columbia river knife and tool - clever girl

FOG HORN April, 2016

Twobirds Flying Publication

Copyright 2016, Towbirds Flying Publication. All Rights Reserved.

Columbia River Knife and Tool Clever Girl

Confidence in Hand

CRKT Clever Girl 2016

Copyright 2016, Twobirds Flying Publication, All Rights Reserved

CRKT Clever Girl – confidence in hand

By: Sal Palma

Calling a fighting knife “Clever Girl” is

interesting to say the least but not

inappropriate given the very classy flowing

curves of this, new for 2016, fixed blade knife

from Columbia River Knife and Tool, CRKT.

Clever Girl is a collaborative effort between

Austin McGlaun, an Army veteran and its

designer, and the folks at CRKT.

After returning home from Iraq, where he

sustained several injuries, Austin joined the

police force but the annual salary of $36,000

was insufficient for him and his family. It was

then he decided to pursue knife making,

something he’d done and started in his garage.

As part of the Forged By War™ program1,

Austin McGlaun of Columbus, Georgia, designed

Clever Girl™. It aligns with his philosophy that a

knife is more than a tool. It's a psychological

deterrent very different from a gun and tells

your attacker, very quickly, that you mean

1 In 2013, Ryan Johnson of RMJ Tactical, designer of elite, military, tactical tomahawks, approached CRKT with the news that he had been working with a few combat veterans that had returned from war with varying degrees of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To help work through their challenges, they have been designing and forging steel into custom tools. Drawing from their experience earned in combat situations, they have been creating tools they wished they had available to them in the battlefield.

business. The Clever Girl™ was created so you

can grab it, use it if necessary, and then return

to your family.

Clever Girl is an interesting design with a blade

profile credited to Middle East origins2, very

much like the Yemeni Janbiya, but formally

Clever Girl’s blade profile is a trailing point

design. The curve along the spine terminates in

a tip that extends above the spine resulting in a

sweeping belly that gives this knife amazing

slashing and slicing power.

Don’t get me wrong, Clever Girl also has a

menacing point with tremendous piercing

ability but this baby is a slicer from the ground

up and simply a thing of beauty!

CRKT used SK5 for the blade material which has

excellent harness and edge durability.

SK-5 is the Japanese equivalent of American

1080, a high carbon steel with carbon between

0.75%-0.85% and 0.60%-0.90% manganese. As

2 CRKT describes it as Persian



quenched, it has a hardness near Rc 65 and

produces a mixture of carbon rich martensite

with some small un-dissolved carbides. The

excess carbide increases abrasion resistance

and allows the steel to achieve an ideal balance

of blade toughness with superior edge

retention.

With that little bit of metallurgy, I’ll continue

with Clever Girls’ hollow ground 4.6 inch long

and 1.58 inch thick blade sharpened to a razor’s

edge. This is so characteristic of CRKT

excellence. I have never experienced a dull knife

edge from CRKT and Clever Girl is no exception,

you can shave with this edge, and that is no

spoof folks.

CRKT has also included a black powder coat

finish for enhanced corrosion resistance and

tactical application.

Handle design is important in any class of knife,

but in a fighting knife, a properly designed

handle is everything. It determines how well

and how controlled you’ll draw and use your

blade and Clever Girl’s handle is worthy of a

dedicated review highlighting its numerous

exceptional qualities. It’s here where Austin’s

military experience is evident.

Clever Girl uses a full tang design with a

beautifully sculpted G10 grip creating a natural

hand-filling curvature with finger coils forward

and to the rear of the grip. All edges are

rounded and nothing bites into the hand,

gloved or not so it’s extremely comfortable to

grip. With this type of handle design, the user

will find that both a saber grip and reverse grip

work extremely well. Even an icepick edge out

hold feels natural due to the handle design and

a flattened surface along the lanyard hole at the

end of the tang.

Carry options are also important when

considering a fixed blade fighting knife. CRKT

meets that requirement by including an

excellent MOLLE compatible glass-reinforced

nylon sheath that securely holds the knife in

any orientation.

Austin McGlaun and CRKT have created an

impressive tool with many of the boutique

features but without the boutique price point.



Clever Girl is a knife possessing all of the

attributes credited to excellent fighting knives.

Its tenacious blade profile, razor sharp edge, full

tang design and superb handle make her a

formidable deterrent. Clever Girl’s spirit is best

captured by William Congreve’s, English

playwright and poet, "Heaven has no rage like

love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a

woman scorned," spoken by Zara in Act III,

Scene VIII from “The Mourning Bride.” And it’s

yours for a very modest $125 MSRP. Check it

out!

Manufacturer Specifications

Dimensions Open Overall Length 10.125 inches

Weight 6.3 ounces

Blade

Length 4.6 inches

Thickness 0.158 inches

Material SK5

Blade-HRC 54-56

Finish Black Powder Coat

Grind Hollow

Style Persian

Edge Plain

Handle

Material G10

Carry

Carry System Glass-Reinforced Nylon

Weight 1.6 ounces

columbia river knife and tool - clever girl

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