Kershaw Echelon Complaints?

sharpenit said:
I don't think anybody is complaining about availability now. But the knife was unveiled nearly two years ago, and was very difficult to find until recently. During that time, a few would be dribbled out by Kershaw and immediately snatched up by whoever was lucky enough to get to them first. And even when it was available somewhere, it was often at full MSRP.
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Most of the complaints about availability were only from a month ago, yourself one of them. I don't think people know how or are to lazy to really look. :rolleyes:

Only complaint I have so far with it is it isn't available in purple, so I made my own. :D
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hard to deploy, also hard to close the liner lock. But if you work it a little and get used to it before you start the day it'll be fine
 
I originally saw and handled the Echelon at Blade 2011 and subsequently placed an order with a major dealer since before May of 2012. Just the other day I gave up on them, ordered one from the big A for approximately 3.00 dollars more and had it in a couple days. It works fine and is everything I expected it to be.
 
Just got my Echelon today in the mail, and I'm a bit dissapointed. The Speed Safe spring is WAY WAY too stiff. I probably have at least 15 Kershaws with Speed Safe and this is the only one that is hard to open. I figured that if I worked with it for an hour or so it would losen up a bit, but all I got was a sore thumb. I'm not sure if it's all the fault of the spring either. Seems like the ergonomics of the blade deployment are just off somehow.

It LOOKS nice though, and the blade is hair popping sharp. Does anybody know if the thumb stud can be loosened and moved back and forth in the slot in the blade?
 
Hmm, well let's see if my preorder comes through since they're available at a 'normal' price from that huge Internet retailer again.

I still don't understand the logic, it's not like I pre-ordered from Mom and Pop's Knives and Sundries, it is a major Internet retailer of cutlery and I'm still waiting. I love my Kershaws and promote them with friends and guys in my Troop all the time.

When (if) it finally does get here I'll be able to post whether the wait was worth it or not.
 
I just want to say that kershaw knives require breaking in. Every kershaw I own (and I own a ton) came pretty stiff. I am glad they come this way as I tend to open and close knives while watching t.v. I find it satisfying to see a knife becoming smoother and easier as it breaks in. If torsion bars came weak they wouldn't last as long. Give your knives a chance before you are overly critical and they might just surprise you. Of course if you aren't a fan of KAI you probably wont change your mind.
 
Oh, I really LIKE my Kershaws. I believe that I have at least one of every knife that Ken Onion designed for them (at least all of the ones that I know about), and several of some models. So I DO have some personal experience with them. The torsion bar in this Echelon is BRUTAL compared to every other Speed Safe knife I've ever used. It actually causes low level pain to my thumb to deploy it. I have a one or two other assisted knives that also do this as well. My Russ Kommer designed CRKT Full Throttle comes to mind. It just hurts to deploy it much, and has NEVER gotten any better.
 
See that is something I don't understand (the painful opening) as mine opens pretty freely. :confused: "Stiff" could be a way of describing it I suppose but in no way would I describe it as "hard" to open. Closing one handed seems to be more of a problem at times for me because of that "stiffness". Perhaps your technique? When I first saw this knife and the design of the thumb stud I was worried about opening myself but it has proven to be pretty nice actually. The G10 lessens the "thwack" sound I've become so fond of with opening SpeedSafe knives though. :D
 
Anything is possible, but I've got literally dozens of assisted knive that are fine. Eventually I might disassemble the knife and take a half mm off of the length of the torsion bar to see if it makes a difference.
 
Got mine today , Design is very cool, fits the hand well and is very light... now for the cons.... terrible opening with the assist, almost impossible to open one handed without ruining my fingers , and the assist only makes the knife more dangerous, as it often open mid way to the risk of my thumb going on the edge...and make the closing horrible... gonna remove the assist now and see how it feels after !
i have nothing bad to say about the thumbstuds for now, waiting to cut a tomato in half before :p
all in all i really dig the design and how the knife is different from most other productions blades, happy that it feels strong even without full liners so far... but i hate these assist opening , they kill all the fun of a knife for me , i like having control over my blades :D
 
Update ! after removing the assist spring, the knife opens great, centering also got better ( forgot to say it was pretty bad when the knife came) ... all and all it's now a great little knife for standard EDC tasks, i like it !
note: i think i could do without the thumb studs , i already can open the knife without just using the hole ... we'll see what happen to them after more use :p
 
How hard is it to take it apart to remove the assist spring? Is there a write up on how to do this arond here somewhere?
 
Open the knife, remove the pivot screw, remove the three handle screws, take the scales apart, remove the plate hiding the torsion bar, remove torsion bar, reverse order to put it back together. :)
 
I got tired waiting for my normal supplier to get the Echelon in, so I ordered a SJ-75:D.
 
Just got my Echelon in today. I'll echo those who say it's near impossible or very difficult to open. Shame really, it's a great knife if you can get it open. :D
 
Would somebody please post a video of how you are trying to open this knife because for the life of me I can't understand how it is SO hard to open. :confused:
 
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