Kershaw Leek CPM-D2 or Spyderco Endura?

As the proud owner of 5 kershaws and a ZT, I have had no trouble with them. they still perform well. I wonder if he is referring to a shaving sharp edge. that would make sense. the only way you could kill an edge is if you were using it all day, every day for carpet or some other downright abusive material. that, then, is understandable.

Thomas, to get this "discussion" wrapped up, would you mind sending Akerson or someone else a sample, blemished, CPMD2 Leek and ask him or her to carry it until it gets dull. then, he or she could give his or her impression of the knife in general. that would kill this "discussion" thread.
 
Kershaw and Spyderco are my 2 favorite knife companies.

The 2 knives you have listed are different in too many ways to really compare them.

I think i might get another leek sometime, and if i were to get an endura it would be one with the wave on the blade.
 
thegeek574 said:
Point taken. just a suggestion. i bow to your superior intellect and education. you, after all, have a plethora of kershaws, iirc.
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Not as much, due to college textbooks--had to let some go to good friends--but I do have a rotation that I go through. :thumbup:

Good post from Crom for the OP.


crom said:
Such different knives. Leek is going to slice better, Spyderco will be more durable. Leek almost disappears in the pocket, Endura is a medium to large knife, still slim though. I gotta get goin, the shiny foot prints are blinding me...
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Most of the time I find myself agreeing with Dennis, however not this time. Any Kershaw purchase I have made has been completely without regret. I would challenge anyone to use a Lahar or a Ti JYD2, or a Rake, and come to any conclusion other than they are three of the best production knives made by anyone, period.

To the OP: I would urge you to handle the Leek and the Endura to determine which feels best in your hand and base your decision on that. I doubt that you would experience any practical difference in the cutting ability of the knives in question, IMO.
 
I'd have to agree that these knives are a odd match up. I think a leek and delica, and a JYDII CB & Endura would be better to compare.

First question would be size, do you want a big knife or small knife? Next, does a stainless or carbon steel choice matter to you?



As for steels the steels....
VG-10 will be easier to maintain but need to be sharpened more often than CPM-D2 due to lower wear resistance.

CPM-D2 is harder to sharpen but easier to polish and gets extremely sharp. Unlike VG-10 it will loose its razor edge quickly in favor of a "toothy" edge that will cut for a very long time.

On a personal note, I've spent the last several years being a bit of a steel snob. I've been lucky enough to have run my personal tests on ALL of the CPM stainless steels and a laundry list of other steels. In this time I've found that above all heat treatment means more than anything. Spyderco and Kershaw besides making some great knives really try at giving the best production HT possible. From my experience though Kershaw does seem to run their blades slightly harder. S30V for example is one steel I've sampled from many makers including some customs, Kershaws HT of that steel is equal to what I've seen on the customs and better than every other production blade I've compared it too. The down side.... it was also the hardest to sharpen S30V I have encountered. I've never seen a Kershaw or spyderco with a poor HT and I don't expect to, they both seem pretty motivated to get that part of the knife making process as in-tune as possible.
 
Go for the Leek.

I like Spyderco, but the Endura/Delica is nothing special. Spyderco makes much better knives in or near the same price range as those two (Native, Centofante, the old D'Allara).

If steel isn't the central issue for you, the RAM is better than both of them by leaps and bounds (and the steel isn't bad, just nothing special).

As per Kershaw and this trolling, I'll throw my weight behind them. I'm more or less converting my big three collection into a Kershaw collection with a few pieces from the other companies thrown in for good measure. Had the full high end from all three of the big three and Kershaws are consistently the best designed and in the last few years have generally been the technological leaders as well.
 
Man that is a pretty tough call. Kershaw and Spyderco are my personal favorites. While I have a delica (close enough to an endura right?), I like my CB Leek a little more.

Fantastic slicer, not particularly slippery once you are gripped to cut something and I really like the blade steel. Since i've gotten it, I've used it extensively at work cutting the flaps off of some hardcore cardboard and still have yet to need to sharpen it. And who doesn't like SpeedSafe? I also dropped it with the blade halfway open, it bounced a little and my tip came out unscathed.

My real only gripe with the SS handled Leeks is that I'd like some kinda added grippiness thing on there. I have to wash my hands at work all day long and that soap has lotion in it. Long story short, after the 5th time for the day, your hands can feel a little slick on metal stuff. Not too hard to solve though if you think about it... grip tape, blade swap for another leek, I'm thinking of cannibalizing a grippy iphone case to add some texture myself. etc etc.

I say get a CB Leek blem from Kershawguy for $38 and call it day. That should be able to save you a few bucks.
 
orchunter93 said:
I say get the endura. The assisted opening gets kinda yucky sounding when it gets dirty aka if you actually use the knife. The endura/delica series is one of the best, and you really cannot go wrong with it. At least that's my opinion. yes the d2 is much better of a steel than just a plain sandvic. I have owned both the regular model of the leek, and the d2 model. my friend has owned the S30V g10 model, and i sold the others that i had to friends. They have good blade shapes for edc stuff, but the assisted opening just gets dirty too easy in my pocket. it tends to attract dust and fuzzies. I like my g10 delica much better, and find the vg10 to hold a pretty good edge too. My friend with the s30v leek has switched over to spyderco as well.
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I don't know why this post...

2brothers said:
Does it get "kinda yucky sounding when it gets dirty" in your pocket or when you use it? Pick one.
Maybe you're using the wrong end. Are you sticking the handle into muck or mud? :confused:
I know if I get dirt/crud in the handle of my Spyderco, Benchmade, Case or whatever brand they do not function as well if they were clean.
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warranted this post...

why does he have to "pick one" if that is his personal experience? The sarcasm is pretty unnecessary. My assisted opening kershaw got pretty gritty and failed to open positively when it was dirty but my byrd opened fine in the same conditions...was i using the wrong end of the knife? :rolleyes:

FWIW it also got pretty "yucky sounding" just carrying it in my pocket. At the time I was using the knife on a river towboat moving barges of sand, coke, etc. It was a dirty environment and hard on a knife. I wouldn't recommend assisted opening for that kind of work.
 
I would go with the Endura myself. I have purchased 3 Kershaws and 2 of the 3 the spring assist broke on them long before I could gauge the edge retention on the blades. The Scallion that I have left I just do not use much for fear of it breaking as well. I will say though that all of the Kershaws I got were sharp as hell out of the box. Very thin and easy to carry. Just did not have too much luck with the assisted opening.

I would consider Kershaw again but I am not too keen on the assisted feature.
 
endura 100% unless your looking for a gentlemens folder go with the leek but the leek is a very light duty knife
 
I personally have never noticed Kershaw’s CMP-D2 to be sub standard, in the knives I’ve used it in it’s always preformed as I expected it to, same story with Kershaw knives in S30v and CMP-154. Their 14c blades actually were better then what I was expecting.

Insofar as the OP’s question goes, I’d go for the Endura/Delica over the Leek. Mainly because I’ve found that while the leeks slim profile and steel handles make it easy on my pocket it also makes it hard to hold on to. I’ve also had a hard time warming up to the Leek’s blade shape and feel in hand. YMMV as these are things that I look for in a knife and may not be important to you.
 
To the OP: FYI, pocket lint and dirt in general will muck up a lock back (which the endura is) as easily or more easily than it will affect the internal (torsion bar and lube is completely contained within handle scale) workings of the Speedsafe system. I venture a guess that the people who encountered dirt affecting a Speedsafe knife were really experiencing a really fouled pivot which was causing slow/inconsistent openings. Also, when a Speedsafe torsion bar breaks, the knife will still open and lock most of the time. I've heard that a broken bar has caused problems with knife openings/closings but I have never experienced it. I have however had lock backs that have not locked open properly because of dirt/whatever has gotten into the locking channel.
 
On Kershaw's CPM-D2:
I have a g10 Tyrade and the edge stays pretty consistent in varied use. I have it thinned out a bit, it's very sharp, but I have yet to see a ding and I have used it doing all sorts of stuff I wouldn't use most folders for. I took it camping last Summer and used it for everything one would need a knife for and it stayed sharp. It made hot dog sticks, split kindling, cut nylon zip ties and rope, food prep etc. and it never showed signs of being dull. It's actually the one knife I don't need to touch up as often as others in my EDC rotation, i'm not used to that.
 
While I am a spyderco fanboi as alot of people can attest to, I do own a variety of Kershaws; the leek is sleek and light and will disappear in your pocket- view it as a folding gentlemans lightsaber- the endura is bulkier (although extremely light) and has a tougher profile!

The kershaw is assisted spring opening if that means anything to you! The Spydie has of course the spyderhole. Both knives are excellent with great people (Sal & Thomas) standing behind them- pick your poison based on intended use, deployment system or simple aesthetics. You can't go wrong.

Concerning the edge holding "debate" (which shouldn't have been started on this thread in the first place) I would advise you to ignore Denis and related super steel nuts- most people wont be able to tell the difference in real world use and in my experiences Kershaw's HT is top notch.
 
Mephtyrm said:
I can get only one of these knives for the about the same price.
What do you recommend? I'm of course talking about the FFG Endura and the composite leek.
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I already have a ffg Delica but am also wanting a composite Leek. It is a gorgeous knife. The Endura and Leek are so different (both awesome) so I think it comes down to what you intend to use it for...

Decisions, decisions... :) Good luck!
 
Pete1977 said:
I don't know why this post...

warranted this post...

why does he have to "pick one" if that is his personal experience? The sarcasm is pretty unnecessary........
it also got pretty "yucky sounding" just carrying it in my pocket.
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orchunter93 said:
The assisted opening gets kinda yucky sounding when it gets dirty aka if you actually use the knife.
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Just asking in the same way the statement was made. "aka if you actually use the knife."
He stated the knife got dirty if you use it then stated it got dirty when he left it in his pocket.

What are you guys carrying in your pockets that gets your knives so dirty they cannot function properly?
I've never seen that before but now there are 2 people in this thread with dirty pockets. :confused:
 
2brothers said:
Just asking in the same way the statement was made. "aka if you actually use the knife."
He stated the knife got dirty if you use it then stated it got dirty when he left it in his pocket.

What are you guys carrying in your pockets that gets your knives so dirty they cannot function properly?
I've never seen that before but now there are 2 people in this thread with dirty pockets. :confused:
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You've never worked around boats I take it...I spent 21 days at a time working on towboats moving barges in the midwest. 6 hours at a stretch actually on the barges moving 7500-10,000 tons of sand. At some point, some of that sand does actually make it into your clothing. And into your knives. I don't see what is so confusing about it. Some jobs require one to have and use a knife often during the day and some of those jobs are pretty dirty. For those jobs, an automatic knife or spring assisted knife just doesn't cut it.

I carried 2 or 3 folding knives when I worked on the river. I'd use one at a time. The other ones were there in case the first one was lost or went overboard. The one that did not get used got just as dirty around the coke and sand as the one that was used.

Same thing commercial fishing. The knife gets wet, salty, sandy, muddy, what have you. I carry 2 knives then too..one gets used for cutting, the other one stands by for emergencies...both get dirty, one from using, one from being in the pocket of my pullover...Again, I would not recommend an automatic or spring assisted knife for this environment.

I will try to locate a few spring assisted kershaws to take lobstering with me and see how long they fare, compared to a conventional folding knife. Maybe it will help alleviate some of the confusion. :)
 
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