My First Kershaw!!

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PyroSpaz316

Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
86
A large dose of happiness came to me today in a tan padded envelope. I recieved my first Kershaw knife, the inexpensive Scamp. I picked this knife up for around $24 shipped.

The Scamp was relatively hefty, at 4.5 oz. The fit and finish is pretty good, especially for a 20 dollar knife. There is some nicely textured G10 with a couple of design lines and a stainless steel framelock on the other side. The G10 is nicely rounded at the edges The hollow ground 8CR13MOV blade is 3 3/8 inches long and has a dark grey TiNi coating. The pocket clip goes tip up or down on the right hand side.

The blade is pretty sharp out of the box and slices newspaper pretty well. It's pretty well centered in the handle. The pocket clip is nice and thankfully not weird looking. The knife fits pretty well in my hand and has plenty of room for my smaller sized hands. The blade opens smoothly, but has strong detent and a rather sharp thumbstud, which makes opening somewhat painfull if you use the pads of your thumb to open it. It has a bronze bushing on one side and thinner brass one accompanied by a white bushing on the other side. The blade has minimal play, which brings me to a slight concern; I tried tightening the pivot screw a little to eliminate play, and as a result, the knife only locked up at around 10 % and still had blade play. After I loosened it again, it returned to around 40%. Is this normal? Or do I just have to break it in first? It's only a little, so I won't worry about it.

Anyways, I think it's a good knife for the money and I'm really happy with it.
Pics coming when I get the chance.
 
i would assume that after a while like most of the kershaws ive had itll tighten itself up but that could just be me, anywho i wouldnt worry about it like you said earlier and it was just a $20 knife so its not like expecting CRK F&F lol
 
Ok, problem fixed. I tightened the screw to eliminate play and after a dozen openings the lock bar is moved over to a safe looking point. Also, i have noticed, (or my brain is playing tricks on me) that how you hold the knife affects how strong the blade retention is. Which is the reason that I'm going to leave it tip down; the clip gives something for my fingers to hold on to as I open and close the knife.
 
PyroSpaz316 said:
Also, i have noticed, (or my brain is playing tricks on me) that how you hold the knife affects how strong the blade retention is.
Click to expand...
It's not just your brain playing tricks on you: this is the case with a lot of frame locks. If you put even a little bit of pressure on the outside of the frame lock while holding the knife to open it, it can make opening significantly more difficult. The reason is that modern frame (and liner) lock knives utilize a ball detent (a little ball on the inside of the lock that fits into a small hole in the blade while closed to keep it from opening). By putting pressure on the lock, you make it harder for the ball to move out of the hole and thus harder for the blade to open. Moving the pocket clip, as you found, can often help since you can put your fingers on it instead of the outside of the lock.

Anyway, congrats on your first Kershaw purchase! I picked up a Scamp recently as well (not my first Kershaw by a long shot :D ) and think it's a great knife for the price.
 
PyroSpaz316 said:
Also, i have noticed, (or my brain is playing tricks on me) that how you hold the knife affects how strong the blade retention is. Which is the reason that I'm going to leave it tip down; the clip gives something for my fingers to hold on to as I open and close the knife.
Click to expand...

If it's a framelock (iirc, it is), then how you hold the knife definitely does have an effect on the blade retention. If you're baring down on the lock bar, you're obviously going to increase the pressure being placed upon the blade by the lock bar.

Edit: Yeah, what neuron said. :thumbup:
 
Just got a Scamp myself and I'm very happy with it for $20. Had trouble with the pocket clip screws though; I wanted to switch it to tip up carry. One of the screws came out perfect but the other two didn't cooperate at all. I'll live with the tip down carry tho. Nice package of features for a $20 knife IMO.
 
From what I've heard, they're locktited, so try using a hairdryer to heat the area up first to melt the locktite.
 
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