Kershaw/ZT Picture Thread!!! Let's See Em'!

Speaking of Prototype 801's... I got this from the man Thomas W himself. He's a great dude. I had this one stored for years and just recently whipped it out a couple weeks ago. It's kind of been my favorite since.

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801 is definitely a looker and one of the smoothest ZTs that I ever had. My Only gripe is it is too thick behind the edge (my ZTs suffer from this feature).
 
Dadpool said:
Kershaw and ZT are both brands owned by KAI USA, which rolls up into KAI Global. AFAIK they've always been under the same corporate roof, so to speak.
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That's what I thought as well, for a while the only US made KAI knives were ZT.
 
Their whole chinese made line is a relatively recent venture. By recent though I mean starting maybe half a decade ago or so. Kershaw used to make all their knives in house in Tualatin Oregon. Those were the glory days of Kershaw in my mind. They made them really well and put on some of the best, most consistent edges that I've seen through a production company. Usually they'd just offer 1 or 2 knives at a time made elsewhere. When I got back into knives I couldn't believe all the changes they'd made. But, they still make their ZT knives in house in Tualatin, so that's good.
 
LimpCroissant said:
Their whole chinese made line is a relatively recent venture. By recent though I mean starting maybe half a decade ago or so. Kershaw used to make all their knives in house in Tualatin Oregon. Those were the glory days of Kershaw in my mind. They made them really well and put on some of the best, most consistent edges that I've seen through a production company. Usually they'd just offer 1 or 2 knives at a time made elsewhere. When I got back into knives I couldn't believe all the changes they'd made. But, they still make their ZT knives in house in Tualatin, so that's good.
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I appreciate the background, I had assumed that the Kershaw brand was made here and wherever since conception. I know the models with the US flag are made alongside the ZT knives, just didn't know that they used to mostly all be made here.
 
norcalAF said:
I appreciate the background, I had assumed that the Kershaw brand was made here and wherever since conception. I know the models with the US flag are made alongside the ZT knives, just didn't know that they used to mostly all be made here.
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Yea, no problem brotha 👊. Kershaw's kind of near and dear to my heart because my first real quality knife that I bought was a S60v Blur from Kershawguy at a gun show. Ever since that I was hooked on them. I became a small time Kershaw dealer a while after that when I was working at a gun counter and we sold quite a few Kershaws there so I was always able to check them out and play with them. My favorite memories though are when I used to go to their annual blem sale and get there at like 4am and wait 4-5 hours in the cold, wet december, Pacific Northwest for them to open their door. The line would get enormous by the time they opened. Thomas W, their head of marketing, used to run a Kershaw sub-forum on here and the regulars there would call themselves the Kershaw Mafia. He's who gave me that protype ZT 801.
 
LimpCroissant said:
Yea, no problem brotha 👊. Kershaw's kind of near and dear to my heart because my first real quality knife that I bought was a S60v Blur from Kershawguy at a gun show. Ever since that I was hooked on them. I became a small time Kershaw dealer a while after that when I was working at a gun counter and we sold quite a few Kershaws there so I was always able to check them out and play with them. My favorite memories though are when I used to go to their annual blem sale and get there at like 4am and wait 4-5 hours in the cold, wet december, Pacific Northwest for them to open their door. The line would get enormous by the time they opened. Thomas W, their head of marketing, used to run a Kershaw sub-forum on here and the regulars there would call themselves the Kershaw Mafia. He's who gave me that protype ZT 801.
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Awesome backstory! ZT was my first higher quality knife after being a CRKT M16 fan for many years. My first was a ZT0350 and I was hooked. I have several ZT knives, and they have some of the best f&f and price point out there IMO. The ZT0350 has since been passed on to a member here, I gave him a screaming deal to set the ZT hook nice and deep 😂View attachment 2337627
 
norcalAF said:
Awesome backstory! ZT was my first higher quality knife after being a CRKT M16 fan for many years. My first was a ZT0350 and I was hooked. I have several ZT knives, and they have some of the best f&f and price point out there IMO. The ZT0350 has since been passed on to a member here, I gave him a screaming deal to set the ZT hook nice and deep 😂View attachment 2337627
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Ooo nice 0055! GTC always makes cool designs.

That's funny, the knife I carried before I got the Blur was a CRKT M16 also haha. It's a cool design, too bad someone like ZT couldn't make it with better materials and fit and finish. I think my first ZT was a 350 too. That was the first time I reprofiled a knife and I didn't have diamonds, so I wrapped my Sharpmaker rods with Wet n Dry sandpaper and used that. It took about 8 hours haha.
 
LimpCroissant said:
Ooo nice 0055! GTC always makes cool designs.

That's funny, the knife I carried before I got the Blur was a CRKT M16 also haha. It's a cool design, too bad someone like ZT couldn't make it with better materials and fit and finish. I think my first ZT was a 350 too. That was the first time I reprofiled a knife and I didn't have diamonds, so I wrapped my Sharpmaker rods with Wet n Dry sandpaper and used that. It took about 8 hours haha.
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Yea, the flipper design on the 0055 is a fidget fiend and has a very satisfying serious of clicks and clacks when activated. I had never seen one until one popped up in the marketplace in mint condition, I jumped on it like a half starved dog on a hamburger!
 
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