CRKT McGinnis Shrimp Frame Lock Knife Pink (1.75″ Satin) 1183

The category of “key chain knives” has been around for a long time. In most cases, these are little pen knives, with thin blades and slip joint pocket knife frames. Gerry McGinnis had a radically innovative idea, which is why this knife is in our catalog. He calls it the Shrimp™.

The revolutionary idea is this: make a small knife with premium quality materials and big knife build. The Shrimp is not a toy, but a real sport and work knife. The only difference is that it has a 1.75″ blade and a 2.5″ handle.

Take the blade, for example. It is made of premium 8Cr13MoV stainless steel in a high satin finish. Although short, it is fully featured, with a modified drop point shape with recurve. It is high hollow ground and has a slight swedge on the top edge. It is opened by a large CNC-milled nail notch. There are aggressive friction grooves on the spine for the thumb. But most impressively, the blade is a full 0.125″ (3.2 mm) thick, a width common on much larger folders.

The Shrimp has a frame-lock build, eliminating the need for separate liners. The right side frame is 3Cr13 stainless steel on all models. The left frame is 6061anodized aluminum on the colored models, and stainless steel on the bead-blast model 1181. The left frame is skeletonized to save weight. To aid grip, there are two finger choils and the frame has a rounded contour.

The combination of thick blade, solid frame lock and large blade pivot means that this is one shrimp that doesn’t wiggle! But there’s more to the story. Just like our larger knives, the Shrimp has a removable stainless steel pocket clip in bead-blast finish. Torx® fasteners are used throughout. There are Teflon® bushings at the blade pivot. And there’s a small key chain loop that folds out of the frame. And finally, we’ve added a back spacer of moonglow plastic that glows in the dark, so you can quickly find your Shrimp at night.

The Shrimp has been value-priced so anyone can afford one as a key chain knife, a money clip knife, a first knife, or a gift knife. And please remember, the name Shrimp is not intended as an insult, but as a term of endearment for a tough little guy.