A Tale of 4 Knives

Sometime back in the 1980's I decided it was important to carry a good quality knife.  I messed around with some decent knives.  I carried a Gerber for awhile and it was a pretty good knife.  I still have it.  In the 1990's I was a little more flush and bought several products from Cold Steel.  I liked the knives and other items and still have many of them.  I keep a small shovel in my trunk and for a long time this was my carry knife:

That's the Cold Steel Large Voyager with the tanto blade.  I developed a fondness for that blade style, it's a tough design that offers a lot of penetrating power.  I carried that knife from the early 1990's until January of this year.  The pocket clip on the far side broke.  I could have sent it in and they would have replaced the knife for a fee.  They have really changed the knife design though and I wasn't sure I would like it.  I though about the Recon, it's similar to that knife, but after some research and talking with some knife fanatic friends I went with this:

That's Benchmade's Nitrous Stryker out of their Black category for law enforcement and military.  It's an assisted open knife, meaning it can be opened easily and quickly with a single hand.  I worked with the Voyager until I could flip it open one handed.  It took some oil and a lot of experimenting a practice.  The Stryker is faster and easier.  The Stryker is tip down carry and the blade is a bit smaller, with a modified tanto blade.  It seems to be a bit heavier made though and it is made in the USA while the Cold Steel products, while excellent quality, are made else where.  I don't have the almost 20 years of experience with the Styker yet, but from initial appearances, it should make it barring theft or loss.  I did decide to check out some more knives though, and may still get the Recon just to see what the triple lock is like, however this is my current backup to the Stryker, it stays in my briefcase:

That's Kershaw's Blur with the tanto style blade.  It's blade shape falls somewhere closer to the Stryker's modified tanto but between the Stryker and the traditional shape of the Voyager.  It seems to be high quality, and has an assisted open also.  The Kershaw Speed Safe seems as fast as the Benchmade Nitrous system.  The overall knife length is a bit shorter than the Stryker, but blade length is the same.  The Blur has a bit more belly to the blade.  I prefer the shape of the Styker's handle, and it's titanium liner with G2 scales verses the Kershaw's stainless liner and G2 scales, so the Benchmade is a bit lighter, on the other hand the Benchmade sells for almost double the Kershaw.  Both will shave out of the box.  The Kershaw also offers the ability to change the clip from not only right to left hand carry but from tip down to tip up on either hand.Benchmade makes less expensive knives, but not any assisted opening or using the Axis lock system.  The H and K and Harley Davidson lines tend to be less expensive.  Kershaw runs the gambit from $20 up in price. The less expensive knives like Benchmades Red category and the Kershaws less expensive ones tend to be made outside the US.  Benchmades H and K line I think are US made and seem to be in the $30 to $40 range.

 This is a nice little Kershaw I picked up for $20 or $25.  It lets you change the clip from left to right hand but doesn't to change from tip up carry.  It's called a Burst.  I am also interested in picking up a Kershaw Brawler with the tanto blade.