If you are wondering about quality, the Blur is a quality well designed knife. It's been part of the Kershaw family
for a very long time and I've always heard is a perennial top seller but have never seen actual sales figures.
Now, my favorite measure: is it fun to carry and handle? You bet. It flies open with the SpeedSafe.. "like a blur".
It is just as much fun to open as a ZT 030x with it's heavy thwack from the massive blade swinging around or the
055x. The new KVT bearing system on the ZT 0560 puts all SpeedSafe knives to shame. I'm sure it will be available
on more regular production knives in the future. If all the love the Blur is getting these days continues I'm sure we'll see
some love from Kershaw with a flipper, framelock, KVT Blur with blue Texalium twill G10 inserts [hint hint hint]
Aluminum is a soft metal and the handle will get dinged up and the color will wear off over years of use. The liner lock
will eventually wear down but it takes years with most use. This design and materials keep the light knife and easy to carry though.
A Blur is like a good friend. Always there to lend a hand when you need it but never in the way.
The Blur is an excellent every day carry knife choice for almost everyone. The ZT line started for law enforcement, military, and first responders.
You aren't going to be prying card doors open with an S30V Blur and I wouldn't rely it on it for combat self defense. The now discontinued 1675
rescue Blurs and the serrated Blur with glass breaker new for 2012 are great knives for cutting webbing and emergency situations that don't require
a thick blade and titanium handles.
Here are some differences:
ZTs has a lot of G10 handles. A lot of the newer Kershaw designs have G10 also.
Most also have a flipper. The Blur has no flipper and just the thumbstuds.
The Blur has trac-tek inserts but aluminum scales. Most (all?) of the new models with trac-tec are stainless handles. The Blur comes in a huge number of colors because you can add dye to aluminum after anodizing.
Many of the ZTs are beefy framelocks. The Blur is an older style liner lock.
The S30V is found in some of the ZTs and is an excellent higher end steel at a good price.
Summary: The Blur is just as good at doing what it was designed for as the ZTs are at what they were designed for. If you are looking for a good daily use knife for 99.9% of the population, you can't go wrong. The s30v has a great quality steel and it carries will. The trac-tec inserts give you a good hand hold on the knife but keep it thin and light. If you need to puncture steel car doors with a knife you'll need to look at one of the beefy ZTs.
