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Pros: Ease of Opening, Handle Material, Pocket Clip, Blade Material, Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness
Cons: Weight
Great assisted opener EDC option.
Ordered this knife 2 months ago, as I was looking for a replacement for my EDC knife at the time, the excellent SpyderCo Persistence. I felt that the Persistence was lacking some traits that I was missing. The Kershaw Thermite fulfilled all my wishes and needs to the T. I'd previously owned an SOG Flash II, but lost it, and I'd started missing the AO functionality, but I needed something a bit bigger, more rugged, to feel confident about for personal protection, aswell as a knife I felt like I could trust to handle the everyday abuse my knives get. The Thermite is a rugged, quite big AO folder, and it gives you the feeling of true dependability. The build quality is great! The knife after 2 months of use, still locks up like a bank vault, and I've never had an issue with it. In my time of owning the knife, I've tightened the screw holding the blade once, as it felt a bit loose. After that, it's had no sideways play in open position ever since. Up and down play has never been an issue, it locks up solid. Also, the opening action is quick, fluid, and reliable. I've read some comments on it being a bit hard to open, but I really can't agree with that. The tightness some owners complain about, comes from the fact that it locks up securely when closed. I have tiny, kid-sized hands, and it took me just a few minutes to get the feel of how to open and close it without any snags. It came really sharp out of te box, and I'm utterly surprised of how well the steel both holds and edge, and takes a new edge whenever I freshen it up with my buck diamond rod, using only the finest grit plate. As I've stated, it's a quite large folder, so I am really happy about the pocket clip riding high, so the knife buries deep in my pockets. It allows for safe, covert carry, and you avoid the knife bumping into eg. cars if you're trying to squeeze out of your car in a car park. The clip is small, but easy to grip, and it comes really tight out of the box. I'd recommend bending it ever so slightly, to allow for easier access, and to avoid tearing your pants to extract it. But I really prefer that it's TIGHT to begin with, so I as the user get to adjust it to where I like it. That would've been much harder to accomplish had it been loose. To sum things up, I think this is a great knife, great value for money. It's been my favourite EDC ever, it's been in my pocket for 2 months and it's there to stay. Truly recommended product. On a sidenote, I'd like to thank knifecenter for their great site, prices, and service. I made a mistake filling out my info during checkout, but I quickly sent them a support ticket, and they got back to me within a few hours, everything sorted out just fine, thanks to their service.
