Kershaw Leek half-serrated 1600ST request review

H

huj900

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Oct 5, 2008
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I have odered one but it is not too late to cancel. i can't access the plain blade 1600 leek here in aus. I am looking for an EDC knive that could be used for self defence if needed as well as cutting tasks. while i have heard the plain leek is awesome, i have heard good and bad things about having the half-serrated. pls let me know.
 
I have this knife and use it for edc. Mostly for its thinness and lightweight but its also pretty damn sharp although not the sharpest knife I own (that goes to my ti-lite 6 incher which is a monster of a knife, some what unusable for edc because of its thickness). I have been able to use it to easily punch holes in leather straps for when I ride (horse back) as well as pretty much do all my cutting jobs. I like the serrations and have the half serrated edge which looks like a scalloped edge. It makes cutting thru rope and other odd materials much easier. It's hard to resharpen that edge though but I haven't need to yet. Learn to open it properly though as with in 15 seconds of owning the knife, I effectivly cut my thumb open to nearly the bone (I some how used the side thumb hole and my thumb slid up the blade as it opened with the assist so quickly...). I didn't know to use the bump on the rear to use the speed assist which is much easier and safer to use (at least for me). It's nice that there is an adjustable safty which is easy to use and the liner lock is pretty secure and has never failed me although I have never did an abuse test via hitting the spine of the blade on a peice of wood like how they do on the cold steel videos. It's very fast to open but not the fastest to deploy (that again goes to my ti-lite because you have to unlock the leek).

For self defence, I'd rather use one of my bigger knifes. The leek is my smallest knife by far (a lot of my knifes are nearly 2X as large) and would not want to depend on it for a knife fighting situation.
 
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half-serrated knives are just a matter of personal preference. Fro years I would only carry combo-edges as EDCs, but as I moved to smaller knives (like the leek) I found more utility in a small PE blade than a combo blade. Unless you are going to be doing cutting of hard materials or rope, where a serrated edge would come in handy, I'd say a PE is more useful on a small knife. But having a combo edge certainly won't make it useless!

As for self-defense, a leek is way too small-handled to be thought of as a dedicated SD knife, especially with thin all-steel handles. It will owrk in a pinch of course. But if you are really thinking you need aknife proimarily for SD, you would do a lot better IMHO with a waved zytel-handled Spydie Delica or Endura, since they have more secure handles.
 
thankyou. i will get the leek first. self defence is only one of the considerations in getting a knife - but it is important. i will look at getting one of the spyderco's as well. thanks guys.
 
If you're close to a Walmart they may have it in stock for you to check out. I bought mine from Walmart. I like it, with the assisted opening.
 
do u know which models have the assisted opening so they are 100% legal and open ammediately as u take out of your pocket?
 
I don't know if you know this but Kershaw has 2 diffract serration types for the leek. one looks like the classic 2 small 1 big spyderco stile, the other is like little shark teeth witch you can't sharpen. as for whether or not to go with serrations think of it this way. when the knife is dull they will at least tare something. In a tac-knife review by Emerson he said as much. that and "a dull knife is still a knife but a broken knife is garbage". so be careful with that thin blade on the Leek
 
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