The Shirogorov tier ladder

Every Shirogorov folder belongs to one of four tiers, and most of the arguments we see between buyers come from mixing them up. A Custom Division (CD) knife is not a custom. A Sprint Run is not a Custom Division piece with a different label. A duck foot pivot on a “CD” listing is a reason to slow down, not to pay more. This page sets out the ladder once, with the factory’s own bearing tiering as the spine.

The ladder

The factory itself tiers its bearings this way: serial products use multi-row MRBS ball bearings; limited projects with other craftsmen carry MRBS or SRRBS depending on the model; Custom Division knives carry SRRBS; and Sergey installs DRRBS in his own custom knives.

Two terms need spelling out. SRBS (Single-Row Ball Bearing System) is the early serial system, a single row of loose or caged balls per side, and it predates MRBS (Multi-Row Bearing System), which stacks loose 1.5 mm balls in concentric rows. SRRBS (Single-Row Roller Bearing System) swaps the balls for loose cylindrical rollers that ride on line contact rather than point contact; a Custom Division F95 torn down in October 2014 counted 17 rollers per side. DRRBS (Double-Row Roller Bearing System) is two rows of those rollers, often over hardened steel underlays let into the titanium. MRRBS (Multi-Row Roller Bearing System) is multiple uncaged roller rows and sits on the same custom tier as DRRBS; which pieces carry which is a per-model question, not a tier rule. The full mechanics are on the bearing systems page.

The lines within the serial tier differ in materials and, on the lower lines, slightly simpler geometry; the surface and finishing standard is the same across them, and at least half the labor on a knife, as Sergey Shirogorov put it in 2019, is hand work after the CNC passes, removing cutter transitions and grinder marks.

Before the tiers: the Three Bears

Older listings and forum posts grade knives by a Bears classification that no longer exists. The Three Bears (Tri Medvedya, the source of the 3M suffix) was its top category, a specification shared across serial models from the F95 Nudist of September 2016 to the F95NL 3M of February 2021. The Bears were a quality marking within serial production, not a tier above it; what replaced them is the ladder above, and a factory renaming notice of 31 March 2022 dropped the 3M suffix from the model names. A knife described as “Three Bears” or “3M” is a serial knife under an old label, not a Custom Division piece. How the designs evolved has the full history and every release in the category.

Custom Division

The factory announced the Custom Division on 23 April 2014 as a line of familiar models built with new solutions and technologies and carrying continuous individual numbering. The first CD knives were shown at the Arsenal exhibition in Moscow the next day, 24 to 27 April 2014. The earliest identifiable CD model is the Hati 3D Seashell, six of which were awarded by lottery on the opening day, alongside F3 Custom Division variants. The division was designed in 2013; the announcement date is the one to cite. The questions buyers ask about the tier, from what a CD number looks like to whether a CD knife can be taken apart, are on the Custom Division FAQ.

What changes between the production bench and the CD bench is mostly finishing time and materials, not design. CD pieces are adaptations of production models rather than new shapes. The Division takes a disproportionate share of the workshop’s capacity: far more hand labor per knife than the serial line, in small batches, with tooling made in nearly the volume of a serial run. Sergey Shirogorov has called it more pleasure than business.

The signature cues collectors use on a CD piece are hand-chamfered edges with wide bevels, oversized pivot collars with decorative machining, multi-color anodizing done with masking, and internal accents visible only on disassembly. Blade steels run to M390, S90V, S110V, M398, MagnaCut, Vanadis 10, Vanax 37, Damasteel and DamaX; inlays, when present, are timascus, mokuti or zirconium. Lock types match the production counterpart, mostly frame locks; the MidiQ CD is a frame lock.

Notable releases, with what is documented for each:

Market behavior is the part of the CD story that most needs a date attached. CD and Sprint Run pricing follows a hype cycle: a release-window premium, compression over roughly one to two years, then a settle at a level set by scarcity and steady demand. The CDX 10th Anniversary is the clean example: a premium in its June 2024 release window, then two years of compression to a level where the 2026 sales cleared within days, which is what a floor looks like; the line has 15 dated observations. The figures are in the price record and the reading is on Buying, selling and value.

Full custom

A full custom is a knife Sergey Shirogorov builds himself. There is no catalog, no run, and no listing on the factory site; a piece exists because Sergey made it, and the documentation that travels with it is the maker’s own. The factory’s bearing tiering puts DRRBS on these knives (it also appears on a few early Custom Division pieces, the Hati 3D Seashell and the F95 3D Silk), and the duck foot pivot, the distinctive hardware whose shape gives it the name, appears on full customs only. It is not a Custom Division marker and never was, whatever a dealer listing says. How a full custom reaches a buyer and how to know one is genuine are on the full custom FAQ.

Prices are set by the few sales and auction results that surface, so any range is a guide rather than a rule. On those results, dealer secondary listings and show-floor sales fill the lower part of the range, auction results the upper, with the Blade Show Atlanta auction of June 2025 in the middle and reported results above the top; the range itself is in the price record. Sergey’s full-custom output continues, with 2025 auction results and RECON1 Invitational activity putting new pieces into the market, so scarcity here reflects low volume rather than a halt.

Acquisition routes are four: auctions attached to major shows, the factory’s own auctions, dealer secondary listings, and the occasional show-floor sale.

Telling the tiers apart

The reliable cues, tier by tier:

Serial production: MRBS ball bearings under the pivot; standard slotted hardware; the serial on the box and COA rather than on the knife.

Sprint Run: a numbered run of thirty, on SRRBS in every documented run, on a design that is either new or a material variant of a production model; the Stellar SR (designed 2021) is the earliest release dealers record under the Sprint Run name, though dealer listings marked SR for the Quantum precede it.

Custom Division: SRRBS rollers, loose, where the balls would be on a serial piece; standard pivot hardware, so the absence of a duck foot is expected, not a warning; markings inside on the scales or backspacer, with the serial on the box and COA; the CD presentation box and the CD-specific COA. Ball bearings in a claimed CD pivot, a duck foot pivot on a claimed CD, or a serial format that does not match the documentation are the three signs to stop on.

Full custom: DRRBS or MRRBS rollers; on a Custom Division piece, DRRBS appears only on a few early pieces such as the Hati 3D Seashell and the F95 3D Silk; a duck foot pivot; hand finishing visible as texture variation; maker documentation rather than a factory COA. A “custom” offered far below the range above deserves the same pause as a CD with a duck foot.

Where the ladder points next

Sprint Runs have their own register on the Sprint Runs page. Designer collaborations sit beside the ladder rather than on it; their bearings are set by model, and they are covered on the collaborations page. The Sinkevich Touch sets are show-edition sub-runs of production models, on their own page. Finish-artist editions are production frames with a third party’s finishing; they price as dealer editions rather than as base production, and they are listed on the model pages they belong to, beside the other dealer exclusives. For what any of this is worth in money, the answer is always the same page: Buying, selling and value.