EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – As a pocket knife collector, every once in a while, you check out a particular knife for the first time and feel like you are channeling Crocodile Dundee.
“Now, that’s a knife!”
And no, I am not one to get excited about one of his gargantuan safari knives.
Instead, I’m thinking something more along the lines of a knife that checks off some of my own personal preferences.
For me, that means a smaller knife with excellent action and a “slicey” utilitarian blade.
Civivi’s relatively new Crabby fits that bill but with a couple of minor nitpicks.
The Civivi Crabby features 2.7-inch stonewashed, sheepsfoot-style blade with 14C28N steel. I really like any pocket knife where I can get a blade under 3 inches. Just seems the perfect size for me.
For the uninitiated, a sheepsfoot blade has a shape almost like a mini-cleaver. It is very useful for light everyday tasks.
The blade is deployed with ambidextrous thumb studs and that blade just rockets out there. You almost think it is assisted. That’s how good the action is.
So that covers the three areas I highlighted above — small, good action and useful.
My version of the Crabby comes with purple G10 handles. I’m more of an earth-tone kind of guy when it comes to my knives, but the color seems to work with this one.
The knife has a right-hand-only, deep-carry pocket clip. (Sorry, to all my southpaw friends).
It also has three lanyard holes.
Additionally, the knife features a purple back spacer that matches perfectly with the rest of the handle.
As far as ergonomics, the handle has a cutout area near the blade that your index finger fits perfectly in. For a smaller knife, I can easily get a four-finger grip around the handle.
The blade also has a choil that I view as more of a sharpening choil than a true finger choil. It puts my finger a little too close to the blade for comfort.
The spine of the blade also has some jimping, making it perfect to choke up on and really get up close on those cutting tasks.
But I do have a couple of small complaints.
The first is very minor. The knife uses a traditional liner lock, and works perfectly fine. I just find myself wishing that this knife had a more modern locking system like a button lock or a crossbar lock.
A modern lock would make this knife a really fun “fidget” toy to open and close.
Here is the second complaint.
The knive has designer Ken Onion Jr.’s name written on the blade as a form of billboarding. Everyone I have shown this knife to, that is the first thing they notice and comment on. I could live without that, to be honest.
Minus those two small negatives, and the Crabby would border on perfection.
Here are some numbers. The knife is just 6.41 inches when open. Its closed length is a tad under 3 ¾ inches. And it weighs just a bit under 3 ounces.
The Civivi Crabby comes in four different flavors – purple G10 ($74), black micarta with blacked-out blade ($76.50), green G10 with blacked-out blade ($74) and shredded carbon fiber with Damascus blade ($110).
Here is a link to the Civivi home page. Here is a link to the purple Crabby featured in this story.
Note: Civivi is the mid-range brand for the WE Knife family. Sencut is the budget line, Civivi in the middle and WE with their higher-end knives.
Here are some YouTube channels I watch and can recommend on knives and EDC gear.
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