Thursday, June 2, 2011

Kershaw OD Knives: "Addictive Speed" by Nutnfancy

Kicking your EDC into "Overdrive," the Kershaw OD-1 and OD-2 knives are ultra-fast daily carry knives. These are Lee Williams-designed blades that feature an innovative, disappearing actuation stud for deployment. It's fast, reliable, and fun. The larger OD-1 weighs 3.4 oz and has a 2 15/16" Sandvik 14C28N elegant drop point blade, somewhat reminiscent of the Kershaw Leek series but with thankfully more belly for utility tasks. The 14C28N is a good steel choice that takes a fine edge and sharpens easily. In some aggressive cardboard cutting and stabbing tests, I found the 14C28N steel to perform well, losing sharpness after about 15 long cuts but it sharpened easily thereafter. I did note some small rust spots developing on this OD1 blade in low moisture environments which puts me to wonder about its overall rust resistance. Keep it wiped down. The blade shape features a sharp tip (yes!), some belly, and has well executed hollow grinding that makes it an excellent slicer and emergency "surgical tool." The OD-1 framelock is technical looking and has a lockbar stabilzer to prevent your idiot friends from tweaking it out too far when the fondle the knife. When subject to spine whack tests, the OD-1 framelock did release and the knife developed looseness (but was restored to factory tightness thereafter). For a tactical blade this would be the kiss of death but for the EDC role this knife is intended for, it's not a showstopper. But it's an interesting data point to show that ...

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