Alan Folts Archives - BladeReviews.com

Last updated: May 13, 2018
Ah, the CRKT S.P.E.W…. would a knife by any other name sound so sweet?

With that out of the way, lets get down to business because I really like this one. The SPEW (really, the S.P.E.W.) stands for Small Pocket Everyday Wharncliffe, and it is a really interesting design from custom maker Alan Folts. Alan makes his knives in a small shop on the Florida coast (a couple hours away from me actually) and he is an exceptionally nice guy. He is a classically trained artist, and has been refining his approach to knife making for many years now.

In addition to crafting beautiful custom pieces Alan partnered with CRKT and released a production knife, the Folts Minimalist, in early 2010. I reviewed that knife a while back and was extremely impressed so I was really excited to learn about the SPEW. The SPEW fills a similar niche to the Minimalist. It’s a small fixed blade, designed for every day carry.

General Dimensions and Blade Details

The SPEW has an overall length of 6.25″, features a 3″ blade, and it weighs 3 ounces. As I mentioned earlier, this would make a great fixed blade for EDC. This knife is also small enough to be used as a neck knife. Personally, I like to just carry this one in my pocket (in the sheath of course – more on that later).

The blade is a wharncliffe shape with a high hollow grind and an extremely sharp tip. This tip is perfect for detail tasks and will make quick work of whatever it is applied to. Now, a tip this thin is useful, but it’s also delicate. The SPEW is a knife you will want to be careful with if you expect that needle fine tip to survive daily use. Dropping this knife on concrete could end it all and you will not want to pry with this tool either. But since I knew that this tip could be an issue, I took it upon myself to thoroughly test. I put this knife through a fairly rigorous cutting test that included stabbing the knife through a stack of cardboard about 50 times. The tip held up really well.

Columbia River chose 5Cr13MoV stainless steel for this one, which isn’t my first choice, but it actually worked out really well. During my little cut test I created a mountain of cardboard shavings, and stabbed with the knife dozens and dozens of times. After the entire ordeal was over the SPEW was still held a paper cutting edge, which frankly came as a surprise since this is a soft steel heat treated to around 56 HRC.

My only issue is that the 5Cr did not want to take an edge easily and I was never able to get my knife absolutely hair popping sharp. While I’m no sharpening wizard, I attacked this thing with both diamond stones and Japanese water stones and was never able to get the edge quite up to spec. I know I’m not alone in this discovery, and I suspect it’s because of the low carbon count of this particular steel.

Handle and Ergonomics

The handle on the SPEW is G10 over a full stainless steel tang. The G10 is red and black it is a nice material to see on a knife at this price point. The G10 has been machined to offer enhanced grip and visual interest and the corners have been nicely rounded. Everything screws together, and I am very pleased with how well all the pieces line up. The handle is definitely well made.

The ergonomics of the SPEW really interested me because the Folts Minimalist is one of the most comfortable edc knives that I have ever held. While the ergonomics of the SPEW aren’t as aggressive as the Minimalist I was not disappointed with the way this model felt in hand. Like the Minimalist the SPEW is designed for a 3 finger grip, and it also features a small lanyard for your pinky. This is a comfortable way to wield a small knife and I am very pleased with how well that lanyard performs. Alan also included a nice finger choil in the design along with a jimped thumb ramp. The jimping that lines up with the G10 doesn’t offer any traction, but the jimping at the top of the ramp works as advertised. All in all I am very pleased with the “ergos” of this little knife.

Sheath

The SPEW comes with a very nice molded plastic sheath. The blade slides in with a firm snap and retention is very good. There is a little rattle, but this knife is not coming out unless you want it to. I like how a place for your thumb is included on this sheath, it means that you can easily pop the knife out with your thumb. I like carrying this one in my pocket, and it’s great to be able to deploy the knife with one hand and not have to remove both the knife and sheath from the pocket.

If you would rather carry the SPEW another way, the design offers a couple other options. CRKT includes a piece of paracord so you can lash this knife down or use it as a neck knife. I will say, if you want to use the SPEW as a neck knife, use a break-away chain or a cord lock so if the cord does get caught up you won’t strangle yourself! CRKT also offers a more traditional belt loop with this knife too – and you could mount the SPEW either horizontally or vertically. I like the sheath and the variety of carry options you get.

CRKT SPEW Review – Final Thoughts

The SPEW is another awesome knife from CRKT and Alan Folts. Fans of the Minimalist should be excited about this one, and I am happy to report that the SPEW does not disappoint. You get a wonderfully functional and compact design from Alan that has been well-executed by the folks at CRKT. I like the variety of carry options and just the overall package – it’s all been really well done.

My only issue pertains to the steel, and I think it is a pretty minor issue. Sure, I would love something that can take a finer edge, but the SPEW cuts, and it cuts surprisingly well. I gave the knife a series of hard tests and it passed them all with flying colors.

I think this is a good knife for the money and I recommend the SPEW if you are interested in the design, or want a little fixed blade for daily use.

CRKT S.P.E.W. EDC Fixed Blade Knife with Sheath: Compact Utility Neck Knife, Bead Blast Blade, Textured G10 Handle, Nylon Sheath, Belt Loop 2388

Easy To Sharpen: High carbon stainless steel blade takes an edge well
Minimizes Reflectivity: Bead blast finish reduces reflection
Exceptional Grip: G10 handle provides exceptional grip in all conditions
Gear Compatible: Durable thermoplastic sheath with mounting options
Compact Utility: Lightweight and easy to carry

I recommend purchasing the SPEW from Amazon or BladeHQ. Please consider that purchasing anything through any of the links on this website helps support BladeReviews.com, and keeps the site going. As always, any and all support is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

Last Updated: September 12, 2018

The CRKT Folts Minimalist is an intriguing design from acclaimed custom knife maker Allan Folts. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Folts and one of the big topics of conversation was this little knife. Allan is a classically educated designer and artist, and he takes both form and function very seriously.

Buy the CRKT Minimalist at BladeHQ

No products found.

Apparently, the Minimalist took over 2 year to design. It rode with him on trips around the country to various knife shows and exhibitions. He got feedback from hundreds of people and carefully tweaked the design before arriving at what you see here today. It may sound a little extreme, but I’ll tell you, pick this knife up. Hold it for a second and let me know what you think – the attention to detail should be obvious. This is a small knife, but it fits the hand better than some knives I own that are three times the size.

Anyhow, I have a certain methodology to all the reviews, so I don’t want to too far ahead here. Suffice to say, this is an exceptional little knife from the mind of a great maker offered at a phenomenal price.

Purpose

One of my favorite things about the Minimalist is the exceptional utility. It is a stout design that can also be a great option for EDC. Even if you you don’t normally carry a fixed blade knife, the Minimalist is discrete and can be easily slipped into a pocket.

I also think it’s a great knife for the truck, for your bug out bag, as an absolute last ditch tactical blade, as a backup backup survival blade, for camping trips, fishing, etc etc etc. I’m not saying you can baton logs with it, but at under 2 ounces it’s cheap insurance if your primary blade(s) fail. An all around workhorse, this little knife can pretty much do it all.

General Dimensions and Blade Specifics

The Minimalist is just over 5 inches long and sports a 2 1/8″ blade ground from 2.4 mm stock. The weight of this knife is 1.6 ounces.

As far as steel goes, the Minimalist is a full tang knife made of 5Cr13MoV. This steel is chemically very similar to 8Cr13Mov which personally, I do not mind. In my experience, 5Cr13Mov behaves a lot like 8Cr13Mov too. Both steels are a little softer than high end steels like VG10, S30V and the like, thus they tend to lose their edges faster, but I find it to be entirely adequate for my purposes. I will say, this steel can take an edge and the knife came surprisingly sharp. Out of the box I was able to shave hairs off my arm with no problem – not what I was expecting from a sub $20 blade!

The Minimalist is currently offered in 3 blade shapes. The original knife came with a wharncliffe blade. Shortly thereafter a tanto and bowie made their way on the scene. I love the shape of the bowie so I had to have that one. Folts took the classic bowie design and gave it a few tweaks to fit with the overall look of the knife. There is plenty of belly and the tip is reinforced thanks to a large swedge. The blade (and all of the metal) was given an attractive stonewashed finish. The kife has a shallow hollow grind that starts about 3/4 of the way up the blade.

Handle and Ergonomics

The handle, like most fixed blade knives, is pretty simple. CRKT actually sprung for some linen micarta scales here which is a material that you wouldn’t expect on such an inexpensive knife. The scales are actually a deep forest green, which is pretty cool color that I didn’t expect either (most pictures make the handle appear black). No complaints with the handle materials or the color. The scales are bolted on with torx screws so you can take the knife apart and remove the lanyard – another nice feature.

The ergonomics of this knife are outstanding. I pulled this blade out of the sheath and the knife literally fell right into place. It was like my hand was made for this knife. All it took was a second of contact and suddenly I “got” it. Allen told me about how this knife took 2 years to design, and that is something you can easily dismiss. I tell you, it now makes sense.

So as you can tell, this is a 3 finger style knife. A small lanyard is attached to the butt of the handle which provides a little extra grip (I think it’s a nice touch actually, works well). There is a nicely designed thumb ramp with some aggressive jimping. The micarta scales have also been very well finished. Everything is flush and the knife feels amazing in hand. The handle comes apart with 4 small torx screws, which is great if you want to swap out the lanyard or do your own custom scales.

Sheath

The sheath is made of Zytel, a hard plastic similar to Kydex. The retention on this sheath is excellent and the blade locks into place with a soft “click.” I tried to shake the knife out, and that simply was not going to happen – it is very secure. There are 6 eyelets for various methods of attachment to stuff.

Billed as a neck knife, a few feet of cordage is included to wear the knife around your neck. I’ll be honest here, I’ve never had a neck knife before, and my lifestyle usually doesn’t permit me to wear one. This was a problem because I couldn’t put this knife down, so I took off the cordage and slipped the knife in my pocket. It actually carries really well this way. It’s a slim design that I didn’t notice as I went about my daily tasks. The lanyard on the handle gave me a little extra to grab onto when I needed to fish out the knife for a task. I carried the knife around my neck on the weekends, and well, it’s not really for me. Convenient enough I suppose, but I’m not accustomed a knife around my neck.

A detachable belt loop is also included. It attaches with two bolts (also included) and adds to the versatility of this simple yet entirely adequate sheath.

CRKT Minimalist Review – Final Thoughts

Lets be honest here, I fell in love with this knife the second I took it out of the box. The ergonomics are fantastic. It’s a compact blade that fits the hand like nothing else. I’d love to see this in a slightly better steel, like say some 440C, but the 5Cr13MoV is actually holding up really well and for less than $20 shipped to my door, this was really a no brainer. I think it is a very high value knife. There are a lot of details in this blade that make it special. In conclusion the Minimalist is aptly named: it’s a simple knife, done right.

CRKT Minimalist Bowie Neck : Compact Fixed Blade Knife, Folts Utility with Bead Blast Blade, Resin Infused Fiber Handle, and Sheath 2387

Easy To Sharpen: High carbon stainless steel blade takes an edge well
Minimizes Reflectivity: Bead blast finish reduces reflection
Strong and Visual: resin infused fiber handle combines strength with visual appeal
Gear Compatible: Durable thermoplastic sheath with mounting options
Compact Utility: Lightweight and easy to carry

I recommend purchasing the CRKT Minimalist at Amazon or BladeHQ. Please consider that purchasing anything through any of the links on this website helps support BladeReviews.com, and keeps the site going. As always, any and all support is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

CRKT S.P.E.W. Review

General Dimensions and Blade Details

Handle and Ergonomics

Sheath

CRKT SPEW Review – Final Thoughts

CRKT Folts Minimalist Review

Purpose

General Dimensions and Blade Specifics

Handle and Ergonomics

Sheath

CRKT Minimalist Review – Final Thoughts