RAM question

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[X]Outlaw

Joined
Sep 1, 2011
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22
So I bought my first Kershaw on Amazon yesterday! A RAM 1910ckt. I am quite excited about it. This is my first non Victorinox knife (SAK Collector here). I've never heard about Kershaw before but I was looking for a dedicated cutting blade and the brand came up in my research. Man I feel in love with almost everyone of their designs. It took me a few weeks to finally decide on the RAM and then another week to decided on DLC coating or not lol. I can't wait to get it in my hands and experience the quality everyone here talks about.

I do have a couple questions.

1. When the blade is in the closed position is it securely held in place like a SAK or is it "loose" meaning that it could move in and out with gravity?
2. I recently purchased a sharpmaker to maintain my SAKs, would this be sufficient to maintain the factory edge on the RAM? (I know I could always ship it back for sharpening but I'm outside of the USA and like to do these things myself :))

Thanks
 
Congrats on your first Kershaw and a great knife and welcome to bladeforums!

I love my RAM. When closed mine is secure. I have never had an issue with the blade opening before I want it to. It is very smooth and I love the lock on it. I dont own a sharpmaker but I would think it would work fine. Someone else could probably answer that question better than I could though because I am still learning when it comes to sharpening.

JD
 
shandrydan1 said:
Congrats on your first Kershaw and a great knife and welcome to bladeforums!

I love my RAM. When closed mine is secure. I have never had an issue with the blade opening before I want it to. It is very smooth and I love the lock on it.
JD
Click to expand...

Nice! I was concerned about that for legality purposes.
 
The blade is held in very securely. I had to drop it from more than 5 feet, several times before it would open. On carpet of course;).

The Sharpmaker should do fine, though if it doesn't, I would get some coarse sandpaper, clamp it to the rods with a binder clip, and use that to reprofile the edge.
 
I have also been curious about the RAM, I know, or I have figured, rather, because I don't own one, that it will hold closed just fine as long as the lock 'switch' is engaged to allow it to function as a detent. However, what if you hold the knife such that the lock is disengaged and your hand is out of the way of the blade, can you swing it all the way out then release the lock? Kinda like this: Hawk R.A.Z.R. I know it is nowhere near that smooth 'cause the R.A.Z.R has the ball bearing pivot, you would probably need some wrist motion with a Kershaw RAM, but that operation by holding back the lock 'switch' is what I am wondering about, legality-wise... Not that there would ever be a real reason to use it that way... Just worried it might be some kind of technicality. Probably never be an issue, I just like to know things for sure...
 
IRZ28 said:
I have also been curious about the RAM, I know, or I have figured, rather, because I don't own one, that it will hold closed just fine as long as the lock 'switch' is engaged to allow it to function as a detent. However, what if you hold the knife such that the lock is disengaged and your hand is out of the way of the blade, can you swing it all the way out then release the lock? Kinda like this: Hawk R.A.Z.R. I know it is nowhere near that smooth 'cause the R.A.Z.R has the ball bearing pivot, you would probably need some wrist motion with a Kershaw RAM, but that operation by holding back the lock 'switch' is what I am wondering about, legality-wise... Not that there would ever be a real reason to use it that way... Just worried it might be some kind of technicality. Probably never be an issue, I just like to know things for sure...
Click to expand...
Technically, most knives will loosen up a lot with the lock disengaged, at least enough to wrist flick it. The RAM is smoother than most knives in that regard, almost at the level of IKBS. I find the blade will drop down once I disengage the lock from gravity alone.

To be honest, if the authorities are that dedicated to "getting you" on such technicalities(say, NYC and where they drop open Spyderco knives by gripping the hole and calling it a "gravity knife"), you're more or less screwed no matter what knife you carry.
 
It is not going to be tight in the manner of a slipjoint knife, ie Victorinox, but it is tight. On a slipjoint the backspring is excerting a certain amount of pressure, holding the blade in, and you have to overcome that pressure to open the blade. On the Ram, it stays closed due to the Hawk Lock, and it is very secure. It also allows you to flip open the blade with little effort, as the Hawk Lock is easier overcome that the backspring. But don't equate that to it being loose, especially when it is locked up, cause it ain't going to close on you until you want it closed, and, by the same token, it will not open on you until you are ready for it to open.

Are you thourghly confused now?;):D
 
^^ Hahaha

I think I know what to expect now :D

On another note...I should have never found out about Kershaw knives, they have so many nice designs DAMIT!!
 
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