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I have this knife sitting now by my easy chair (it is a good and cold winter) and have used it in various crafts and cutting tasks and am quite pleased with it. It whittles wood, opens boxes and letters, cuts paracord, trims twine, slices steak and cuts cheese all perfectly well without needing a sharpen. Cleaned up easily in between - no issues readying it for the next task. The handle is smooth and comfortable in my smallish to medium hands and like the feel of it. It is nicely constructed and solid. The blade centers well - does not wiggle. The shape makes a good all around useful knife.
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
Great feel in the hand with the finger grooves and G-10 handle, and a great value with the 8cr13Mov steel! I also love the deep pocket carry clip and how light it is. Sharp as heck and holds an edge! I've had mine for 2 months and not sharpened it yet!! 10/10 would recommend!
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
Charles
Beaumont, Texas
May 11, 2022
Pros: Handle Material, Blade Material
Cons: None
It Is Stiff, But Play With It
I too was put off at first thinking this knife was too hard to open. After playing with it for a while, loosening it up, I now love it! I did not take it apart, convert it to a fixed blade, I just opened it, a lot. If only it was not made in "China" I would give it 5 stars. I love the finger grooves, the handle material, and the sharp, sharp blade. That sexy little Al Mar logo doesn't hurt anything. I flip it open while driving, love how it fits into my hand. A person could put some hurt out with this small blade.
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
AM-5 great design, very sharp, impossible to open with one hand!
I loved the design of the knife, finger grooves felt great in my hand, price was good, very sharp out of the box. I really wanted to love this knife and give it 5 stars. But it was the most difficult assisted flipper I ever felt! Even using two hands it was not easy to open. I thought of sending it back, but then read some reviews on knife forums from guys who took it apart and tweaked it to make it work. So I dug into it. The torsion spring has a little dog-leg bend in it, and by increasing the angle of that bend just slightly, it reduced the opening force by 1/2. Also the jimping (I think that's what it's called - the little ridges on the flipper to give you some grip) was shallow with wide spaced flat tops. All your finger would do was slide off - so you have no traction, trying to push against a spring that's too stiff! So I took a small triangular diamond file and cut the indentations deeper, while making the edges of the flat-tops narrower and with sharper edges for grip. Bingo! Now it works great and I love it - but I've got and hour's worth of trial and error labor into making it right. If you're willing to finish building the knife after you buy it, this is a great knife. If you have no mechanical ability, nor inclination to take apart a brand new knife and do surgery on it, then steer clear and buy the AM-4.
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
I too read the reviews like so many others, and I convinced myself that others didn't know how to use an assisted-opening flipper. OK, I admit I was wrong. This knife is almost impossible to open with the flipper. I just got it today, so maybe it will "wear-in", but I've lubed it, exercised it, and it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to open without using two hands to pull the blade open. I hope that I can do something mechanically to reduce the hold-down force, and get it to loosen up some over the next few weeks. But... for someone that wants to buy a knife and just USE it, this knife is not going to be too friendly. Just to be fair - construction quality is a 5; sharpness is a 5, esthetics is a 5!
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
this is a very nice,sharp knife thet handles well with the finger grooves. problem is it is almost impossible to open with one hand. in a scrape you're dead.
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
Finger blister from attempting to open it! FIXABLE by (a) disassembling, (b) removing the torsion spring, (c) compressing the torsion spring peaks with plyers, (d) reassembling.
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
Mike
San Jose, Ca
Dec 11, 2020
Pros: Weight, Blade Material, Blade Sharpness
Cons: Lock Ease of Use, Lock Type
Looks cool but poor design and very hard to open
Pros: When open it feels good in hand, it is sharp out of box, and it looks sexy for a knife. Cons: Too difficult to open. I have carpal tunnel syndrome so I need knives that have an assist. Kershaw has some good assisted knives but this isn't one of them. I need to put a lot of pressure on the switch/flipper on the back to open, which hurts my hands. Yes, hands because I have to use two hands to open this knife, which makes the purpose of having this assisted knife a FAILURE in functionality. I can't use this knife and I can't send it back. Right now it is more of a conversation piece.
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
Thomas
West Virginia
Mar 22, 2022
Pros: Weight, Pocket Clip
Cons: Lock Ease of Use
Listen to the bad reviews, yes; it's that bad
I bought this because of the clearance price -- thinking I could live with a stiffly opening knife. After all, I own several Cold Steel large folders that are somewhat stiff to open and close. It couldn't be that bad, right? Yes it can! This Kershaw is in the realm of unusable it is so stiff. I'm a healthy middle-aged male of average strength and while it's not impossible to open one-handed, you have to apply so much pressure to the flipper it is literally painful to your fingertip. I thought I could fix it by taking it apart and simply removing the assist spring and then I would have a non-assisted knife. That did not help -- the detent is still so stiff that it is still basically unusable. What I ended up doing to salvage at least some use from it: I disassembled the knife and removed the washers and pocket clip to use as spare parts for other knives and I jammed the frame/liner lock into the open position. Now I store it open like a fixed blade on a magnetic holder in my garage. It's a pity this knife is messed up in this manner because the feel of the knife in hand is excellent. I really like the handle design. For that, it gets two stars.
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
Db
Virginia
Dec 24, 2020
Pros: Pocket Clip
Cons: Lock Ease of Use, Handle Material, Lock Type
Hard to open
Good concept but poor design and execution. I had high expectations for this knife but was extremely disappointed in its performance. First the good: I like the deep carry pocket clip, although it is very stout and does not release from the pocket without some effort. I ordered the knife because of the finger grooves and they give the knife a nice feel in the hand. The blade has a nice drop point shape and decent grind and was sharp out of the package. Now the bad: The knife is extremely hard to open which can be attributed to the poor flipper design. The fit is terrible - the blade is skewed to one side and drags on all the finger grooves when opening or closing. The G-10 handle scale is polished, making it slick and removing any grip assistance . The frame lock is difficult to release making closing the knife a two hand operation. As I said, I really wanted to like this knife, but it will not be in my EDC rotation for the issues noted above. Kershaw needs to evaluate what went wrong between the design prototype and production of this knife.
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
Kendall
Oakland, CA
Sep 18, 2022
Pros: Handle Material, Blade Material
Cons: None
Yes, it really is too hard to open
Really disappointed with this knife. I share the opinions of most of these reviews: Overall it’s a great design but none of that matters if it takes two hands to open. It feels like irony that an open-assist takes more effort to open than most flippers with no assist. I had hoped it would loosen over time but it didn’t. Other reviewers took theirs apart and made adjustments. Apparently you can improve the knife’s performance that way. I’ll pass and just get a better knife.
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
Arthur
Philadelphia, Pa
May 01, 2018
Pros: None
Cons: Handle Feel, Lock Ease of Use
Terrible
I bought this because I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the AM-4. I saw this on sale and it is a similar size, so decided to try it out. Bad idea. This knife is completely different. I knew it did not have the good looking lines of the AM-4. I did not expect it to be dull, horrible feeling in the hand and with an action so stiff, you need two hands to open it. It is supposedly assisted but is so poorly machined it is completely unworkable. I do not understand how two knives in the same line could be so different. Stay Away
Kershaw 2340 Al Mar AM-5 Assisted Flipper 3.5" Black Drop Point Blade, Black G10 and Stainless Steel Handles
Steven
Massachusetts
May 18, 2021
Pros: None
Cons: Lock Type
Should have listened to poor reviews - Hard to Open
I have a good number of Kershaw Knifes and this one is a 100% disappointment. My other similar Al Mar 2330 is a 5! the 2340 just an ergonomic disaster !
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Close-up of hand holding knife, opening or unsheathing knife, and then closing or sheathing knife.
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