Columbia River Knife and Tool's M21-04G Black Folding Work Knife

This is a review of the Columbia River Knife and Tool's M21-04G Black Folding Work Knife.

The Good:
Solid Construction
Great open action
Lifetime warranty

The Bad:
A bit heavy to carry in your pocket
power coated handle  

Unpacking the knife

The knife came in a well packed box with instructions and registration materials. It seems simple enough and documentation is straight forward. They give you instructions on how to close it with one hand but I've not been able to master it. Maybe bigger hands will find it easier to do with one hand. I see the risk injury high if you try to close it with one hand.

Instructions

Overall Construction
This is my first Columbia River knife. It has solid construction and you can tell it'll hold up to most abuse you'll give to a knife. It's a tab bit heavy to keep in your pocket on a everyday basis but I guess that's why they have the clip on the side. A great feature is that you're able to move the clip to the other side of the knife if that works better for you. I could see the clip breaking with heavy use. I don't use the clip so it's not a factor for me. It comes with a life time warranty which is very nice for knife.
It is designed by Harold "Kit" Carson. He's a retired Sgt. Major and high profile member of the knifemakers' guild. I'm not that into knives so I'm not sure what factors this brings into the knife but at least it tells you that it was well thought out when they built and designed the knife. It's well balanced for a folding knife and feels solid. 

Blade
This is why you buy a knife. It is a solid piece of of well constructed 3.875 inch stainless steel blade. It's coated in a nitride finish which will wear off but the blade will hold up very well. It's held up very well to the odd tasks and jobs I've asked it to do. I'll provide an update later to see how well the blade holds up. 

Handle
The handle is very comfortable in your hands. The holes on the sides gets enough air through so you don't get too sweaty if you're using the knife for a long time. As with most folding knives, the weight is more on the blade when it's unfolded. It's black power coated so that finish will wear off in time. 

Folding

Opening the knife is a dream. This has been the best opening knife I've used. It has a flipper knob to start the opening action and you can either flick with your wrist to open it all the way or continue to use your finger on the knob. The open action is very smooth. We'll see how it hold up to thousands of opens.

I use two hands to close it but I could see you could do it with one hand. I would rather keep my fingers so I'll always use two hands to close the knife. 

It feature the innovative and strong AutoLAWKS knife safety. This sets a pin against the locking liner which converts it into a virtual fixed blade when the knife is open and locked. To disengage the blade, simply pull the red pin back, slide the locking liner over and close the knife. To deploy quickly, press your finger on the Carson Flipper, the blade flies open, and this innovative safety system automatically has your back.