In many ways Kershaw was my gateway into the world of knives. While I had started developing an interest prior to actually buying any, and while the Gerber Remix Tanto I acquired from my local Meijer at the age of 12 was my first knife purchase, the Kershaw Brawler I bought while on vacation (ironically I bought it to replace the gerber that I stupidly traded for what I hadn't realized was a gas station knife at a scouting convention) was certainly the first knife I purchased that felt like real quality. Even now with my significantly expanded collection that Kershaw Brawler stands out as a well designed perfectly functional EDC. However, the more important contribution to my knife collection made by Kershaw was this Blade HQ exclusive Kershaw Blur in Elmax steel gifted to me by my parents for Christmas right before my 14th birthday. This knife represented a significant upgrade in terms of quality and refinement, triggering my eventual expansion into Mcusta, Spyderco, and eventually my Hinderer XM-18. It also motivated further exploration into the brand resulting in my acquisition of a leek, a number of smaller cheaper knives/keychain multitools, and even a vintage camp kitchen knife set at an estate sale.
However, despite the love I immediately felt towards that Blur it wasn't perfect. First, the lock-up was very late. While most of my annoyance towards this was admittedly just the nagging feeling of an imperfection, some of the annoyance definitely came from the feeling of a slightly sticky lockup. Additionally, the centering was a fair bit off and couldn't not be fixed without making the knife extremely difficult to deploy. Finally, and this is entirely my fault, when reassembling the knife as a child (I had removed the spring after watching a youtube video but then decided the lack of detent made that somewhat obnoxious so I reinstalled said spring) I managed to use red instead of blue loc tite preventing me from further disassembly/cleaning or even adjusting the pivot. As a result of these various issues I just sort of set it aside and it got quickly replaced by later knife purchases.
Recently however, while reassembling and evaluating the state of my collection, I came across this knife and was struck by the emotions I felt when I first saw/received it. How much I liked the design, the time I spent watching youtubers review the knife, the excitement I felt handling my first premium knife. Yet those aforementioned issues still remained and I hadn't much of an idea as to how I could fix them. Eventually, the thought occurred to me that maybe Kershaw could fix the issue. It has a lifetime warranty and while some of the problem was my fault and the knife at this point was around 10 years old, I figured they might be able to fix it even if that entails a small fee. I sent a quick email inquiring about this possibility and much to my surprise they said that everything was covered in their warranty and that they were confident they could fix the problems. I sent it in, part of me expecting that they would change their mind or receive it and realize that the hassle wasn't worth it. However, that was very much not the case. Not only did they send the knife back fully repaired with perfect centering and lockup, but even went the extra mile of putting an excellent edge on it.
While I cannot honestly say that any individual Kershaw is my favorite knife, I can absolutely say that they are my favorite knife company. From the consistent quality of their product, their wide range of prices, high value proposition, and most importantly their excellent customer service (I never had an issue getting replacement parts on my knives) I think Kershaw sets the gold standard for how knife companies should interact with their customers and the broader community.
by dandinnt4
