Kershaw Brawler Pack (Brawler Knife & Flashlight) Review

There is really nothing like a Kershaw. From award winning technologies and advanced materials to the solid sound of the blade lockup, when you’re carrying a Kershaw, you know you’re carrying the real thing. And the real thing means value and plenty of it. With Kershaw, you get incredible bang for your hard-earned buck. Even their inexpensive models are impressive. In fact, everything about a Kershaw is solid, crafted, and reliable. That’s why they can back each of their knives for the life of its original owner against any defects in materials and construction with their famous Limited Lifetime Warranty.

And yes, people do own their Kershaw knives for a lifetime. The point is, you can always look to Kershaw for every day carrying knives that can tame any cardboard box and liberate any purchase from its plastic packaging, sporting knives that make hunting, fishing, watersports, and camping even better, work knives that won’t let you down, and tactical knives that ensure you’re ready for everything.

Kershaw was founded in 1974 to design and manufacture tools that knife users would be proud to own, carry, and use. This has meant that every Kershaw knife must be of the highest quality. Whether it’s a hardworking pocket knife, a hunting knife, or a special collectors’ edition, Kershaw always choosing appropriate, high-quality materials and is dedicated to intensive craftsmanship. Along with extremely tight tolerances and state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques, this ensures that Kershaw knives provide a lifetime of performance.

Kershaw pioneered the use of many of the technologies and advanced materials that are today standard in the knife industry. Their SpeedSafe assisted opening knives were first-to-market. They introduced the concept of knives with interchangeable blades in their Blade Traders. Recently, their Composite Blade Technology, which combines two steels into one blade, giving knife users the best of both worlds by enabling us to use steel known for edge retention on the edge and steel known for strength on the spine. And they will keep on innovating, bring new and better technologies and materials to today’s knife making industry and knife-using public.

Kershaw Knives is a brand of Kai USA Ltd, a member of the Kai Group. For over 100 years, Kai has been Japan’s premier blade producer. Kai takes an innovative approach to product development based on the close coordination of research and development, production, marketing, and distribution functions. While many of Kershaw’s quality products are made in their 55,000 sq. ft. facility in Tualatin, Oregon, they also draw on Kai’s resources to provide the very best for the customer.

They say, “If this is your first Kershaw, be prepared. You just may be back for more. If it’s not your first Kershaw, welcome back. We’ve got some cool new blades to sow you—along with a wide selection of your favorites.”

For design, innovation, quality, and genuine pride of ownership, Kershaw is the one.

Today we will be talking about the Kershaw Brawler Pack, which includes the Brawler knife and a flashlight.

 

The Blade:

The blade on this knife is made out of 8Cr13MoV steel. This is a popular budget brand of knife steel, which is made in China. This steel is an average steel that will stand up to most everyday tasks. 8Cr13MoV steel is well balanced with regard to strength, cutting, and anti-corrosion properties. This steel has the ability to retain its edge and sharpness for a long period of time. The range of this steel hardness is 56-58HRC. Knives made of this steel keep sharpening well and at the same tie they are easy to sharpen, and have highly aggressive cuts on soft materials. However, its biggest selling point is that it is inexpensive, so it will not stand up to harder tasks as well as not comparing to some of the super steels.

The blade has been coated with a black oxide coating. This is a chemical bath converts the surface of the steel to magnetite. Kershaw uses this coating on some blades, mainly for appearance, though it does add some corrosion resistance.

The blade has been carved into a tanto blade shape. The tanto blade shape is not an all-purpose blade style, it is designed to do one thing and one thing really well. This knife style was originally designed for armor piercing, the tanto blade was popularized by Cold Steel and is similar in style to Japanese long and short swords. The tanto knife has a high point with a flat grind, leading to an extremely strong point that is perfect for stabbing into hard materials. The thick point of the tanto blade contains a lot of metal near the tip, so it able to absorb the impact form repeated piercing that would cause most other knives to break. The front edge of the tanto knife meets the back edge at an angle, rather than a curve. As a result, the tanto blade does not have a belly, which is sacrificed in exchange for a stronger tip. It is because there is no belly that this knife will not make a good all-purpose blade. With this blade style, you will not be prepared for all situations, but you will be able to take on any hard materials.
This knife does have a plain edge.

Overall, the tanto is an ideal shape for these piercing tasks because there is plenty of metal to support the point, making it stronger than many other blade shapes. You’ll notice that the top of the Brawler’s blade has a grind, too. This is called a swedge it helps narrow the blade, adding to its piercing power. At the same time, the Brawler’s straight belly offers excellent cutting capacity, is perfect for bearing down on a task, and is easy to re-sharpen.

 

The Handle:

The handle on this knife is made out of glass-filled nylon, or GFN. This is a thermoplastic material that is notable both for the fact that it is relatively cheap and practically indestructible. It can also be molded into just about any shape and textured in any number of ways. All in all, GFN is an excellent handle material across the board but it, like G10, does not pack the same allure due to its resemblance in both appearance and feel to plastic. That being said, unless you are overall concerned with the look of your knife, this is an all-around superb handle material that requires essentially no maintenance whatsoever. The benefits of having a knife with this material is that it is strong, tough, requires zero maintenance, and is inexpensive. The cons to this knife handle material is that it does have a cheap plastic feel and does tend to give less grip than G-10.

The Brawler’s handle is just as functional. The angled handle curves into the palm of the user’s hand. Jimping on the back of the blade offers additional traction. With the blade deployed, the flipper doubles as a finger guard and provides additional hand protection during knife sue.

 

The Pocket Clip:

The pocket clip is a four position pocket clip, which means that you can carry this knife tip up or tip down as well as on the right or left handed side of the handle.

 

The Mechanism:

The Brawler knife features a flipper along with a SpeedSafe Assisted Opening mechanism. The locking mechanism is a liner lock.

This knife also features a flipper, which enables fast and easy one-handed opening, as well as being fully ambidextrous, which means that it works for left and right handed options. To open a Kershaw SpeedSafe flipper knife, you hold the knife handle vertically in one hand. Then place your index finger on the top of the flipper. Gently apply downward pressure on the flipper. SpeedSafe opens the knife quickly and easily, and the blade locks into place. Remember to keep your fingers away from the blade edge while you are closing it.

This Brawler knife is equipped with the Kershaw SpeedSafe assisted opening mechanism. Kershaw were the first to bring SpeedSafe assisted opening knives to market, launching a revolution in opening systems—and winning numerous industry awards along the way. Originally designed by Hall of Fame knife maker, Ken Onion, Kershaw’s SpeedSafe knives flew off the shelves. Today, almost all knife companies offer some sort of assisted opening knife, but none matches the popularity or proven durability of the original. The SpeedSafe is a patented system that assists the user to smoothly open any SpeedSafe knife with a manual push on the blade’s pull back on the flipper. The heart of SpeedSafe is its torsion bar. Closed, the torsion bar helps prevent the knife form being opened by “gravity;” it creates a bias toward the closed position. TO open the knife, the user applies manual pressure to the thumb stud or flipper to overcome the resistance of the torsion bar. This enables the torsion bar to move along a track in the handle and assist you to open the knife. The blade smoothly and locks into positon, ready for use. The SpeedSafe was specifically designed for sporting, work, or everyday situations where one-handed opening is preferable and safer. It’s safe, efficient opening has made it a popular choice for hunters, fishermen, and those who require the one-hand opening function on the job site. And no, a SpeedSafe knife is not a switchblade. There are many unique features of SpeedSafe knives that make them quite different than knives that are considered switchblade. Unlike a switchblade, SpeedSafe blade DO NOT deploy with the push of a button in the handle or by gravity alone. Instead, the user must overcome the torsion bar’s resistance in order to engage the SpeedSafe system. Because of this, SpeedSafe knives fall fully outside the Federal definition of a switchblade. However, due to the complexity and constantly changing nature of these laws and regulations, it is impossible for Kershaw and BladeOps to be aware of every restriction in every location. It is the responsibility of the buyer to investigate and comply with the laws and regulations that apply in his or her specific area.

The liner lock is the most common of today’s blade-locking systems. In knives with locking liners, the handle consists of two metal plates on either side of the blade. Handle scales, which can be made from a variety of materials, such as aluminum, cover the plates. When the knife is opened, one side of the knife’s liner, often called the lock bar, butts up against the back end of the blade and prevents the blade form closing. The lock bar is manufactured so that it angles toward the interior of the knife, creating a bias for the locked positon. To close the knife, the knife user applies manual force to move the lock bar to the side so that the blade is unlocked and can be folded back into the handle. The liner lock provides a secure and convenient way to make using a Kershaw folding knife even safer.

 

The Specs:

The blade measures in at 3 inches long, with a handle that measures in at 4.1 inches long. When this knife is opened, it measures in at 7.1 inches long. The Brawler knife weighs in at 3.9 ounces.

 

The Flashlight:

The flashlight that comes in this Brawler pack is constructed of aluminum with a knurled black finish. This is an LED flashlight that is powered by AAA batteries. The flashlight comes with a lanyard and a pocket clip so that you can have it with you at all times.

 

Conclusion:

The Kershaw Brawler Pack is an excellent way to get two quality pieces for one low price. Featuring a Brawler knife for larger tasks and an LED flashlight, this package deal is an excellent value on two quality tools. The knife features stainless steel with black oxide finish, plain edge blade and textured grip handles. Also featuring assisted opening and a reversible pocket clip for discreet EDC options. Pick up one of the Kershaw Brawler Packs to cover all your bases today at BladeOps.