Post by Pete1977 on Mar 2, 2009 11:32:52 GMT -5
I haven't used Kershaws much, I've owned a few older more traditional looking ones and been impressed with fit and finish but most of the newer designs just don't float my boat. Before this, the Boa was the only "tactical" looking kershaw I'd owned and I sold it because I found the handle way to slippery when my hands were wet. Otherwise I really liked the knife.
So I digress. I picked the JYDII the day before I made my next hitch on the towboat and it was the only knife I used for the 21 days.
This was a big knife and beefy. I thought I would have problems with carrying it in the pocket but I didn't. On the boat I usually carry the knife in my back right pocket clipped against the right seam. I ended up carrying the JYD in the pocket without the clip.
The fit and finish was superb. It opened smoothly and locked up tight and the handle was extremely ergonomic for the style of cutting I mostly did. I held the knife in a saber grip because this was the easiest way I've found of cutting through the large 1 1/2 and 2 inch diameter poly and nylon lines used on the river. I'd hold it with my thumb on the back of the blade and saw through the line. I didn't find that there were any hot spots or fatigue even after long periods of cutting with the knife edge dull. The handle fit my smaller hands perfectly.
I found the clip gaudy (for lack of a better word) but not at all obtrusive when I used the knife. It is actually hardly noticeable at all. The folder was tip up and the clip is designed in such a way that I barely felt it when using the knife. I never carried this knife clipped to my pocket though. I doubt that I will ever carry this knife off the boat clipped to my pocket as the clip is simply too "in your face" and is a blatant advertisement that I am carrying a large knife. This is personal preference.
I loved the blade shape. It appears to be a high shallow hollow grind or a partial flat grind and thinned out from the spine to the edge, making cutting line easier than a saber ground knife. It didn't bind up in the line when the edge started to dull.
The blade is Sandvik 13C26 stainless steel and the handle is G-10. I found that the handle was extremely grippy and secure, almost sticky, even when the knife and or my hands were wet. The edge came highly polished and shaving sharp out of the box. The steel rusted almost immediately however when wet. I was caught in a downpour and got soaked and the knife was wet in my pocket. When I took it out to dry it there was staining on the blade. There was no pitting but the brown spots did not wipe off easily. The blade stained easily when in the pocket and wet with sweat as well.
The knife held an edge for a decent amount of time, in fact I did not reprofile the edge, touched it up on a small diamond rod and the white stones of the sharpmaker, and once on the gray stones. This was the only edge maintenance I did. The steel is tough, and not at all brittle, as evidenced when cutting twine off coils of 1 inch steel wire. There was no chipping, only dulling, when the edge contacted the wire.
The liner lock was beefy and had a very positive lock up when opened with the flipper as well as when opened with two hands. In 21 days of hard use no blade play developed. I used the JYDII for cutting rope, putting points on shingles (used to plug cracks in leaking barges), stripping wire, cutting plastic bottles, and cutting cardboard, tape, and twine.
The knife can be opened with two hands due to the wide blade or with the flipper. I have never owned or used a flipper folder before and found it very easy to open quickly. The only time flipper opening failed was when the knife was wet and the action got sticky. A shot of WD-40 fixed this. I find that the flipper opening is so far the easiest method of opening the knife with one hand with heavy gloves on.
For $50 this is a workhorse of a folder. I actually liked the gray handle scales, although they darkened quickly when used on coke barges and with hands greasy from handling wires. I dropped the knife once from about six feet up onto the gunwhale of a barge and it landed pivot side down with no adverse effects on the knife. The G-10 didnt chip, and no blade play developed. In fact, aside from the staining on the blade and the darkening of the G-10, there is hardly a scratch on the blade or clip of the knife.
When I get a chance I will probably thin the edge out with a coarser stone and keep it toothier than the polished edge I used. I expect to see an increase in cutting performance on rope.
I'd recommend the Kershaw JYD II to anyone who is looking for a heavy duty hard use folder and doesn't want to spend a lot of dough. It is a sturdy knife, with a decent steel and a reliable liner lock and a secure handle.
If I had to change two things on this knife they would be:
A.the blade finish- I have found that a mirror finish prevents corrosion much better than the satin? finish of the JYD. If I get some free time I might mirror polish the blade by hand and see if it helps. The rust spotting was on the non-clip side of the blade mostly around the KERSHAW marking and on the exposed part of the flipper on that same side when the knife is closed.
and:
B. The pocket clip. You hardly know it is there, but carrying the knife in a non work environment, this clip SCREAMS knife. I really don't like it. And that is too bad because you hardly know it is there when using the knife for cutting chores. It feels like part of the handle. I just don't like what it looks like and how it looks when clipped to a pocket. Its wide and over half the length of the knife handle. And personally for a knife this heavy I would prefer to carry it clipped to the pocket instead of down inside, where it is less accessible when wearing gloves. This knife is perfect for using when working with gloves on because the flipper is one of the easiest functioning opening mechanisms with gloves on. There are no studs or discs to snag on rope strands when cutting or to fumble with when your hands are cold and wet.
Edge retention was good considering for a work knife I prefer something that is easy to field sharpen and tough enough not to chip all to hell when accidentally hitting a wire or iron timberhead or other deck fitting. I had no problem swiping it on a diamond rod to get it back to a working edge when it dulled and prefer this over a knife that cuts forever but takes ages to resharpen.
This knife fits perfectly in my hands in both saber and hammer grip which are what I mostly use to cut large diameter rope. For smaller lines I like to cut with forward grip edge up and although I don't handle thinner rope much on this job I can see only one downside with this knife, and that is the index finger groove pushing into the soft part of my hand under the thumb could get uncomfortable during long cutting chores.
I think my final concern with the JYDII is the rather large sharpening choil between the cutting edge and the flipper. It interfered with sharpening on sharpmaker rods and occasionally hung up on strands of line when cutting rope.
Other than that I would easily recommend this knife as an inexpensive one hand opening locking knife for real world use. As I said earlier I am not a huge fan of many of kershaw's newer designs but I really find this knife functional and good looking to boot. And the price point is very right.
I finally got around to attempting to reprofile and resharpen the JYDII. I used a Lansky oil stone sharpening system and set the guides on 25 degrees. This appeared to be the initial edge angle on one side of the blade, and the other appears to be a greater angle. The steel seems to be fairly difficult to resharpen with the oil stones as its taken almost an hour to near bringing the 30 degree side down. The grind also appeared to be uneven along the length of the blade, with a more obtuse angle at the tip of the blade, and back near the choil, and thinner along the middle of the edge. I began with the extra coarse stone and have moved onto the coarse. Once I am able to get a sharp edge on the blade I most likely will use the medium grit stones to polish the edge but not go any more than that.
I don't know the RC hardness of the steel but it seems fairly hard, as it is more difficult to sharpen than 8Cr13MoV and Vg-10. This is the first knife I've used with Sandvik 13C26 and it appears to have a high hardness. I've read that it is about 57-59 RC in this particular model. I'm not much of the steel junkie so I don't know much about it.
I will post back with an update on how the knife sharpened up finally and with some cardboard cutting if I get around to it today.
ETA: After sharpening at 25 degrees on the Lansky set with the extra coarse, coarse, and medium stones, I put the JYDII on the Sharpmaker with the medium rods set at the 30 degree angle. I used 40 passes on the corners and 20 on the flats, and the blade shaves hair easily and push and pull cuts newspaper. When this knife gets a sharp edge, it is VERY sharp.
Regarding the blade finish, I don't like the JYDII finish. I've found, working in the commercial fishery in the N. Atlantic that duller finishes begin to show rust spotting before a mirror polish will due to the more open pores in the steel. I feel that if the JYDII blade was mirror finished, or even polished somewhat more than it is, that the rust spotting wouldn't have appeared as soon after contact with rain/river water, wet clothes, and sweat.
Interestingly enough, this finish DIDN'T show scratches when the flat came in contact with wire, deck fittings and the hull of the barges. It seems to be more scratch resistant than some other similar steels.
The handle, coupled with the blade shape, is BY FAR one of the most comfortable knives I've used.
These are just my personal observations from using this knife in the field, YMMV.
So I digress. I picked the JYDII the day before I made my next hitch on the towboat and it was the only knife I used for the 21 days.
This was a big knife and beefy. I thought I would have problems with carrying it in the pocket but I didn't. On the boat I usually carry the knife in my back right pocket clipped against the right seam. I ended up carrying the JYD in the pocket without the clip.
The fit and finish was superb. It opened smoothly and locked up tight and the handle was extremely ergonomic for the style of cutting I mostly did. I held the knife in a saber grip because this was the easiest way I've found of cutting through the large 1 1/2 and 2 inch diameter poly and nylon lines used on the river. I'd hold it with my thumb on the back of the blade and saw through the line. I didn't find that there were any hot spots or fatigue even after long periods of cutting with the knife edge dull. The handle fit my smaller hands perfectly.
I found the clip gaudy (for lack of a better word) but not at all obtrusive when I used the knife. It is actually hardly noticeable at all. The folder was tip up and the clip is designed in such a way that I barely felt it when using the knife. I never carried this knife clipped to my pocket though. I doubt that I will ever carry this knife off the boat clipped to my pocket as the clip is simply too "in your face" and is a blatant advertisement that I am carrying a large knife. This is personal preference.
I loved the blade shape. It appears to be a high shallow hollow grind or a partial flat grind and thinned out from the spine to the edge, making cutting line easier than a saber ground knife. It didn't bind up in the line when the edge started to dull.
The blade is Sandvik 13C26 stainless steel and the handle is G-10. I found that the handle was extremely grippy and secure, almost sticky, even when the knife and or my hands were wet. The edge came highly polished and shaving sharp out of the box. The steel rusted almost immediately however when wet. I was caught in a downpour and got soaked and the knife was wet in my pocket. When I took it out to dry it there was staining on the blade. There was no pitting but the brown spots did not wipe off easily. The blade stained easily when in the pocket and wet with sweat as well.
The knife held an edge for a decent amount of time, in fact I did not reprofile the edge, touched it up on a small diamond rod and the white stones of the sharpmaker, and once on the gray stones. This was the only edge maintenance I did. The steel is tough, and not at all brittle, as evidenced when cutting twine off coils of 1 inch steel wire. There was no chipping, only dulling, when the edge contacted the wire.
The liner lock was beefy and had a very positive lock up when opened with the flipper as well as when opened with two hands. In 21 days of hard use no blade play developed. I used the JYDII for cutting rope, putting points on shingles (used to plug cracks in leaking barges), stripping wire, cutting plastic bottles, and cutting cardboard, tape, and twine.
The knife can be opened with two hands due to the wide blade or with the flipper. I have never owned or used a flipper folder before and found it very easy to open quickly. The only time flipper opening failed was when the knife was wet and the action got sticky. A shot of WD-40 fixed this. I find that the flipper opening is so far the easiest method of opening the knife with one hand with heavy gloves on.
For $50 this is a workhorse of a folder. I actually liked the gray handle scales, although they darkened quickly when used on coke barges and with hands greasy from handling wires. I dropped the knife once from about six feet up onto the gunwhale of a barge and it landed pivot side down with no adverse effects on the knife. The G-10 didnt chip, and no blade play developed. In fact, aside from the staining on the blade and the darkening of the G-10, there is hardly a scratch on the blade or clip of the knife.
When I get a chance I will probably thin the edge out with a coarser stone and keep it toothier than the polished edge I used. I expect to see an increase in cutting performance on rope.
I'd recommend the Kershaw JYD II to anyone who is looking for a heavy duty hard use folder and doesn't want to spend a lot of dough. It is a sturdy knife, with a decent steel and a reliable liner lock and a secure handle.
If I had to change two things on this knife they would be:
A.the blade finish- I have found that a mirror finish prevents corrosion much better than the satin? finish of the JYD. If I get some free time I might mirror polish the blade by hand and see if it helps. The rust spotting was on the non-clip side of the blade mostly around the KERSHAW marking and on the exposed part of the flipper on that same side when the knife is closed.
and:
B. The pocket clip. You hardly know it is there, but carrying the knife in a non work environment, this clip SCREAMS knife. I really don't like it. And that is too bad because you hardly know it is there when using the knife for cutting chores. It feels like part of the handle. I just don't like what it looks like and how it looks when clipped to a pocket. Its wide and over half the length of the knife handle. And personally for a knife this heavy I would prefer to carry it clipped to the pocket instead of down inside, where it is less accessible when wearing gloves. This knife is perfect for using when working with gloves on because the flipper is one of the easiest functioning opening mechanisms with gloves on. There are no studs or discs to snag on rope strands when cutting or to fumble with when your hands are cold and wet.
Edge retention was good considering for a work knife I prefer something that is easy to field sharpen and tough enough not to chip all to hell when accidentally hitting a wire or iron timberhead or other deck fitting. I had no problem swiping it on a diamond rod to get it back to a working edge when it dulled and prefer this over a knife that cuts forever but takes ages to resharpen.
This knife fits perfectly in my hands in both saber and hammer grip which are what I mostly use to cut large diameter rope. For smaller lines I like to cut with forward grip edge up and although I don't handle thinner rope much on this job I can see only one downside with this knife, and that is the index finger groove pushing into the soft part of my hand under the thumb could get uncomfortable during long cutting chores.
I think my final concern with the JYDII is the rather large sharpening choil between the cutting edge and the flipper. It interfered with sharpening on sharpmaker rods and occasionally hung up on strands of line when cutting rope.
Other than that I would easily recommend this knife as an inexpensive one hand opening locking knife for real world use. As I said earlier I am not a huge fan of many of kershaw's newer designs but I really find this knife functional and good looking to boot. And the price point is very right.
I finally got around to attempting to reprofile and resharpen the JYDII. I used a Lansky oil stone sharpening system and set the guides on 25 degrees. This appeared to be the initial edge angle on one side of the blade, and the other appears to be a greater angle. The steel seems to be fairly difficult to resharpen with the oil stones as its taken almost an hour to near bringing the 30 degree side down. The grind also appeared to be uneven along the length of the blade, with a more obtuse angle at the tip of the blade, and back near the choil, and thinner along the middle of the edge. I began with the extra coarse stone and have moved onto the coarse. Once I am able to get a sharp edge on the blade I most likely will use the medium grit stones to polish the edge but not go any more than that.
I don't know the RC hardness of the steel but it seems fairly hard, as it is more difficult to sharpen than 8Cr13MoV and Vg-10. This is the first knife I've used with Sandvik 13C26 and it appears to have a high hardness. I've read that it is about 57-59 RC in this particular model. I'm not much of the steel junkie so I don't know much about it.
I will post back with an update on how the knife sharpened up finally and with some cardboard cutting if I get around to it today.
ETA: After sharpening at 25 degrees on the Lansky set with the extra coarse, coarse, and medium stones, I put the JYDII on the Sharpmaker with the medium rods set at the 30 degree angle. I used 40 passes on the corners and 20 on the flats, and the blade shaves hair easily and push and pull cuts newspaper. When this knife gets a sharp edge, it is VERY sharp.
Regarding the blade finish, I don't like the JYDII finish. I've found, working in the commercial fishery in the N. Atlantic that duller finishes begin to show rust spotting before a mirror polish will due to the more open pores in the steel. I feel that if the JYDII blade was mirror finished, or even polished somewhat more than it is, that the rust spotting wouldn't have appeared as soon after contact with rain/river water, wet clothes, and sweat.
Interestingly enough, this finish DIDN'T show scratches when the flat came in contact with wire, deck fittings and the hull of the barges. It seems to be more scratch resistant than some other similar steels.
The handle, coupled with the blade shape, is BY FAR one of the most comfortable knives I've used.
These are just my personal observations from using this knife in the field, YMMV.