This new company bases its success on innovation, technical quality and functional design. If you think everything’s already been done, you won’t land a job at CRKT. That doesn’t mean they make complicated knives, but there’s always something unusual in the build. CRKT’s first success, the K.I.S.S. folder, caught the eye of dealers and buyers because there’s nothing there but two pieces of high carbon stainless, arranged to be knife blade, handle, pocket clip, frame lock and sheath. Ed Halligan’s design “Keeps It Super Simple” in ways no one considered before, and laid the groundwork for many more fine CRKT ideas.
Two former Kershaw Knives employees — Paul Gillespi and Rod Bremer — founded Columbia River Knife & Tool in Tualatin, Oregon, in 1994. After four years the company made its first big hit with the original K.I.S.S. folder. Introduction of the knife at the 1998 Shot Show was enough to sell off the first year’s production run in just a few days. Innovation also caused some problems for CRKT along the way. Much of the CRKT production work takes place overseas in Taiwan, and on October 3rd, 2000, the U.S. Customs Service seized a $4.3 million shipment of CRKT knives — even though all models had previously passed Customs tests and did not qualify as switchblades. The Customs Service’s contention that the knives looked and acted like switchblades threw the company into an extended court battle. CRKT won, but lost a million dollars in the process, not to mention $30,000 in legal costs.
Columbia River Knife & Tool currently manufactures three classes of products, which they describe as Sporting and Working Knives, Professional Knives & Tools, and something unique — I.D. Works & Tools. CRKT sport and work knives use some traditional styling but their folding knives add modern technology like one-hand opening and lockback blades. You’ll find all-metal designs as well as familiar fixed blades with handles of natural materials like polished wood. In the Professional line CRKT offers knives designed specifically for the military user, as well as knives built for Emergency Rescue work and tailored for modern tasks — like severing seat belts without injuring the person strapped in by them. One of the most interesting selections in CRKT’s catalog, the I.D. Works, introduces us to unique multi-tools filled with features you’ll wish you’d thought of first.
The 30-30 Folding Hunter from Columbia River Knife and Tool was designed by former Alaskan hunting guide Russ Kommer. The knife's build eliminates unsanitary gaps and shields important working parts from the mess that's an unavoidable part of field dressing game.
The 30-30 also looks great with a hollow ground ...
Knife maker Kit Carson created his series of M16 Knives with custom-built machined titanium handles. The Columbia River Knife and Tool M16-14T Big Dog Tanto now brings that superior quality to CRKT's production versions.
Ounce for ounce, the 6AL4V titanium in the Big Dog's machined handle is stronger and ...
Knife maker Kit Carson designed CRKT's M21-14DSFG Desert Big Dog for Special Forces use in desert warfare. A blade coating of titanium nitride and handle scales of G-10 give the knife its desert brown hue. Beneath the sand-brown exterior, the knife is all metal with frame and liners ...
Designed by Liong Mah for the I.D. Products division of Columbia River Knife and Tool, the Eat'N Tool gives hikers and sportsmen a simple pocket multi-tool and mess kit in a stout 1.5-ounce package.
The Eat'N Tool is just a little too pointy for the pocket but comes with a ...
Columbia River Knife & Tool's Natural series brings the quality and appearance of good custom blades to the price range more of us can afford. Designed by Pat Crawford, an Arkansas knife maker from West Memphis, the Natural 2 7080M represents one of CRKT recent efforts to raise the ...
Columbia River Knife & Tool outfits the Lift Off 2 with both Outburst assisted-opening and Firesafe lock. Included in many of CRKT's newer folders, this combination approach finally makes legal one-handers fast instead of just awkward.
The Lift Off 2 would be a temptation even without the new technology. ...
Pat Crawford, a knife designer from West Memphis, Arkansas, collaborated with Columbia River Knife and Tool on production versions of several other well known Crawford designs prior to the Natural. Usually steel quality drops and corners are cut in the mass market version of a knife, but with the ...
Blade Magazine presented Columbia River Knife & Tool with the 2009 Most Innovative Imported Design award, earned by CRKT's Flux knife and tool combination system. Whether your frontier is the city or the country, you'll find a useful combination to tailor to your own pursuits.
Although the Flux tools ...
One of a series of hunting and caping knives designed for Columbia River Knife and Tool by Alaskan hunter and guide Russ Kommer, the 2760 Chugach Range Utility Hunting knife is such a good-looking blade that it's a shame to call it a utility knife. With a beautifully styled ...
Climber's knives often seem under-designed, with strength cut back to save weight. The 14 K Summit Long's Peak folding clip knife from Columbia River Knife and Tool takes inspiration from the climber's choice of either weight or strength and provides a rugged answer.
Four ounces for a pocket clip folder ...
Designed by Alan Folts of Greenville, N.C., the Folts Minimalist neck knife produced by Columbia River Knife and Tool friction-fits in an inverted sheath worn around the neck. Grasp the deep finger grooves of the handle or the braided nylon fob hanging from it and pull the knife free ...
Designed by Jim Hammond, the Operator's Model A.B.C. (All Bases Covered) knife adapts Hammond's popular fixed blade diver's knife design to land use. With full-length cutting edges both plain and serrated, this rugged outdoorsman's knife covers every situation.
The four-ounce knife of AUS8 high carbon stainless steel incorporates a modified ...
This is a massive knife. It's a clip point, plain edge 7.5-inch stainless steel blade with serrated spine and serrated swedge ground tip. A lot of the weight of this knife is cut out due to the fact that the steel handle is hollow, for storing survival essentials inside. ...
Developed by Texas knife maker Allen Elishewitz, the Horus is named after an Egyptian hawk-headed lord of the sky. Indeed, when the blade is deployed, the shape is very reminiscent of a hawk's profile. Much of this look is added by the choiled handle which is shaped with a ...
Knife maker Ed Halligan, designer of the popular K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) knife series, offers a smaller and more utilitarian version of his simplified engineering in the P.E.C.K (Precision Engineered Compact Knife). The PECK knife, less than one ounce light and only 2.625 inches in closed length, unfolds a ...
Inspired by ancient chokuto swords and classic mohora-zukuri double edged tantos, with modern practicality in mind, this CRKT First Strike is unlike anything that Columbia River has ever made before. Custom knife maker Steve Corkum, based in Littleton, Pennsylvania, has been designing knives in the Japanese tradition for well ...
I'm always skeptical of technically complex knives--to win me over they have to be very well made. Grudgingly I am willing to put Columbia River knives in the accepted category. If you want a workhorse knife that opens easily with one hand, looks great in a futuristic sort of ...
Everything you'd want from a tactical folder, plus a hilt! Columbia River has been around for fifteen years, manufacturing knives from space age materials and with a space age look. Gradually that avant garde outlook shifts around to what we we already knew, a tanto blade for superior ...
Winner of the IWA International Knife Award in the Multi-Tool category at the 2008 International Trade Fair for Hunting and Sporting Arms, held this past March in Germany, the Zilla Jr. has forever changed the future of multi-tools. Columbia River Knife and Tool is serious about innovative function ...
Named Best Buy of the Year at the 2007 Blade Show and International Cutlery Fair in Atlanta, this is certainly not the first review to give the Columbia River Guppie a thumbs-up.
My favorite part of the Guppie is the adjustable wrench jaws which open to a 1/2-inch. With ...
Columbia River Knife & Tool is a great company to consider if you're looking for compact or folding Hissatsu knives. You'll find good quality, solid craftsmanship, and nothing to complain about.
This particular Hissatsu knife is called the Hissatsu Folder, and was designed by none other than James Williams, president of Bugei Trading ...
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