Brand in Focus: Kershaw
Push a Kershaw folder open with your thumb and it takes over halfway through, snapping the blade the rest of the way with a sound you can pick out across a workshop. That mechanism has a name, SpeedSafe, and it came from a custom maker in Hawaii who had never built a production knife. Thirty years later half the industry sells something similar, which tells you most of what you need to know about this company from Oregon.
A salesman from Portland who wanted his own knives
Pete Kershaw was selling for Gerber Legendary Blades when he decided in 1974 that he would rather make his own designs. The first knives were built in Seki, Japan, by Ichiro Hattori, a name that still means something to collectors of Japanese blades. In 1977 the young company became a subsidiary of the KAI Group, a Japanese cutlery house that traces its own start back to 1908. Kershaw is a brand of Kai USA today, based in Tualatin near Portland, and it shares that roof with the harder edged Zero Tolerance line.
SpeedSafe, and what it did to the pocket knife
In 1996 Kershaw approached Ken Onion, a custom maker with an idea for a torsion bar that would finish the opening motion once you started it. Two years later the Random Task became the first production knife with SpeedSafe, and it took American Made Knife of the Year at the Blade Show. Onion's early series carried names from the onion family, the Chive, the Scallion, the Shallot and the Leek, which is the sort of joke a company makes when it knows the designs will sell. They did. The money paid for the Tualatin plant where the premium models are still built.
Leek: the one everybody means
Two decades on, the Leek is still the knife most people picture. This version pairs the slim profile with a MagnaCut blade, the stainless steel that finally stopped forcing a choice between edge holding and rust resistance. 7,6 cm of blade at 2,3 mm, aluminium handle in a blue to black fade, 85 grams, 17,9 cm open. It disappears in a pocket and opens with the flick that made the brand. More of the same idea in our assisted opener knives.
DuraLock: the newer half of the range
In 2023 Kershaw put its own crossbar lock into production. A spring loaded steel bar drops behind the blade tang, you pull it back with either hand, and your fingers never sit in the path of the closing edge. That is the practical argument for it over a liner lock, and it works the same way whether you are left or right handed.
Bel Air Clip Point: made in Oregon, MagnaCut, Micarta
The Bel Air is the flagship of that generation. MagnaCut on ball bearings, 7,7 cm of clip point blade, ambidextrous thumb studs, an olive Micarta handle that gets better with a few years of pocket wear, 74 grams, 18,4 cm open, reversible tip up clip. Made in the USA, and one of the few knives at this price that does not ask you to compromise on steel.
Heist: slim, S35VN, no fuss
If the Bel Air is the dress shirt, the Heist is the work jacket. CPM-S-35VN, 8,1 cm of blade at 2,3 mm, textured G10 scales, DuraLock, 88 grams. S35VN is the steel a lot of makers settled on for hard use, tough enough to take abuse and still fine grained enough to sharpen without a diamond plate. Browse the rest of our EDC knives.
Iridium: the value pick with real hardware
Named after element 77 and finished to match. A D2 spearpoint blade, 8,6 cm at 2,7 mm, running on bearings behind the crossbar lock, aluminium handle, bronze anodised backspacer, deep carry clip, 94 grams. D2 is a tool steel, so it holds an edge a long time and wants to be wiped dry. For the price this is a lot of knife.
Camp 10: when a folder is the wrong tool
Kershaw also builds for the other end of the job. The Camp 10 is 26 cm of carbon steel at 4,8 mm, a rubber over moulded handle, 520 grams and 40,5 cm overall. Carbon steel takes a keen edge and comes back quickly with a file, which matters more than corrosion resistance when you are clearing brush. Wipe it down, keep it out of the shed puddle. It sits with our other outdoor tools.
Where would we start?
Take the Leek if you want the design that built the brand, the Bel Air for the steel and the Oregon build, the Heist if the knife has to work for a living. The Iridium is the one we hand people who say good knives cost too much, and the Camp 10 is for the weekend the folder cannot handle. The Covalent and the little Kapsule sit further down the list and are worth a look as a first knife.
The full range is in our Kershaw collection, or pull up everything under search for Kershaw. Still weighing it up? Start with our pocket knives.
