CRKT Scrub Knife Review

Columbia River Knife and Tool, or CRKT was founded in 1994 by Paul Gillespi and Rod Bremer. They say, “From day one, we put innovation and integrity first. We made a commitment to build knives and tools that would inspire and endure. We collaborate with the best designers in the world and operate on a simple principle: that the greatest thing we can give our customers is Confidence in Hand.”

Both of the founders were formerly employed with Kershaw Knives. However, they quit to being pursuing knives based on their own designs.

Kershaw did not really take off until the 1997 Shot Show. This was when Ed Halligan introduced his Keep It Super Simple knife. Within the opening days of the show, the entire years’ worth of the product was sold out.

The company produces a wide range of fixed blades and folding knives, multi-tools, sharpeners, and carrying systems. CRKT does collaborate with some of the greatest designers in the world such as Ken Onion, Harold “Kit” Carson, Allen Elishewitz, Pat Crawford, Liong Mah, Steven James, Greg Lightfoot, Michael Walker, Ron Lake, Tom Veff, Steve Ryan, and even the Graham Brothers.

Through these collaborations and through their own work, CRKT has come to own fifteen patents and patents pending. Some of the more popular of these patents are the Outburst Assist Opening Mechanism, the Lock Back Safety mechanism, and Veff-Serrated edges.

Today we are going to discuss the CRKT Scrub, which is one of their brand new knives.

 

The Designer:

             The designer behind this knife is Corey Brewer from Lafayette, Alabama. CRKT says, “Corey Brewer’s conviction: ‘if you want to break out and do something that makes you happy, you damn well can.’ Coming from a relatively new designer with serious raw talent, that’s one we can get behind. From his cluttered garage in Lafayette, Alabama, he’s vowed to make knives that aren’t simply useful, but artful—pieces that people resonate with. Beyond that, he creates to inspire: ‘if there’s someone out there that gets online to learn how to create a knife because he saw one of mine? That’s a hell of a good feeling.’”

 

The Blade:

The blade on this knife is made out of Sk5 Carbon steel. This steel is the Japanese equivalent to the American 1080 and is one of the highest quality steels for knife blades. This is a hard steel, which helps to give it some of the good quality for blades. Plus, because of the hardness, it can cut through practically anything. Sk5 steel can have a hardness level of RC64. Plus, it is also a very tough steel, which is a harder balance to achieve than believed because usually the harder the steel, the more brittle that steel is going to be. This steel also has the capacity to get a razor sharp edge.

The blade has been finished with a magnesium phosphate coating. This is a tougher coating, which will help to prolong the life of the blade because of the barrier it creates. The coating helps increase the wear and corrosion resistance levels of the blade. The coating is also a matte black finish, which means it will cut down on glares and reflections that this knife tries to give off. That characteristic is crucial when it comes to field work with this tactical knife and you are trying to be as stealthy as you can. Unfortunately, all coatings can and will scratch off after time. Since this is a tougher coating, you won’t have to worry about it scratching off anytime soon. But you do need to be aware that may happen over time. If that does happen, the blade has to be re-coated to sustain the same great benefits that it did at the beginning.

The knife has been carved into a trailing point blade shape. A trailing point blade is a lightweight knife that has a back edge that curves upward. It got its name because the back point is higher than the rest of the spine. The biggest advantage that a trailing point blade offers is the large belly that is ideal for slicing. Next, the tip is very sharp, so you can easily perform fine detail work. However, because of the fine and sharp tip, you do need to remember that it is going to have a weaker tip. If you try to pierce this knife through a harder material, the fine tip will probably snap. This trailing point is not as exaggerated as a fillet knife’s trialing point will be, so it is not going to be as weak as some trialing point knives. This is a major benefit to the CRKT Scrub, because it allows you to better use this knife as what it was made for—an excellent tactical blade.

This knife also has a plain edge, which allows you to really slice and field sharpen if you need to.

The Handle:

Because this knife is a full tang, the handle is also made out of Sk5 Carbon Steel. This steel is going to make the handle very durable and strong. It will give you the feel of the heft that makes you feel like you have the capability of taking on any task—which is just what your favorite tactical knife needs.

To cut down on weight, the handle has been skeletonized. This is how such a large knife only weighs in at 2.6 ounces. Normally, a steel handle would not be comfortable or provide you with a solid enough grip for a tactical knife, so CRKT wrapped the handle in cord.

The cord is woven around the edges of the handle as well as through the skeletonized middle of the handle. The texture of the cord and the weave pattern will give you near perfect grip in almost any environment. Unlike many regular knife handle materials, when the cord gets wet, you will still have high texture. As an added bonus, if you ever end up in a survival situation, you will be able to unwrap the handle and use the cord for a variety of purposes.

The handle has a simple shape to it. The butt is rounded and large. There is a thicker section on the blade that hasn’t be sharpened, so that you avoid cutting yourself accidentally. There is a large, but elongated finger groove on the belly of the handle that curves all the way towards the butt. This will give you a comfortable place to rest your fingers as well as being a safer place to rest your fingers out of the way. The spine of the handle curves inward slightly before curving back up toward the butt of the handle.

The simple shape is easy to hold on to and not too distracting—the blade is still the star of the knife. The handle is comfortable to use for long periods of time. If you need the cord, you can unwrap the handle and have the cord. While the cord is on, it will give you high amounts of texture.

 

The Mechanism:

This is a tactical fixed blade. There are a couple of major benefits to having your go-to tactical blade being a fixed blade. For starters, a fixed blade can be brought into a tactical situation much quicker than a folding knife could be. This is because all you have to do is remove the knife from its sheath and it is ready to go. With a folding knife, you would have to remove it from your pocket, deploy it, and then you could use it.

There are a few other advantages as well. Fixed blades are strong and big, which also means that they aren’t going to break. The blade can be thicker and longer because it doesn’t have to fit inside of the handle. There are also no moving parts on a fixed blade, which means it is going to be a lot sturdier. With a pocket knife, you have to worry about cleaning and drying all of the internal parts and with an automatic knife, you have to worry about the spring. With a fixed blade, none of that is an issue. This also means that the knife is going to be much easier to maintain. Cleaning is simple and a breeze—all you have to do is wipe down the blade, pat dry the cord wrapped handle, and oil the blade when needed. This will be a quick process because you do not have to worry about the insides on this knife.

This is also a full tang knife, which means that the entire knife is made out of the same piece of metal. This means that the knife is going to be stronger than a non-full-tang knife, because there are no weaker parts where the handle has been welded together. This also means that if you lose the cord around the handle, you still have the shape of a handle, which means that you still have a full knife. Full tang knives are especially good for survival knives, but also benefit tactical knives in full because if you are in the field, you don’t have to worry about your knife breaking.

 

The Sheath:

The sheath is made out of Glass Reinforced Nylon. This is the same material as FRN and is the off-brand of Zytel. GRN is a thermoplastic material that is strong, cheap, and resistant to both bending and abrasion. These qualities make the material almost indestructible.

The qualities stem from the fact that the fibers in the material are arranged completely haphazardly throughout, which means that it is going to be strong in all the directions. This is different than the other materials made from fibers (such as G10 or Carbon Fiber) because those have the fibers arranged in a single direction.

This is an inexpensive material because it can be injection molded, which leads to high volume manufacturing and a low cost. Some people did not warm up to GFN because it does feel a little bit plastic-y and it does have a little less grip than G-10. However, when it is used for a sheath, instead of a handle, you are going to get all of the benefits and not have to worry about too many of the disadvantages.

Overall, this sheath is going to be strong, tough, have no maintenance, and will be inexpensive which will keep the overall cost of the knife down as well.

 

The Specs:

The blade on this knife measures in at 3.939 inches long, with a blade thickness of 0.115 inches. The knife measures in at an overall length of 7.375 inches long. The Scrub weighs in at 2.6 ounces.

Conclusion:

When CRKT is talking about the Scrub, they say, “Simple stealth. Moving parts, burly knives, stout blades: they have their place. But in the heat of the moment, when everything is on the line, basic is better. That’s the conviction upon which the Scrub™ tactical fixed blade is built. Don’t get caught without one.

As he burns the midnight oil in his crowded garage in Lafayette, Alabama, designer Corey Brewer remembers what it’s all about. His mantra: “if you want to break out and do something that makes you happy then you damn well can.” His first CRKT® design, the Scrub™ is all the proof we need that Corey’s conviction is dead on; he’s on a fast track to asserting himself as a serious designer.

This lightweight, compact tactical fixed blade is a paradox: it’s both remarkably simple and packed full of thoughtful details. The 4” blade is carefully modeled after a traditional Persian pesh-kabz, renowned for both its strength and utility. He’s brought both the shapely SK5 carbon steel blade and handles definitively into the future with a magnesium phosphate coating for extreme corrosion resistance. For heightened utility options—from duty belt to covert carry—he’s wrapped both the handles and parts of the glass-reinforced nylon sheath with paracord.

The Scrub™: damn simple, damn near perfect.”

You can pick up this brand new knife today at BladeOps.