Kershaw Knives

What Kershaw makes for hunters and campers

On this site, Kershaw covers five product types: folding knives, fixed-blade knives, machetes, a hatchet and a sharpener. The folders are the biggest part of the grid by a long way. Most are assisted-opening knives with pocket clips, which is the thing the brand is best known for. The fixed blades split into hunting knives with sheaths and a handful of camp and utility blades. The machete is the Camp 10, the hatchet is the Deschutes Skinner Hatchet, and the sharpener is the Ultra-Tek rod.

The grid above filters by type and changes as listings come and go. So I'll write about the groups and what separates them, not how many of each are up this week.

Almost every spec on this page comes from Amazon listings, and the grid marks those values. Where a listing leaves a field blank, the grid shows a dash. I left those blanks alone.

The Kershaw pocket knife: small assisted folders

Kershaw names its small folders like the produce aisle: Chive, Scallion, Leek. (I keep waiting for the Rutabaga. It would be a heavy knife.)

These are the little ones, with blades from just under 2 inches to about 3. Per their listings:

• Chive and Kapsule: the smallest blades in the grid, under 2 inches
• Scallion and Cathode: a step up, with polymer or plain handles
• Leek: a 3-inch drop point in Sandvik 14C28N with a steel handle
• Cryo, Appa, Gravel, Outlier, Shuffle II: 2.5 to 2.75-inch blades in drop point, tanto and reverse tanto shapes

Nearly all list assisted opening and a pocket clip. Most use 8Cr13MoV or 420HC stainless; the Leek's 14C28N is the exception. Morakniv's steel guide calls 14C28N corrosion resistant and easy to maintain, and says it takes more effort to resharpen. That's a fair trade for a pocket knife that sees more cardboard than deer.

A knife this size suits the daily jobs at camp: cutting cord, opening feed bags, trimming a fly. For a cross-brand look at small folders, see the lightweight pocket knife page and the everyday carry knife page.

Full-size assisted folders

The middle of the lineup is full-size folders with blades from about 3 to 3.7 inches. The listings describe:

• Blur: a 3.4-inch blade in 14C28N with an aluminum handle, also offered partly serrated with a liner lock
• Oso Sweet: a 3-inch drop point in 8Cr13MoV, polymer handle, liner lock
• Grid and Barricade: the longest drop points in this group, around 3.5 to 3.7 inches
• Analyst and Analyst Tanto: 3.25-inch tantos, one plain and one partly serrated
• Misdirect and Misdirect Rainbow: 4Cr14 reverse tantos with steel handles; the Misdirect lists a frame lock
• Outright, Camshaft, Filter, Conduit, Dawnstar: drop point, clip point, trailing point and spear point shapes around 3 inches

A few full-size models (the Select Fire, Brawler, Fringe and LoneRock RBK 2) leave the opening type blank in their listings, so the grid does too.

How the assisted opening works

An assisted folder isn't an automatic knife. Benchmade's mechanisms guide explains the general idea: a torsion spring helps the blade open, but you have to start the opening by hand, with a thumb stud or a flipper tab. The spring is biased toward closing, which keeps the blade shut in the pocket. Kershaw's own about page says its assisted-opening knives were first to market.

Rule of thumb: practice opening and closing at the kitchen table before the first trip. The blade moves faster than you expect the first time, and your fingers should be well out of its path.

Kershaw DuraLock folders

Two folders in the grid use a different lock: the Iridium, in D2 steel with an aluminum handle, and the Bareknuckle, in MagnaCut. Their listings describe a crossbar-type lock and thumb-stud opening instead of assisted opening. The Bareknuckle's listing calls the lock DuraLock, and Kershaw's site groups these knives under that name.

Benchmade's guide describes this kind of lock as a small spring-loaded bar that moves across the blade's tang. The guide calls it ambidextrous and good for one-handed use. That's handy in a stand when the other hand is holding the bow rope.

What separates the two is the steel: D2, which the listings class as a tool steel, on the Iridium, and MagnaCut on the Bareknuckle. The blades are close in size, 3.4 and 3.5 inches. The Iridium comes in more than one handle color.

The Kershaw hunting knife: fixed blades with sheaths

This is the group most hunters will look at first. The listings describe full-tang blades with sheaths on almost all of them:

• Deschutes Skinner: a 3.9-inch drop point in D2, also offered with a gut hook and a polypropylene handle
• Deschutes Caper: a 3.3-inch clip point in D2 with a flat grind, the detail knife of the set
• Steppe: a 3.55-inch D2 drop point with a polypropylene handle and a nylon sheath
• Pack Mule: a 3.9-inch clip point in N690 steel, G10 handle, with a kydex-type sheath
• Mini Iridium: a 3.1-inch D2 reverse tanto with a Micarta handle and a plastic sheath
• Brace: a 2-inch drop point in 8Cr13MoV with a plastic sheath

The Deschutes Skinner and Caper go together like a hammer and a nail set. The longer drop point does the opening and skinning; the shorter clip point handles the close work. A gut hook is a notch on the spine that opens the hide without cutting deeper. Decide whether you'll actually use one before you pay for it in the listing.

The listings class D2 as a tool steel, not a stainless one. Wipe it dry after a wet day like any knife, and oil it before it goes in the drawer. Shapes and sizes across brands are on the hunting knife page and the skinning knife page.

Camp and utility fixed blades

The rest of the fixed blades are bigger or built for general work:

• Camp 5 Bowie: a 4.75-inch clip point in D2, full tang, with a sheath
• Secret Agent: a 4.4-inch spear point in 8Cr13MoV with a glass-filled nylon handle and a nylon sheath
• Arise: a 4.2-inch spear point
• Dune: a 3.8-inch tanto in 3Cr13 stainless with a nylon sheath
• Atreides: the longest of the group, a 5.7-inch tanto in 65Mn steel with a rubber-overmolded handle

These are camp knives more than field-dressing knives. A tanto's angular point suits straight utility cuts more than the curved work around a deer. The camping knife page and the bowie knife page compare those shapes across brands.

The Camp 10 machete

The Camp 10 is the brand's machete on this site, listed with a 10-inch blade in 65Mn carbon steel, a rubberized handle and a sheath. It turns up twice in the grid, in two listings.

A 10-inch machete is a trail and brush tool: clearing shooting lanes, cutting saplings off a stand path, splitting kindling for the stove. Danny says he wants one for "fire logistics." He means he wants to swing something.

Carbon steel asks for more care than stainless. Morakniv's guide says carbon steel is more prone to rust in humid conditions and needs careful drying and oiling after use, and that it's easier to resharpen. The machete page covers lengths and blade shapes across brands.

The Deschutes Skinner Hatchet

Kershaw's one axe on this site carries the Deschutes name, like the fixed-blade hunting knives. Its listing puts it at hatchet length, with a 3Cr13 steel head, a nylon or polymer handle and a sheath, and names camping and splitting as its uses. The listing doesn't give a head weight, and I won't guess one.

A hatchet is a one-hand tool for kindling and small limbs, used on a chopping block with the free hand well back. It doesn't replace a splitting axe on full rounds. The camping hatchet page and the hatchet vs axe guide sort sizes across brands. Keep the sheath on whenever it rides in a pack or the truck.

The Ultra-Tek sharpening rod

The Ultra-Tek is a diamond sharpening rod, per its listing, with a single medium grit and a length that suits a kit bag better than a kitchen drawer.

That fits the care habit below: frequent light sharpening beats rescuing a dull knife. The sharpening rod page and the hunting knife sharpening guide cover the rest.

How to choose within the Kershaw lineup

Pick the job first

Pocket knife for daily chores, fixed blade for field dressing, machete for brush, hatchet for kindling. That's the split the grid's type filter makes, and it's the right first cut. The pocket knife page and the fixed blade knife page lay out the trade across brands.

Then the blade length

The folders run from under 2 inches to just under 4. The fixed blades run from 2 inches to almost 6, and the machete goes to 10. For field dressing a deer, the short and mid-length drop points and clip points are the usual tools. Long blades belong at the woodpile.

Then the blade shape

• Drop point: tip in line with the spine, the all-round hunting shape
• Clip point: a thinner tip for detail work, as on the Deschutes Caper
• Tanto and reverse tanto: an angular, strong tip, more utility than skinning
• Spear point: a centered tip, symmetrical on both sides

Then the edge

My one opinion on this page: for a hunting knife, buy the plain edge. Kershaw's warranty page says the company sharpens knives sent in for warranty service but can't sharpen serrated edges. A plain edge is also the one you can touch up on a stone at the cabin table. Partly serrated folders like the Analyst and Gravel cut rope and strapping fine, and that's where they belong.

Then the lock and opening

Assisted opening with a liner or frame lock, or a DuraLock with a thumb stud. Learn the close on the knife you buy before you need it in the dark. Benchmade's guide notes that closing a frame lock still puts your hand in the blade path, so go slow.

Care for the whole Kershaw lineup

A knife wants three things: clean, dry and a drop of oil. AKTI's maintenance guide recommends:

• A toothpick for dirt in the handle and around the pivot
• Light oil on the folding mechanism of a knife you use often
• Drying after rain, since water can harm even stainless steel
• A cool, dry drawer, not a damp basement or garage
• Frequent light sharpening instead of rescuing a very dull edge

Cut away from your body. Keep your fingers out of a folder's closing arc; AKTI warns the spring can snap the blade shut. Don't use any knife as a pry bar. Kershaw's warranty calls prying and twisting misuse.

Kershaw brand facts

Here's what I could verify from the maker's own pages:

• Founded: 1974, per Kershaw's about page
• Owner: Kai USA Ltd., a member of the Kai Group, per the same page; Kai USA describes the Kai Group as more than 100 years old and headquartered in Tokyo
• Where made: many products in a 55,000-square-foot facility in Tualatin, Oregon, per Kershaw
• Warranty: limited lifetime for the original owner, not transferable, per Kershaw's warranty page

That's the list. Put the knife back in the same drawer every time, and you won't spend November asking where it went.