closed when you want it closed but does not slow deployment down any thanks to the leverage of the flipper. There is no movement in the blade when it is locked out and it sits centered when closed. I cannot detect any movement in the liner when manipulating the blade by hand with the knife open and the liner in use.

I would highly recommend this knife to anyone who is looking for a larger folder with a heavy blade. I like the heft of this knife and the way it fills my hand making me feel like I am holding something substantial. The weight when carrying it is noticeable mainly when it is not there once you get used to it. I have no problem with it pulling on my pants or anything like that but I am 6’2″ 280 lbs. If you are looking for a large folder under $100 this is definitely one to check out and one of the things that really sold me was the all metal design. I hope that I have given you all a decent review of this knife and if there are any questions I will do what I can to answer them for you.

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