Kershaw Select Fire – 6 Month Review

About 6 months ago, I picked up a Kershaw Select Fire based on a suggestion in one of the comments.

After I wrote about it, I was asked to do a review after I had been using it for 6 months or so.

First, it is lighter than my Cold Steel. When in hand, it deploys as fast. It is easier to close than the Cold Steel. I find myself fumbling and being unhappy when I have to close the Cold Steel.

The liner lock works for me. The only locking knife that has a better release was my exchange blade Gerber. That had the release on the side. Your fingers didn’t get near the blade when closing.

The liner lock requires your thumb to be inline with the closing blade, but only for a moment, and it is comfortable to move out of the way. With the Cold Steel, you needed to squeeze the lock on the back to release. This put your fingers in the wrong place while you didn’t have a great grip on the knife.

The Cold Steel is a win on the pocket clip. I can place the knife in any of four different positions, tip down, tip up, left or right clip. The Kershaw only allows for left/right, not tip up.

For me, this means the knife comes out of the pocket in the wrong orientation. I have to do a rotate in my hand before I can deploy the blade. It is a rapid and easy deploy.

The actual blade is nice. It has held an edge for the last 6 months. It needs a touch up. Kershaw offers free sharpening. I have not looked into that. I’m sure I can sharpen this blade, I haven’t needed to. Almost there, not quite.

I’ve used it on cardboard, carving wood, lots of plastic, sealing tape, scraping things clean, cutting food and general use. No issues.

So what about the gimmick? The folding 1/4″ socket and four bits held in spring-loaded holders on the side?

First, it is not a Gerber. This is NOT a multi-tool. The number of times I reached for it because I wanted my Gerber is unreasonably high. It just isn’t a Gerber.

That said, I wouldn’t have had the Gerber with me in those cases, I would have had the Cold Steel. This Kershaw is a replacement for my Cold Steel, NOT for the Gerber. If I leave the house, the Gerber is with me. Inside the house, the Gerber is not with me, but I have real tools instead.

The first thing I learned is that a 1/4″ socket is not the right size, most of the time. In the past 6 months, two screws have had 1/4″ heads. Those were located yesterday.

Every other screw has had a larger head size. It had gotten to the point where I was considering adding that socket to my junk to carry. Then decided against it.

When using the screwdriver bits, it works a champ. Very happy. The bits are good enough. They are well-made, The socket holds them firmly, they don’t wiggle. It feels much like using a fat handled replaceable bit screwdriver.

As such, I prefer it to my Gerber. It takes a little longer to deploy, but it fits better.

The downside, yesterday I needed to pry a clip up. The driver slid in, as it should, then I started to pry. The socket popped off.

It went back on, I was very surprised it came off. I haven’t tried to repair it yet. I’m not sure how to repair it.

This is a significant disappointment.

I am more than willing to accept that if I use a blade as a pry bar, I should expect the blade to break. I have had far too many blades destroyed or damaged because I used them to pry or twist and had a piece snap off.

Do I recommend this tool? Today, that would be “no”. If I can get the socket to stay, it will become a “yes”, with caveats.

I have also not looked into Kershaw’s repair policy.