I have followed CRKT (Columbia River Knife & Tool) since they first came on the cutlery scene many years ago. CRKT was actually formed by a couple of former executives from another knife company. It is now solely owned by Rod Bremer. We’ve been great friends ever since I first met him. Rod is now mostly retired. However he has an outstanding management team who runs CRKT and I’ve met most of them – all great folks to work with. As a disclaimer of sorts, CRKT produced my OC-3 double edge fixed blade fighting knife that I did as a collaboration with custom knife maker Brian Wagner. The OC3 was discontinued a few years ago. But folks still contact me, wanting to purchase one. The best that I can do is direct them to the Internet, to see if they can find one for sale.
Origin of The M16 Folders
The late Kit Carson was a custom knife designer/maker in his own right. He passed away in 2014. However, he left CRKT with a good number of knife designs, and his best work was his M16 lineup. Those have been in production for as long as I can remember. A really good knife design, usually lasts about 2-3 years on the market, and then it is discontinued. The M16 line is still going strong, with different versions and designs – a credit to the creative mind of Kit Carson – he knew what he was doing when he designed these knives.
I sure won’t take credit for anything Carson did with the M16 design. However, during one of my visits to CRKT, I was shown some of Carson’s designs, long before they came out. I immediately saw a few changes that could easily be done by CRKT. I thought they could produce these folders with different colored handles, to wit: Olive Drab green for military destined folders, orange for rescue personnel, and blue for law enforcement. It took CRKT a year or two, but they started producing some of the M16 line in those colors.
On to the current M16 lineup: These are, in my opinion the best they have produced. Oh, to be sure, these are still the famous and most sought-after designs. However, they all have a couple things in common. They are assisted opening, and one of the best assisted opening folders that I’ve seen. This assisted opening was designed by world-famous knife maker/designer Ken Onion, in Hawaii. Then, we have the Dead Bolt locking design, and this came from Flavio Ikoma – also of Hawaii and then throw in the IKBS pivoting ball bearing – also from Ikoma, and we have some of the slickest opening folders ever, That Dead Bolt locking system – just might be the strongest lock on a folder ever! And, I’ve tried my best to defeat this lock – couldn’t do it. You can destroy the knife, before the Dead Bolt lock will give way.Continue reading“CRKT Assisted Opening M16 Folders, by Pat Cascio”



