The New CRKT Clever Girl Knife: A First Look Review

The CRKT Clever Girl fixed blade knife has gotten a new design. The New CRKT Clever Girl still has the durable SK-5 Steel blade, but now features a Veff Serrated edge which allows for cutting ropes with ease. The overall length of 10 inches allows you to keep this on you without it getting in the way. The marble G10 handle has excellent grip for any situation regardless of the weather. It’s a lightweight and rugged fixed-blade knife perfect for the tactical user.

CRKT (which stands for Columbian River Knife & Tool) is known for making high quality blades for the tactical community. I know of military units that sell a lot CRKT knives in their kit shop for soldiers to purchase and use during training or while conducting operations.

CRKT has collaborated with Veterans under the Forged By War program, which allows veterans to apply their past experience and knowledge in designing a knife or tool that would be useful to soldiers conducting operations. The Veteran receives a commission for each sale, as well as selecting a charitable organization for CRKT to donate a portion of the profits to. The organization chosen by Austin McGlaun for his design is the Green Beret Foundation.

Specs

Blade Steel: SK-5 Steel
Blade Edge: Veff Serrations™
Blade Finish: Powder Coat
Blade Length: 4.60″
Blade Thickness: 0.16″
Overall Length: 10.13″
Weight: 6.30 oz (178.6 g)
Handle Material: G10
Sheath Material: Thermoplastic

Price

At the time of this article, the CRKT Clever Girl costs around $113. There is the older all black version for less, without the serrated blade.

Check the latest pricing on the new CRKT Clever Girl.

First Impression

My immediate thought was, “Wow, does that look aggressive!” The upswing curve of the blade makes this knife look mean. It’s shape is inspired by the claw of a Velociraptor, hence the name ‘Clever Girl’. If you’ve ever watched the original Jurassic Park, you’ll understand.

The G10 handle felt extremely nice in my hand. The texture has a rough feel to it, and I like the grooves as it will allow for more grip in rain and snow. That will be very useful during those Canadian winters.

The thermoplastic sheath is very strong and secures the CRKT Clever Girl with no problem. There’s a nice click when I inserted the blade into the sheath, so I know it’s secured and not going to fall out.

The angles, edges, and curves of this knife are very well done and sharp looking. The amount that the tang is exposed around the handle is perfectly distanced around the entire handle. And the labelling contrasts nicely against the blade.

And of course this blade is sharp! I took a stack of paper and sliced it along the straight edge of the blade, and it cut through with ease!

SK-5 Carbon Steel Blade

SK-5 Carbon Steel is an extremely strong and durable material which is excellent at keeping an edge for blade. SK-5 is comprised of a combination of carbon, chromium, nickel, magnesium, silicon, copper, phosphorous, and sulfur.

This combination gives the blade exception strength, toughness, increased tensile strength for edge retention, prevents oxidization, and corrosion resistant. The SK-5 Carbon Steel originated in Japan, who are known for their incredible knives and swords.

Veff Serrations

One of the new features of the new CRKT Clever Girl knife is the serrated edge on back half of the blade. This is an excellent addition for giving users the ability to cut through rope and cord far more efficiently than you could with a straight edge blade.

Personally I think I’d prefer more serrations per inch, but this is still a good addition for the New CRKT Clever Girl knife. In the military we deal with paracord a lot, especially when conducting survival training.

G10 Handle

I have to admit, when I looked online and saw the blue electric-looking handle, I wasn’t a fan. The way it appears on CRKT’s website makes it really stand out. It does look cool, but the reason I wasn’t impressed is because the blue look doesn’t really blend well with green, brown, and black. Which are more tactical in appearance.

Once I actually saw the knife in person, the blue doesn’t stand out as much as the photos made it look, which I was happy about. I was also really impressed by the way the G10 handle felt. It didn’t have an extremely smooth plastic feel like I was expecting. The G10 handle has a more rough and rugged feel which is excellent for grip, regardless of the conditions.

There’s an opening at the very end of the G10 handle for the option of having a piece of string or paracord. This is a good to have if you want to locate this knife on your gear in low light conditions, or if it’s on your back hip. Having worked with Aviation Life Support Equipment, the aircrew have a string attached to their survival knife for this exact reason.

I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to knives like some people I know, so I was wondering what the purpose of having holes in the handle was. From what I’ve researched, the reasoning is for multiple reasons. To name list a few, it reduces the total weight of the knife, and it allows snow and rain to run through the knife instead of building up on the surface which would reduce your grip.

Thermoplastic Sheath

The sheath included with the New CRKT Clever Girl is very durable and it secures the knife well. When you push the blade all the way in, there’s that bit of resistance and then a satisfying click noise once it’s locked in.

With the sheath is a clip that can be attached to the sheath with two screws, which CRKT included. This allows you to secure the sheath and knife on your belt or equipment either sideways, upwards, or even downwards. I’ve even walked around with the G10 handle toward the ground, and the sheath held the New CRKT Clever Girl in at all times.

Durability

The new CRKT Clever Girl knife is all around very durable, from the G10 handle to the SK-5 Blade itself. The steel of the blade runs down through the handle as well, which means you don’t have to worry about the blade breaking off at all.

On top of that, the sheath is made from thermoplastic material which will protect the knife from the outside elements or from blunt hits, keeping the blade sharp at all times. CRKT did a fantastic job at creating a strong, sharp, and durable knife.

Conclusion

Overall, I’ve been very happy with the New CRKT Clever Girl fixed-blade knife. The blade is very aggressive in appearance, durable, sharp, great workmanship, and the G10 handle feels amazing in the hands. The only thing I would change about the knife overall is the G10 handle colour. Nothing a can of Rustoleum camouflage paint can’t fix!

The New CRKT Clever Girl is going to be a knife I’ll keep close by for a long time. We actually keep it in our car for self-defense purposes. Columbian River Knife & Tool make some seriously high quality and durable knives that will get the job done for whatever you need a blade for. Go check them out.

For transparency, I have no relation with CRKT. I reached out to them to review one of their knives because I believe they make some of the best tactical blades out there. They offered to me the New Clever Girl to try out and review. CRKT didn’t pay me, nor do I make any commission for purchases made using the links I provide.

Thanks for reading my review of the New CRKT Clever Girl knife. I hope it’s been helpful and informative to you.