Review: CRKT M16-01kz

I own many knives from Swiss Army, to SOG, to Gerber, to Benchmade, so why do I insist on using a CRKT? I really don’t know why I like this knife so much because it is just an average knife. Just to be clear, this is the black spear point and it is the cheaper version ($17 from Big 5). The blade steel is 8Cr15MoV. This steel is about the same as AUS4, except it is Chinese. For those of you who don’t memorize steel names, this is softer steel. It has gotten dull, however I use this knife everyday so it is understandable.  I have read some reviews on this knife that say that the black coating on the blade is Ti-Ni. Due to the way that it is scratching off at the tip, I highly doubt that this coating is titanium nitride. I do like the width, size, and shape of the blade even though some people don’t like the spear point for an E.D.C, but it don’t mind it. There is also jimping on the back of the blade which is nice because I like to choke up on the blade to get more leverage. Moving on to the handle, it’s great. The handle is lightweight and durable (glass filled nylon or zytel, almost same thing) and is extremely comfortable. The overall knife is pretty good for the price. The Carson Flipper method of deploy is amazing. It opens smoothly and almost as fast as an assisted knife. Sometimes you have to flick your wrist to open the blade. The m16-01kz has two locking systems. It has a liner lock and the Auto Lawks system. I personally could do without the Auto Lawks, but it does make the blade very sturdy. On an unrelated topic, there is no pivot wiggle on the blade at all which is great! The knife is great except for one HUGE FLAW. The flaw with the CRKT m16-01kz is that the liner lock will sometimes slide past the blade. This makes it impossible to close the blade without prying the blade back with a lot of force and a flat head screwdriver. This flaw must be fixed! I sent several messages to CRKT and got a new knife which has never had this problem. I don’t know whether the first knife was defective, but as far as I know, this flaw could occur with any m16-01kz. My advice if this happens to you is that you should return this knife and get a better one. As I said, my new knife hasn’t had this problem so far and I use it as my E.D.C. (every day carry). Even though this knife has some flaws, I still love it. What more can you expect for $17? If it didn’t have that huge flaw with the blade sliding past the liner, I would give it 8.5/10. However, I still must consider that flaw and rate it 6.3/10.