No idea why this reviewer prefers Kershaw serrations to Spyderco.

Fat Goat Forge

Fat Goat Forge

Joined
Dec 31, 2011
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292
I have to say that the reviewer Nutnfancy is not very respected by me in terms of his criteria for what makes a good knife. Seems like a Mall Ninja although I do of course respect his service in the air force.

I noticed that he makes repeated references in his reviews to the superiority of the Kershaw serrations to the Spyderco design for serrations. I prefer spyderco design elements in general very much to any other production knife maker. I like to carry a serrated knife at all times to free a horse if need be (I am a horseshoer and sometimes horses get tangled up in things). My choice for daily carry around horses is a Spyderco rescue in orange so I can find it if I drop it in the pasture. The serrations seem fine to me. They did a nice job the other day accidentally filleting my knuckle :) Does anyone know what deficiency he is referring to in the serrations? I cannot find any.
 
I'm with you, the Spyderedge is the superior (and as far as I know original) serrated edge. Nutnfancy is a blowhard, and while he obviously has a lot of supporters, trying to intellectually refute any of his opinions is futile IMO. He bagged on Kershaw/Zero Tolerance in a recent video for providing a kydex-lined nylon sheath with one of their knives for being too bulky or ugly or some such nonsense. :rolleyes: It's just his opinion and anyone who's that heavily influenced by his opinions is paying hundreds of dollars for a thirty dollar Persistence dressed up in multicam with "nutnfancy" printed on it. :foot: His videos are best viewed in mute IMO. :)
 
Discussions of one company's products can go in the company forum. Comparisons of more than one company go in General Knife Discussion. Rants about nutnfancy may be moved to Whine & Cheese.
 
My guess is thwt the rounded serrations Kershaw uses are more likely to slice through, the SpyderEdge might puncture and tear. I've used both and they both work well.
 
1) If he's "...not very respected by me in terms of his criteria for what makes a good knife...", then why are you even listening to him or his opinions about serrations at all?
2) Wouldn't Nutnfacncy be the person to ask about why Nutnfancy doesn't like Spyderco serrations?

Or are you just asking us to sit though all his videos and figure out what he's talking about because you don't want to? :D
 
Shotgun said:
Just stop watching his vids. Nothing worth knowing comes from them.
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Agreed... who cares which serrations he likes better. I've heard the guy say 1095 makes a bad survival steel.... the guy is usually far from what I've accepted as true in my own experiences.
 
SMI said:
Agreed... who cares which serrations he likes better. I've heard the guy say 1095 makes a bad survival steel.... the guy is usually far from what I've accepted as true in my own experiences.
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As far as I can tell he formulates his opinions first and then goes out and tries to prove himself right in his "reviews." Noss' vids are more informative and that says a lot. :rolleyes:
 
i thought this thread was so funny because i was wondering to myself if it was nutnfancy that i had read about on the forums who was referred to as a mall ninja. so i logged on and typed mall ninja in the search and up came this thread. thanks for the good laugh. sorry esav benyamin i know you said if we were going to talk about nutnfancy that this thread should be in whine&cheese, but it looks like you forgot to move it there.
 
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Nutnfancy clearly states his opinions are just that, he doesn't scientifically test anything although you will ocassionally see him wail on a knife for toughness tests....I don't think they prove much if anything anyways. But when I started buying knives for edc use his talking points really made it easy for me to disregard some knives. Plus he's like most of the knife nuts in here who would carry a plain edge most of the time over serrated. people who carry a spyderedge I'm sure have good reason to do so and I appreciate that nutnfancy doesn't discount anyone's personal preferences and reminds you that "your mileage may very" you need to cut quick and dirty carry fully serrated and never look back! I'll stick with an ffg so i can sculpt cardboard cleanly for future use in my store. All I'm saying is whatever your thing is, go for it, and don't complain about people who lay out what they think of something if they aren't shoving it in your face.
 
To the OP,
We've used multiple different serration patterns over the years.
While we like/use the two-step pattern, we've seen many come back with the tips of the tall serration bent or broken. I feel the proper blade steel must be in line with this pattern, otherwise damage is possible. Depending on the matter being separated, one could see immediate harm.

It does seem that users have a tendency to think serrated blades are indestructible, can handle jobs they're not intended for, thus the damage. Unlike a plain edge, there is no recourse in making damaged serrations look new once again. Of course there is the "look" that a two-step pattern brings...very aggressive, which can be a draw for many.

With the scalloped serrations, we have found them to be very effective with less tendency to rip, tear, or bind. Personally I don't think they "look" as cool, but from shear performance, especially over time, the scallops we've seen hold up better without sacrifice.

In either of these two cases, when utilizing serrations in general, your cutting technique needs to be adjusted to fit the edge configuration and job in front of you.
 
Personally I wouldn't ever buy a serrated kershaw. Nothing against kershaw but for daily use i prefer a plain edge and i also think that serrations really mar the gentlemanlike elegance of the kershaw blades i prefer. I also really dislike the "two-step" kershaw serrations, to me they look like they were just designed to look cool and i don't find them very effective at tasks like cutting rope (compared to what Thomas calls the "scalloped serrations"). One of these days i'm going to buy a couple serrated atlantic salts, one to leave on the sailboat for emergency use and another for kayaking and maybe as a spare dive knife. From brief experience and the number of kayaking guides i've seen with salts lashed to their PFD's, the spyderco serrations work great for emergency rope cutting and other similar tasks. I also happen to hate combo edges and i only ever see serrated kershaws that are combos. So yeah, i prefer the spyderco serrations.

Edit: Oh yeah, nutnfancy really bothers me. I'm always amazed at how many views he gets. Sometimes he has the only decent video of a knife though and i have to suffer through 25 minutes of information that could be presented in less than 5 minutes. I guess he appeals to a different demographic. I own guns because i think shooting is fun and i carry a knife because i find it useful. I have zero interest in "tactical" situations. I'm not trying to be insulting. We all have different interests and viewpoints, if you like him i'm glad for you. I wish there were more knife reviews from people like jdavis828 though.
 
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fatherhudson said:
Personally I wouldn't ever buy a serrated kershaw. Nothing against kershaw but for daily use i prefer a plain edge and i also think that serrations really mar the gentlemanlike elegance of the kershaw blades i prefer. I also really dislike the "two-step" kershaw serrations, to me they look like they were just designed to look cool and i don't find them very effective at tasks like cutting rope (compared to what Thomas calls the "scalloped serrations"). One of these days i'm going to buy a couple serrated atlantic salts, one to leave on the sailboat for emergency use and another for kayaking and maybe as a spare dive knife. From brief experience and the number of kayaking guides i've seen with salts lashed to their PFD's, the spyderco serrations work great for emergency rope cutting and other similar tasks. I also happen to hate combo edges and i only ever see serrated kershaws that are combos. So yeah, i prefer the spyderco serrations.
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Man, set myself up for this post...
 
Kershaw serrations have worked better for me, especially in fibrous material which tends to snag a Spyderedge.
 
Scalloped serrations work great, I never get them snagged like I have with the more aggressive ones, but cutting does take a bit longer. It seems like Nutnfancy and most other reviewers like to ramble and use up your time. But they can still be useful.
 
Thomas - I challenge kershaw to make a fully scallop serrated version of one of your popular knives, maybe a talon type, maybe a sheep's foot or wharncliffe. Both would be an interesting ker'saw'. Oh man
 
Thomas W said:
To the OP,
We've used multiple different serration patterns over the years.
While we like/use the two-step pattern, we've seen many come back with the tips of the tall serration bent or broken. I feel the proper blade steel must be in line with this pattern, otherwise damage is possible. Depending on the matter being separated, one could see immediate harm.

It does seem that users have a tendency to think serrated blades are indestructible, can handle jobs they're not intended for, thus the damage. Unlike a plain edge, there is no recourse in making damaged serrations look new once again. Of course there is the "look" that a two-step pattern brings...very aggressive, which can be a draw for many.

With the scalloped serrations, we have found them to be very effective with less tendency to rip, tear, or bind. Personally I don't think they "look" as cool, but from shear performance, especially over time, the scallops we've seen hold up better without sacrifice.

In either of these two cases, when utilizing serrations in general, your cutting technique needs to be adjusted to fit the edge configuration and job in front of you.
Click to expand...

Why do you invert them? I can see giving more cutting surface area in a smaller package, but by not having tips of serrations to grab or protect the edge inside of the curve, doesn't that kind of defeat their purpose? It would be interesting to see Kershaw put out a fully serrated knife with the inverted pattern. Or I would be interested in it at least :D

I prefer a shallow serration myself, like on the Dodo, or the Byrd Rescue. I don't like deep serrations with long pointed teeth. They don't cut at all, just grip and tear. I have seen several Gerber Paraframes with long pointy serrations that would not cut or tear, just grab. I had an old Kershaw Vapor 2 with the same problem. In my experience using serrated knives, nothing beats the scalloped edge that Victorinox uses. They seem to be the best of both worlds between Kershaw's inverted serrations, and Spyderco's 2 step pattern.
 
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