About
Reviews (2)
Nov 17, 2016
Love - Hate Relationship
3 of 4 found this helpful I love this knife! It's not often that I venture over the $100 mark AND outside the U.S.A. for my carry knife. I am glad I did. My Cold Steel Swift I is assisted open, lightweight, thin in the pocket, with attractive G-10 ergonomic handles/scales and a beefy, great looking blade made from American CTS XHP powdered steel with enhanced edge retention and a renowned secure lockup. The Cold Steel Swift I has bumped my Kershaw Blur S30V from my everyday pants pocket.
As to the Hate relationship. I was shopping for a 4-inch blade on a knife with similar qualities to those noted above. I'd bet most knife owners by a wide margin measure their blades from the tip to the nearest edge of the handle, or the hilt on a straight blade knife. If I push my blade straight through a cardboard box as far as the blade will go until the handle stops at the cardboard then this is what I believe the most generous measured blade length is. Don't tell me the blade extends down around the curved edge of the handle. That is nonsense and not practical. If it doesn't go into the cardboard box it isn't usable blade length. My Swift I blade measures 3-9/16 ". Cold Steel and nearly all sellers market this as a 4" blade and 4" is even printed on the box. This clear deception detracts from what is an excellent product that can stand honestly on it's own as a good value. From now on I will have to figure in your inflated blade lengths when I compare various knives online and make a purchase decision. I don't want to have to comb through pages of customer reviews to find out the true blade length.
C'mon, Cold Steel, you don't need to fudge the numbers. That just damages customer relations. You have a great product that otherwise deserved 5 Stars.
Sep 29, 2016
Excellent value in a USA-made knife!
3 of 3 found this helpful My price range was $45-$65. So far, the Kershaw Blur has come the closest to meeting my requirements for everyday carry. It is lightweight for having aluminum handles, thin and compact, comfortably shaped with rubber inserts for a good grip closed and open. One-handed open and close was important to me so the Kershaw Speedsafe spring assist feature worked perfectly.
I prefer the Kershaw Blur over both of the other knives I bought recently: a USA-made Gerber Edict, unassisted lockback with a tanto blade, but a too-bulky handle and requiring a strong wrist flick to open one-handed; and a SOG Trident Elite which I believe has a Japan-made serrated blade which I otherwise like. but with large, uncomfortable-in-the-hand squared-edge handles with a seatbelt cutter notch I find unnecessary and not pleasing in appearance.
I kept both of those knives but continued my search until I got the Kershaw 1670TBLKST.
One concern I had as I ordered it was the liner lock. I have had some cheap Chinese-made knives that had a liner lock which either failed to lock up or were on the very edge of failure. I am happy to report that the Kershaw Blur stainless steel liner lock gives a positive lockup completely under the blade pivot. The notched edge of the liner lock sticks out from the handle enough for me to depress it with my thumbnail for an easy one-handed close.
I don't expect to be putting my choice of an EDC knife through a heavy workload like many others do and as I did when I was younger. There are others reviewers reporting on that aspect. This will be clipped in my pocket for the occasional use around the house and yard and as a hopefully never-needed backup in an emergency. I purchased the one for myself, then another as a gift, and may just bump my price range up a bit for the Blur S30V. The USA-made Kershaw Blur is so comfortable in the hand you just hate to put it away.