- Joined
- Apr 29, 2002
- Messages
- 1,273
Sorry if I'm repeating a lot information. But I'd just like to bring attention to a knife that's dropped off the BladeForums radar for a while now. I got a small Kershaw Vapor for $20 some months ago, since I just had to get a knife while I was at Wal-Mart. Mine is the Chinese-made version.
Good stuff:
As many of you already know, it's a pretty good deal for the money. A decent looking knife, smooth travel after some adjustment, and a PERFECT 50% lockup. The lock bar is quite springy, and pushes to the left more easily than my Camillus EDC's. Very slight left-right blade play when the blade is open, no more than any of my other knives. Probably because of the thin synthetic washers having less give than a thick nylon washer. Detent is firm and makes me feel confident about the knife not opening in my pocket.
Bad stuff:
1. The clip is nasty. They attached it with the ugly Philips head screws, which stick out quite a lot. The clip is straight, while the rest of the knife has some nice Onion curves. It sits very flat against the body, so wearing slightly thick pants like jeans would mean you'd have to jam the knife into the pocket with some force to clip the knife.
2. Madonna's bra thumb stud is just not a good idea. Hurts my finger to open the knife repeatedly, though this isn't really a concern for normal non-knifenuts.
3. The blade steel is crap. Maybe I got a dud, but I just cannot get this thing sharp enough to show anyone. It shaves, but it just doesn't slice into the first layer of skin on my finger like really sharp knives. The CUDA EDC was hell to sharpen, but at least in the end it could cut me bad. I think the AUS6 in the Vapor is very soft, with the wire edge just getting pushed back and forth and never allowing a thin edge to form. Stropping doesn't help much. CRKT's AUS6M does a better job in terms of edge-holding (or attaining) but the Vapor does deserve credit for not chipping/deforming after some heavy abuse, described in the next section.
Amazing stuff:
I bought this cheap knife to abuse. I had to make a hole in a wooden door to put another doorknob in, and my Buck-Strider was getting a little impacted on the stop pin, making the lock slip over to the right. So after I had done some chiseling with the Buck-Strider, I switched to the Kershaw Vapor to do some prying. It survived some heavy duty prying and stabbing, and now that I've cleaned out all the wood dust, it looks perfect. In that aspect, it's even done better than the Buck-Strider.
edited to add:
I didn't go easy on the knife. I pushed it as hard as I could, since I really wanted to see the way a $20 knife would fall apart. Especially the girly-thin tip, I wanted to see that sucker snap off in the wood, whereupon I would proudly raise my Buck-Strider and destroy the remains. But that didn't happen, and I was amazed.
Does anyone have experience with getting this knife to scary sharp? I might just give up and make it a mini folding prybar with the secondary function of being a butterknife.
Good stuff:
As many of you already know, it's a pretty good deal for the money. A decent looking knife, smooth travel after some adjustment, and a PERFECT 50% lockup. The lock bar is quite springy, and pushes to the left more easily than my Camillus EDC's. Very slight left-right blade play when the blade is open, no more than any of my other knives. Probably because of the thin synthetic washers having less give than a thick nylon washer. Detent is firm and makes me feel confident about the knife not opening in my pocket.
Bad stuff:
1. The clip is nasty. They attached it with the ugly Philips head screws, which stick out quite a lot. The clip is straight, while the rest of the knife has some nice Onion curves. It sits very flat against the body, so wearing slightly thick pants like jeans would mean you'd have to jam the knife into the pocket with some force to clip the knife.
2. Madonna's bra thumb stud is just not a good idea. Hurts my finger to open the knife repeatedly, though this isn't really a concern for normal non-knifenuts.
3. The blade steel is crap. Maybe I got a dud, but I just cannot get this thing sharp enough to show anyone. It shaves, but it just doesn't slice into the first layer of skin on my finger like really sharp knives. The CUDA EDC was hell to sharpen, but at least in the end it could cut me bad. I think the AUS6 in the Vapor is very soft, with the wire edge just getting pushed back and forth and never allowing a thin edge to form. Stropping doesn't help much. CRKT's AUS6M does a better job in terms of edge-holding (or attaining) but the Vapor does deserve credit for not chipping/deforming after some heavy abuse, described in the next section.
Amazing stuff:
I bought this cheap knife to abuse. I had to make a hole in a wooden door to put another doorknob in, and my Buck-Strider was getting a little impacted on the stop pin, making the lock slip over to the right. So after I had done some chiseling with the Buck-Strider, I switched to the Kershaw Vapor to do some prying. It survived some heavy duty prying and stabbing, and now that I've cleaned out all the wood dust, it looks perfect. In that aspect, it's even done better than the Buck-Strider.
edited to add:
I didn't go easy on the knife. I pushed it as hard as I could, since I really wanted to see the way a $20 knife would fall apart. Especially the girly-thin tip, I wanted to see that sucker snap off in the wood, whereupon I would proudly raise my Buck-Strider and destroy the remains. But that didn't happen, and I was amazed.
Does anyone have experience with getting this knife to scary sharp? I might just give up and make it a mini folding prybar with the secondary function of being a butterknife.