Some questions about the Kershaw Offset...

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Folderguy

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Jun 26, 2010
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This afternoon, I had the chance to take a good look at the Kershaw Offset folder, model 1597G10, and read up a bit about it. The blade on this knife is injection molded. It seems to be a high tech thing. However, when this sort of process is used to make gun parts, the folks who know about this process avoid it.

Do you know anything about the toughness of the Offset? Is the blade strong enough to be abused, like the ZT 0300, or is it notably weaker? Not that I'm planning on using it roughly, far from that, but if I get into a bind and need to do some prying with it, will it take the stress?

Any other comments you may wish to share regarding the knife are welcome. Also, do you know why Kershaw discontinued the knife?
 
I am very happy with my Offset I like the entire design. If I want to pry I would never use any knife unless for an emergency and in that case I could care less about the outcome of the knife. I understand your question, I'm just not that concerned with the outcome as I would expect the worst and hope for the best with any knife. I guess for prying a good stout fixed blade would fare better just by design.

I have ruined many Leatherman and Gerber tools prying with the scewdrivers.

Here is a link discussing the 440c MIM steel.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=413774&highlight=kershaw+offset+440c

You may have to copy and paste it.

i do believe you could do minimal prying with the knife as you could with any knife but how much I am not sure. Sorry for lack of a better answer.
 
Does Kershaw currently make knives with Metal Injection Molding?

I can't find it on their website.

Plus, their warranty expressly does not cover damage to a knife while prying...

In that thread that was posted above, Tim Galyean, who was with Kershaw at the time he posted in the thread, mentioned he would try to get some photos of the Metal Injection Molded knife blades being bent in a press, but there are no photos of that posted, at least in that thread.

Also, just wondering if Kershaw currently makes knives with the Stud Lock?

As it has been about 5 years since the MIM and Stud Lock were introduced, if they no longer use these technologies, I might just pass on acquiring an Offset.

Thanks for your comments!
 
As far as I know, the Bump, Speed Bump, and Spec Bump all have stud locks (If I am thinking of the right thing)
 
The Offset is a cool knife with some very interesting technology behind it. I do not have an answer for you as far as how durable the MIM 440c is but I have used mine quite a bit and it holds a pretty good edfe and has held up fine to my medium to light use. I'm sure you know it already, but the cool thing about the MIM blade is that the first part of the blade, on the ricasso side, is hollow ground nice and fine and the rest of the blade is flat ground quite thick.

As far as the stud lock goes, they have been using them on the Bump series and the Mini Mojito since introduction however they were just dropped this year (not sure about the Mini Mojito). In my experience the stud lock keeps the blade open very securely and is the easiest lock to manipulate than any other lock that I've tried. This is because you can unlock it and close the blade in one motion with one finger instead of using two fingers and two motions like with most.

If the design interests you, it might be worth it to check one out. Theres a guy on here that goes by the name of Offsetlover that has been praising them for years although I haven't seen him around much anymore.
 
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