Great Knife from an awesome company! Beware of clones!!

Please read this if you want to know how to tell your OSO is legit. I love the OSO's that I own. It irritates me that a company like Kershaw, so committed to quality gets a bad reputation because a lot of people get clones of their knives and mistakenly assume that the lack of quality is Kershaw's fault. The Kershaw 1830 is one of their most counterfeited knives. If you have any questions as to the authenticity of your knife, contact Kershaw directly, asking them to verify its legitimacy. I do not work for Kershaw nor have I been compensated in any way for this review. I have paid for every Kershaw knife that I own (and have also paid for a few clones as well). To quickly check on your own, here are some easy tells. 1. Check your frame screws running along the bottom of the body. There should be 3. The head of the screws are torx and should be on the non-clip side of the knife, The screws run through the liners and backstrap and are held in place on the clip side with hex nuts. On all of the clones that I've seen they use screws from both sides which terminate in the backstrap. This is obviously weaker and leads to many of the quality issues attributed to Kershaw but actually only found in knock-offs. 2. Find a good picture of a legit OSO on the web. Look for one showing the clip side and the aforementioned hex nuts. Compare the web pattern on the grips with the knife you purchased. If it doesn't match, your knife is a clone. 3. Blade bushings: Kershaw uses pivot bushings made of phosphor bronze alloy on both sides of the blade. If you look closely at the pivot, you'll see copper colored washers sitting between the blade and the liner. These provide reduced friction, resulting in smooth blade operation. On the clones, the bushings are made of some non-metallic white material. Could be nylon or teflon, could be just white plastic. 4. Check the finish of the blade. On a clone, the over all finish will not be as good. I check the hollow ground area of the blade. On a legit knife, you can hardly feel any machining marks. The grind marks may be visible (if your blade isn't stone tumbled), but they will be very hard to feel. On a clone, you can feel the marks left by the hollow grinding process. 5. Backstrap. On the legit knives that I've seen, when you examine the backstrap (the black insert at the bottom of the knife), the end nearest the pivot is perfectly perpendicular to the liners. On clones, the backstrap ends at a slight, but clearly perceptible angle. There are other tells, but some are difficult to see if you have never seen a legit OSO. Hope this helps people out there get legit knives and helps reduce the number of clones being sold. If you find yourself in possession of a clone, I urge you to reach out to your seller. Retail price of the 1830 is around $40. I've seen clones selling for under $15 and legits for under $18 shipped. At that minimal price difference, wouldn't you rather have a legit knife that Kershaw will actually warranty for life?Read full review

Verified purchase: No