CRKT CEO for a formal knife, and a Bestech Platypus for a general work knife.
The Sheepsfoot blade style has come back in fashion, and I think it's a good utility shape, especially with a slight belly in it like this one. I never use the tips of my knives for stabbing anyway so having something sturdier is nice. Plus I just think the Platypus is cute, it's just a very fun shape. First time owning a D2 steel knife, although I've looked after carbon steel knives before so it should be fine.
CEO is the older model, which is tip-down and a thumb stud instead of tip-up and a flipper. The detent is way too tight but that's easy enough to fix.
review of your experiece with the bestech platypus and cricket CEO ?
Certainly: I've been stuck inside so I haven't done any serious outdoors work with these but I've used them around the house enough to have Opinions.
The Platypus: I think this is probably my new favourite knife I've owned, which isn't saying much but still. Big hulking utility folder with a quirky aesthetic. Sheepsfoot blades have been in fashion ever since CRKT put out the Pilar. I got it for ZAR 800 or about USD 55, which is a reasonable "nice but still budget knife" price.
The Platypus is very well made. Extremely smooth action, it's unassisted but the detent is balanced so you almost always get it open in one shot. Robust D2 steel blade, and came from the factory with a perfect razor edge. I consider D2 to be more stainless than not, so while you need to keep it oiled, it's not like it's going to rust out from under you if you forget for a while.
The scales are very cute, multicoloured stacked G10 fibreglass affair which makes it look much more substantial than it is. That said, it's fairly slim for such a heavy knife, and very smooth though so not the best if you want to use it with gloves.
The blade is big and thick, the blade stock is 3mm wide so even with a fairly tall grind it handles more like a little cleaver than a pocket knife. Longer than most compact pocket knives, so it doesn't pass the 3-inch legal requirement of some areas.
The sheepsfoot blade is really good for tip-cutting and shaving. I did some craft work cutting pages out of notebooks and slicing up shapes from plastic and rubber sheet with it and it feels like an overbuilt craft knife, since you have one long mostly straight edge on the bottom, which feels more natural than the high angle of attack you have to use with a drop point.
You're not going to be doing any stabbing or holemaking with this, but that's not really the point, and you can still get the tip to dig in to something if you need.
I haven't had to sharpen this yet and it's my first D2 blade, so I'll see how that adventure goes when I get to it.
The CRKT CEO: mostly just a pretty face but a perfectly serviceable knife. I got the older thumb-stud model, which is 8cr13 steel and tip-down carry right-side only. For my needs this is perfectly fine, but if you want left-side or a nicer steel, they have the flipper (although I think there's some special run original CEO's in D2 and S35VN. Not available near me, though.) I got this one for ZAR 640, or about USD 42, which is again, pretty reasonable for a pretty but ordinary knife.
This one is more of a mixed bag. The aesthetique is on point, obviously. Very elegant, one of the lightest and most compact knives I've ever had, and I think it's a good option if you like having a basic scout-style penknife but wish it locked and had a pocket clip.
The blade is 1.5mm stock and less than 3 inches. CRKT is a mixed bag from a quality point of view, this one is no exception. The detent was far too stiff to open one-handed and the edge was blunt as hell. Those can both be fixed, but no one likes having to sharpen a brand new knife. Whether this will happen to you seems to be random chance, according to the forums.
Once it's sharpened and I fixed the detent, it is perfectly fine. CRKT's 8cr13 is nothing special but it's not bad., and it's similar to Victorinox's INOX in my opinion: cheap, easy to look after and put an edge on, but it doesn't hold it. Perfect for something you don't use for heavy work and don't want to spend half an hour on sharpening, which again makes this sound like a Swiss Army Knife Plus. So far I've mostly used it to sharpen pencils and punch some holes in boxes so I can put wires through, at which it performs admirably.
The liner lock is sturdy enough and easy to manipulate one handed once I fixed the detent, and the pocket clip is simple and inoffensive. Blade shape is ordinary, although I suppose it has a relatively long slicing belly compared to other similarly thin knives thanks to the completely straight spine.
The thumb stud doesn't get in the way during use, since it sits right up against the handle when unfolded, but it does get in the way of sharpening. At the moment none of my screwdrivers fit that screw, so I just leave the very bottom part unsharpened, but once I have a screwdriver that fits I'd pop it out before sharpening. Since the stud sits inside the frame, you can't really move the stud around if you wanted it on the other side, so you mostly take what you get. With the stud and my detent adjustment, it opens nice and quickly with a little pressure, a dramatic deployment.
The form factor is lovely, very elegant, the one time I went outside since I got it I kept it in my inside jacket pocket, and it just disappears. It's easy to see why this was so popular, it's cheap and it looks good, and it gets the job done well enough to make up for its compromises.
