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CRKT Teases First Darriel Caston Collab Ahead of Blade Show West

October 5, 2023

CRKT dropped a teaser for a big Blade Show West reveal this week. The company will be releasing its first collaboration with Darriel Caston, called the Mbombo, a high-end piece with Caston’s signature sci-fi look.

Every maker cultivates a style of their own, but not many makers’ work is as instantaneously recognizable as Caston’s. His work, done under the shop name D Rocket Design, have a wild look inspired by both modern technology and the retro-futurist, pulp sci-fi of the 50s and 60s. Caston’s avant-garde bent goes beyond the merely visual too, with many of his designs featuring unusual deployment methods, handle designs, and blade shapes – all without sacrificing that core of performance enthusiasts demand from their purchases.

Although some details have yet to be disclosed, we can say for sure that the Mbombo brings the full D Rocket house style to bear. To begin with, the blade is done up in a stylized tanto, with a squared-off profile that separates its primary and secondary edges at an angle that is very near 90 degrees. The big fuller that runs down the center of the flat is carried over directly from this knife’s custom predecessor, the SpaceX. Also carried over is the deployment methods, an in-line flipper tab accessed by a cutout in the handle scales.

Given that this is a premium, 2023 release from CRKT, you might expect to see a blade made from, say, MagnaCut steel, as was the case with the recently released Ken Onion Redemption. But they took a different tack here, and the Mbombo has a damascus blade. It’s a choice very much in line with Caston’s custom stuff, in which material choice plays a major aesthetic as well as performance role. Meanwhile the handle is made from titanium; its square shape is another direct reference to the SpaceX custom.

CRKT will officially reveal the Mbombo at Blade Show West, which runs October 13th-14th. Stay tuned for more details on the Mbombo and any other new reveals at the show.

Knife in Featured Image: CRKT Mbombo

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