EDC Your Pocket, and Pocketbook, Will Love

Although I can appreciate big, heavily built folders, I honestly never end up carrying them. Typically, the ones that find their way to my pocket are light, thin, and easy to carry. The kind I tend to forget are clipped to my pants pocket and run through the wash. The CRKT Counterpart is one of those blades, and it happens to be quite affordable, too.

The CRKT Counterpart

CRKT’s Counterpart is designed by legendary knifemaker Ken Onion. I have to admit, any time I see an Onion design, I’m in. Ken has a way with both aesthetics and function that generally works for me.

Built for everyday carry, it features a 3.38-inch drop point blade made from 12C27 stainless steel with a satin finish and flat grind. It has a section of grooved jimping on the spine for your thumb to improve grip and control.

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The Counterpart’s blade deploys smoothly on CRKT’s famous IKBS ball-bearing pivot. It locks securely with an ambidextrous crossbar lock. That allows for easy one-handed operation for both left and right-handed users.

The lightweight handle is textured and contoured for a comfortable, secure grip and is made from Glass Reinforced Nylon. GRN gives it a good balance of strength, while still keeping weight to a minimum.

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A deep-carry pocket clip allows for adjustable tip-up carry on either side. There’s also a lanyard hole located at the butt of the handle. The knife measures 7.75 inches overall, with a 4.42-inch closed length, and weighs just 2.05 ounces.

It’s available with handles in black, gray, and aqua. The black model comes with a satin-finish blade, and the other colors have black-oxide finishes. There’s also a tanto version available with a black oxide finished D2 blade and black handles. MSRP is $70.00 for the 12c27 models, and $64.00 for the D2 Tanto.

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Street prices look to be running a little less than that, so these are pretty affordable. These are imported from China, but are made to CRKT’s usual standards.

EDC Carry

The Counterpart’s size and weight make it a perfect EDC companion. It’s thin and feathery light at just over 2 ounces. The deep carry pocket clip lets it sit securely and discreetly in your front pocket. As noted in my intro, I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll forget this is clipped to my pants and run it through the wash at some point.

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The factory edge on the Counterpart is excellent. I’ve been a fan of 12c27 since first working with it on Swedish Mora’s back in the late 80s. I’ve always found it to hold up well and offer a great balance of strength, corrosion resistance, edge retention, and ease of sharpening.

It isn’t a fancy “super steel,” but it’s way better than just about anything mankind had for thousands of years of blade use. For most of that history, folks used their blades way more than we do nowadays, and they got by just fine.

So, while 12c27 isn’t Magnacut, it’s going to be plenty good for opening up Amazon packages, whittling and cutting cord, and slicing up apples. You also don’t pay the premium for 12c27 that you do with the wonder steels.

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When it comes time to open the Counterpart, you’ll notice that there is no flipper, no hole, and no thumbstuds. Ken intends the knife to be opened by holding back the lever on the cross-bar lock and snapping it open one-handed. It’s pretty easy to master, and folks who have been using the crossbar lock for years know the trick.

Alternatively, you can always grab the blade in a pinch grip and open it that way, too, if you like.

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Using the Counterpart

I used the Counterpart as part of my everyday carry for about two months. Its drop point, straight-edge blade is a perfect all-around choice for general duty. It opens boxes and packages easily, and cuts through cordage and heavy tape effortlessly. The flat grind makes it an excellent slicer as well.

It saw more than a couple of days of impromptu kitchen duty during lunch. I sliced up apples, quartered sandwiches, and hacked off pieces of hard cheese and pepperoni with it. The 12c27 blade and open-frame GRN handle cleaned up easily with soap and water, too.

I also just sat at the workbench and did some slicing tests on different materials like seat belt webbing, sisal rope, nylon rope, and leather. I handled most of that easily. The 1-inch sisal rope was a little tough, and I had to saw through it. But I’ve seen that with other steels as well.

Even after sitting and deliberately cutting until I lost the factory edge, I never had to go to the stones for sharpening. I would keep the Counterpart touched up on my JRE Leather Stropbat loaded with polishing compound. I also have a smaller Sagewood Gear Field Strop, which is a loaded leather strop backed on a piece of Micarta, from Tuff Possum Gear. The smaller strop is nice for travel and camping.

I’ve always found that a leather strop loaded with polishing compound tends to be sufficient to keep 12c27 properly tuned. If you strop often, you won’t have to do a full resharpen unless you really do something extreme that dulls your blade.

A Capable Field Knife?

While the Counterpart makes an excellent EDC knife, I think it’d be great for hiking and camping, too. At just barely over 2 ounces, it isn’t going to bog you down. You can find a few things lighter, but it’s a heck of a lot more capable than a lot of the ultra-light knives out there.

Also, it is much more robust thanks to its crossbar lock. Even if you aren’t concerned with weight, it would be a good choice to pair up with a heavier fixed-blade knife. Use the fixed blade for the rough camp chores and keep the Counterpart tuned for finer work.

A Counterpart to What?

If you were wondering about the name and haven’t figured it out yet, the Counterpart is meant to compete with another slim, lightweight crossbar lock folder from another popular Oregon knife company. The CRKT Counterpart and the Benchmade Bugout are very similar in size, weight, and form factor. The Bugout offers higher-end S30V steel, but that comes at a price.

Bugouts start at $200 and go up from there. The Counterpart is nearly a third of the price at $70 for the 12c27 version and only $64 for the D2 Tanto. While 12c27 and D2 aren’t S30V, they’re both capable steels and work just fine. You will probably have to touch them up more often than you would a Bugout, though.

If you don’t mind keeping your edge tuned on a strop or taking it to a bench stone once in a while, though, the Counterpart offers a solid value in the slim, trim, lightweight EDC market.

CRKT Counterpart Specs

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