Kershaw Damascus Leek

[STR]

I am going to selfishly stick this in my forum and just link to it in the others. Hope no one minds. It will be easier to find in my small sub forum for me later I think. But I also want to draw attention to my forum too so yes, its selfish I guess. Just not getting as much traffic down here for us knife makers as I'd like sometimes. Maybe this will help bring some attention to Dan, Robert and I and you folks that haven't seen us will realize we have our own little corner of the woods here too and need some more guys making new threads now and then besides us all the time. Hint hint!

Here are some pics I've been sitting on waiting to be able to post and let out there that I thought those of you asking about the Damascus Leek would find interesting. I could go on and on with some pseudo scientific mumbo jumbo if you like but I'd rather just say this from the mind of a simple backyard mechanic. If the question comes up regarding the Damascus Leek regarding the Alabama Damascus, hardness, can it be used effectively in a variety of mediums to please an end line user and so on the answer is yes. Regardless of all the desriptive phrasing and so on about rounded edges, apex, this kind of sharpening that kind, you can buy this knife and get it to where it will work well for you as a cutting tool.

I put a 15` edge on each side of this Leek using my Edge Pro right after getting it. I stropped it a few times and ran it down the 1200 grit ceramic rod and off I went. From then on to this day I have only used the little EZLapp XXF diamond sharpener you see in these pics to touch it up when it needed and with just a few light strops on that it was back up and running to another nice keen edge.

I like it and won't be getting rid of this one. Will it cut with the ZDP189 or S30V before needing a touch up? No it won't. But for what its worth I no longer have either of those ones. This one came to me as a liner lock. A pink one at that! But not being man enough to carry a pink knife I first bead blasted that off, then later swapped out the body of the liner lock with a Wal-Mart stainless frame lock. I like this much better as it sits here and it looks like Kershaw is going to be offering them just like this to you guys. I think you'll be pleased. Really I do.

Seen here is some cutting I did with it. Hemp rope which amounts to about 100 or so end cuts (slices) And not all those were done right there. I had a bigger board at first but it got chewed up and discarded so I moved to a new one. Then we have some carpet remnants cut into strips off a bigger piece, just enough to see how she did on that after the hemp cuts, then I sharpened it some and went to work on some pecan which is the darker piece and then into some pine leaving some shavings I'll use for packing materials to cushion knives shipped back to customers. Yes some of you lucky guys may see some of these very shavings in your packages. You don't have to thank me really>

Seriously this Damascus carbon steel Leek is a nice little folder and I like it a lot. I don't think 500 will be enough and that they'll go fast though so if you want one bite the bullet now and snag it.

Edit: Had to search but I found my original scan of the knife Thomas first sent me in Pink shown next to my Lahar. Figured I'd add that to the list of pics for your convenience. Then you can see it again after I blasted off the pink. It was a liner lock sitting there in those last two pics.


Thanks for looking.

STR

 

[bdws1975]

Oh man, how self-serving! Shoot, you have every right to be a little promotional.

Hope you are well. I am going to email you about a little les voorhies folder I bought. Want to see about a clip.

Talk to you soon,
Brett

 

[STR]

Oh yeah. Here are some closer shots of the blade for you. By the way. I have noticed that the newer blades look a little better than mine. They etch was better and they just came out with more pattern showing to where its a marked improvement over mine. Keep in mind that my knife seen here is an early prototype. I've had this using it for over three months.

STR

 

[STR]

Here is what I'm talking about. Seems I talked with Tim Galyean about this and that they either changed or slightly modified the etch and time or something. But the bottom line is that the end result was better. The blades you guys get will be closer to the middle seen here I think. Note the difference from right after grinding, to etching. Pretty neat stuff. I learned some stuff working with this type steel for the first time.

Big thanks to Thomas and Tim for their help here. Speaking of that I think its overdue for a big applause from all of us directed at Kershaw for the kind of things they are doing here. This is exciting stuff and they have more planned. We really are blessed to have these guys on our forum. I know I am very proud of the relationship I've developed with them as are all the other field testers and evaluation experts they work with. I don't know about you guys but I can't wait to see what they do next over at Kai/Kershaw.

STR

 

[bdws1975]

That's a weird shape on the middle and top blades. Kind of a hook. Is that a prototype blade or the actual end-line shape?

Thanks for all the cool info.

Brett

 

[STR]

Oh yeah. Those are not even sharpened up at the edge yet. They are not completed but still in the making stages. I was just showing the pattern the etch brings out. Those are blanks that are a few steps away from complete so not so much prototypes as they are in various stages on their way to completion.

STR

 

[Thomas W]

Still liked the Pink version for you Steve.

Thanks for the write up!!

 

[STR]

I know my friend. Truth be told if I'd have left it that way this thread would never have been possible because the wife would have kept that knife! She liked it too!

Thanks for stopping by.

STR