I turned 70 today, or, more accurately, I celebrated the passing of 70 years since my birth. Among the gifts my wife, Ana and the cat, Avi, got me were a Kershaw Cryo II tanto, with their Blackwash finish. It is an assisted flipper, meaning once you have started the blade moving with the flipper tab on the back of the knife, the internal spring does the rest.
I have a fondness for the American Tanto blade shape, owning three blades in this pattern. I have an old Elishewitz-designed tanto liner-lock folder from Benchmade which I got nearly 20 years ago and have carried pretty much ever since as my every day carry knife (EDC ). While we were getting supplies at Home Depot for our painting and electrical upgrade to the new house, I found a Milwaukee assisted folder with a tanto-style blade for a small sum and added it to the cart, sort of an early birthday present to myself. It will need a good sharpening, since out of the the plastic shell display card it doesn't have all that keen an edge.
Anyway, I thought I'd give a short critique of the Kershaw. It is, as I said, an assisted flipper. Kershaw calls it a Speedsafe system, which is a trademark of theirs. It works well.
Closing the knife is via the frame lock, which is formed by a portion of the frame on the left side of the knife - when you hold it in your hand with the blade edge up - and serves to lock the knife by moving to the right and blocking the blade from closing. It is a solid, positive lock-up, and engages about 25% of the blade in what is considered an "early lock-up." It requires a bit of effort to unlock the blade at this point, and I expect it will ease up a bit as I use it. The frame lock is prevented from being bent too far outward by the patented frame lock over-travel limiter designed by Rick Hinderer, who designed the knife. It is a solid design, well tested in a variety of blades, both Hinderer's and others made under license.
This is a production knife made in China from Hinderer's design for Kershaw. For an under $50 knife, retail, the quality seems to be quite good. The blade is centered well within the frame, almost dead on. This is common on custom knives, expected, but not as common on factory-made knives.
Out of the box - a nice, simple printed cardboard box with a label on one end - the knife was sharp over its whole length. The blade, what is termed an "American Tanto" design, also has a slight belly recurve, which will make it a little harder to sharpen, but gives a great cut, especially on a draw-cut, with the curve carrying the blade through whatever is being cut. I expect, since this will be an EDC knife, to find the limits of both the factory edge and the design features.
After many years of not buying knives, I am back in the market. For years, I set an upper limit of $100 for a knife, meaning I was mostly buying production knives, with a couple of simple customs by lesser known - or unknown - makers, including a couple of fixed-blade knives from David Boye. I will hold close to that price-point, going up by maybe fifty or even as much as another hundred for the right knife. I suspect that most of my acquisitions will still hover right around the $100 mark.
As I acquire new knives, I will probably blog about them, adding photos as I can. I am still mostly a gun guy, but with the price of guns, adding more to my collection is a slow process and since I no longer carry every day, my actual needs are less. Since my health began to get less optimum - and isn't that a government-speak phrase - I compete less, if at all, so I am not buying guns for any of the disciplines in which used to compete.
I hope to be able to find a suitable place to display my knives in my office in the new house into which we are in the process of moving. We need to paint the great room before we move furniture, but then it will be a matter of unpacking boxes, in which I hope to find all of my knives, some packed away for some time.
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