Kershaw Outcast

Ken C.

Ken C.

Jack of all trades, master of none.
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Jun 14, 2000
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I received my Outcast this morning from New Graham. I have been looking for a low cost camp knife/chopper for some time and this seemed to fit the bill. This thing is massive. Its balance point is dead center of the knife making it great for chopping. I especially like the fact that it is made from D2. Th edge angle is a bit steeper than I'd like for a chopper but it did the job fairly easily. I experienced no chips in the blade or dull spots. The knife is just as sharp as when I took it out of the box. I really like the handle. Not only is it comfortable but I did not find any hotspots. In my hands it fix perfectly. I was able to shift from a choked up grip to a grip farther back on the handle without and problems. The only downer on the knife is the carry attachment. It reminds me of a TekLok and work in the same manner but is pretty chintzy. They should really add a real TekLok to it. All in all Kershaw got this one right. I then commenced to chopping up some pine. :D




 
Rat Finkenstein said:
What is the blade thickness?
Click to expand...

The blade is 5/16th of an inch thick.
 
Great knife.

D-2 tool steel as well. Priced right.

Hard to resist.

Yep, this maybe my next big knife.
 
How thin is the edge geometry? Any other knives you could compare it to in that regard?

I wouldn't personally expect D2 to have any chipping issues on pine, but what would happen if there were an old nail in the wood? What if you whack a rock while chopping down a small sapling? I don't expect you to do destructive testing here, but those are the kinds of situations where I'm leery of such steels. If I could gaurantee that my knife would never strike a hard target accidentally, I might still be using that big old Pakistani knife...
 
Collucci, you said;

"The only downer on the knife is the carry attachment."

What do you mean?

The sheath? The manner in which it attaches to your belt, etc.? Or the lack of multiple carry possibilities/lash points?
 
I bought this knife as my birthday present to myself in Oct. In a word "Awsome" Extremely light and fast in the hand - especially for the size. I agree with Collucci- the carry attachment is odd. The semi- tec-loc slides open, is not removable (I prefer horizontal carry on one this big), and on my model is fairly stiff. I did not care for the way that the throat of the sheath was open on both sides of the hilt- so I took a hair dryer, wrapped the throat of the sheath in a blanket (creating a cave around the throat) and selectively heated the kydex so that I could close the top of the throat- creating more of a thumb push off point. This method works for fine tuning of the Kydex without overheating with a heat gun- but beware that it may take a while if you are trying to reform a large area.

This knife now resides on my survival bag along with a cold steel fillet knife and small CRKT Wrangler Folder.

Look in the archives for a nasty pic of what this knife can do to flesh!!!!
 
The Outcast I bought a month ago had a blade that mic'd out at .194 at the thickest point. That is just a hair (very narrow hair at that) over 3/16" .1875. Did you perhaps misquote the blade thickness, or have they started making a 5/16" .3125 bladed one. If they are making one thicker, I will have to get one of those also. I am very happy with my outcast as well, it has hacked and sliced it's way into my heart lol.
 
Yeah, that was a typing error. :o It's 3/16ths thick not 5/16. The belt attachment on mine can be removed. It is held on with 2 Chicago screws. I plan on getting a large TekLok to replace it. I'll get a pic up later of the current carry attachment.
 
Nothing wrong with 3/16" of D-2 tool steel.

OK, I'm convinced, I want one.

I bet this thing holds an edge that just wont go away.
 
Indeed it does. All that chopping, and mine will still shave over most of the blade. Haven't sharpened it yet either.
 
Does anyone know of a website that lists the most common types of steel used for blades and the pros and cons of each type of metal?

By the way, after looking at the Outcast for awhile and hemming and hawwing about whether to get it, I'm sold after reading this forum. I need a good survival knife that I can take out, way out, and depend on it. After going to Nepal and seeing those guys make works of functional art out of bamboo with a kukri, I've never gone back to a straight blade (although a tanto blade still has a special place in my heart, and everyday in my back pocket)
 
Galoshz, if you're a fan of khukuris (traditional knife from nepal), you might want to look at the Himalayan-Imports forum on this site. They make a huge variety of excellent khukuris, and there are special deals-of-the-day posted every so often where you can pick up an awesome hunk of knife pretty cheaply. :thumbup:
 
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