Sure enough, I picked up a small Kershaw Vapor at Wal-Mart for $20. They had two, one had a better lockup, SOLD.
This is an interestingly good knife for $20. Made in China, that's how they bring to market at $20 at Wal-Mart. I'm guessing the Chinese sell these to Kershaw for $3-$4, or less. Amazing.
The lockup is pretty ok for a cheapie. Integral / frame lock. Lock tension certainly is lower than a Sebenza or the Benchmade Pinnacle, etc.
AUS-6 felt butter soft under diamond stones. Burr was easy to raise, took some persistence to cut it off finally, but did finally get a good clean shaving edge.
The design of this little knife is quite good, flows well, fits hand well, but that's Onion at work.
Blade is flat ground surprisingly, and of course the plunge shows no definition, the line around the plunge is a blur, rounded over. The blade shape is ok if you like recurves, but the tip isn't very sharply ground... looks like the final edge bevel was put on by hand, and the grinder (the person) rotated the knife and put a steep angle right at the last 2mm of edge at the tip, kind of blunting it's potential pointiness.
Pocket clip is fine... works well, is screwed to the handle very snugly against end of handle, so rides low in pocket (a good thing, IMO). Screws used for clip are big round heads, but what the heck for $20.
The thumb stud is sort of a stacked cone of concentric circles like the Sebenza, but minus the little fine edges that Reeve gets onto his stud. This stud works fine for $20.
Handle has serrations for thumb in saber grip, and near top/butt of handle, ostensibly for reverse grip.
The knife is a bit heavy for it's small size, but that's because I'm used to titanium metal handles and these are assuredly stainless (410) based on weight (and cost... did I mention this is a $20 knife?). Knife is pleasantly thin if that is something you like.
Tang lockup angle is a bit steep, lock covers 1/2 of tang, but is only about 1/2 engaged, so it will wear in fine over time but I might tweak this with a file a bit to get a fuller lockup. Lock on this one has enough friction to stay behind the tang, the other one at Wal-Mart was looser, less friction at lockup, easier to release (not dramatically so, but not a good thing either IMO).
Overall finish is bead blasted... a good approach in keeping it at $20.
I haven't tested the blade steel quality by using it yet (bought yesterday), but have low expectations for AUS-6 to start with, and am sure it'll be a very mediocre edge holder at Rc56-57 (and indeed, under the diamond stones, it's soft... only took a few minutes to reprofile to 20 deg per side). AUS-6 is a simple stainless steel: 0.55% - 0.65% carbon, 13-14.5% chrome, 1% manganese (hardenability, tensile strength) & silicon (tensile strength, toughness), 0.5% nickel (corrosion resistance).
AUS-6 has no molybdenum or vanadium like AUS-8 has. AUS-6 is basically like 420Mod and 425Mod, minus a bit of Moly and Vanadium. So it's very simple stuff, just a hardenable stainless austenitic with a dab of nickel.
Seems like this would be a good cheapie to take on a fishing trip, not for cleaning fish, just as a low-dollar-risk-if-dropped-into-the-drink folder for utility uses (cleaning fish guts out from under fingernails, cutting tie wraps, opening potato chip bags, cutting braided line).
Overall, a pretty high quality knife for $20 with a fairly strong and potentially good lock (with a bit of a tweak), but with cheap steel.
