Kershaw Amphibian?

Welcome to the Forums!:)

Do you mean the Microtech Amphibian? I'm not aware of a Kershaw of the same name.
 
I used to have the Amphibian - it is the knife that appeared on the big screen in Mission Impossible - MI2 when Tom Cruise is fighting the bad guy on the beach. When I saw that movie, I went right out and bought one. For such an inexpensive knife - it is a nice design, with two well designed sheaths available. The polymer frame on the inside of the handle is nice and soft to the touch and makes for easy gripping.

Unfortunately, most of us have very limited use for a dagger-style blade.
 
The Kershaw Amphibian is double edged, so you might want to check your local laws about carrying this knife.

I own one that doesn't hold an edge, and the tip broke off pretty easy. The leather sheath is ok, and the diving sheath is a joke. If you want something for utility/defense at a reasonable price there are many others out there that will fit the bill. One that comes to mind is a Greco.

By the way, welcome to the forums.
 
The one that I own was bought back in the 80's, so they may have improved the sheaths by now.
 
I have owned one since the 80's as well. It has gone through quite a lot and has held up well. It is easy to sharpen and holds an edge well. It has never been used as a dive knife so I can't give you any idea how well it works for that.
 
Rattler,
You & I have the same knife! The tip is missing from mine too- (old girlfriend dropped it on the tile floor in '86) . They're not the greatest in edge-holding, the tips are brittle, the serrations suck & the leather sheath is guaranteed to get the knife lost eventually. Still a sentimental favorite, but in 1983 it was pretty darned cool.
 
I overspent on my Kershaw Amphibian (should've known better than to buy it at a mall store, and also to buy Kershaw in the first place since I just don't like their other stuff at all). I think I paid around 70 bucks for it!

I used the attachment on the sheath to put it fast to my PFD for kayaking. It held there well with the round finger screw.

I made the mistake of not thoroughly drying the (crappy) plastic sheath out after rinsing with fresh water one day. Left the vest with the sheathed knife in my trunk for a few weeks or months. Went back and took it out and there were spots of rust all over, and with all the choils and stuff on the knife cut with ridges, there was plenty of space for rust to get a foothold. It had even rusted in the serrations on both sides of the blade. And I had gotten the SALT water off of it!

Anyway, that was my bad. But beyond that, the knife had rusted along the edges of the rubberized grip insert. I investigated it to see if one could take the grip out or off in some way (a la OceanMaster's titanium dive knives which can be disassembled to parts). No go. So I thought about it (NOT enough, as you will read) and decided to remove the grip insert permanently, making this essentially a skeleton-handled knife.

WELL... I used a straight-edged razor to cut off one side of the insert and the other came away easily. THEN I went to put the knife into the sheath and realized... THE GRIP INSERT IS WHAT THE SHEATH CATCH HOLDS ONTO. In other words, the knife will absolutely no longer stay fast in the sheath! It's useless. And I'm a little pissed off at the design of a "dive" knife that cannot really be adequately cleaned, and if not cleaned, de-rusted thoroughly. I feel that Kershaw's design led me to the desperate point of what I did. Didn't force me there, but still sorta led me.

On a related note: I was using Flitz metal polish (which someone somewhere had sworn by) to try to remove the rust from the knife. I could not honestly tell that it was the Flitz or just the green scrubby pad that was doing the rust removing. The couple of times I've used Flitz to remove rust, it didn't work like "magic" like I thought it would. Is there something else, something better, to recommend for rust removal, that won't necessitate using an abrasive pad which will completely ruin the finish of any knife you use it on? I had thought that it was supposed to be so good at rust removal that I could use a paper towel and give a good rubdown and voila! But no such luck.

By the way, the Amphibian never took a very good edge for me, and I can shave with the rest of my Spydercos and Benchmades... A lesson is in there for me somewhere.

And when is Spyderco gonna make a serious dive knife??!
 
I have/had one (no idea where it is) and I liked the knife, even though the leather sheath wasn't anything special. I had an older model with more of a "rubbery" insert and the ends came loose and would flap. Other than that, I really liked the knife.
 
Bought one last year and it came in the leather IWB sheath. At first I didn't like the sheath because it was leather and all my "cool" sheaths were either kydex or nylon. Have no fear, the draw is very quick and very quiet. I dropped mine by accident on a public toilet floor that it bounced up pretty high. No damage and I then realised how light the knife actually is. It is one of 3 favourite carry knives. I have much better stuff in my collection (SOG/BM etc) but the Kershaw just works out real nice as a backup.
 
Originally posted by Tim Castricone
Opinions on this knife as a go anywhere utility knife with ample
fighting ability for emergencies. Thank You
Click to expand...
Given this requirement, it works well. I bought one as a replacement for my lost Tekna dive knife, and it fulfilled that role to a certain extent. The leather sheath is rather weak, and will not hold the knife for upsidedown deployment. The plastic dive sheath i also rather weak, but this time it's because I chipped it just by dropping it. Getting a kydex sheath made for it would be my best recommendation. I didn't suffer the broken tip as many of the others.
 
I've had mine for 14 years now - have the old style dive sheath that grips the handguard, leather sheath, & 2 kydex sheaths - this knife has held an excellent edge, and the serrations are extremely aggressive. All this for less than $50 (except the extra sheathes, which ran about $30 total)

Sam
 
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