KershawLink Drop Point Knife Olive Aluminum (3.25" Stonewash 20CV) 1776OLSW

The smartest folding knife buy available today. I've owned mine for a couple of years and have used it as my only every day carry pocket knife. It is, by any meaningful measures, simply the best folding knife available today, and at a bargain price - AKA the best knife value available today. You can spend stupidly more money on knives than this, but you will not find anything near the value of this model. But many knife shoppers will miss the compelling qualities because of all the silly hype and nonsense that permeates discussions of modern knives. 1. It uses a USA made 3rd generation powder metallurgy "super steel" designed specifically for use in super high performance knife blades - Crucible CPM-20CV. It offers a combination of hardness, toughness and edge retention that are pretty much the state of the art in generally available knife steels. 2. It has an excellent general purpose blade profile that can superbly perform all the variety of reasonable tasks one can ask of a pocket knife AND it has an edge profile that is easy to keep sharp. Remember, the tool you are using is the blade EDGE, not the blade body; you cut with the edge, the rest of the blade just supports it. 3. The SpeedSafe assisted opening mechanism is first and foremost a safety feature, as it is based on a closure spring with much higher pressure than other mechanisms, so it keeps the blade more securely closed in you pocket. It opens only when you exert constant pressure for the entire first half on the flipper's travel, after which the spring assists the blade's opening AND LOCKING in the open position. I have carried Speed Safe knives in my pocket with no worries or incidents constantly for eight years securely and ready for instant use. It's an amazing design and mechanism. 4. Kershaw backs their USA made knives with a life time warranty and a life time sharpening service (if you can't sharpen a blade effectively, you can send it to them for a renewed factory edge!). 5. The anodized aluminum handle is ridiculously strong, tough, and durable. Did you know that aodizing aluminum creates a surface layer of alumina ceramic that is some 20x harder that stainless steel? Now you do! 6. My analysis and reporting have benn so compeling I am now going to order another one for my brother at the insanely low price of $81.29 and count myself smarter than all those poor fools who saw this deal and passed it by!

After much research I went with this Kershaw, I was going to plunk down the money on a Zero Tolerance, but after finding out that this is a ZT with Kershaw markings, I was sold. The steel is some of the most balanced as far as edge retention, corrosion resistance, and ease of sharpening. I never keep a factory edge and always pop my knives up on my WickedEdge for a real sharpening session and this took a little time to get the burr to even out, but once it did, sharpening was smooth as butter to 3000 grit and stropping from 4 microns down to .5 microns and wow did it take the edge I put on it and polish up like a mirror. Did a 20⁰ bevel and this thing is sharper than any Gillette you buy for shaving. With the MagnaCut steel it should hold the edge for a while, if you're even considering this knife, just do it, the factory edge is sharp, just not to what I consider sharp. The action is solid abit more powerful than I was expecting, the liner lock holds tight as it should, blade is centered properly, and feels very balanced in your hand. About the only thing I wish it had was jimping on the back of the blade, that would make this just about perfect. I'll carry it as an edc for sure. Definitely a tool I could take into the shop and use without worry. I highly recommend this knife. Quit reading and buy it already!

I have many Zero Tolerance knives (the higher end sister company of Kershaw). This is like a ZT knife at a Kershaw price. The new version of this knife (the one I got) comes with Magnacut steel which is incredible. I saw this in an ad and did not know what it was called so I had to search for a while to find it. It has quickly become my favorite knife and my go to EDC. Everything about this knife I like - the aluminum blade handle, the beautiful olive color of the handle and stonewash blade coating, the sharpness, edge retention, and the incredible steel the blade is made of. This is a very good knife for this price point as you are really getting something that is value/quality wise over $200 but for around $120. I have many Kershaw knives but this one has become my favorite. I would buy this again in a heartbeat and if you are looking for a quality knife for either yourself or for a person who loves quality knives, this is worth every penny.

Nice knife with magnacut steel blade, 🇺🇸 made, and great warranty (I have used Kershaw’s warranty for one of my Leek knives). Knife is sharp as delivered, and will see on edge retention. Snappy open and solid lock up. Deep carry clip, which is reversible, which I like because I carry front left normally. No safety lock, but it takes more force than the Leek and Chive to open, so don’t think it’s necessary. Blade style and size will be more useful for me camping, fishing etc, where as the Leek or Chive I use for other purposes.

The handle scales are steel, not aluminum. Aside from that and a rather stiff spring when closing the blade it's an excellent knife and the steel is remarkably hard. From the factory it has about a 30° edge (per side). Re-profiling that to 20° was time consuming but not problematic and it took a very nice near-mirror polish down to 12,000 grit. The knife fills an average adult male hand with no hot spots from the pocket clip, and while rather heavy due to the steel handle scales, I didn't find that to be objectionable. I'm hoping the action will become smoother and a bit lighter with use. It's a very solid and rugged EDC knife.