Thermite, clip bent, clip flip and lefty's carry issue

oregon · Oct 23, 2013

Caught the pocket clip of my EDC Thermite in the old truck's troublesome seat belt on the way out and bent the clip. Took it to Kershaw today and they replaced the clip and gave me a new multi-tool to boot. Wow! What a company. Love this knife.

I also brought in my safe queen Thermite and had the clip flipped to tip up carry since I am a righty and prefer to carry in my right front pocket via the clip.

While in the warranty dept. I noticed that, for LEFTIES who carry with the clip thru the black G-10, the clip screws are too short to reach the steel and that the screws only grab onto the G-10 and can come loose (note how thin the steel liner is under the G-10 vs the steel on the lock side of the handle). Solution here is slightly longer screws. Sorry if this has already been mentioned lefties.

grownstar · Oct 23, 2013

Once again, Kershaw proves why they're one of my favorite manufacturers.

sinnyc · Oct 23, 2013

I actually emailed Kershaw yesterday about the short screw issue. Haven't heard back yet but I expect they'll sort me out.

craytab · Nov 4, 2013

sinnyc said:
I actually emailed Kershaw yesterday about the short screw issue. Haven't heard back yet but I expect they'll sort me out.

What did Kershaw say about the screws? I just sent them an email about the same thing.

sinnyc · Nov 4, 2013

craytab said:
What did Kershaw say about the screws? I just sent them an email about the same thing.

I never got a reply to my email but a new clip and screws showed up in the mail on Saturday. I left my Thermite at work so I won't be able to try out the new screws until tonight.

- Tim

oregon · Nov 4, 2013

The lefty-carry-screw-issue is a design error IMHO. Maybe there isn't a fix...

I bent my just-replaced pocket clip getting up from a bench the armrest caught the upturned tip of the clip. It only bent a bit but this clip is trouble for this righty who carrier in right front jeans pocket. When I straighten out the clip I think that I will turn down the tip of the clip just a bit so that it doesn't protrude into harm's way.

craytab · Nov 4, 2013

sinnyc said:
I never got a reply to my email but a new clip and screws showed up in the mail on Saturday. I left my Thermite at work so I won't be able to try out the new screws until tonight.

- Tim

Thanks for the info. Post back the result if you don't mind. I am hoping they will send me some longer screws.

craytab · Nov 4, 2013

oregon said:
The lefty-carry-screw-issue is a design error IMHO. Maybe there isn't a fix...

It makes their "Quad-Carry" clip not so much. Hope they send out longer screws and start replacing the short ones at the factory in China.

sinnyc · Nov 4, 2013

craytab said:
Thanks for the info. Post back the result if you don't mind. I am hoping they will send me some longer screws.

Yeah...so now I'm kinda pissed.

I already sent back my first Thermite (at my cost) to the vendor because the blade had a significant recurve in it and the Spanto grind at the tip was extremely asymmetrical. OK, I thought: "this is an inexpensive, foreign made knife - what do I expect?" I figured I'd roll with it and suck up the cost of the return because it really looks to be a great knife. The replacement knife is better although there is a subtle recurve in it as well. Once again, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and figured "whatever - I'll grind it out myself".

Now we come to the replacement screws. I didn't mention this before because I didn't think it was relevant but I will now. Since I didn't receive a reply from my initial email, I called KAI 2 days later, spoke to customer service, and explained the issue. They were aware of the problem, said they'd found screws from another model that work fine, and said they'd send out the fix promptly. I received that replacement kit today, so now I have 2. Each package contains 2 screws and a pocket clip and everything was in black which is great since they will match the G-10 side. The problem is that the screws are the same length as the originals and therefore don't do anything to resolve the problem.

What the hell?

I'm going to call them tomorrow and find out what's going on.

- Tim

sinnyc · Nov 5, 2013

An update on my issue.

I just got off the phone with someone in the Warranty Department at KAI and gave them the run down on my situation. I let them know that the replacement screws they sent are identical in length to the stock ones and therefore do not solve the problem. He apologized and told me he'd inform the parts folks of this and have them verify they were sending out the correct screws. He also told me he'd get the correct parts sent out to me promptly. Hopefully this time they'll have it sorted out.

- Tim

craytab · Nov 14, 2013

I got my replacement screws in the mail today. They sent me two of the original ones AND two that are a bit longer. The new screws work though one barely threads in to the steal liner. So I guess this turned out okay. Their communication could have been better (or even existed). They never replied to my email to let me know they were sending the screws out.

Tim, as for the blade shape, mine is fairly straight, slight recurve of a couple mms at the base of the blade. However the tip came very blunted so I had to sharpen it up. I own a bunch of other 8cr13mov Chinese knives and several of them have come with blunted tips. It is a function of the price point I think.

Really like the knife though, it is smaller and thinner than I was expecting.

sinnyc · Nov 14, 2013

Yup, I got my replacement screws yesterday. 3rd time was the charm and I got the same set as you, craytab; 2 short and 2 long screws in a polished finish. Too bad, the two sets of black ones I got that were too short looked a lot better with the black clips

Both of my long replacements bit fine but from what you said about one of yours not biting, it sounds like the G10 may be thicker than it should be. It's clear there are some serious QC issues with these knives. I have more than a handful of inexpensive (say, $60-ish or less) Kershaws and the Thermite is by far the worst fit and finish of the bunch. In fact, I've never had cause to complain about any of the others.

As for my replacement knife, I received it and it's much better. The spanto tip is evenly ground on both sides. There is a very slight recurve at the base of the blade but at this point, I'm just going to live with it. I'm sure as hell not going to spend the money to send a $30-somthing knife back AGAIN at my cost for another crap shoot replacement.

I suppose I've now relearned a few lessons that I'd forgotten but had been taught many times before in different arenas such as flashlights, cars, tools, hobbies, and so on. They are:

Don't buy inferior products
Don't let cost be the deciding factor when buying a product I find only mildly interesting. The "Meh, I don't really need it but it's sorta cool and it IS cheap..." way of acquiring items is almost always a loser. There are better ways to throw money away.
Be patient and get what you really want.

All in all, I feel lucky that it was such a relatively inexpensive lesson to relearn

- Tim