bob the goat
April 25th, 2007, 01:02 PM
I have been carrying a pocket knife since I was 11. I carried one in High School because no one knew what “Zero Tolerance” was, and instead relied on “Be Responsible”. (i.e. I had it, and used it in proper ways, no one had a problem with it.) My first knife was a little three blade Case that was a gift from my grandfather. I carried that for a few years. Then I switched to a Buck with a locking blade in High School. I went through 4-5 knives in school, they were all cheap junk that I trashed cutting wires on the sound crew. In college I started to pay more attention to what I carried. I got a Ka Bar folder that I liked, but the lock was too hard to operate and it did not hold an edge. I switched to a Gerber and really liked it. Held an edge wonderfully, but the plastic handle felt insubstantial. About 4 years ago someone handed me Kershaw designed by Ken Onion. The blade was similar to the Gerber, but it had this little gimmick, the “speed safe opening mechanism”. I played with it for a little while and fell in love. There is a little switch that flips a bar over the tip of the knife inside the handle locking the blade closed, so it can not open in your pocket (and it also makes the knife safe to toss to someone). Release that switch, and apply a little pressure (about 1/3 of what it takes to open a can of pop) to the back edge of the blade and the blade pops out very quickly. I love that I can pull it out of my pocket then easily and quickly open it with one hand without having to worry about cutting myself. I only say that because I have had my thumb slip off the thumb stud of other knives and gotten a cut from the partially open blade.
Out of the box the knife is very sharp, and it does quite well at retaining that edge. I often go 6 months without honing the edge. The one I had is the “scallion”, it has a 2” blade with partial serrations at the back, and a blue aluminum handle. I lost that this weekend, so I got a new one. The new one does not have serrations and has a black handle and TiN coated blade. It is a lot slicker looking.
If anyone needs a good multipurpose pocket knife, I highly suggest this one.
Out of the box the knife is very sharp, and it does quite well at retaining that edge. I often go 6 months without honing the edge. The one I had is the “scallion”, it has a 2” blade with partial serrations at the back, and a blue aluminum handle. I lost that this weekend, so I got a new one. The new one does not have serrations and has a black handle and TiN coated blade. It is a lot slicker looking.
If anyone needs a good multipurpose pocket knife, I highly suggest this one.