CRKT Pineapple Knife Review

Columbia River Knife and Tool, or CRKT was founded in 1994. This is an American company that is known for its distinction in design, selection, and quality. For over 20 years now, CRKT has put innovation and integrity first, making a commitment to build products that inspire and endure. They collaborate with the best designers in the world and operate on a simple principle: that the greatest thing they can give their customers is Confidence in Hand. Some of these designers are Ken Onion, Harold “Kit” Carson, Allen Elishewitz, Pat Crawford, Liong Mah, Steven James, Greg Lightfoot, Michael Walker, Ron Lake, Tom Veff, Steve Ryan, and the Graham Brothers. CRKT also owns fifteen patents and patents pending, some of which are the Outburst assist opening mechanism, the Lock Back Safety mechanism, and Veff Serrated edges.

CRKT was founded by Paul Gillespi and Rod Bremer, both of whom were formerly employed with Kershaw Knives. Even though it seems like they’ve always been a strong company, there was a time where it was struggling. The company did not truly take off for about three years after it had been founded. It was in 1977 at the Shot Show when they introduced the K.I.S.S (Keep It Super Simple) knife. This was a small folder that was designed by Ed Halligan and it was a huge success. Within the opening days of the show, the years’ worth of the product had sold out. Since then, they have produced a wide range of fixed blades and folding knives, multi tools, sharpeners, and carrying systems.

They have recently released a brand new folding knife called the Pineapple.

The Designer:

The Pineapple was designed by Matthew Lerch. He was initially trained as a jewelry and watchmaker, but then progressed into manufacturing and tool making. He now has a few patents under his belt for innovations like the Fire Safe, and has been honored with some prestigious award including the Buster Warenski award. Matt views knives as functional art, as evidenced in his Moxie and the Blade Show award winning Endorser design.

 

The Blade:

The steel on this blade is 1.4116 stainless steel. This is the steel that is used in Swiss Army Knives and it is an excellent steel for beginner sharpeners. One of the drawbacks to this steel is that it does not hold an edge super well, but because it is so easy to sharpen, it ends up being less of a drawback. You can get this steel razor sharp in only a few minutes. This steel is crazy corrosion and rust resistant. This is a German steel that is most popular on kitchen knife sets in German knives. This steel has an HRC level of 56-58.

The finish on the blade is a stonewash finish. This finish is created by tumbling the steel around with an abrasive material, which is usually small pebbles. This creates a rugged, texture to the steel. After it has been tumbled around, the steel is smoothed out and polished. The resulting look is an even, matte gray. This steel finish works to cut down on glares and reflections. The biggest thing that this finish does is preserve the look of the blade overtime, because it works to hide the scratches and fingerprints that the steel would accumulate over time.

The blade has been carved into a drop point blade shape. This is one of the most popular and versatile blade shapes that you are going to find on a knife. One of the most common places that you are going to find a drop point blade shape is on a hunting knife, but it is also used on many other styles of knives because of how versatile it is. To form this shape, the back, or unsharpened, edge of the knife runs straight form the handle to the tip of the knife in a slow curving manner. This slow curve creates a lowered point, and the lowered point provides more control to your cuts and slices. The reason that this blade shape is found on so many hunting knives is because it is so easily controllable; the hunter does not have to worry about slipping or accidently nicking the internal organs or ruining the meat. The lowered tip also adds a lot more strength to the tip of this knife. Because of the tip strength and the ability to hold up to heavy sue, drop point blades are popular on tactical and survival knives. A drop point knife shape and a clip point knife shape is often confused. Both of these knife shapes are very popular as well as being extremely versatile. The biggest difference between the two are the tip shape. Each of the tips have a handful of benefits, but also a drawback or two. The clip point has a lowered tip, so it is also controllable, but it does not have a broad tip. The lack of the broad tip means that it is weaker and more prone to breaking, but it also means that you have stabbing capabilities. The drop point has a lowered tip, like I mentioned, but it does have a very broad tip. SO while you do have so much more strength behind the tip, you also lose out on most of your stabbing capabilities. That is really the only drawback to the drop point blade shape. One of the other reasons that this is such a versatile knife shape is that it sports a large belly area that provides plenty of length to make slicing a breeze. The drop point blade shape provides you with the abilities to take on all of your everyday tasks, but it also prepares you for the unexpected circumstances that seem to surround your everyday life.

The edge on blade is a plain edge, which makes this an ideal knife for your everyday carry blade. The plain edge is more traditional and is easier to sharpen as well as having the capacity to get a finer edge on the blade. The plain edge is the perfect edge for push cuts, which include skinning, peeling, and slicing.

To add to the control that you have over your knife, there is a row of thick, deep jimping on the spine of the knife near the handle. On the sharpened edge, near the handle, there is a deep cut out.

 

The Handle:

The handle on the pineapple is made out of Glass Reinforced Nylon, or GRN. This is thermoplastic material that is super strong and crazy resistant to bending, abrasion, and practically indestructible. As an added bonus, it’s cheap. This is an inexpensive option because it can be injection molded into any desired shape and textured in a multitude of ways in the production process. All this lends well to high volume manufacturing and low cost. With this material, all of the fibers are arranged haphazardly throughout which is why it is so strong and practically indestructible. With similar materials such as G 10, Carbon Fiber, and Micarta, the fibers are all arranged in a single direction, so when the fibers are stressed in other directions, it tends to be brittle or fall apart. But, because the GRN is arranged haphazardly, when it is stressed in any direction, it can stand up to it and not fall apart.  Many knife lovers took a while to warm up to this material, as well as FRN and Zytel (because they are all extremely similar), because they thought it felt cheap and somewhat hollow. Another drawback to this material is that it tends to offer less of grip than G 10 does.

The GRN on this handle is black and intensely textured. Not only does it have intense textured, but it also has cross hatches across the butt half of the handle to look as if it is a pineapple. On the bottom and top of the handle, there is a row of thick, deep jimping to improve your grip on it. Because of its multiple jimping platforms, you have a virtually 360-degree secure hold. When describing the handle, CRKT said, “The handle pattern, made with glass-reinforced nylon with G10 texture, was modeled after a pineapple frag grenade. Even in gritty conditions, it offers an extremely secure grip whether you’re performing fine detail work or long, slashing cuts.”

 

The Pocket Clip:

The pocket clip on this knife is a silver pocket clip that matches the blade of the Pineapple. On the middle of this clip, CRKT’s logo is stamped on in dark grey. This is a long clip that is angled to curve around the side of the knife. This clip is kept in place by two small, dark grey screws that match the rest of the hardware on the knife. This clip is designed for tip up carry only on the traditional side of the handle.

 

The Mechanism:

This is a folding knife that features a flipper opening mechanism as well as a locking liner. The flipper on the Pineapple is not the typical flipper shape. Instead, it is rectangular and very skinny. The flipper is a small piece of the blade that protrudes out of the spine of the handle when the knife is closed. To deploy the knife, you pull back on the flipper protrusion which puts enough pressure on the blade to flip the blade out and lock it into place.

The locking mechanism on this knife is a liner lock. The liner lock is one of the more common mechanisms seen on folding knives. This mechanism’s characteristic component is a side spring bar located on the same side as the sharp edge of the blade, essentially lining the inside of the handle. When the knife is closed, the spring bar is held under tension. When the knife is fully opened, the tension slips the bar inward to make contact with the butt of the blade, keeping it firmly in place and preventing it from closing. To disengage a liner lock, you have to use your thumb to push the spring bar down so that it clears contact from the butt of the blade. This lets you use your index finger to push the blade just enough so that it keeps the bar pushed down so you can remove your thumb from the blade path, then continue to safely close the knife. One of the benefits of a liner lock is that they allow a knife to have two true handle sides. You can also close the knife with one hand without switching grip, which is perfect for when you need both hands on the job. You will find liner locks in both entry level and high end knives. However, the liner lock is not as strong as other locking systems. They are still very strong and can hold their own, but they are made out of a thinner piece of metal, so they are more prone to wearing out.

 

The Specs:

The blade on the Pineapple is 2.625 inches long with a blade thickness of 0.125 inches. The overall length of this knife is 6.188 inches long and has a closed length of 3.541 inches. The weight of this knife is 3.3 ounces.

 

Conclusion:

The Pineapple is one of the new models that CRKT has released in 2017. It was designed by the American knife maker Matthew Lerch. This knife is ready in an instant and its rugged construction is built to handle even the toughest of jobs. Each model features a pineapple frag grenade design that is coarsely textured which is complimented by its multiple jimping platforms. The knife that features a liner lock is pocket friendly but can still blow its competition to bits.   You can pick your Pineapple knife up here.  CRKT has a reputation of designing and building high quality knives that are extremely durable. This model, the Pineapple 4120, features a black Glass Reinforced Nylon handle, stainless steel liners, a drop point style blade with a stonewash finish on the 1.4116 stainless steel and the an angled pocket clip that is designed for tip up carry on the traditional side of the handle.