User Review: Kershaw Leek

I've owned and used this knife as an EDC for nearly 4 years. It's been used camping, backpacking, and everything else I needed a knife for. I even abuse it by cutting cardboard once in a while.

I also have three Benchmade knives, a Gerber fixed blade, and a Boker knife. This Kershaw doesn't hold an edge as well as the Benchmade knives, but its fairly easy to sharpen. The blade appears to be pretty strong. Even though the tip is pretty fine, I've never had a problem with breakage, but I wouldn't try prying with it (and you shouldn't - with any knife).

The mechanisms still work well after probably thousands of actuations (it's a fun knife to just flick open - sort of addictive), and there doesn't appear to be any wear. The blade is still as tight as when I bought it, there's no wobble or indication of looseness. The black coating on my blade is pretty tough. Hardly any scratches, and no evidence that it's wearing off at all.

The size and weight are great. It's even easy to carry in light-weight dress pants. With jeans or heavier material you won't notice it at all. The only criticism I have is that the scales are smooth, and wouldn't give a great grip. The shape helps some, but for heavier use a rougher fininsh would be better. For its intended use, its fine as made. (I use the Benchmade mini-Rukus for heavier cutting or when I need a good grip with wet hands.)

The only issue I've ever had with the Kershaw was that the pocket clip got bent outward and wouldn't hold onto my pocket very well. (It was my fault that the clip got bent. I snagged it somehow.) I couldn't get the littler screws that hold the clip on, so I sent it to Kershaw to get a new clip installed, fully expecting a fee since I caused the problem. I received the knife back within 2 weeks of mailing it out. Kershaw didn't just fix the clip; apparently they disassembled the entire knife and reworked everything!. I know it got a NEW BLADE, and I suspect they also put in a NEW LINER since the lock was much tighter than when I sent it in. I'd guess that the only part of my knife that was returned was the outer scales - everything else appears to be new. The refused to charge for any of the parts or work. There's no way you can beat that kind of customer service.

Overall, a great EDC knife that will satisfy all your needs 90% of the time, but you may want something a little beefier for heavy duty use. Can't beat this knife for the price, handling, and customer service (that's worth the price of the knife by itself!).