Kershaw Foliage Camo Blur Spring Assist Knife Review

Kershaw Knives designs and manufactures a wide range of knives, including pocket knives, sporting knives, and kitchen cutlery. Kershaw is a brand of Kai USA Ltd., a member of the KAI Group and is headquartered in Oregon.

Kershaw Knives was started in Portland, Oregon in 1974 when knife salesman Pete Kershaw left Gerber Legendary Blades to form is own cutlery company based on his own designs. Early manufacturing was primarily done in Japan. IN 1977, Kershaw became a wholly owned subsidiary of the KAI Group. In 1977 the U.S. production facility was opened in in Wilsonville, Oregon. Due to an expanding market, the facilities were moved to a large production site in 2003. Currently, Kai USA manufacturing facilities are located in Tualatin Oregon with some goods coming from their Japanese and Chinese factories.

Kai USA Ltd. has three lines of products; Kershaw Knives which is a brand of sporting and pocket knives; Shun Cutlery, which is a handcrafted Japanese kitchen cutlery; and Zero Tolerance, which is a line of premium and professional knives.

Kershaw has collaborated with a number of custom knife makers over the years to produce ground-breaking knives. Collaborations include working with Hall of Fame Knife Maker Ken Onion on Kershaw’s SpeedSafe knives, Ernest Emerson, Grant and Gavin hawk, Frank Centofante, Rick Hinderer, RJ Martin, and more.

In 2002, Kershaw released a Steven Seagal model featuring stingray leather on the handle. In 2004 Kershaw developed a multi-tool for the National Geographic Society with National Geographic filmmaker Bryan Harvey. Kershaw has also released models in collaboration with Jeep, Orange Country Choppers, the American Professional Rodeo Association, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Some fun facts are that Steven Seagal and his Kershaw collaboration knife paper in the movie Driven to Kill. Kershaw Knives have appeared in numerous other television shows and movies including Lost and Supernatural. In the television show Person of Interest, the character John Reece is frequently seen using a Kershaw Blur.

Today we will be talking about a version of the Blur. This specific knife is Kershaw’s 1670CAMO Foliage Camo Blur Spring Assisted knife with a black Sandvik blade and an aluminum handle.

 

The Blade:

The blade on this version of Kershaw’s Blue is made out of Sandvik 14C28N Stainless Steel. This steel is a great option for knife blades, because the steel grade allows for the highest attainable hardness without the compromising of microstructure integrity. The steel is often used in high end knives as well as custom knives.  This steel makes re-sharpening a breeze. The steel also has a high resistance to micro chipping, rolling, or folding of the edge. The steel can be hardened to a 55-62HRC, which is a fantastic hardness for folding or pocket knives. Sandvik 14C28N also has a high corrosion resistance which leads to a particular appeal if you are going to be working in a wet or humid environment, such as in the kitchen or if you are hoping to use this knife in the outdoors.

The blade has been coated with a black Diamond Like Coating. A coating does have several purposes on a knife blade. For starters, the coating finish prevents corrosion because it puts a layer between the steel and the environment. A coating also eliminates a shiny surface, which is ideal with a tactical field blade. You do not want the reflections off of a blade to give your position away. The Diamond Like Coating, or DLC, is a type of PVD coating which stands for physical vapor deposition. The process is to deposit a hard, ceramic like layer onto the steel surface. This ceramic like layer is composed of the combination of various nitrides and carbides and is chemically bonded to the metal surface and is much harder than any tool steel could ever be. This type of coating is usually so hard that it will actually make the blade scratch resistant, plus, because they are also chemically inert, they do protect against rust. A DLC is pitch black, but that’s not why it is sought after: it is by far the hardest coating that can be put on a surface. It is so hard that when metal is cut with a DLC coated knife, the blade will get marked—by the metal that has been spread on the DLC coating. Plus, DLC has low friction, so it is supposed to make the cut easier. Unfortunately, this does add a significant cost to your knife blade.

The blade has been carved into a slightly recurved drop point style blade. The drop point blade shape is one of the most popular blade shapes that is in use today, probably owing to the fact that it is basically an all-purpose blade shape. The most common place that you are going to come across this blade shape is on a hunting knife, because the point on a drop point blade is easily controllable. Because the tip is lowered on a drop point blade, it is easily controlled, which does make it easier to avoid accidentally nicking internal organs and ruining the meat. But, a hunting knife is not the only place that you are going to come across this blade shape: it is also very popular on tactical and survival knives. This is because of the way the style is formed: the back edge of the knife runs straight from the handle to the tip of the knife in a slow curved manner, which creates a lowered point. This lowered point provides more control and adds strength to the tip. And while the tip on a drop point is not as sharp as the tip on a clip point, it is so much stronger. It is because of this tip strength and the ability to hold up to heavy use that makes the drop point blade such a popular shape for tactical and survival knives. This blade shape is also extremely versatile because it features a large belly area that is perfect for slicing, which is most likely going to be the majority of what you are doing with your knife. Really the drop point blade shape only has one disadvantage and that is its broad tip, because it does make it less able to pierce than the clip point. But, you do have to keep in mind that it is this broad tip that allows the drop point blade shape to have so much strength behind it. This drop point blade on the Camo Blur does have all of those regular benefits, but the shape is slightly different. When it comes to the tip and belly, there is a slight curve that you don’t normally get with a drop point blade.

 

The Handle:

The handle on this knife is made out of 6061-T6 aluminum with Trac-Tec inserts on both of the handle scales. The aluminum metal is commonly used in a knife handle and there a few really great reasons as to why it is such a common knife handle material. For starters, aluminum can be anodized into just about any color that you can think of, which always adds an aesthetically pleasing feature to the knife. Plus, the anodization process does add a touch of durability and hardness to the handle. Aluminum is also a very low-density metal, so while it is a very tough material, it is also lightweight and is not going to weigh you down. Unfortunately, aluminum does have a limited resistance to impact, which just means that it is going to be prone to dents and scratches. The most commonly used aluminum alloy is 6061, because it does have the highest tensile strength out of all the aluminum alloys. The aluminum on this version of the Blur has been finished with a unique foliage camo print.

A common problem on an aluminum handle is that there is not enough grip to allow the knife to be an outdoors or even a go-to knife. To combat that, Kershaw has added inserts of Trac-Tec to both of the handle scales. These inserts give you plenty of grip that will allow you to use this knife in almost any environment without having to worry about your grip on the handle.

To help with control when slicing, there is a small amount of jimping on the spine of the handle, with a larger portion of jimping that rests in the elongated finger groove. The butt of the handle does have a lanyard hole carved into it.

 

The Pocket Clip:

The pocket clip is black, just like the blade and has been statically designed for tip up or tip down carry, but only on the traditional side of the handle. The clip is kept in place by two black screws that match the rest of the hardware on this knife.

 

The Mechanism:

The Foliage Camo Blur is a spring assisted knife that boasts Kershaw’s patented SpeedSafe system as well as a liner lock.

The speed safe assists the user to smoothly open this knife with a manual push on the blade’s thumb stud. The heart of SpeedSafe is its torsion bar. When the knife is closed, the torsion bar helps prevent the knife from 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 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 opens smoothly and locks into position, ready for use. The SpeedSafe system 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. The SpeedSafe mechanism is very safe. When the user overcome the resistance of the torsion bar, SpeedSafe assists in opening the knife. Once opened, the liner locking system will secure the blade in positon so that it does not close accidentally. When releasing the lock, the blade won’t snap shut due to resistance provide by the torsion bar. Since the torsion bar provides a bias towards the closed position, it will normally hold the blade securely closed.

The liner lock is one of the most commonly found form of lock on modern folding knives—for ease of use, ease of assembly, and cost, it’s hard to beat a liner lock. The basic design uses one of the blade’s liners, cut out and bent to create a spring effect, to engage the back of the blade tang when the blade is opened. The pros of a liner lock sit hat they are simple to use, inexpensive to make, and very familiar to most people. But, the user’s fingers are in the path of the blade when closing, and this locking system is not normally suited for heavy-duty use due to the thin nature of the liner.

 

The Specs:

The blade on this knife measures in at 3.75 inches long with a handle that measures in at 4.5 inches long. The overall length of the Blur when it is opened is 7.875 inches long. This knife weighs in at 3.9 ounces. This knife was made in the United States.

 

Conclusion:

The Kershaw Blur series has remained as one of Kershaw’s more popular spring assist knives thanks in part to its slightly recurved blade design which is ideal for multi-tasking and promotes excellent slicing and piercing capabilities. This liner lock designed model features Kershaw’s patented SpeedSafe™ system, which quickly deploys the blade via the built-in angled dual thumb stud feature. The Blur also includes Trac-Tec inserts in both handle scales which provides increased security while holding it as well as staying in a pocket. This model, the 1670CAMO, features an aluminum handle with a unique foliage camo finish, grip-promoting black Trac-Tec inserts, a slightly recurved drop point style blade in a DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) black finish, stainless steel liners and a pocket clip designed for tip up or tip down carry on the traditional side of the handle. Pick up your Kershaw 1670CAMO Foliage Camo Blur spring assisted knife today at BladeOps.