CRKT Amicus Knife Review
I will start off my saying that the CRKT Amicus is the best deal in the entire CRKT lineup and problem one of the best heavy duty folding knives under $60 anywhere. This is a brute of a knife, however it is comfortable and the blade is exceptionally well designed.
CRKT shipped one of these a few months back just before the public release to see what I though and was stunned to find that the MSRP was exponentially lower than I had imagined. My feedback was “are you sure you have the retail price right at only $59.99?” The reality is that the Amicus is retailing for around $40 on the street. There are plenty of knives on the market that have far cheaper steel, cut half as well, and have very inexpensive polymer handles and locks which are easily twice the price of the CRKT Amicus. This is a great knife for the price.
ABOUT CRKT
CRKT - Columbia River Knife and Tool was founded in 1994 by Rod Bremer in Oregon. By working in unison with the top knife designers around the world, CRKT delivers a broad line of innovative custom knife designs in affordable production knives and tools. The result is that the hottest custom designs are available to the consumer for daily use at affordable prices.
FIT, FINISH, FEEL, FEATURES, & FUNCTIONS
Jesper Voxnaes from Loegstrup, Denmark, designed the Amicus to excel in the outdoors and then recently beat on the design in the toughest conditions he could. The Amicus is not light, in fact it's pretty darn heavy at 6.7oz, but that substantial heft is backup up with a lot of stainless steel that make the knife strong. 
The heft is appreciated when you are using the integrated pummel to hammer the battery terminal back on your truck, crush a few walnuts you found walking in the park, and using it to tap out a pin on your AR15. From my perspective the Amicus is a work knife, so who cares if it is twice as heavy as any of your other knives. 
The one handed thumb hole is large enough to use with gloves and complete ambidextrous and the knife can support tip-up or tip-down carry, however it only features right-handed pocket clip mounting. The CRKT Amicus is available in either plain or partially serrated edge options, however based on the edge holding ability of the rather incredible 8Cr18Mov steel blade, I do not see any real need for a combo edge on this very aggressive cutting steel.
The big fat flat ground blade delivers enough size to assure you can spread your peanut butter for lunch easily, but affords a crazy sharp edge. I really liked this steel and the edge geometry. Honestly I have not seen a better cutting knife under $100. Maybe CRKT should use this steel on a lot more knives. Defensively, one of the things I really liked was that this is a 3.4-inch blade which is just under the majority of most city and state concealed carry blade sizes. No sense carrying a 2-inch blade when you can carry 3.4-inches.
The handle is super sized and easily accommodates use with thinner work gloves and can be used in any position. A few little complaints are that the knife is really handle heavy balanced which is not my preference, but it all still works and delivers a extremely rugged knife. The other nit pick was that the edge grind was well defined and ground, but not quite up to the usual symmetry I have seen on other CRKT knives, but for a $40 street priced knife, the CRKT Amicus is an awesome knife that can handle any field, survival, on the work site, or just household chores.
SPECS
Available in plain edge version (5445) and the combination edge version with Triple Point™ Serrations model (5446).
Dimensions
Open Overall Length 8.125 inches
Closed Length 4.718 inches
Weight 6.7 ounces
Blade
Length 3.407 inches
Thickness 0.154 inches
Material 8Cr13Mov
Blade-HRC 58-60
Finish Stainless Steel Stonewash
Grind Flat Grind
Style Drop Point
Lock Type Frame Lock
Carry System 2 Position Pocket Clip, tip up/down
MSRP $59.99
CRKT Knives - http://www.crkt.com
No comments:
Post a Comment