Born on date?

O

OvalmanPA

Joined
Dec 5, 2011
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Curious when and why the "born on date" was discontinued on knife blades? I like the idea of knowing exactly how old a knife is that I'm looking at, especially when you wonder what blade steel you are dealing with.
 
Not sure about Kershaw's reasons, but few years ago Spyderco stopped putting year on the box because of vendors' complaints. Customers didn't want to buy "last year models".
 
I have noticed that all of the red boxed Blurs are without blade dates or dates on the paperwork.
The gray boxes have dates on blades or on the paperwork inserts.
 
It's too bad that adding serial numbers would probably be too much to ask. That would eliminate the problem of customers looking at a knife immediately as "last year's," but still allow collectors to call Kershaw to find out when exactly that serial# of that knife was made.
 
I guess my biggest thing is vendors trying to push off older models with "different steels" at the same price point of the newer steel models. Case in point.....older model Blurs/Leeks trying to be sold at the same pricing as a new model with 14c28n which is supposed to be better steel.
 
The blade composition issue for the leeks is confusing at best. My observations are as follows Leeks initially came in a silver box with an American flag on one end and all of the knives had the "born on date" are the 440A blade. Next somewhere in July 08 (?) the dated 13N28C appeared in the same silver box. Then maybe in 09 (?) the silver box was replaced with today's red box. Sometime since then the 13N was replaced with 14N28C blade. I understand the marketing strategy of no longer dating the blades but omitting the composition of the blade you are purchasing is questionable. Kershaws must have reasoned that the Leek was inexpensive enough that dating inventory and not declaring the blade composition wouldn't adversely effect sales. In fact, omission of information would help to keep the perception that all of the inventory was current. Look at the 1660G10 it has S30V clearly marked on the blade (a more expensive knife). I would not have known any of this had I not started to collect Leeks. I think its a great knife and Kershaw has been an exemplary Company in backing up their product. They fell short with this decision. I would just like to know manufacturing dates of these evolutions in the knife.
 
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RxEnergy said:
Not sure about Kershaw's reasons, but few years ago Spyderco stopped putting year on the box because of vendors' complaints. Customers didn't want to buy "last year models".
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Spyderco boxes still have the date on the label.
 
I called Kershaw and got this explanation of how to determine what blade is on any particular Leek. All dated Leeks before Jun 08 are 440A blades The remainder of the dated blades starting with Jul 08 are 13C28N. All non-dated blades are 14C28N with the exception of the 1660G10 which has the clearly marked S30V blade.
 
Aren't all CKT blades the 14C28N? Or was that just in the time frame of the 13C era (however short that was)?
 
leekster said:
I called Kershaw and got this explanation of how to determine what blade is on any particular Leek. All dated Leeks before Jun 08 are 440A blades The remainder of the dated blades starting with Jul 08 are 13C28N. All non-dated blades are 14C28N with the exception of the 1660G10 which has the clearly marked S30V blade.
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Not all...one of mine is ZDP189 :D
 
Thats right! However, since only 1069 were made and it is clearly marked on the blade there isn't much need for clarity. This also true for the TCKT, CGT (498), and PGT (933) which all have the clearly marked S30V blade. Would these exceptions complete the Leek blade configurations?
 
Some Damascus was born before June/08...
And if you want to include the serrated versions of what you posted, then there are a few more (G10ST, TCKTST, CGTST, PGTST).

My TSW has a date of Sept, 2008 and is stamped 14C28, so the rep did not have 100% correct info on those dates.

Also are you saying the boron coated, SS, VIB, and DLC coated blades are 440A if dated before June/08 but they are 13C28 if dated after that? I don't think I believe that...guess it could be true, just doesn't seem right to me?
 
Thomas W said:
As most of you may now know, we are in the very tough process of changing over all of our knife blades that utilize 440A over to Sandvik 13C26.

The way we have decided to identify the change in steel will be by the "born on date" (these dates are engraved on every blade). The starting point for this modification are blades that are marked "July 07" will be 13C26 steel, any knife born prior is 440A.

The following knives marked with July 07 will now be 13C26 steel:

*Leek (1660, 1660ST, 1660CKT, 1600CKTST, 1660BR, 1660BB, 1660Trout, 1660VIB, 1660VIBST)

*Centofonte/Onion's (1610, 1615)

*Mini Mojito

*Baby Boa

*Blackout (1550, 1550ST)

*Whirlwind (1560, 1560ST, 1560RMEF)

*Blur (1670SG10, 1670RD, 1670RDST, 1670TBLKST, 1670BLK, 1670BLKST, 1675RDST, 1675BLKST)

Thanks for the patience with all of this.


To insure that there is no confusion, the Speed Bump, Cyclone's, Need's Work, JYD's, Groove's, ET's, and Storm's have always been produced with 13C26.
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Thomas W said:
Ok so, this steel change over thing we've done a couple times now is a real PIA, as you can imagine.

To play it as accurate as possible, all knives that were 13C26 and are changing over to 14C28N will be dated 03/09. So there you have it.
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Any blades without a BOD came after 03/09 so they're also 14C.

Also, if there seems to be a conflict over the info, read my sig line. :D
 
sorry to bring up an old thread,
But I have a blackout I bought new about two years ago and there isn't a BOD that I can find.
I open it halfway and look by the liner lock and I can't see any date.
Wondering what steel my blade is.

thanks
 
Your Blackout is 14C. Read the last two lines in the post just above yours. ;)


gm991 said:
sorry to bring up an old thread,
But I have a blackout I bought new about two years ago and there isn't a BOD that I can find.
I open it halfway and look by the liner lock and I can't see any date.
Wondering what steel my blade is.

thanks
Click to expand...
 
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