ISSUE with KERSHAW FOLDING KNIFE

S

SourSquire

Joined
Jan 6, 2019
Messages
2
Hi everyone. I'm completely new to knives, so please go easy on me. So here's the deal. I recently purchased a Kershaw Link. (I couldn't find a forum dedicated to Kershaw). I love it so far, but i noticed something I'm worrying about. There doesn't appear to be a "kick" on the tang. In other words, when you go to close the knife, there isn't anything that I can see to prevent the entire length of the blade from impacting the spine of the handle. The blade closes with a reasonable amount of force due to the spring, and the spine of the handle is not "skeletal," meaning that the blade impacts a long strip of metal or plastic instead of one or two notches! Is this just bad design, or is there something I'm missing here? I remember reading a post a long time ago that said that well made knives have kicks in order to prevent this from happening. I don't want my blade to begin to dull just from slamming into the spine over and over!
 
SourSquire said:
Hi everyone. I'm completely new to knives, so please go easy on me. So here's the deal. I recently purchased a Kershaw Link. (I couldn't find a forum dedicated to Kershaw). I love it so far, but i noticed something I'm worrying about. There doesn't appear to be a "kick" on the tang. In other words, when you go to close the knife, there isn't anything that I can see to prevent the entire length of the blade from impacting the spine of the handle. The blade closes with a reasonable amount of force due to the spring, and the spine of the handle is not "skeletal," meaning that the blade impacts a long strip of metal or plastic instead of one or two notches! Is this just bad design, or is there something I'm missing here? I remember reading a post a long time ago that said that well made knives have kicks in order to prevent this from happening. I don't want my blade to begin to dull just from slamming into the spine over and over!
Click to expand...
Is it hitting? I don't think it should be. The stop pin should stop the blade in both the open and closed position.

Here's a disassembly video:
[MEDIA]
 
I looked at four examples I own and do not see any cut marks in the backspacer.

I agree with craytab, I’m pretty sure the stop pin is keeping the edge from hitting.

Do you see edge degradation or cut marks on your knife?

Oh and congrats on your Link!
 
When closed. look down into the top of the knife. You should see the flipper tab resting against a little black pin. That is the stop pin. It's what keeps the blade from doing what you are afraid of.
 
Sharpen the knife so that when you illuminate the edge with a bright flashlight, there's no light reflecting off the edge.

Open and close the knife forcefully multiple times. Then illuminate the edge with the flashlight again and see if there's any light reflecting. Light reflecting indicates a dulled, rolled or chipped edge, which suggests there's some contact inside.

I've performed this test with my Kershaw Link and all of my closed-back knives (Cold Steel Tri-Ads, Benchmade Griptilian, Real Steel Thor, Spyderco Endura 4, Leatherman Surge, Victorinox SAKs, Gerber Dime) and all but two passed. The only failures are my Victorinox Hiker SAK which a certain quarter-inch of the main blade's belly dulls every time I close it. The blade is slightly warped and was that way out of the box, though. The Gerber Dime also fails because it really does not have any internal stop preventing the edge of the main blade from hitting the inside of its little channel. Poor quality control on the Vic, either poor quality control or bad design on the Gerber, maybe both!
 
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