Kershaw outcast , any one have one ?

Myal

Myal

Joined
Jun 7, 2003
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I been looking at knives again ... and the kershaw outcast caught my eye , but I know nothing about D2 steel , anyone have one of these knives and actualy abuse the heck out of it ? Does it take it OK ?
TIA
 
It is more of a jungle blade than it is a woods blade. It comes sharp but with a very obtuse edge. Once it dulls it is quite hard to sharpen but it holds an edge very well. The handle is nice but takes some getting use to. The teflon coat actually seems to have stuff stick to it more than other blade coatings, but maybe thats just me. I am not a fan of the giant billboard on the side of the blade. The long thin blade flexes alot.
overall it is a great deal for the $60-70 it goes for
a great slasher for light bush
I now use thicker stronger blades as survival knives but if thats what you can get get it, mine has held up well after 1-2 years of abuse
 
I have one too. I have not used it a lot but you can expect anything in D2 to be harder to sharpen. It does not take much work on the belt sander to bring it back to sharp.
 
OK , I guess this is more what I want to know , who has broke one and what did they do to it to bust it / chip it / bend it ?
 
When it came out I heard that the D2 was brittle. So far I have seen no sign that this is even remotely true. I have a dozen or so D2 knives. Mostly Knives of Alaska.
 
I'm not much of a fan for using D2 in a blade over 5" long because of the "brittleness" of the steel. That being said, I did beat the heck out of it pretty good without any problems. I am in the middle of project right now in which I have cut it down to just a tad over 5" and removed the handle. Just so everyone knows, the hand is the rubber type stuff on the outside and then its plastic and then it's a skeltonized handle - not much in terms of steel in the handle. I plan on stripping the coating, thinning out the edge, take it to about 15 primary and 20 secondary, and re-handle it. I would pay the $55 I paid for mine again.
 
Bwilson said:
I am in the middle of project right now in which I have cut it down to just a tad over 5" and removed the handle. Just so everyone knows, the hand is the rubber type stuff on the outside and then its plastic and then it's a skeltonized handle - not much in terms of steel in the handle. I plan on stripping the coating, thinning out the edge, take it to about 15 primary and 20 secondary, and re-handle it. I would pay the $55 I paid for mine again.
Click to expand...

Same here.

d0caed9e.jpg
 
Thanks everyone for the information .
Its far more than I expected , and very much appreciated . :)
 
It must be. You can't brand any steel on the basis of what one D2 blade might do. I can assure you that the KOA are not brittle. I have their big 10 inch D2 chopper and there is nothing fragil about it.
 
As I recall, D2 isn't ideal for toughness. Kershaw gets around this by keeping the edge bevel thick and obtuse and apparently not running at ideal hardness (for D2). These are ironically the points of criticism. By keeping the edge thick, cutting ability is lessened. And by not running D2 at full hardness, the advantage over simpler steels such as 1055 is mitigated.

In short, D2 is a good selling point, though not necessarily a real world advantage on this particular knife.
 
I have mine as the chopper in my woods hipsack. It would cut free hanging 1" manilla rope well when new. It is very light in the hand (for me) and yet substantial. I have used mine for a long day stripping Cedar bark with no ill effects. While undoubtedly there are many better knives on the market it is hard to beat the price/efficiency combo IMO. Until I find a better replacement I feel comfortable using it as a survival knife. I have at times tied a turks head knot around the end of the handle to increase grip but that is all of the modification I have done.
 
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