I love Kershaw. I’ve carried a lot of them over the years, from back in the AUS-6 days to the current M390 Dividend. My main complaint is that they keep using 8Cr13Mov. Yeah, it’s better than the old AUS-6 or some of the lower XCrYMov steels in their ultra-budget line. The problem is that it isn’t good versus some other steels we see around the same price.
Chinese D2 is an obvious comparison, especially on Kubey, Ganzo, Petrified Fish, etc. Tangram knives use Acuto 440 in the $20 range. Acuto 440 holds a better edge and is much more stainless than 8Cr13Mov. The same is true of 9Cr18Mov when done well, which Civivi does in the $40 range. Ruike has some very affordable knives in 14C28N. There’s also 12C27. Because of all these choices, I haven’t bought an 8Cr13Mov Kershaw since the Fraxion.
I have my very first Kershaw coming, a China made orange 7100 Launch 1 in D2.
Bit naughty having an ao this side of the water, hopefully it’ll go through as I could do with it.
The Leek is very nice, but kinda pricey for how smallish it is.
The good news is that there are tons of them on eBay, and if you have sniping software, you can set up some snipes and get one at a decent price, or at least that's what I did.
This knife is really nice, and the clip is great as well.
It seems a little small after carrying the Oblivion, but I like it a lot.
I have learned that adjusting the pivot screws of knives can make them open up much better.
I will no longer ask sellers if the assisted-opening fires hard.
I'll just buy knives when the price is right and hope that if they don't open up very well that adjusting the pivot screw can be just what the doctor ordered.
(I wish I would have figured that out years ago.
I sold a bunch of knives that didn't fire hard, and I probably could have just adjusted the pivot screw instead.)
Adjusting the pivot and scale screws can also help center the blade (if that’s important to you).
I also polish bronze washers when I have the knife apart, especially for non-assisted knives. The washers are stamped (usually) and rounding out the slight burr and polishing the surface can improve action. I usually wet sand on 1000 grit sandpaper, then rub it around on a stropping block with chromium oxide to get a mirror finish.
I’ve owned few kershaws but I didn’t really like any of them. You get what you pay for and for budget price you get soft steel and heavy knives - opposite of what I want.
Ruby is nice and feels premium in hand but what was to be a beautyful knife looks like “gas station knife” because all that fugly writings on it. They never learned what subtilty means.
Had few Benchades, some were good others were not. Contego had blade-rock from day one and that is not acceptable in that price range. Grips are excellent, love them. Crooked River is a peace of art but never gets used. Bailout and Bugout are out of this world good, really love them.
Spydercos are all fugly but I actually love them for good steel choices and lightweight. Endura is my EDC for years now, Delica was good, Caly also.
And then there’s Cold Steel. Man I despise CS for what the represent, stupid and over the top claims and that fatboi Lynn trying to be a ninja whilst chopping heads…eeewww. But they do make good knives, some are excellent. I had an American Lawman in cts xhp that was modded (like all my knives) and loved it. Streight clip, no liners, good steel, thin blade, removed the finger groove so grip was excellent and modified tri-ad lock to make it easyer to close.