Columbia River Cascade: Jim Hammond Does it Again

Let's talk about Columbia River Knives.

Columbia River came on the knife scene in the middle 90's, founded by Rod Bremer. They are known as CRKT or called Cricket knives by many of their fans. When they hit the knife market they set the market on fire. Knives made in Taiwan that compete with the quality of knives made in the US at a fraction of the cost. Crkt Knives captured a good sized section of the upper end knife market. They were one of the reasons that Benchmade, Kershaw, and Gerber started China lines, so they could compete. Today all US based knife companies have knives made in China and Taiwan.

Today, I wanted to review the CRKT Cascade. This model has been retired by Columbia River and is a great knife for camping, hunting and the outdoors.

CRKT Columbia River Cascade Knife The Cascade is designed by Jim Hammond. He has many designs manufactured by Columbia River. He is world famous for his innovative designs. Jim lives close to Huntsville, Alabama. When ESKnives ("The Cool Store") had our store in Huntsville Jim would visit us with all his latest models.

The Columbia River Cascade is a tough tactical full sized folder (5.12" closed, 8.5" open) that affords great comfort and some interesting features. This knife has what CRKT call a "90Â° hitch" in the lock back mechanism. This hitch system stops the blades slightly at the 90 Â° closing and opening arch. This helps the user to have more control over the blade and avoiding accidental cuts. Having one hand myself, I understand how great this feature is for one handed opening and closing in low light environments and situations where you are not looking at the knife when you are operating it.

The Cascade has an Aus 6M bead blasted blade, with a non reflective oxide finish, that is partially serrated. The partially ground blade has a drop point end. The blade itself is thick at 1/8" wide. There are jimping grooves (traction grooves) at the top of the blade formed for your thumb. Using the jimping groove while gripping your knife gives you precision control and less slippage.

The 5-1/2" handles are constructed of a soft, rubberized Kraton over a polycarbonate frame with a deep finger grip similar to the Hammond Cruiser which gives this knife a real solid, yet comfortable grip when in your hand. When you grip this knife the finger grooves conform right to your hand. When you hold the Cascade you will notice that the pommel is hard. This hard pommel can be used for hammering and crushing.

CRKT Columbia River Cascade Knife On the handle of the knife there is a removable stainless steel pocket clip that is black Teflon plated. This clip can be moved to either side for right hand or left hand carry. With the clip it is a point down carry. If you prefer a more traditional belt carry, the Cascade comes with a black molded closed cell foam Cordura nylon carry sheath with a horizontal or vertical carry.

One drawback to the Cascade is that it is large and kinda heavy. It may be too much weight for utlra light backpackers and climbers. But all in all I talk a lot about survival and theCascade will perform in any survival situation.

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