Kershaw Large Cyclone Review (with video)

[the_mac]

I recieved the Large Cyclone for a passaround, and these are my impressions after a week:

Here is the short video review of the knife. Broadband highly recommended.

The knife itself is very well designed and executed, the blade shape, the size and feel in hand are excellent. I could use this knife for hours without much hand fatigue. It's easily the most ergonomic handle and blade I've used to date. Prior to this knife, my mini-grip held that spot.

The way that the speedsafe opens the knife is quite solid, but I think that the blade is at the edge of what one spring can handle. The blade opens and locks up very solidly, but if you have very much drag at all on the blade as it's opening, it will stop just short of locking up. By comparaison, a Leek can handle having a lot of drag while it's opening, and still get right open.

I don't think that this is a problem at all, because the knife works like a charm, and for any sort of open, it pops right out. Only really a concern if trying to nudge it open using the middle finger on the thumb stud facing away from you (easy on a leek, not on the cyclone). Flipper and stud opens are easy.

The on/off feature is a really intelligent design (I peeked at how it works, and it's slick). It works like a charm, but turning the feature OFF while it was on and closed, is not the easiest experience. Turning it off and on while open, or on while closed are easy.

I feel that this will be a solid working knife, as soon as it's reprofiled down with a good relief grind, and then a relatively acute edge. The edge is a little thick, and 20 degrees per side. I would not mind putting in the extra 5 minutes on a bench stone to get it really sharp, because then it would be just about the perfect knife for me.

My only other gripe is that the pocket clip is very clippy, and makes the knife very secure in pocket. Harder to get on and off, but secure. It grips the pocket more than any other knife I own. But I really don't mind, because I know that this one will not fall out.

Overall, I'd say that if you're willing to put in a few minutes to reprofile the knife, it's an 8 for overall quality, fit/finish, etc, and a 9 for overall value. It's not meant to compete with $200 knives, but I think that it competes quite well with the spyderco manix, and the benchmade 710. Out of the box it's not quite up to that level, but with a little love, it will compete, and hold it's own.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Nice video.

The edge is a little thick, and 20 degrees per side.

The main benefit of using 13C26 as a cutting steel is that due to the high obtainable hardness and carbide structure (low volume, small carbides) it has very high edge stability. This means it has high initial sharpness and high edge retention at high sharpness in thin and acute profiles.

The profile described is the exact opposite of what the steel was designed to do. With an edge which is thick and obtuse the benefits of the high edge stabilty are lost and now you just have a low wear resistance. However 13C26 is a very cheap steel so that would at least be expected to be reflected in the price.

-Cliff

 

[kel_aa]

Are you going to reprofile it before sending it on the passaround, the_mac? Oh please, please, I want to play with sharpness of 13C26, with an edge that can showcase it. . I imagine it'll be crisper than the Aus8, 440's that are easy sharpening.

Despite being maybe an inch smaller, what do you think of the SOG Twitch II? I think it's a showcase of a nice AO and folder execution myself.

 

[the_mac]

I suppose that I could reprofile it, to make it reflect how it would be after a little use and some resharpening.

I'll give it a shot on friday or so.

Also, I'll throw up a review of the Twitch this weekend.

 

[the_mac]

Well, it's been reprofiled, down to a huge relief grind, and then sharpened at around 10 per side for the microbevel. If this doesn't hold out and the edge blows out easily, then adjust it as necessary. I've only used this on hair, cardboard, green wood, and paper, and it has performed very, very well on all of these.

It slices corrugated cardboard better than my dedicated opinel food knife (which is a demon of a slicer).

Let's hope that it is appreciated by everyone in the passaround.

 

[kel_aa]

Nice work with the reprofiling. It's a smooth now from the primary grind right to the edge.

I'll post a full review in a week, but my inital reactions are that its exterior specs are a little extreme. It's as big as a pancake closed and it scales in at 6.0 oz; a Military or 800 AFCK plus a Caly Jr is 5.9 oz. It's a hair from the weight of a Manix at 6.125 oz.

Here is the Cyclone and the Twitch II with a Native I, AFCK 800:

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Ten degrees as a micro-bevel, now that is how the steel is designed to be used. Nice job on the reprofile.

-Cliff

 

[the_mac]

Ten degrees as a micro-bevel, now that is how the steel is designed to be used. Nice job on the reprofile.

-Cliff

Well, I'm not super happy with it. It got the job done, but it's not as pretty as it could be. Sorry to everyone that has to see the ugly scuffs, but the performance is worth it... believe me.

The blade geometry with a high flat grind, a big convex relief grind (my hands aren't rock-solid) and then a small micro-bevel at about 10 per side, stropped with CrO... It scared me.

I really hope that this knife gets the attention that it deserves, because it can cut like a demon. I'll let everyone else determine edge retention.

Also, about the profile (pancake). While it's definatly a heavy and wide knife, it's not overly thick, and as such, carried well in my jeans and my work shorts. I wouldn't want to use it for dockers unless it was IWB, but then it would still be passable. It wasn't a huge presence in the pocket, but it was more noticable than something like a Vapor II, or a Benchmade 921, but still in the pocket range (for me).

Oh, one last thing... After I took down the bevels, I took the knife apart to clean it (remove all the honing oil that had gotten everywhere... I'm sloppy). And I removed the grease that was packed in the cavity for the torsion spring. This made the AO slightly snappier, but now when the knife is open, there is a rattle of the torsion spring being loose. If this bothers anyone, popping off the top scale and packing the cavity with a little moly slip or petrolium jelly should do the trick.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

...it's not as pretty as it could be.

Looks much more attractive to me. The harsh scratches will polish out in use and blend in with the scratches on the primary grind from use. Once the geometry has stabilized sandpaper will readily blend it into a even satin finish and then micro-bevel. It is then nice and pretty until you use it.

I really hope that this knife gets the attention that it deserves, because it can cut like a demon.

I'd be curious to see how it responds to VG-10 class steel in a similar profile. Both in regards to ultimate sharpness and edge retention at both high and low sharpness.

-Cliff

 

[Dog of War]

Nice overview, mac; also think you might have a future as a broadcaster, announcer.... or infomercial star.

I handled a mini-Cyclone recently, and was surprised by the sluggishness of the AO. AO is clumsy for me anyway (or maybe I'm just clumsy with AO folders) but with it switched off, inertial opening was more than satisfactory, so IMO that's a nice plus.

kel_aa, if you're not already beseiged with requests, maybe I can encourage you to give a good, hard look at both edge retention and lock strength of the Cyclone. It concerns me that Kershaw could have run the blade a little soft. Also although I haven't looked one of these over very closely, I didn't see anything suggesting that the lock is anything but your basic locking liner, and kind of a thin one at that. The exposed portion of the liner for releasing seemed pretty well recessed which is good from the standpoint of safety, but I'd like to know how the Cyclone does with some serious spine whacks and other tests of lock strength.

 

[the_mac]

Nice overview, mac; also think you might have a future as a broadcaster, announcer.... or infomercial star.

I handled a mini-Cyclone recently, and was surprised by the sluggishness of the AO. AO is clumsy for me anyway (or maybe I'm just clumsy with AO folders) but with it switched off, inertial opening was more than satisfactory, so IMO that's a nice plus.

kel_aa, if you're not already beseiged with requests, maybe I can encourage you to give a good, hard look at both edge retention and lock strength of the Cyclone. It concerns me that Kershaw could have run the blade a little soft. Also although I haven't looked one of these over very closely, I didn't see anything suggesting that the lock is anything but your basic locking liner, and kind of a thin one at that. The exposed portion of the liner for releasing seemed pretty well recessed which is good from the standpoint of safety, but I'd like to know how the Cyclone does with some serious spine whacks and other tests of lock strength.

Hehe, thanks for the compliment.

As for the liner lock, it's a fair bit beefier than on my leek, and it felt solid for a liner lock. I trust the lock on my mini-pika more, or my mini-grip, but the cyclone felt as secure and tight as my Kershaw Vapors. That said, that was my impression based on feel alone, not hardcore testing. It passed spine-whacks, but any decent lock will. My leek passes spine whacks, heck, even my cheap "frost cutlery" freebie passes most of the time.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

I would be interested in checks of security such as torquing, you don't need to go to the failure point, just fix the blade and torque the handle and watch what happens to the liner.

-Cliff

 

[kel_aa]

Dog Of War: kel_aa, if you're not already beseiged with requests, maybe I can encourage you to give a good, hard look at both edge retention and lock strength...

Cliff: I would be interested in checks of security such as torquing, you don't need to go to the failure point, just fix the blade and torque the handle and watch what happens to the liner.

Sure, I've got a vise and a 14 inch pipe wrench. My Military is with someone else right now, but I'll match the testing with an 800 AFCK.

As for the edge, it rolled on me. Yesterday I was cutting some standard mail envelopes with the_mac's edge, and then shaved with it. Today I slice some newspaper sheets and find that the edge has rolled. I don't know exactly when it rolled, but I would like to think it was after the shaving. There are also three small dents in it about 1/3 or more into microbevel. I took some pictures and I'll post them this evening.

As for the shaving, it was pretty good, probably somewhere in tier-two for shaving sharpness, after a 440A Ti-lite from Cold Steel and commerical single-edge disposable blades.

Even with the rolled edge, it was halving sliced bread (of the Wonderbread type) better than my 800.

I'm not too keen on edge retention testing, partly because it is heavily influenced on inital sharpness and I don't think I can judge that well enough. But I hope sharpening it will give me a feel of the steel.

 

[gud4u]

Edited - comments removed - sorry! Brain fart alert!

 

[Dog of War]

Sure, I've got a vise and a 14 inch pipe wrench. My Military is with someone else right now, but I'll match the testing with an 800 AFCK.

You da man, kel_aa! I really enjoyed your review of the Spyderco Military and Caly Jr., looking forward to see what you come up with here.

As for the edge, it rolled on me.....

I assume that was with t-mac's reprofile and 10 degree per side microbevel....? Not sure I'd be too concerned if it was. Now if it did the same thing with a 15 degree edge bevel added, I'd start to worry a bit. Curious too just how it 'feels' when sharpening, with carbon steels and low alloy stainless there's usually a noticeable difference between blades in mid 50's HRC and those in the upper 50's.

 

[2k3gti18t]

Thank you for the nice review. I had a leak for a long time and did get sick of how weak it sounded getting open. That looks quite a bit larger then the leak, would you mind posting a picture of the size comparison?

 

[kel_aa]

First the shots of the edge. The closeups are taken using a 3-9x 42mm scope backwards on 7x setting. The third photo is of my AFCK, for comparison.

 

[kel_aa]

Here is a picture of my setup: the blade slipped inside a book clamped in a vise. The vise mount is not the most secure as you'll see.

First each blade was clamped edge up, and twisted from the forearm. Both did fine, although sometimes the AFCK liner would slide.

Then the blades were clamped edge down. The AFCK would not fail under torques, but a strong closing action would buckle the titanium liners. A stronger force would case it to collapse. This would not require shoulder strength at all. The Cyclone, well, I quickly discovered its weakness. A counter-clockwise twist and a closing action will readily collapse the lock. This is fairly trivial.

I took 640x480 videos of my actions, but I do not have the bandwidth to upload them at the present. Here are two reproduced small-size videos of the pieces failing. Turn up the sound, the clicking will indicate the failures. The AFCK is first twisted and then stressed to buckle once and collapse once in the video, while the Cyclone is collapsed many times in seconds.

AFCK failing:

http://www.filecoast.com/?pg=file&c1=2316395596&c2=5UVS74vC

Cyclone failing:

http://www.filecoast.com/?pg=file&c1=2316396154&c2=rCAEqePx

Overall the Cyclone was collasped maybe 20 times to little resulting damage. Maybe it can be reassembled as a tune-up. The AFCk was buckled maybe 8 times and collapsed 3 times. The liner permanentely deformed, but is still functional. The gap between the liner and the scale is much bigger than before:

I would say both of these failures are rather startling [to me].

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Sure, I've got a vise and a 14 inch pipe wrench.

That is way abusive ... use a 8" wrench.

Yesterday I was cutting some standard mail envelopes with the_mac's edge, and then shaved with it. Today I slice some newspaper sheets and find that the edge has rolled.

That is either really hard paper or really lame steel. Barring aliens abducted the knife or someone spiked the paper. Nice pictures.

Even with the rolled edge, it was halving sliced bread (of the Wonderbread type) better than my 800.

One of the benefits of optimal geometries is higher cutting ability at lower sharpness. Of course when you have higher sharpness - which you will have with properly hardened steels of this class - then it is better still.

I'm not too keen on edge retention testing, partly because it is heavily influenced on inital sharpness and I don't think I can judge that well enough.

Data would be useful from individuals from all levels of skill/experience. It all just goes into the matrix from which one draws final conclusions.

-Cliff

 

[kel_aa]

That is either really hard paper or really lame steel. Barring aliens abducted the knife or someone spiked the paper.

I think it may have had a wire or otherwise weak edge, possibliy covered up by the previous stropping.

This is a Canadian passaround, you can get in on it and test the edge retention as well. I'm sure no-one will accuse you of trying to scuttle Kershaw.

As for the linerlock failures, I think the AFCK's titanium liner either wasn't up to strength due to improper HT or just isn't strong enough given its length and the large arc it has to swing through resulting in large non-longitudinal forces. It resisted torques fairly well, maybe because of galling but I think more likely because it was sitting in the middle of the tang, as opposed to the Kershaw which right now is about flush on near face.