My first Kershaw!... Now what steel is this?

S

swoody

Joined
May 25, 2009
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I just purchased a Kershaw Blackout 1550ST for EDC purposes (over the Skyline for a couple reasons). I am loving everything about this knife so far, but every time I hear this knife mentioned I also see a different type of steel specified for it. I bought it at a local Walmart, and it came in a small cardboard box, with a bar code sticker (appears to be applied by Kershaw) that reads 087171 155012. Also, on the blade it reads 'SpeedSafe USA' instead of 'Ken Onion'. I am not sure what else I can say about it that may help out here.

If anyone is able to tell me what type of steel is in this knife I would *greatly* appreciate it :thumbup:

Thanks!
-Woody
 
What's the date of manufacture? That's what we need to tell you what type of steel it is. It should be written somewhere on the blade.
 
I rescind my input and side with samhain73 It could likely be 14C28N. I didn't read the detail about the logo.
 
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Neuron,

Nope. I couldn't see any markings (outside of the typical Kershaw markings), so I took apart the knife and there wasn't *anything* on the blade. Upside - I now know how to take this thing apart ;)

Random question - what type of oil is recommended to use around the pivot point and copper(?) washers? I think I will need to clean that now and get it re-oiled :(
 
swoody said:
Neuron,

Nope. I couldn't see any markings (outside of the typical Kershaw markings), so I took apart the knife and there wasn't *anything* on the blade. Upside - I now know how to take this thing apart ;)

Random question - what type of oil is recommended to use around the pivot point and copper(?) washers? I think I will need to clean that now and get it re-oiled :(
Click to expand...
Hmm...strange. The reason you see different blade steels mentioned with the Blackout and a number of other Kershaw models is that Kershaw has, over the past three or so years, gone from using 440A to 13C26N to 14C28N. And the way that people were supposed to be able to tell which blade steel they had was by the date marked on the blades (see this thread, for example). My guess is that Kershaw stoped with this practice after the 14C28N blades had been in production for a while.

In the absence of a date, I'm inclined to go with what samhain73 said about it probably being 14C28N because Ken Onion's name doesn't appear on it. Also, I don't think Wal-Mart has been carrying Kershaws long enough that they would have a 2ish year old Blackout there, which is another reason to think it's probably 14C28N (which replaced 13C26N about two years ago).

As for what lubricant to use on the pivot, 3-in-1 oil would be good if you're not going to use it for food prep, while mineral oil would be the safe way to go if there's a chance you'll be using it on food.
 
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