Knife Assessments?

[Sport45]

I know little about knives. How do these stack up?

The Kershaw Klash. $23 at Amazon

or the Gerber 22-47162? $28 at Amazon

I've also looked at the Kershaw Ken Onion Leek at the $40 level.

Would these all be considered too cheaply constructed for everyday use? Any other suggestions?

I'm looking for assisted opening knives with pocket clips. Need easy one-hand operation. I may keep one, but the main intention is for gifts so I'd prefer to keep the price under $40. I could afford to spend more, but that's the intra-family limit for gifts.

 

[hso]

They're all good knives, but they're all very different in their applications. The Leek is a every day carry good for the office because it is light, small, and when purchased in more colorful form is pretty innocuous looking. The Klash is more of a back room/construction tough knife. The Gerber is somewhere in between. I have the Gerber and Leek and like them both.

 

[heron]

I can say that the Leek is solidly built. Mine is the all-stainless frame-lock model. What bothered me about it was that it felt slippery in my hands when I would manipulate it. I 'texturized' the faces of it with an engraving pen and ground some little grooves in the edges of the handle with a dremel. Bad job; it looks awful now, but it doesn't slide in my hand.
The blade is very, VERY pointy, and looks like it might be prone to being broken off if the thing were abused. Nice if you like pointy blades, though.

 

[Sport45]

Thanks guys!

Do you think the all the Leek models have smooth sides, or just the stainless?

 

[Coyote3855]

I think the Leeks are all smooth sided. I have one. Don't carry it much because I'm afraid it's so slick I'll lose it.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Leek Scales

I have a few Leeks.

Most of them are the smooth-sided stainless frame lock.

A couple, however, are black FRN scaled liner lock. The black FRN is more grippy than the stainless, but the frame lock is more robust than the liner lock.

I've never found my smooth stainless pieces to be too slick to carry.

Not sure what I'd do to add texture to a stainless handle, though. Maybe a wire wheel or something. Dunno.

 

[hso]

If you don't want to filework the handles yourself, you can take the knife to an engraver and have them put a design (like large initials) into the surface.

 

[Il Duca]

You can also check the Kershaw Skyline, Ontario Rat 1 or Utilitac, Kabar Phat Bob and a few others. Just got in a Rat 1 in and am quite pleased with it for a sub-$30 folder. It is on the large side though.

 

[Sport45]

All good suggestions. Thanks guys!