CRKT M16

Via Linoge's Soldiers' Angels fundraiser and giveaway, yesterday I came in to possession of a splendid little knife (well, biggish knife) from Columbia River Knife and Tool, a (an?) M16-13z.  A nice bright spot in an otherwise rather dismal day.  Because I like companies that support great charities like Soldiers' Angels, here's a little bit of free advertising for CRKT, in the form of some pictures and my initial impressions of the knife (note: did you see what I just did there, FCC FTC FAA FAC et al?  That's all you're going to get from me today. Go suck eggs.)

So let's see... zytel grips, spear point partially serrated 3.5" blade that flips out via a little lever (not spring powered, mind you), their "autolawks" locking system.  Sort of a diamond shaped blade, with a satin finish and a slightly off-centered edge (though very sharp), which I'm not sure the purpose of. Nice solid knife. Not huge, but big enough (and I guess big enough to count as a "weapon" in some jurisdictions, huh?).  Only thing to possibly disagree with is that it was made in Taiwan.  Some people care about that more than others, and I like to try sticking with Made in USA products, but it's hard to argue with quality, which this knife has in spades. But I thought I would mention it.

Put up next to my old standby, a Kershaw Scallion, you can see the size better:

The autolawks system is an extra little lever that blocks the liner lock until you pull it back, just an extra layer of safety, I guess, to keep the blade from coming closed on your fingers.

When closed, the blade snaps into place with what feels like a little detent of some sort to keep it from just flipping open in your pocket.  When you push on the lever (the protrusion with the hole through it in the above picture) it overcomes whatever it is that holds the blade in place and swings the blade out.  Depending on the position you are holding the knife, it may swing all the way open and lock, or you may need to give it a little flick to get it to go all the way.  When it's open, the lever acts as a bit of a finger guard to keep you from slipping up the handle.  Similar to how the Kershaw works, but without the spring power.

So to sum up, I like this knife very much. It fills a niche in my collection (a larger folder) that I was previously lacking.  Many thanks to Linoge for running the fundraiser for Soldiers' Angels, and to CRKT for providing this great knife as a prize.