New Kershaw & ZT

dogboye

dogboye

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Nov 23, 1999
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Most of the Kershaw's I've seen around have either been Scallions, Leeks, or the Vapor (I think) at Wal-Mart. The Scallions and Leeks are nice enough, but just never did anything for me. The Vapor, yeah, sorta, but I guess I was too much of a knife-snob to buy a knife at Wal-Mart. So it had been a while since I had bought a Kershaw.

Then for some reason I got curious about Zero Tolerance, and came over here and started looking around. Boy was THAT a mistake for my wallet. In the last couple days, it's been like Christmas for me. Yesterday, I received a new Kershaw Shallot. It joined a Kershaw MC Boa in my stable of knives. Then today I received a new ZT550.

First, frankly, I was blown away by the Shallot. The fit and finish on this $50-ish is easily comparable to knives I have that I paid nearly three times as much for! The shape of the blade is, well, actually dead-sexy, I think. Just enough recurve to look really nice, without so much that it is a pita to sharpen. Good blade steel, and the lock is my most trusted type. And the action of the opening... just WOW! I'm a huge fan of Benchmade; I have knives from them from as far back as when they were known as Pacific Cutlery (IIRC), up to one I bought a couple weeks ago. But I don't think a single one of the Benchmades I have is any BETTER than this Shallot in fit and finish, and quality of workmanship. Just higher end materials (CPM's and some other exotic steels) that really... do they add THAT much to the true value of the knife? I don't regret having a single one of them, but I recognize how tremendous a value the Shallot is. It probably helps a lot that it has my favorite blade-tip shape (bit of a clip shape). But still, just fantastic.

But the 550.... holy cow! What a friggin' beast! I ordered it (actually won it on the auction site after someone mentioned that as a possible source of the 560) after I decided that I couldn't afford the additional premium... this month... on the 560. Man, I HOPE there is a 560 available when my funds recover. Because this 550 is fantastic. When it is open and locked, it is like one solid piece of metal. All the things I said about the Shallot apply to the 550 just the same.

So yeah, I've become a major fan of Kershaw in just the last couple of days. These two won't be my last of either "brand."

I do have one question, though. Is the Shallot supposed to not have a divot in the blade-pivot area for the ball-detent to nest in? Because mine is divotless.
 
Shallot is one of the few I don't own but I believe the SpeedSafe Torsion bar acts as the detent as it does on a number of knives. Some also have a ball detent but the 0350 is the only I know of offhand.
 
I have 2 Shallots, they have the ball in the frame lock, but no corresponding hole drilled in the blade tang. I don't know why they didn't add it. I am actually thinking about drilling my own hole and taking out the torsion bar. Kershaw told me that it would probably void the warranty, but I might risk it.

The torsion bar is what makes it stay closed until you built up enough pressure to move the blade out.
 
I've been thinking more, and looking at wear patterns on the Shallot as I continue to flip it (kinda addictive, isn't it?). I think the purpose of the detent ball is to minimize the wear in the blade tang from the frame lock. If it weren't for the detent ball, the entire frame lock would wear on the tang, and the wear would be more visible than just that of the detent ball.

The system works as it is. I was just a little surprised there wasn't a divot, and wondered if a step had been missed on mine. Guess not.
 
rockspyder said:
I've been thinking more, and looking at wear patterns on the Shallot as I continue to flip it (kinda addictive, isn't it?). I think the purpose of the detent ball is to minimize the wear in the blade tang from the frame lock. If it weren't for the detent ball, the entire frame lock would wear on the tang, and the wear would be more visible than just that of the detent ball.

The system works as it is. I was just a little surprised there wasn't a divot, and wondered if a step had been missed on mine. Guess not.
Click to expand...

In addition to minimizing wear as you pointed out, I also believe is serves to minimize friction that would slow down the opening action on the Shallot and other, similar Kershaw/ZTs.
 
What you guys said is correct, it minimizes the wear from the lock bar. I think the ball divot just wasn't necessary, so they didn't do it, one less step.

The reason I want to make mine into a manual flipper is that I have to get the pivot pretty tight to center the blade and it puts strain on the torsion bar, mine has a small margin of being able to flip open and the blade being centered.

I like the assisted opening, but I have a spare and am thinking about altering it.
 
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