Crescent has new utility knives coming out soon. Official information isn’t available yet, but there seems to be enough in retail listings to get a good sense of what these knives offer.
First up, the Crescent hybrid folding utility knife, model CTKFHEDC, shown above.
This is described as a hybrid utility knife as it “combines the ergonomics of a pocket knife with the blade-changing functionality of a utility knife.”
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I would be cautious about this one. It has a flipper mechanism, which is interesting, but the user experience can vary greatly depending on the balance and pivot.
For instance, I have a Benchmade flipper knife, and it’s absolutely terrible, with the blade always stopping halfway unless I flick my wrist.
Ah, but Crescent’s product listing also says this:
ball bearing assisted design provides continuous smooth deployment even after heavy use
That’s exactly what I would think a design like this needs. I try to steer away from assisted openers for EDC, but a spring assistance mechanism and ball bearing pivot could contribute to a good user experience here. We’ll have to see.
Note: A reader (thank you N. Berg!) made a point that Crescent might be straying from standard language, and that they mean to say the knife is assisted, but not an assisted-opening knife. Whether it’s an assisted opener or “assisted” remains to be seen.
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Crescent also describes the knife as having an EDC-style handle, and deep-style pocket clip.
Price: $18
Next up, Crescent also has a “low profile” pocket knife, CPK258FL, with frame lock, 3.25″ blade, and deep-style pocket clip.
Its blade is made from D2 steel, which is a tough tool steel well-suited to “endure heavy use and various conditions found on jobsites.”
This knife also has a ball bearing assisted-opening design*.
*See the above note about ambiguity behind the “assisted” language.
I’m okay with assisted openers in workshop settings, and would be comfortable in jobsite settings. I tend to avoid them for casual EDC, as law enforcement interpretation can vary, leading me to prefer fully manually-opening knives. I have heard of too many occurrences where assisted openers are confused for automatic knives.
Crescent’s “EDC” (everyday carry) marketing language might just be on-point.
It looks like they made a lot of good choices regarding the knife’s design, but as with the flipper utility knife, this can only be determined with a hands-on assessment and time.
In the image above, the knife looks to have “late lock up.” If the steel blade wears into the handle material, which I assume is aluminum (they don’t say), the lockbar might eventually hit the inner side of the handle and potentially loosen things up.
This would be concerning for a premium folding knife, but 1) this is not premium-priced, and 2) the image is likely of a pre-production prototype.
Crescent’s other folding knives look decent as everyday hard-use folders that I wouldn’t care about abusing, but their styles never really appealed to me. This one’s different.
I have used Crescent utility and folding knives before, and I might have bought one or two for testing purposes, but this looks to be the first one I might actually buy for personal use.
Price: $28
It’s hard to tell from a couple of marketing images, but it looks like Crescent has stepped up their game.
Their prior folding knives and utility knives were perfectly serviceable, but these designs seem elevated above that. Their other designs are competitive, these – to me – are compelling. They’re the first Crescent knives I’ll go out of my way to look for.
JML
Interesting development. I just went through several “new” folding utility knives and found that the locking mechanism chosen by most of the new ones is a button lock (the Crescent here looks like a liner lock). The problem is that only two of the many makers (probably almost all from China or Taiwan) have terrible machining and finishing on the button lock mechanism, with unpolished surfaces and machining flash on the mating parts of the button and the blade holder. Only Fiskars and Klein bothered to correctly design and carefully finish these parts and use decent bushings. Ironically, the worst finishing on many is at the location where the button lock barrel contacts the blade holder body.
Opening the Fiskars is a dream, and a bit of Gun Butter lube on the pivots makes it even smoother. They really did their homework. Plus their blade release mechanism is outstanding – just about impossible to ever be triggered unintentionally
Milwaukee does a better job than most of the competition, but not nearly as good as Fiskars and Klein. Kobalt’s black-plastic-handled utility folders should have been done better, because otherwise they’re pretty decent. At least one of the companies selling their products on Amazon calls the lock an “Axis lock,” which is is NOT! And the mechanism on those was awful, and with plenty of side-to-side play in the blade holder until locked up. (The reviews on Amazon are pitiful for most of these anyway, as the users talk more about the supplied disposable blades being sharp than about anything else!)
When opening the knives built with the poorly made button locks, you have to keep the button depressed all the way until the blade holder swings all the way open to avoid the high degree of friction and roughness as the blade holder slides open (or closed) against the button lock barrel, until it locks in place. You can see the unpolished and rough parts getting covered with metal dust (or worse) as you open and close the knives.
A liner lock just isn’t as user-friendly in these utility knife designs.
Rodger
For the longest time and I’ve emailed and called Lowes tech support and even their corporate to see whom the actual original equipment manufacturer of the Kobalt Speed Release 10-Blade Folding Utility Knife with On Tool Blade Storage tool. Lowes did provide a model number 56887 and their own item number 749269, but that has unfortunately been of little help. This has a push button release and hands down is one best utility knives I’ve used. Wish I knew whom actually makes this so in the event Lowes discontinues this, there is a way of buying more in the future from the actual company hopefully.
Do you or Stuart know who the OEM might be?
Stuart
I did a quick search, but no luck yet. It doesn’t match anything at typical OEMs I checked, and so it might have been specially made for Lowe’s.
Kenneth
Stuart, amazing that someone else commented on this knife as this truly a great utility knife. Do you know of any other brands with a similar push button design with a easy to manipulate as this tool does?
Also, it’s almost been a year since news of that Dewalt Atomic utility knife was announced. Various distributors told me they’ve never even heard about it and every person I’ve called at Dewalt just doesn’t know. Do you know any more details.
Koko The Talking Ape
Thanks for the tip! That knife is reasonably priced too.
A word to the wise: a lot of Amazon buyers are complaining that they aren’t getting the exact knife pictured. Seems like a lot of third party sellers are lazy or careless. No suprise!
Matthew
Did you check Alibaba?
Can you post a pict? I design knives for a large company, and have several contacts in asia that might know.
Jared
I think Crescent has really been “stepping up their game” (to parrot your phrase) in a bunch of categories lately.
Rewind a few years and I would have said most Crescent tools were mediocre at best and probably a little overpriced for the level of quality. Even their iconic “crescent wrench” wasn’t much to get excited about. It seems like they’ve been making genuine strides into a higher category lately though.
Those hard-bottom tool bags come to mind. They also make my favorite fencing pliers. This folding knife looks interesting too. I’d like to check it out in person, but the design certainly looks like the sort of thing I typically buy.
N. Berg
Some of the other Crescent knives from the last year or two are actually really excellent for the money.
There’s a set of 4 similar ones, with 2 different sizes/styles in 2 different choices of materials. The plastic handle ones unfortunately only use 5cr15mov for the blade, which as far as steels that are actually named and not just called “stainless” or “surgical” is one of the worst for edge retention.
However, the aluminum ones come with D2 blades, which is not only a significant upgrade, but at ~$25 is cheaper than basically every other knife that offers something comparable. I have one and it has an excellent action and a very nice hollow grind. Factory sharpness is not something that really matters to me because I enjoy sharpening, but mine also came incredibly sharp for knife that cheap. They are one of the best options out there for someone looking for a nice feeling knife that’s cheap enough to to be a beater.
I’m really glad to see another D2 option from them, and I’m super excited for a budget flipper replaceable blade knife like this. I definitely plan on getting both of those. There is also a third new knife on Crescent’s website that looks to be competing with compact utility knives like the Gerber EAB.
As far as the EDC folder being assisted: I think that might just be poor wording. There are slots milled straight through both sides of the knife near the pivot, so I’m not sure it’s possible to fit in the spring needed for an assisted action. They might mean that the manual action’s smoothness is “assisted” by the ball bearings.
Stuart
If they’re using the words “EDC,” and are using the words “assisted” to refer to the ball bearing pivot, that would be incredibly confusing. I have never heard of a pivot being “assisted” and mean anything other than spring-assisted.
Ball bearing pivots might have reduced friction but don’t “assist” anything.
N. Berg
I definitely don’t think think calling a ball bearing pivot “assisted” is a good idea, it makes no sense to say it, but that seems to be what they are doing.
I’ve done or seen disassemblies on assisted knives from several different brands, and every assist I’ve seen uses a flat wire spring that extends an inch or two down from the pivot inside a pocket milled into one of the scales. As you can see in the second photo on Acme’s site (the one where it’s sitting on it’s spine while partially open), the slots go completely through both scales. I don’t see how it’s physically possible to fit an assist spring in the small space between those slots and the pivot.
Stuart
These could also be renderings or incomplete products meant solely for art purposes.
Either way, I’ll add a note to the post.
N. Berg
Sorry, but I realized I never clarified which one I was talking about: I specifically meant the D2 framelock one probably couldn’t be spring assisted because of the holes through the frame.
The utility knife one potentially could be, but considering the same bullet point about “ball bearing assisted” is copy pasted between them and one of them most likely isn’t, it makes me question it for the other as well. In one photo skeletonization of the liners can be seen that might also interfere with the space needed for a spring, but for that knife there’s no way to say for certain from just the photos.
Louie Orama
Hey guys, I buy and sell tools and have the luxury of testing out products. First, let me say that I always wanted a fastback, but here’s what went down… when I got into the work I do, I didn’t have anything really tool-related as I was a salesman and did office work for the couple of decades before that. When I started, a great guy Dan saw I had nothing and gave me a Kobalt knife (utility). I used it a few times and one of the Torx screws fell out without me knowing. I brought it to Lowe’s and explained. They told me to go find the same one or an equivalent Kobalt knife. So I grabbed 2 different ones-the silver one that comes with titanium blades and the black “quick release” (which I didn’t find out until later). I really wanted the silver one, but it was beyond the price range ($20 perhaps?) and I walked out the store with the black one. Once I noticed that it did the same thing as a fastback, I was set. Fell in love with it. Since then, I’ve had the fastback 1, 2 and mini. I actually have the 2 that has a 45° stop, which was a perfect position to cut drywall (until I discovered the DCS355 O.M.T.). They no longer have that 45° stop on the Fastback 2, which I don’t know why. Perhaps clumsy people cutting themselves?
Till this day, that Black quick release Kobalt is my favorite, and I’ve tried MANY of them by many brands.
Over the holiday, I came across the Crescent Orange and Black one (CTKF2) which also has a quick release. Not a button, but a slider, then flick the wrist. They were on clearance for $2-$3 apiece, so I bought about 60 of them and chose to add them as bonuses in my packages. Not only did I like it, but many of my customers reached out and told me that it’s the best knife they ever used. Storage for a few blades, nice and sturdy, easy to find, and heavy as I don’t like a knife that feels brittle. Lastly, the 11 blades it comes with ARE Crescent blades (they are black) and they are the best I’ve ever used. And at THAT price, I also put one in a drawer (or medicine cabinet) in each room, plus I have 2 sheds and a garage. Never have to rob Peter again. Then of course I also have one in my pocket. But that REMAINS the Kobalt. Model 56653.
Jerry
I have several flipper knives a couple of which are assisted opening. Of the o as that are not, the ones done right (presumably with balance bearing blades) do not stop halfway open. I am really surprised you have problems with a Benchmade, as they are premium knives. However, I have seen a few cheap China knives marked Benchmade. Did they open a factory in China, or were they knock offs?
To the Crescent knives, I think they may have a winner in the slim D2 knife. Cheap but yet a recognized brand. I might grab one of them myself. I don’t like a knife with a poor blade, but I also want one cheap enough foe EDC that if I lose it, or have to hand it over to security somewhere, I’m not out much.