Good budget knife
Quite like this knife. Simple. Unpretentious. Good beater knife. Nice blade action. Quality old-school D2 semi-stainless tool steel blade - reasonably easy to sharpen. Perfectly centered. Nice stone-wash. Thumb stud helps keep fruit etc away from the pivot area. Full length semi-recessed steel liners give it a robust feel, despite its slimness. The deep carry pocket clip can create a bit of a hot spot at its tip. Could be bent or filed down. The lock bar jimping and spring are harsh. The jimping can be softened with the thick end of a needle file and then fine wet & dry. (Tape the scales to protect from scratching.) The spring can be eased. Half open the blade, press the lock bar down as far as it'll go and insert a narrow screwdriver (2.5 mm) between the lock bar tip and blade tang. Lever the lock bar upwards until you feel the spring's elastic limit and then a tad further, putting a small set on the spring. Do this in minute increments. A little goes a long way. Go too far and you'll wreck the knife. Measured: edge length 8.1 cm, spine thickness 2.30 mm (at thumb stud) 1.45 mm (1 cm from tip), behind the edge thickness 0.90 mm (heel) 0.80 mm (1 cm from tip), handle thickness 8.5 mm, weight 66 g. Spyderco back lock knives are an obvious comparison. This isn't quite up to their quality (or price). If you're accustomed to the latter, beware. Sal Glesser makes clear the reason his back lock knives have a long ricasso - for one-hand closing, your index finger can safely catch the blade as it drops. Do that with this Kershaw and you will immediately (in my case repeatedly - doh!) get cuts to the back of your index finger, where the Kershaw's sharp ricasso-less blade lands. A good value knife. HH very helpfully sent me a replacement for a missing screw (out of the box), cannibalised from another Kershaw Cargo in their stock.
