Kershaw Scamp

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Nov 1, 2004
Messages
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I just received a new folder by Kershaw, the Scamp. This is a China-made frame lock that sells for around $22 in stores. While I have had mine for barely an hour, I've done paper and cardboard cutting with it and I feel that this would make an ideal EDC (my cutting tasks usually consist of cardboard). The model number on this one is 2710.

Images will be added as I get a camera again, but this is a stock one from KnifeCenter...
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The Handle: The Scamp measures 4-5/8" long closed and is 7/16" thick (not counting the pocket clip). The handle is constructed as follows, starting from the locking side:
410 stainless steel, 1/8" thick. This is the frame lock.
Black Zytel spacer, just under 3/16" thick.
410 stainless steel liner, just under 1/16" thick.
Black G-10 scale, just over 1/16" thick.
The frame lock and liner are smooth and have a slightly grey tint to them, perhaps titanium-nitride coated? The G-10 is nicely textured with a checkerboard pattern, and has some neat linear machining as well. There's a lanyard hole in the butt of the handle, and it will accomodate cordage up to 3/16" in diameter.

The knife is well-built, and stainless Torx screws hold it together. Two T-6 screws hold the knife together at the backspacer, and one T-8 screw acts as the adjustable blade pivot. The back of the knife is open, which is good; no need to take it apart to get debris out. The blade stop pin is stainless steel as well, and it's 1/8" in diameter. The stop pin is sandwiched between the liner and the frame, and sits in holes drilled into each; it's not screwed in.

The blade rides on several bushings, starting from the frame side: white nylon bushing, phosphor bronze bushing, blade, phosphor bronze bushing, phosphor bronze bushing. The nylon bushing is good, but I'm afraid to say that all of the phosphor bronze ones are thinner than paper and remind me of the bushings used on the Spyderco Tenacious: they're too thin and they take a permanent bend just by pressing them between your fingers. So I replaced them with some left-over washers from a different knife. It's an easy enough fix and I didn't feel it was absolutely necessary, but I wish the Scamp came with more sturdy bushings.

The Scamp is a frame lock, and it locks open solidly with no blade play in any direction. Unlocking the blade is easy, as the frame sticks out just a little bit farther than the liner; no need to stick your finger inside the handle to get to the lock.

The Scamp comes with a stainless steel pocket clip, which has the Kershaw logo stamped in. It's adjustable for right-hand carry, tip up or down, and is held on with three T-6 screws. Retention is great; the clip isn't too loose nor too tight, and the smooth clip coupled with the smooth frame side of the handle makes it easy to take out of a pocket. Tip down will let the knife sit deeper in your pocket, with 1/2" of the handle exposed. Tip up will leave you with 1" exposed.

Using the Scamp was very nice. The handle is shaped for comfort and has a good finger groove. I really like the feel of the Scamp, and it will probably kick the RAM out of my pocket as an EDC for a while.

The Blade: The Scamp has a blade made of 8Cr13MoV stainless steel with a grey finish. The left side of the blade has the Kershaw logo lasered on, while the right side has 2710 next to the KAI logo, and these are above 8Cr13MoV. The right side tang also has CHINA lasered on. All of the lasering is in white.

The blade is hollow ground from 3/4 way up. There's a swedge, and the point is pretty acute. Not as needle-like as a Leek's tip, but it will definitely make piercing easy. The blade is 3-1/2" long with a 3-3/8" cutting edge, and it's 1/8" thick. It came razor sharp right out of the box. The back of the blade is smooth; there's no ramp or jimping.

The last thing to talk about is the Scamp's biggest flaw: the thumb studs. With any frame lock, I love having the option of getting my thumb under the stud and letting it "load" pressure until I can flick the blade open with no wrist movement. Can't do that with the Scamp. This is because of three things...
1. The thumb studs are too close to the handle. There's just not enough room to get my thumb between them and give it a good push. I have large hands so this might just be me, but I can't do it.
2. The detent that holds the knife closed is too strong. Even when doing a normal thumb opening, I have to push very hard to get the blade past the detent.
3. The thumb studs are too sharp. Whether I'm doing the pressure-loading technique or a conventional thumb opening method, the stud digs into my thumb and just plain hurts. I would file them down, but that would make opening even harder because of #1 above.

Now, ignoring those three points, the studs are very good. There's a stud on each side of the blade, and they're both ramped. Left-handed opening is the same level of ease (for me, difficulty) as right-handed. The studs are each just under 3/16" in diameter, so they're a good size, just a little too close to the handle for me. Once the hard detent is overcome, opening is smooth.

Everything considered, especially the price, the Scamp is a great knife. I'm not going to be using it as a "tactical" knife so I don't need fast deployment, and for an EDC, it's good enough for me. The knife's edge-holding is about that of Kershaw's 440A (which has a great heat treat) and only needed a light stropping after cutting about 50 slices of 1/8" thick cardboard (16" long cuts). You really would be hard-pressed to find a better frame lock for $25 than the Scamp. The Boker Trance is a great framelock and has ridden with me many times, and I'll be comparing it directly to the Scamp in terms of the best $25 frame lock. For now, the Scamp is my EDC. Let's see what it's got :thumbup:
 
Just read this now. Thanks for the review. Oddly, its dimensions make it look like a close cousin of Boker+'s M-Type.
 
Great review dude. Don't you just looooooove kershaws? Awesome quality, awesome company, awesome price. Just can't stop buying them. In fact my fingers are just itching to wrap themselves around a scamp...
 
Another great review. Its been a while-keep em comming. :thumbup:
Looking forward to the pic's.
 
I am very interested in buying a Scamp, but I am confused! Many photos (just like the one in your review) show it with no thumbstuds! The KAI website propduct description for Scamp does not mention thumbstuds and it refers to it as "fully manual" rather than just "manual". Yet every youtube review I've seen and other info I've come across, including this great review - pretty clearly indicate that the Scamp does indeed have thumbstuds. But before I order...

Can anyone please confirm or otherwise assure me that the Scamp does come standard with thumbstuds?

(I just had an after thought... maybe the stud-less photos are UK models with stud-delete design to be legal there?)

Oh well, thanks in advance for any help on this and thanks JN for a nice review!
 
The famous/infamous Nut'nfancy gave it a perfect rating in his review!

If it is anything like my Boker+ M-Type, I'd score it similarly too!
 
By chance, anyone know if the Scamp definitely ships with thumbstuds standard these days? Still confused by photos of Scamps with no thumbstuds.
 
Thanks for the detailed review. Good observations.
 
The famous/infamous Nut'nfancy gave it a perfect rating in his review!

If it is anything like my Boker+ M-Type, I'd score it similarly too!
They are very similar, although the Boker wins on steel, the Scamp has it on ergo's. It's a draw!

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They are very similar, although the Boker wins on steel, the Scamp has it on ergo's. It's a draw!

DSC00105.JPG

Alright! Good on you mate :thumbup: MUCHO thanks for the side-by-side!

Your ergo comparison does seems spot on with what I've noticed with my M-Type, especially when you hold it FGEI/U. The Scamp's is more neutral. Both look like good "go-anywhere-&-right-sized" EDC's.
 
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Alright! Good on you mate :thumbup: MUCHO thanks for the side-by-side!

Your ergo comparison does seems spot on with what I've noticed with my M-Type, especially when you hold it FGEI/U. The Scamp's is more neutral. Both look like good "go-anywhere-&-right-sized" EDC's.
Your enthusiasm is inspiring. :D

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^ For me, that's another plus for the Scamp between the two: it has good "1:1" blade-to-handle encasement (not too much blade sticking out when closed). Makes it compact for EDC and along with the pointy pommel, good to grasp for striking in SD.
 
The scamp is a hard knife to beat, thin, comfy...flicks great

The only problem I had was the thumbstub on the clip side, it catches every time I pulled the knife...so I used my grinder to take it down flat
 
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
 
I like mine; the only big issue I have is that the lock side is way too smooth. It'd be nice if that was coated or something.
 
I was able to get one for a great price through this forum and it definitely has become one of my favorite user edc knives that I have. As stated, the ergonomics feel great, the blade takes a nice edge and I like the look of the coated blade and the dual material handle. The G10 feels great, is not too rough and the steel lock side allows for easy removal from the pocket. Plus, the blade shape and finger choil remind me a bit of the kershaw skyline, which is another one of my favorite edc knives. The thumb studs can be quite sharp, so people do grind/file them down. I found a good spot on mine where I can flick it open with my nail, pain free, smooth and quick deployment. I would recommend this knife, especially for the price!
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I guess it is quite smooth Mr.Bob, but I haven't found it to affect grip in any way so far. Have to wipe it off or it gets lil rust spots.
 
This is one I still need to get, but damn, I didn't realize (1) it was so large and (2) the g10 is only on one side.

Both of those are good things as it competes with the tenacious and it has a framelock (I thought it was liner lock). Makes me want to buy it right now!
 
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