Knife Review: Kershaw Cryo G10

The Kershaw Cryo G10.  A really good little knife.

My review of the Kershaw Cryo G10 has recieved a fair amount of traffic since I posted it, so I wanted to update the review, and provide some pictures.

If you want a one sentence review:  This is a good little knife available for a very affordable price.

If you want more, read on.

Background:

I originally bought the Kershaw Cryo G10 (I'll just call it the G10 from here on out) because I was having a hard time getting my hands on a Lone Wolf T1, and the G10 fit a lot of the criteria I wanted for a very affordable price.  The small size of the knife and affordable price makes it a good choice for travelling.  If it get's lost it's not going to be the end of the world.  There is no shortage of varying knife laws around the country and world, but for travelling purposes I think that the 2.5 inch blade on this knife would help avoid legal trouble.

This should not be taken as any kind of official claim regarding knife laws in any jurisdiction.  There are laws in some places against carrying a locking blade.  There are laws against assisted opening knives.  There are laws against carrying any kind of knife in some places.  So be aware of the laws wherever you might travel with a knife.

When I traveled to Easter Island for archaeological work, I read up on what I could find regarding knife laws in Chile (Easter Island is a part of Chile).  In at least Santiago, it is illegal to carry a knife, but small pocket knives are generally given a pass.  I figured that of the various knives I owned at the time, that the G10 would be the least likely to cause any problems.  So for my trip to Easter Island the G10 was my knife, and it ended up performing excellently.

While in Easter Island I needed to prepare my own food, and the knives that were provided were very dull.  I ended up using the G10 for all of my food prep needs as well as normal pocketknife duties.  The G10 turned out ot be a very capable slicer, and the handle was comfortable during extended use.  In terms of a knife for everyday carry (EDC) this knife proved to be capable of everything I threw at it despite its small size.

Specs:

From the Kershaw website

• Flipper, thumbstud
• SpeedSafe® assisted opening
• Frame lock, lock bar stabilizer
• 4-position deep-carry pocketclip
• Steel: Stainless steel, stonewashed finish
• Handle: G-10 front, 410 back, stonewashed finish
• Blade length: 2.75 in. (7 cm)
• Closed length: 3.75 in. (9.5 cm)
• Weight: 3.7 oz. (104.9 g)

The G10 is a version of the Kershaw Cryo that has a G10 (resin reinforced with layered fiberglass) handle scale on the non-locking side.  This provides grippier handle than the all metal construction of the original Cryo.

The knife was designed by Rick Hinderer, and looks like his knives.  It also has his patented lock stabilizer.

The blade material is listed as stainless steel on the Kershaw site, but is described elsewhere as 8Cr13Mov.  I own a few knives with 8Cr13Mov blades, and I have to say that the steel on my G10 has performed better than any of my other 8Cr13Mov knives.

The clip is described as a four position clip, but on my knife at least, there were only two positions pre-drilled.  Right handed tip up or right handed tip down.

The clip is also a deep-carry clip, which can be a problem in some places because almost all of the knife is concealed when it is in your pocket.

Review:

Cons: 

Too short:

Another quarter inch of blade and handle would make this a much better fit for me.  I have pretty big hands, and this does not fill my hand.

Opening Mechanics:

The assisted open seems unnecessary, it also makes the thumbstuds totally superfluous.  The thumbstuds are a hazard on this knife.  They make it harder to get out of your pocket, tear up the pocket, and if you do try to open the knife with the thumbstuds it is very easy to cut your thumb due to the amount of force needed and the small size of the knife.

Semi-con:

Stiff:

Everything about this knife is stiff out of the box, and use doesn’t change that much.  The assisted open is stiff.  The thumbstuds are too stiff to use.  The frame lock is stout and stiff.  But the blade is stiff when deployed.  The stiffness also seems to translate to a solidity when the knife is deployed.  I would ideally like easier deployment, but this is not a big deal on this knife.

After several months of heavy use in a variety of environments the stiffness really has not changed.  This isn't a terribly smooth knife, but as I said, the knife performs just fine.  This is not a $300 knife, it is a knife available for less than $30.  It performs admirably for the price range.

Jimping:

If you've read my blog posts you may have noticed that I have a bit of a fixation on jimping.  I really like the additional grip that good jimping provides, and I like the look of it.  Unfortunately, on the G10, the jimping is pretty much just for looks.  The edges of the jimping on the handle are smooted out, which means that they are easy on the hand, but don't provide any real additional grip.  The jimping on the thumb-ramp of the blade is also pretty smoothed, and does not stand out enough from the handle to provide any use.

The jimping looks good on the knife, but it doesn't really offer any performance.

Pros:

Out of the Box Sharpness:

This knife came literally shaving sharp.  I had been working with trees the day it came in the mail and had some pitch in my arm hair, so I decided to see if the knife would shave off the pitch tangled hairs, it did no problem.

Edge retention and Cutting Ability:

Very good.  I know that 8Cr13Mov is not the most amazing steel, but I have been impressed with its performance on this knife.  After a month of heavy use remained nicely sharp. 

I brought this knife with me to Easter Island since I figured its small size would avoid any legal difficulties for a pocket knife.  I was in a fairly remote location, and the accommodations required we do food prep ourselves, unfortunately all the knives provided were extremely dull, so for several weeks I used this pocket knife to do all of my cooking on top of regular EDC duty.  This knife performed far better than I would have expected.  I had already found the knife to be surprisingly good for field duty, I didn’t think it would be any use for the kitchen, but it performed admirably.  I had not expected to be using this knife so heavily while in Chile, so I was very grateful for how well the edge has stood up to a lot more use than I anticipated.  The edge was not razor sharp after a few weeks, but still significantly sharper than any of the other knives that were available.  It was still sharp enough to handle tomatoes cleanly without serration, I’d call that usably sharp.

The edge stayed very sharp until two days before I left Easter Island.  Two days before I left I barbecued.  The cut of meat I barbecued was a big chunk of beef that had a lot of connective tissue and fascia.  I decided to separate the connective tissue.  Trimming the meat off of the connective tissue puts a lot of wear on an edge, so I was not surprised that it really dulled the knife.  The knife was still sharper than anything else in the kitchen afterward, but it had lost the fine edge.  It still cut a tomato, but with a little squishing.  Still for a knife that I bought for less than $40 I think this was tremendous performance and edge retention.

After I returned home I resharpened the knife.  After only a few minutes I was able to get the knife back to shaving sharpness.  Just a few passes on the fine side of my whetstone and a touch up with a steel, the knife was back to where it started.

So to sum up, excellent performance from the steel, and good cutting mechanics for a variety of uses.

Weight:

Feels nice in the hand, but light in the pocket.  Good for hiking and everyday activities, but with enough heft to feel right for heavier use than its size might indicate.

Lockup:

Solid.  Rock solid.  If you try to use the thumbstuds the lockup can get sticky because it causes the frame lock to engage late, but with the assisted open the lockup is neither too late nor too early.  It’s like Goldi-Locks, just right.

Grip and Jimping:

The G10 scale gives this knife good grippiness.  Sadly the jimping seems to be more decorative than functional.  The jimping on the blade in particular does not stand out sufficiently from the handle and is not sharp enough to provide good grip.  But the blade is short enough that choking up on the blade is not a real issue.  Still, a nice looking satisfyingly grippy handle.

Overall: 

This knife is easily available for around $30 and can be found for less.  The knife is small, with a blade around 2.5 inches, and the handle is proportionate.  The small size means that you can't really get a full hand grip on the knife, but the good ergonomics of the knife make it a very capable tool despite it's small size.  I also think it is a good looking knife.

The G10 is not a perfect knife, but for the price range it is sold at it is a great value.  This knife won't break the bank, and I think you'll be happy with it.

First Impressions: Lone Wolf Harsey T2, Ranger blade, Walnut scales

The follow up review for this knife is finished, you can find it HERE.

I finally got it!  My ideal knife as described when I started writing about knives.  I've been wanting to get my hands on one for quite a while now, and I finally got the exact one I wanted.  Now I present SO MANY PICTURES! ALL THE PICTURES!

My new Lone Wolf T2.  I decided that the lovely French Walnut handle scales should be photographed with the lovely French Walnut stock of the Weatherby Centurion II I was recently gifted. (the Weatherby is lovely and worthy of lots of photos itself, but I don't know enough about guns to write about them)

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I have described the Lone Wolf Harsey knives as my ideal everyday carry (EDC) knife.  In the past I had been most interested in the T1, but with my recent purchase of the Fantoni HB02, it seemed a little silly to get another knife the exact same size an so similarly shaped.  The T2 is larger than the T1 and the HB02 (but smaller than the very large T3), but not so large that it won't fit in my pocket.

Lone Wolf Knives was bought by Benchmade a few years back.  After the merger, Benchmade made the Lone Wolf brand into an outdoor knives brand so they wouldn't be in competition with Benchmade's main line.  The T1, T2, T3, and D2 knife lines (designed by Harsey) were discontinued.  So unfortunately these knives are hard to get these days, and can be pretty spendy since they are mostly treated as collectibles these days.

Before I go on, I want to point out that this is my third William Harsey designed knife.  I have had the privilege of having him explain various aspects of his knife designs, and I really like the way he approaches knife design.

Lone Wolf Knives T2, top; Fantoni HB02, middle; Gerber Applegate-Fairbairn Covert Folder, bottom

(I just want to say that I think the Gerber AF Covert is not very photogenic.  I think it is a much better looking knife in person than it looks in my photos.  Of course it's meant to be a hardworking knife, not a beauty queen.)

I feel like there is a perceptible sameness to these knives (which is probably why my wife says they all look the same to her).  The AF Covert is essentially a small folding dagger, but designed to be capable of more than just perforating things.  The Fantoni has a modified spear point blade.  The modification retains the piercing character of the blade, but provides a lot more belly and brings the knife a more general use feel.  This one sided profile extends to the handle and changes the overall feel of the knife.  And then the T2 up top keeps that same beefy heavily jimped appearance of the other two, but the blade is a full flat grind (Lone Wolf called this blade shape the Ranger blade).  The T2 also came in a modified spear point like the Fantoni, as well as a Tanto option, but the Ranger is the style I really wanted, and I am happy to have it.

The Ranger blade shape is really optimized for more general slicing/camping/hunting uses than the modified spear point, which is why I like it.  Thankfully the Ranger also preserves that Harsey appearance for the overall shape of the knife.  I don't know how to describe it, but there is some minimalist utilitarian beauty to the knives he designs, and I dig it.  In this case, with the walnut handle, the utilitarian-ness of the design is toned down a little.  I find that nice for a knife I plan to carry a lot.

The T2 is a big knife, and it feels big, but not so big or heavy that it is a problem to carry in the pocket.

The best compliment that I can give the T2 so far is that I find myself wanting to use the knife for everything.  Even in the kitchen I find myself just wanting to use the T2 for everything, even when other knives would be better suited to the task.

A large part of why I want to use the knife for everything is the handle, both it's shape and material.  Most of the pocket knives that I've purchased have had some kind of modern grippy material for the handle.  The Fantoni is the closest knife I own in design to the T2, so I tend to compare them.  The Fantoni has the grippiest G10 handle I have ever felt.  It is very nice to use, but it has a lot of precise edges.  The T2, in comparison, melts into the hand.  The smooth wood handle feels natural and comfortable in use, and the shape and jimping allows the grip to feel very secure without having the super grippy finish of other knives I own.

I just like the aesthetic match of the two tools.

Even my wife had to admit that the knife was very pretty and the handle felt nice.  She much prefers this one to the other knives I've purchased.

The T2 is a liner lock.

The T2 is a liner lock, which is my favorite lock style.  I understand the appeal of other locks, particularly the frame lock, but the liner lock is for me.  The thing I like most about the style is that the handle scales can be more similar on both sides of the knife.  I find that when I like a material for the handle, I kinda want it on both sides.  Plus I like the way it looks.  The T2 has a nice beefy stainless steel liner.  The metal of the liner is not as thick as the titanium liner on the Fantoni, but seems totally adequate, and there is not so much metal in the handle that the knife feels heavy.

I wanted to show a close up of the lock-up.  The liner lock engages fully, but early (early means that it doesn't travel too far over).  This means that as the knife gets used, and the metal wears down, the lock-up will remain solid for a long time.

The jimping on the handle is very similar to the Fantoni, but of a single depth, rather than the progressive sizes.  

Just love the handle

The blade is CPM-S30V stainless steel.  A very nice steel.

William W. Harsey Designer

The blade is perfectly centered when the knife is closed

The clip on the T2 is tip down, which is what I prefer since I like to carry in my back pocket

The jimping overall on the handle and blade are not as aggressive as the Fantoni, but does provide plenty of grip.

My pretty new knife

The open design of the handle makes cleaning a cinch

The shape of the handle and blade makes for a very ergonomic tool.

Plenty of handle, even for me. 

The Fantoni and the T2 side by side. I really love both of these knives.  As you can see the Fantoni has seen some use.  I'll be writing a follow up review for the Fantoni. 

The knife still has the factory edge.  Apparently the guy I bought it from really did just park it in his safe.  The handle was flawless, no marks on the blade, and no gunk anywhere in the knife.  The edge was literally hair shaving sharp.  I am quite grateful to the guy that sold me the knife.  When he said it had just been in his safe I assumed that he probably used it a little, but I could see no evidence of use when I got it.  Lucky me!

So now I have all the folding knives I want.  I want to do more reviews, but I'm not sure how I'm going to swing that, since I really don't need more knives.  I do have a couple of low cost knives that I plan to review, but we'll see what the future brings.  For now I feel very satisfied in my knives.

I'll Be Posting More Soon

Hello to everyone who reads my blog.  It's been a month since I've posted anything, but I'm going to be getting back to blogging now.  I've been very busy this past month.  I've been working on a paper from my research on Easter Island, and the deadline was the end of the month.  I also applied to graduate school.

Blogging is difficult for me when I'm working on a scientific paper.  I've been working to develop my voice as a blogger.  My goal is to write conversationally and accessibly on this blog.  Those habits aren't appropriate for science writing.  So in addition to being under two very serious deadlines, while also taking care of my infant daughter, the mental whiplash of trying to write for this blog while working on scientific writing was too much.

Well, I sent off my paper, so now I can get back to blogging.

I have a lot that I want to write about.  I want to write about the Charlie Hebdo killings (even though it's not so timely now), and there are some knives I want to write about.  Please feel free to suggest topics as well.  I love to get feedback.

Now to get to writing.

How Do We Arbitrate Social Contracts?

I haven't been writing much in my blog this Month.  Since I returned from Easter Island I have been very busy working on the report of my research as well as working on the graduate school application process.  Additionally, there just hasn't been news stories about which I felt I had anything of value to add.  Then I saw a very scary picture yesterday.

Hundreds of NYPD officers turned their backs on mayor de Blasio

The picture that I found scary was one of hundreds of police turning their backs on their mayor.  This image scares me for many reasons.  I will list some of those reasons.

The most basic reason that the picture scares me is that it suggests that the NYPD equates criticism with the assassination of police.  De Blasio joined in criticism of the NYPD when people were protesting the death of a man who was choked to death for selling cigarettes.  Then a lone gunman killed two officers in apparent retaliation.  This image of the police turning their backs on the mayor suggests to me that the NYPD considers any criticism tantamount to endorsing the murder of police officers.

The next reason that this picture scares me is that the image suggests a rift between civilian leadership and police forces.  As those who read my blog are aware, I fear the growing militarization of out nation's police forces.  Civilian control of the US military is a fundamental issue protecting our country against military dictatorship.  Military officers are supposed to remain apolitical and respect civilian leadership because that helps defend our democratic system.  Civilian control of the military also helps to maintain the idea of the military existing to defend the people of the USA, rather than the people existing to support the military.  Military personnel swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution.

Over the past several decades US police forces have increasingly become domestic military forces that owe no allegiance to the US Constitution.  With this image it appears that the NYPD owes no allegiance to the civilian leadership of the city of New York.  The question of who the NYPD serves brings me to the biggest reason that this image scares me.

The image of the NYPD turning their backs on the elected executive of the polity they ostensibly serve causes me to fear that the social contract between the police and the citizenry is broken from both ends.  The protests across our country over the past few months have shown that there were many US citizens, especially people of color, who felt that the social contract between the police and themselves was broken.  Of course most of these protests focused on the police as the source of rupture of trust.  Police supporters essentially responded that the failure was on the part of populations that failed to conform to acceptable social norms (obey the law, don't resist arrest, and you won't have trouble with the police).

While most of my writing on the police in recent months has been critical, my personal biases tend to lie more in line with the police supporters.  I see the police as the good guys (with rare exceptions).  I've known and worked with many police officers.  And I suspect that social groups that are pounded with the message from birth that the police are liable to kill and/or victimize them are going to have a hard time trusting the police and behaving in a truly respectful manner.  If you are convinced that a group of people is out to kill you then fear only motivates you to stay in line until you feel that your time may have come.  People who think the police are out to get them can't truly respect the police on a fundamental level.  So I have tended to view instances of potentially excessive force as driven more by a failure of trust than of actual racism or ill will on the part of the police.

When two police officers were assassinated in New York City the possibility of a severely broken social contract seemed very possible.  It was a lone gunman, but coming against a backdrop of nationwide protests and cries of police racism, it seemed like an increasing number of people were seeing the police as the enemy.  Speaking purely subjectively and anecdotally, in my social circles it has seemed in recent years that almost all discussion of the police has been in terms of opposition.  Of course opposition to, and distrust of, law enforcement has a long history in this country.  During the early years of our nation's history there was no provision for formal police forces.

The process of revolting against British authority had so poisoned the culture in the US against law enforcement that professional law enforcement agencies were scarce across much of the country until very late.  The first municipal law enforcement agency in the US was formed in Boston in 1838, more than a half a century after the Revolutionary War ended, and it wasn't until the 1880's that police forces were ubiquitous even in major cities.  If you want more information on the history of police in the US (including things like the evolution of police in Southern states from the Slave Patrols) then I suggest reading more here.  Suffice to say, in the US, law enforcement was more likely to be conducted by vigilantes or private forces until almost the twentieth century.  But as the US grew, the need for order became increasingly pronounced, but the US has never truly found peace with its peace forces.

Over the past hundred years or so we have become, as a nation, more accepting of the need for law and order; but that acceptance has never truly been unambiguous.  One can contrast the US's history with law enforcement with our neighbors to the north, Canada.  Canada did not have a Wild West the way that the US did.  Canada had organized law enforcement in the form of Mounties.  The US had self appointed "lawmen" who got into shootouts with people they didn't like.  Hark A Vagrant has a very fun comic relating to these historical differences.

I'm sure that the punishments were more severe than sitting in a corner in real life, but the relationship to officers of the law was radically different in Canada and I believe still affects Canadian cultural on a very basic level to this day.

The differences between Canadian attitudes toward the police and US attitudes continues to be pronounced.  When I was living in Canada in 2005 the Mayerthorpe Tragedy occurred.  Four Mounties were killed in the line of duty.  It was a national tragedy.  In Ottawa, where I lived, thousands of miles from where the tragedy occurred, flags were lowered to half-mast.  It was the worst single day loss of life for the RCMP in modern Canadian history.  Even the name "Mayerthorpe Tragedy" speaks to the radically different attitude toward the Mounties.  Mounties are federal police, would the death of four FBI officers be a cause for national mourning?  Mounties are seen as heroes, US policemen are all too often viewed as violent predators.

I don't believe that the difference in the way people in the US and Canada view their law enforcement is because Canadian police are all angels and US police are all devils.  I believe the difference is because the US never truly established a national trust with the forces of law and order, and the uneasy trust that grew over the first half of the twentieth century (especially after the end of Prohibition) has eroded dangerously since the Vietnam war.

Now in a time when police are more militarized than ever, and anti-cop sentiment is a seething current in our country, some people are seeking to wage war on the police.  Two days ago, at the memorial for the two officers killed in New York last week, hundreds of police officers turned their backs to the mayor.  With this gesture the police communicated that they also saw the public, and those who would criticize them, as the enemy.  The NYPD seemed to tell the world that the feeling was mutual.

We cannot repair the relationship with law enforcement if the police see the public they are supposed to serve as the enemy.  But the social contract goes both ways.  We cannot repair the relationship with law enforcement if the public views their protectors as the enemy.  It seems that the social contract between the public and the police has been horribly ruptured, at least in New York, and it is not clear how to repair that trust.

The severity of the fracture of trust is further underscored by another image, also apparently from the memorial two days ago.

But it appears that one officer did not turn his back

And this image might be even scarier.  In a sea of white faces turned away from the mayor, a black officer did not turn his back.  This image seems to simultaneously magnify the severity of the breach of trust represented by the NYPD turning their backs, and to further confirm the perception of the issues as one of race.  The narrative of racism feels like it is acting as a runaway train eradicating any hope of constructive discussion.

Yesterday a story came up on my Facebook feed of a black plainclothes NYPD officer being shot and killed by other NYPD plainclothes officers.  It is a real story, and true, and reported by the New York times, but it is not current.  The story is five years old, and as tragic now as it was a half decade ago.  But such is the power of social media's ability to engage in News Necromancy, that when people get upset about an issue, all the previous stories that confirm a bias can be revivified and made new.

Even the image of the black officer not turning his back has traveled via social media.  I have not been able to find the source of the image.  I don't even know if it is real or if it was taken at the memorial.  But this unattributed image is moving through social media, and while it is a troubling image, it underscores the difficulty facing us if we want to repair our society.

Emotions are running high.  Social media creates an environment where every tragedy gets rolled into every tragedy and it is impossible to parse what is going on.  While emotions run high it is nearly impossible to even try to discuss issues like use of force and institutional racism.  Everyone just yells past everyone else, unhinged individuals assassinate police, and the police set themselves in opposition to civil society.

It is a scary situation.

It is a situation that must be repaired.

But I don't know how to repair this situation.  When a social contract is broken, how can it be arbitrated?  If a contractor breaks a contract they can be sued.  Who can we sue when the public and the police are both in breach of contract with each other?

We need police.  And far more than the individuals in uniform, we need trust in the police.  There will never be enough police to keep everyone in line.  Our society works because we believe in it.  We trust that our system should work.  Laws are obeyed because people agree they should be obeyed.  Even our money only has value because we agree it has value (US currency is fiat money and is intrinsically worthless).  Our entire interconnected world functions because of trust.  That trust is built on order, and in an urban society the municipal police are a fundamental cornerstone of that order.

We cannot, as a society, simply accept the failure of trust in the police.  Nor can we simply blame the collapse of trust on the police.  Police officers daily risk their lives to maintain order, but in order for the police to be able to keep the peace they require the trust of the public.  We all of us, each and every one, bear a share of the burden of keeping our society functioning.

The most concrete suggestion I can offer toward repairing the ruptures in our society is to engage in actual conversation.  Do not demonize police.  Do not demonize minorities.  Do not demonize conservatives.  Do not demonize liberals.  We need to try to find points of agreement and build from there.  If we want a functioning society we have to agree on what constitutes functioning.  If we want police that protect us we need to agree that we want police to exist.

Maybe the first step could be agreeing that we want police to protect us.

Fantoni HB 02 Review: First Impressions

I just bought a new knife, a Fantoni HB 02.  Since these sorts of knives always seemed to be photographed with guns I pulled out my Great-great-grandfather's rifle for some of these photos.

This knife is the most expensive knife I have ever purchased, coming in north of $200, but my first impression when I got to hold it was that it is worth the money.

The knife came in a nicely designed box with a foam pad and a card with the details of the knife.  The knife is so light that when I first picked up the shipping box it felt empty.  

When I picked up the knife I was immediately struck by how different it felt from any other pocket knife I've ever owned.  The first thing I noticed (besides the weight) was how intensely grippy the G10 handle scales are.  The titanium frame feels very light, but the knife handle still feels very solid.  The blade blade has zero wiggle.  The lock has no give or wiggle when engaged.  The lock doesn't over or under engage, even when I snap the knife open.

The other thing that I notice is that the detent (the little ball on the liner-lock that engages with the tang of the blade which helps keep the blade from opening accidentally) is really firm on this knife.  So stiff that it's actually a little hard to get the blade open.  The plus side of this is that I really don't think anything is going to make this knife open accidentally.  But I am hopeful that use will make this knife a little easier to open.

The other things that feel potentially problematic on this knife are actually also kind of positives.  The fantastically grippy G10 combined with the very strong pocket clip make this knife a little difficult to get in and out of my pocket.  I'm worried about the amount of wear that this might put on my pants.  I may need to do a little light sanding of the handle scales under the clip.  We will see.

I am looking forward to seeing how this knife performs over the next month or so while I work on my final review for the knife.  I'm not planning on altering anything about the knife until after that.  I am pretty excited about this knife, it is beautiful and feels fantastic.

This knife is full of neat little touches.  If you look closely at the jimping along the handle you can notice that the grooves get deeper the closer they get to the end of the handle.

Speaking of the jimping, the jimping on the thumb ramp is fantastically grippy.  When you place your thumb on the ramp there is zero slipping.

The knife fully opened.  The ink on the pocket clip is actually slightly iridescent.  At some other angles the ink looks very dark, but I didn't like the way any of the photos that showed this turned out.

Another photo that just fits with the normal photo types.  It seems like every review of a knife has this photo.

This photo shows of the centering of the blade.  Right down the middle.

This picture shows some of the other nice subtle touches.  Firstly, the clip is titanium, which is pretty groovy.  You can see the paint on the clip showing up dark in this angle.  The holes in the clip for the screws are beveled so that the screws are countersunk flush.  And one of my favorite subtle touches, the titanium frame is slightly evenly larger than the G10 handle scales.  This provides a little extra grip, but mostly it just indicates that the scales were ground and smoothed separately from the frame, just a nice touch.

Even though this is a fairly small knife, there is enough handle even for someone with fairly large hands like myself.  This isn't the grip that I would normally use obviously, but I just wanted to show how nicely sized the handle was.   But the handle is not so large that one needs large hands for it to be comfortable.

I just love the shape of this blade, and the stonewashed finish on the blade is simply gorgeous.

Kershaw Cryo G10 Review

I have an updated version of this review you can find here.

Kershaw Cryo G10

And here is what the other side looks like when it's closed

I actually wrote most of this review in Easter Island.  I wrote the review to post on Amazon, but I was pretty happy with the review, so I thought I would also post it here on my blog.

I am really debating giving this five stars, but I can't quite do that.  Maybe 4.5 stars.  This knife was not quite exactly what I wanted, but it was as close as I could get for less than $200.  So that makes me pretty happy about the purchase. 

For the price this is an excellent choice.  For the sake of simplicity I will start with the Cons that make this not a 5 star purchase for me.

Cons: 

Too short:

Another quarter inch of blade and handle would make this a much better fit for me.  I have pretty big hands, and this does not fill my hand.

Opening Mechanics:

The assisted open seems unnecessary, it also makes the thumbstuds totally superfluous.  The thumbstuds are a hazard on this knife.  They make it harder to get out of your pocket, tear up the pocket, and if you do try to open the knife with the thumbstuds it is very easy to cut your thumb due to the amount of force needed and the small size of the knife.

Semi-con:

Stiff.  Everything about this knife is stiff out of the box, and use doesn’t change that much.  The assisted open is stiff.  The thumbstuds are too stiff to use.  The frame lock is stout and stiff.  But the blade is stiff when deployed.  The stiffness also seems to translate to a solidity when the knife is deployed.  I would ideally like easier deployment, but this is not a big deal on this knife.

Pros:

Out of the Box Sharpness:

This knife came literally shaving sharp.  I had been working with trees the day it came in the mail and had some pitch in my arm hair, so I decided to see if the knife would shave off the pitch tangled hairs, it did no problem.

Edge retention:

Very good.  I know that 8Cr13Mov is not the most amazing steel, but I have been impressed with its performance on this knife.  I have had this knife for a month and have been using it very heavily and the edge has remained nicely sharp. 

Cutting ability:

I am actually in Easter Island as I write this, and I brought this knife with me since I figured its small size would avoid any legal difficulties for a pocket knife.  I am in a fairly remote location, and the accommodations require we do food prep ourselves, unfortunately all the knives provided were extremely dull, so for the last few weeks I have been using this pocket knife to do all of my cooking on top of regular EDC duty.  This knife has performed far better than I would have expected.  I had already found the knife to be surprisingly good for field duty, I didn’t think it would be any use for the kitchen, but it has performed admirably.  I had not expected to be using this knife so heavily while in Chile, and so I deliberately neglected to bring a whetstone in order to better discuss the edge retention on the review I’ll do on my blog when I get home, so I have been very grateful for how well the edge has stood up to a lot more use than I anticipated.  The edge is not razor sharp any more, but still significantly sharper than any knives available to me here.  It’s still sharp enough to handle tomatoes cleanly without serration, I’d call that usably sharp J

Update:  The edge stayed very sharp until two days before I left Easter Island.  Two days before I left I barbecued.  The cut of meat I barbecued was a big chunk of beef that had a lot of connective tissue and fascia.  I decided to separate the connective tissue.  Trimming the meat off of the connective tissue puts a lot of wear on an edge, so I was not surprised that it really dulled the knife.  The knife was still sharper than anything else in the kitchen afterward, but it had lost the fine edge.  It still cut a tomato, but with a little squishing.  Still for a knife that I bought for less than $40 I think this was tremendous performance and edge retention.

Weight:

Feels nice in the hand, but light in the pocket.  Good for hiking and everyday activities, but with enough heft to feel right for heavier use than its size might indicate.

Lockup:

Solid.  Rock solid.  If you try to use the thumbstuds the lockup can get sticky because it causes the frame lock to engage late, but with the assisted open the lockup is neither too late nor too early.  It’s like Goldi-Locks, just right.

Grip and Jimping:

The G10 scale gives this knife good grippiness.  Sadly the jimping seems to be more decorative than functional.  The jimping on the blade in particular does not stand out sufficiently from the handle and is not sharp enough to provide good grip.  But the blade is short enough that choking up on the blade is not a real issue.  Still, a nice looking satisfyingly grippy handle.

Overall: 

For the price, this is a hell of a knife.  I strongly recommend it.  Great for Every Day Carry.  I only wish it was a little bigger.

One Last Easter Island Mystery

And that mystery is of course, where does the time go?  It has been a pretty amazing trip.  I got to look at a lot of lithic debitage, and meet a lot of interesting people.  I'm looking forward to getting home, but it is sad to leave the island.

But I'm pretty sure I'll be back.

This is the Refugio Arquelogico where I stayed

Jose Miguel, my Chilean counterpart while I was herfe, and Jo Anne Van Tilburg, the Boss.  I am very thankful to Jo Anne for giving me the opportunity to come out her and work

And a beautiful Rapa Nui sunset