I have a couple hundred folding knives I suspect. About 30-40 or so are Kershaws of various types. IMO, I agree with folks above that Kershaw has the best price to performance ratio across the line of any Mfg. Great product at a great price. My fav. EDC is the Kershaw Blur and I have about 8-9 of them. They come in cheap enough that I donāt care if I happen to lose one (hasnāt happened yet knock wood), They pull out quick, grip well and are non-slip, sharp and flip open easy. The blade shape isnāt ideal for a fight although they do have several blade types, but that crap only happens @ every 30 years anyway (so far), so maybe Iām good. The blade shape is rugged and wonāt break under any conditions I would bet. Regardless, I have some better knives, but they cost craploads more (not double or triple -craploads) I get nervous carrying them for fear of loss. My total favorite is the Lone Wolf Harshey D2 D/A. Best pocket folding knife ever and certainly significantly better than any of the āautoā crap Benchmade tryās to sell. But I only have 2 of them. For whatever reason, Benchmade bought Lone Wolf, took pre-orders and then stopped production of them almost right away. I was stoked as I had 2 on preorder with Benchmade for the first production run in D2 steel, and they were less $$ than Lone Wolf had been selling them all day long (list was $215 vs $300) and yet they cancelled the order. I suspect that Bill arshey wanted a residual or something. That guy makes some great product though, it would have been Benchmades #1 knife should they have made them.
So close. Now they go close to $500 for an old Lone Wolf brand ā¦when you can find one.
Love Kershaw, definitely top of the list for price to performance ratio. They also have some of the best usable profiles while maintaining a good aesthetic.
I used Kershaw knives almost exclusively for over a decade. Iāve had a bunch of different models over the years. They tend to offer consistent quality and they have excellent customer service. I rather like the Dividend. It feels like a superior successor to the Leek but Iām not crazy about 420 HC at that price. Due to recent changes in the market, it runs into some stiff competition in the $30-50 range. Once you get around $30 and up, Iād definitely recommend checking out Tangram, Civivi, and some of the other new quality budget makers from China.
As far as classic Kershaw designs in 8Cr13Mov, my favorite is still the Clash. It cuts well and is quite comfortable in my hand. It suffers the same problem as a lot of other Kershaws in that not everyone is going to love that clip. If you want a more streamlined deep-carry clip, you can call Kershaw. Iāve found that the clip from the Kershaw Brookline fits the Clash perfectly.
Iām not super into your list, only because I prefer having fewer knives with better steel choices, but I did recently run across one that checks a lot of my boxes and is Kershaw (your specialty):