Alright, I was negligent and didn’t get a post up on Thursday or Friday this week, so you get a weekend post, you filthy animals.
Wash your hands first.
Now, this magnificent piece of engineering is the CRKT Xoc (pronounced “shock”).
It’s, in my opinion, 80% showpiece, 20% practical knife. That said, I love the damn thing. It’s engineered to the point of near absurdity, but still manages to be lightweight and pocketable enough to carry it if you so desire.
It’s got some lovely carbon fiber handles, offset by titanium in both standard titanium gray as well as a pale orange. As a result of the materials used, it’s very blade-heavy but manages to be comparatively light overall, at 11 ounces.
It does fit into the pocket rather well, as pictured here, and honestly it doesn’t feel especially heavy – as compared to the M16 I usually carry at work that I reviewed (basically this model with a slightly different blade), it really doesn’t ride that terribly in the pocket.
(Also pictured is the light I carry regularly)
I’ve made no secret of my love for the Deadbolt mechanism that CRKT offers, and this knife is no exception. It’s exceptionally well built and it’s designed by a guy who’s a nice guy to boot – Flavio Ikoma out of Brazil. I had the pleasure of meeting Flavio at SHOT, and he is a stand-up guy with really interesting ideas and designs, and I’d highly encourage you to buy any (or all) of his designs.
Now, the Xoc is probably out of the reach of the average knife user; MSRP is $750, and appears to only be available at that price, but I’d definitely encourage you to check it out if you’re thinking about getting in to custom or high-end knives, it’s a real gem from a company with a solid history of customer service and quality knives!
This particular specimen has had a moderately sized firefighter and a 250# anvil hung from it while it was clamped in a bench vise and it survived like a champ, no damage to the blade or the mechanism – there was only a small scrape in the carbon fiber from the chain we used to hang the anvil on it.
At any rate, I’ve blathered on long enough, let me know if you have any particular questions about this knife, I’ll have access to it for a while!
-T