Kershaw walmart knife bundle 2013 - Freefall and Swerve

Kershaw recently released a holiday bundle pack for black Friday and Christmas 2013. The pack includes two flipper knives and a small flashlight. unfortunately it comes in a clam shell pack, so you can't handle the knives before you buy them.

this was an admirable effort by kershaw; two black coated flipper knives with steel liners for $20.

Knife 1: 3850BLK "Freefall"



Knife 2: 3840BLK "Swerve"



3CR13 Steel

I figured for $20 I couldn't lose, and wanted to give the knives away to get some people started on carrying and using pocket knives.

so of course I couldn't just wrap this pack up without checking the knives out first, you know - just to make sure they're both in working order X-D

One of the knives, which looks like it borrows a lot of design influence from the kershaw knockout, actually turned out to be a decent and functional knife.

However the other knife was a big disappointment. It has a gritty and squeaky opening, and doesn't even lock up unless you really whack it open.

Neither knife is a functional flipper, but the better knife can be flicked open via thumbstud.

both knives feature very poor steel, both have bladeplay

Both knives were sharpened unevenly, some parts of the edge are sharp, others are dull.

The handles of these knives are molded plastic with steel liners. They're actually both pretty nice to hold and use.

The Kershaw swerve was sadly the worst knife I have owned, just do to the fact it really didn't function and was unsafe to use. the knife wouldn't lock up under normal opening, and when open would fail easily.

I figured trying to fix the swerve would be a better use of my time than standing in the wal mart return line, since I hate wal mart to begin with.. so I took it apart.

I found that the swerves pivot rides on two white washers (I believe to be Teflon washers) and to no surprise the lock face and knife tang were crudely machined. I cleaned the pivot area and sanded down the blade tang with sandpaper enough for it to lockup safely.

These make decent beater knives, but I wouldn't recommend picking up the pack. If you want a $10 knife from kershaw I highly recommend the kershaw crown, much better knife.

Pros:
ergos

Cons:
functionality - flippers that don't flip, a lock that won't lock.
poor machining
plastic
dull edges
blade play
loose thumbstud
soft steel
poor coating