Been a fan of Chris Reeve knives ever since I did some research for another member a while back--- Unfortunately, most are out of my price range except in my happy dreams-- Anyhow, here is a link to the original thread on the Chris Reeve Nkonka I researched--Awesome freaking knife--http://iknifecollector.com/forum/topics/chris-reeve?commentId=31810...

I have the Sebenza 25 myself and am hoping to one day get the Umnumzaan, would be nice to have a complete collection but I could never afford that. I lucked out on the Sebenza big time, story for another day. :)

So it's another day... Here's the story of my Sebenza 25 (not an old story but a few week old story). When I started taking an interest in switching from collecting the big blades (swords) to smaller blades (folders) late last year I began as I often do by researching what was good and of course, hitting YouTube to get some video evidence of the tools of the trade. The name Chris Reeve kept coming up as if the guy was some kind of diety and Sebenza was the blade to own. So of course I just had to get my hands on this holy grail of knives. It didn't take long to discover that this beast was way way WAY out of my price range but, I had my 50th birthday coming up in Jan and I put the word out, if anyone could find a deal on one I wanted it. Well, my partner found one on eBay for $99 from a seller in Russia with 0 sales and 0 feedback. All the red flags went up. This has to be a counterfeit knife. I'd already seen a few horror stories and I knew not to get my hopes up but, for $99 it was too much not to take the chance, so for an early 50th birthday present I got the Sebenza 25. Everything looked to be in order, it had the birth certificate, proper box with the stickers and such, I compared it closely with photos of the real thing and it all looked right. But I wasn't 100% convinced, so I sent it in for a spa treatment and to get it verified and voila! It's the real deal, for $99! My introduction into the world of collecting pocket knives just happened to be the holy grail of the hobby, talk about scoring!

   Since then I have of course seen a lot of custom knives showcased that run thousands and could be considered better knives, but as a mid tech production knife, the Sebenza is still the king and I'm happy. Now, anyone know where I can buy a Bodega for $99? :)

If you have any Umnumzaans you want to part with let me know. :)

Well, like I said collecting CRK's is sort of the focus of my knife collecting.  Here are a couple of the 'Zaans I was talking about.  The top on is one of the 20 prototypes from 2008, and the second is a rather rare tanto variation.  Hope this works...

I kind of talked myself into wanting one. Specifically a lefthander with inlays. Or an Umunumunumunumnumunmunumnuzaan.... (I love the knife but can't stand the name.

But my current budgetary situation is that I won't be able to get one for a while. We can't all score one for $99 LOL

Keep your eyes on eBay, you never know what might pop up. I've got my eyes peeled for that cheap Umnumzaan. Oh and you'd like the name if you knew what it meant. It means "Boss" or "Head of the family" in Zulu.

Well I do like the meaning....I still don't know how to properly pronounce it without breaking my tongue in the process thouogh.

Don't know man. I look at that word and all I see is a collection of M's and N's LOL

You didn't play with alphabet soup enough as a child. :)

Probably.

CRKs used occupy a huge place in my collect.  At one time, had 50 of them.  One by one, however, they found their way to new homes and I am now down to 2 (a small Sebenzas and a Mnandi).

2013 UG small Sebenza (personalized on lock bar side):

2011 Mesquite Mnandi with engraving done by Bruce Shaw.

i just got my first chirs reeve it is a $800 large sebenza 21 rain drop damascus blue sapaire