Is Kershaw cooling?

I think your right on the money; Kershaw has become a shadow of what they used to be.The days of innovation from them seem to be gone. China ruined the company,because its easier to crank out all these kooky designs buried in 8cr13 w the grey frosted finish for much less than the bumps,grooves, speedforms, and all their other cool and well made knives of the 90s and early 2000's.
 
I think a big part of "Kershaw cooling" is due to the offerings of CIVIVI, Bestech, Penguin, Petrified Fish, CJRB, etc. saturating the market at the same price point with (arguably) "better" quality knives.

I still have my 20cv Link (ground breaker for a USA made 20CV blade IIRC) and my 14c28 Blur and RAM. The last two aren't going anywhere. I admittedly don't carry the Link much.

I'd buy a Natrix XL in 14c28.
 
I don’t know - Kershaw still fills a need for people like me that are fairly new to this madness. They’ve got a nice mix, between their cheap Chinese-made stuff and their *better* American made. One of my favorites is still the Atmos to carry (which is Chinese made), and there’s still the Blur, which by all accounts should be a pretty solid workhorse. They offer a good range that’s very likely to have something if interest to most knife users, if not collectors. That’s not a part of the market that really needs new and hot models being introduced every few months.
 
Man... I miss the glory days of Kershaw so much. I have more personal memories associated with Kershaw than any other knife. When I was first getting serious into learning about knives, they were the first higher quality knives I bought. Honestly my knife collecting/gathering started when I started reading about knives and then went to my first Kershaw warehouse sale. I met Thomas Welk there who used to be the "face of Kershaw" for many years. He showed me all around and took me into his office and showed me his personal collection. We hit it off real quick talking about all the older discontinued models and upcoming models and it was just super fun. Me and my girlfriend used to go there every year after that. He taught my girlfriend how to mess with butterfly knives and hooked her up with a couple nice ones and she was soon flipping in both hands at the same time.

I really wish Kershaw would come back to Bladeforums and make a manufacturer's sub forum again, but I guess it was just a very tiring job. I'd like nothing more than to see Kershaw become active in the knife community online again and start producing more American made folders.

In memory of all of this I will never ever sell my first real quality knife (to me), my S60v Blur. It just brings back way too many good memories.

Time for the Kershaw Mafia to come back to town!

Edit: Spelling.
 
Danny Linguini said:
I don’t know - Kershaw still fills a need for people like me that are fairly new to this madness. They’ve got a nice mix, between their cheap Chinese-made stuff and their *better* American made. One of my favorites is still the Atmos to carry (which is Chinese made), and there’s still the Blur, which by all accounts should be a pretty solid workhorse. They offer a good range that’s very likely to have something if interest to most knife users, if not collectors. That’s not a part of the market that really needs new and hot models being introduced every few months.
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I have to agree. For most people Kershaw is considered a good if not a great knife.

For some reason most people don’t have a desire to spend more than $20-30 for a knife (or less). The same people who think nothing about purchasing a new knife every six months to a year.
 
I miss the days of Kershaw that produced the Ram, the Groove and others. That being said, I really miss the days of Kershaw that made the original Speedform, Tilt and other crazy knives. I still kick myself for getting rid of my Tilt…
 
Still have a couple of M390 Knockouts, one with CF scales. Still have a couple of Blurs, one in S30, the other M4. Still have a 20CV Link. Still have a Dividend in M390. All good values, all made in USA. And all a few years old….not much from Kershaw has drawn my attention over the past few years as almost the entire product line is “value priced” stuff produced overseas.
 
elde66 said:
Still have a couple of M390 Knockouts, one with CF scales. Still have a couple of Blurs, one in S30, the other M4. Still have a 20CV Link. Still have a Dividend in M390. All good values, all made in USA. And all a few years old….not much from Kershaw has drawn my attention over the past few years as almost the entire product line is “value priced” stuff produced overseas.
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Not much in their line holds my attention. I think it’s because much of it is assisted opening. At least it was last time I looked. Combine the AO feature and sub par steels and you have something I could care less about.

Sure, they do have some items I like but, not enough to spend money on them.
 
I purchased this Leek about a month ago. It was an exclusive for House of Blades I believe. Titanium scales with a reverse tanto 20cv blade. It's a heafty little guy and has greater spring power than most. I really like this one.20220814_141239.jpg20220814_141229.jpg
 
MolokaiRider said:
Kershaw was a gateway brand for me. The Clash got me excited about knives, and kicked off my hoardi....errrr....collecting of knives.

They play with new designs, different alloys, and locks.

Nowadays it seems like they are cooling, and promoting inexpensive folders made from baseline materials.

I could be way off here, I'm sorta shooting from my gut feeling.

Are they losing us as knife enthusiasts?
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Kershaw is what started me on my path as well. Still have quite a few of them that I collected in the beginning. Then I found the forums here and learned a heck of a lot more.
 
Forgot to mention, my first *nice* knife was a Blur S30V earlier this year, after carrying a SAK Spartan almost every day for the past 40 years. Like so many others, Kershaw started me down this path of endless acquisitions. So I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for the brand. I’ve since added a Launch 11, an Oso Sweet, a blue & cf Natrix, and a blue & cf Atmos to the collection. The Atmos is one of my favorites, easily a close second to my Buck Sprint Pro. The Blur is still #1 when I need a real workhorse.
 
Kershaw was my entry into knife collecting too. Bought them by the handful because they were so cheap.

Don't think their place in the market has changed any. Lots of varied designs offered a very low prices.

Sold off almost all of the cheaper, late model Kershaw folders that I bought but still own a sizable collection of "vintage" Kershaws made from the late 70's to early 2000's which is my sole focus and interest in collecting Kershaws now.
 
I still have a bunch of Kershaws but haven’t bought one in a while except for the LE BladeHQ Skyline and a FSS Leek. I see their new China-manufactured knives and think a lot of them look cool, but don’t buy. This is from a guy who’d buys new Kershaw every year in the past.

I think what hurts innovation with their US produced knives is the Launch series. There’s what, 15 different Launch models, all produced in the US. That’s a lot of new models like the Blur, Knockout, Ram, Leek and Dividend that we never see. The largest part of their US assembly and innovation is tied up in Autos, which are rarely my first choice to EDC.

It’s kind of a shame, but apparently the Auto business has been good for Kershaw because they keep popping out a couple new designs every year.
 
I think the main reason for that is importing autos into the US for retail sales raises too many problems forcing them to manufacture them here. I notice the same with a lot of butterfly knives.
 
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