Hey there.
Intro first I guess. Amateur camper, biker and general nomad from India here. Always liked knives and been a "knife guy" in that manner but never actually had the opportunity to be educated about it as I have on this forum.
As my id will tell you all, I am pretty new to this knife stuff. I have camped and hiked all over my country and always ended up using cheap knives and axes for any bush work I need to do. I also am not in the habit of edc-ing a knife in an urban environment.
This knife (KAI2710) was the first quality folder I bought and used and I have to say I have abused it to an extreme level. I have even baton-ed with it. Small pieces and with the lock disengaged but it damn well performed. I have used it for food prep both meat and vegetables, trimming bushes (like a machete is supposed to do), cutting walking sticks, cardboard, lots of carpeting, dug holes and notched in trees and tent pegs and cut anything else that needed cutting, I use this over some of my kitchen knives when I want to process stuff with bones in it. The steel is exponentially better than anything I have used before (taking into account I have used only carbon steels and regular-maybe 440- soft steels). It holds an edge as good as some reconditioned metal saw blades I use for bush-crafting. I am not too educated or experienced in super-steels but I submit that a blade that holds such a good edge over so much cutting through so many very tough materials and still sharpens up to a scary fine edge, is alright by me. The edge got dulled and curled over use and I have sharpened it many times but it stays sharp for so damn long. I use a meduim and fine combo oil stone from Carborundum Universal, finish it with the ceramic stick from a Smith 3in1 (I changed the edge geometry) and strop it on an old leather belt. There is still no blade play I haven't been able to eliminate with a 2 second tightening with a hexbit. This is to me a hard use folder; emphasis on the hard.
I have seen so many expert reviews on knives like the Spyderco Tenacious, the Rat 1 from Ontario and the Cold Steel Recon 1 etc and though I have never used or even held these knives, the Kershaw scamp would compare favorably with them on any criteria IMHO. That frame-lock looks and feels like it will survive anything and I feel it would be stronger than a lockback or a linerlock mechanism. I don't know much about the more advanced locks like the Axis by Benchmade or Cold Steel's Tri-Ad lock. Hell, I carried it camping over my later acquired SOG Northwest Ranger 2.0. (Thank you Adam from E2E for helping me with that decision) and did not miss a fixed blade at all. I had my Aruval (Traditional reverse recurved South Indian Machete/Chopper) for all the tree chopping and batoning stuff but this did everything else, fire-making included. I dare say I wont need another folding knife for a long time.
For the equivalent of $36 shipped to India... this is a steal.
My first review, my 2 cents and my request to forgive any dumbassery inferred from my "review".
Thanks and Regards
Vasu
Its difficult to use a higher grade steel and still keep the price down. Swedish made Sandvik 14C28N is more expensive than Chinese made 8Cr13.
I'll update it as soon as I have more time.