Heinnie Haynes CEO Knife

Heinnie Haynes is not one to rest on their laurels, and they have another exclusive UK legal carry version of a world renowned and award-winning knife. By the time this review comes out it will be ready to launch on HH’s wonderful web site. But I now bring you the prototype from CRKT for to compare it to the locking version that’s already available all over the world. Columbia River Knife & Tool company are one of the top companies in the world when it comes to bladed products. Founded in 1994 they work with leading designers to bring these products to the world.

One such designer is Richard Rogers, known for his clean, simple designs. One of his own custom knives is the Executive, it’s a low-profile design, very elegant, made to fit in a shirt pocket and looks like a top market pen. These sell for $525 US Dollars, he teamed up with CRKT to make a kind of mass-market version called the CEO. These retail for $49.99 in the US and were awarded the 2019 Blade Show best buy of the year, so well received was the knife. Heinnie Haynes saw the potential and now CRKT make an exclusive UK legal carry version for them.

Nice knife

To make the CEO legal the liner lock had to go, as did the thumb stud, and it needed a shorter blade length. Not insurmountable things. HH sent me the prototype and a normal locking CEO to compare it with. The locking knife is £47.95 and the non-locker will be £39.95. First impressions are that it’s a classy knife. They look identical on the pocket clip side, and you can only tell which is the non-locker as it is smaller by 7mm. When you turn them over you can see the differences; the locker has a thumb stud near the pivot point. The non-locker has a radioed cut out which you can see the blades nail nick in. The glass re-enforced nylon black handle scales have a very cool textured repeated Japanese wave pattern on both sides. The aforementioned pocket clip is strong and deep with tip down carry. It’s a thin drop point blade, only 13mm deep and 76mm long on the HH edition. The pivot is super-smooth thanks to the ball bearings in the IKBS system.

It’s two-handed opening with the nail nick on the left-hand side of the blade. A perfect gentleman’s knife at a price that’s hard to beat.

Thanks to Richard and Bruce at Heinnie Haynes for help in production of this article.