Kershaw's Rainbow finish is sure durable...

M

MacTech

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Jan 7, 2006
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I went out to buy lunch for the guys at work today, from a local chicken-wings shop, there's a pawnshop right next to it, so I stopped in on a whim, I'm always on the lookout for a good deal

they had a couple Kershaw Rainbow knives there, a Leek for $45, looked essentially new, but as I just last night purchased a Vic SwissTool Spirit, money was a tad tight, however, they also had a Rainbow Chive there for $20 (amongst other plastic-scaled Chives for $20), so I had to get it

it's an '03 vintage knife, and it was clearly a user, as there are minor (and I mean *MINOR*) wear marks on the scales and blade and gunk inside the knife, as well as adhesive residue on the blade

however, after a good cleanup job, minor dissasembly and interior cleaning (plus, I wanted to see how SpeedSafe really works ;) ) the knife is back to almost-new shape, it snaps open and locks with authority, no bladeplay, a great little knife, all it needs now is a nice Sharpmaker treatment, as it's a little dull

the thing is, the Rainbow finish has held up remarkably well, with a nice polishing up with a microfiber cloth, it looks to be about 96% new

great little knife, the Chive, the durability of the rainbow finish really impressed me :)
 
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Not bad for a 4 year old used knife, eh?
 
You know the drill, right, the Rainbow Leek in the pawnshop was calling my name for the past few days....

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It's in *perfect* shape, 100% new finish, an '04 vintage, still factory-sharp and came with the soft case
 
I stopped off at the pawnshop again, as they had another interesting Kershaw there, a Baby Boa

it was in fairly decent shape, looks like the previous owner tried to do a poor sharpening job on it, a quick stropping brought the edge back to a usable condition, I'll Sharpmaker it tonight, it also seemed to be a little draggy on assisted opening, either by thumbstud or flipper, so I tore it down, and found it absolutely sopping with lube, it looked like the previous owner submerged it in lubricant

I cleaned up most of the lube except in a little well in the scale above the torsion bar, and put a single drop of mineral oil on the blade pivot, and the knife snaps open much better now, in fact, it makes a cool little *schnikk* noise when it opens, kinda' like that stereotypical "Knife sound effect" on TV when someone draws a knife from it's sheath

it's in great mechanical shape, no bladeplay, good, solid lockup, however, as i'm not used to blades with such a pronounced "belly", it'll take a bit of adjusting to this blade shape, I prefer the Wharnie-style of the Leek or the downward curve of a Hawkbill or Reverse-S, I do a lot of cutting that requires point control, i'd imagine the pronounced belly of the Baby Boa would make it a very useful cardboard box breakdown blade though

Kershaw is very rapidly becoming my new favorite, right up there with Spyderco :)
 
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