A day late and a dollar short as they say. So much for “Thursday.” I tried to get this post up yesterday but the fates were against me.
I admit this is a bit of a stretch for Throw Back Thursday because I’m old and 2011 was, near as I can tell, last week.
At least I think 2011 is the right year because my Google-fu is weak today.
The CRKT Drifter has come in 2 major varients: G10 scales with a liner lock and stainless steel scales with a frame lock. I think this was introduced in 2011 but that could also be the liner lock version. If someone wants to correct me, operators are standing by.
This is one of only 2 frame locks I own and also one of only 2 combo blades I own. I own a lot of knives, so this might give you some indication as to what I think of frame locks and half-serrations… Edit: I just remembered that I have 3 other frame locks. So, I’m a complete idiot.
This knife was purchased in 2019 which was yesterday near as I can tell. It was a very early knife purchase and I had not yet figured out what I did and did not like. Another huge factor was the fact that BladeHQ was basically giving this away in the discontinued section for $15.
Aesthetically this is a good looking knife (IMHO). The matte grey and smooth lines go well with the polished blade. However, the reason the lines are smooth is because the pocket clip is single position, tip-down. The horror…the horror.
But, there’s actually a clever trick here: the pocket clip also serves as the overtravel stop for the frame lock! Now, me not being a frame lock guy, maybe I’m just ignorant here, but that’s not something I remember seeing on other knives. This photo is not of great quality due to the lighting I had to work with but you get the idea I think. So while it takes 3 screws to hold the clip down and while it’s sort of obnoxious looking, it’s also functional and I can respect that.
The combo blade, I figured out fairly quickly, is not for me. Give me a knife with full serrations or give me a plain edge blade but not both. It will fail to meet my needs for most things. But thankfully it only took $15 to sort that out.
If it’s not for you, why keep it you ask? Well because it does remind me of the journey this silly hobby has taken me on but also because I don’t get rid of anything and in all likelihood the authorities will find my body buried under a mountain of knife boxes years from now. So what’s one more?
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I will say that the frame lock on my Kershaw CQC-6K, which is what I have to hand at this very moment (what else is new; I’m pouring another shot) has nothing serving as an overtravel stop at all. I don’t think most frame lock knives bother with that, although I guess I only technically own three – two of which are the same fucking knife – so maybe my sample size is not large enough for accurate data. Although I own a shitload of “normal” liner lockers.
Not getting rid of anything is totally kosher. The point of a collection is to collect, and grow in quantity until it becomes comical and/or unmanageable for your next of kin. This is the natural order of things. I have never met anyone who collects anything who did not regret getting rid of parts of said collection, no matter how silly those items were. This seems to hold especially true with video games, tools, knives, and guns. Probably cars and bikes, too.
Made an edit to the post because I just remembered that I have 3 more frame locks that I didn’t think about… So this day is starting off as a bit of a head scratcher.
There are some who curate their collections which…is probably what I should be doing but it’s not in my nature. Knife Swap on the other place is full of guys essentially leasing knives as they go from one to the next.
I am a pack rat for a lot of things that make no sense so this is par for the course. (If you want some early to mid-2000’s computer hardware I’ve got you covered!)
I’ve got a dickton of that, too. The worst part is, every once in a while I’m vindicated in keeping it all because I’ll be in a business or factory somewhere and they need a stick of PC133 memory or an ISA ethernet card or some damn fool antique cable and I get to go, “Aha!” And then that justifies never throwing any of this crap out.
I guess retro DOS gaming is getting trendy on the youtubes again, so maybe I’ll be able to flog some of this bullshit on eBay to somebody who fancies themselves an influencer. Hmm…
And then there’s the swords. And the retro video game consoles. And the motorcycles. Et. cetera.
If the hero of the movie that plays in my mind busts into the house and says “I can’t save all of humanity without a working Iomega ZIP drive!!!” well friends, we are indeed saved because I have 2.
I see your ZIP drive and raise you an external SyQuest SparQ drive. With Parallel cable.
