Kershaw is by no means a new comer to the knife market, having been around since 1974 when a sales person at Gerber resigned so as to produce and market his own knives. The rest is history, with Kershaw now being owned by Kai Cutlery Corporation of Japan with Pete Kershaw being the President of the Kershaw Knives Division in Oregon. Kershaw knives are manufactured in the U.S., Japan, and China with each product being marked with its Country of manufacture. Kershaw Knives come with a limited Lifetime Warranty and have won numerous awards throughout the years for their outstanding knives.
Kershaw is well-known for making knives for Survival, military, law enforcement, and other extreme use agencies so it is no surprise that they have a knife designed for the First Responders out there. The Kershaw Responder comes in two models, the 1078YL Responder with a Yellow handle and the 1078 with a black handle. It should be noted that in addition to the handle there are a few differences in the knives themselves. Both knives are manufactured in China and comes with a limited lifetime warranty.
The 1078YL features a AUS8A stainless steel fixed blade with black teflon coating and full-tang construction. The handle is non-slip santoprene and is double injection-molded. It has a partially serrated 3 3/4″ blade with a seatbelt/webbing cutting hook on the back. The blade has a blunt tip and the handle has a glass breaker on it. The overall length is 8 3/4″ and it weighs in at 4.6 ounces for the knife and 6.9 for the knife and sheath. The sheath is made of Kydex, a very tough thermoplastic (aircraft pull-down trays) and can easily fit a 3 1/2″ belt. The belt loop has a pivot point on one end and a thumb screw on the other so it does not have to slide onto a belt.
The 1078 looks basically the same except for some reason it weighs in a little heavier at 5.1 ounces with the total weight of the knife and sheath being 6.2 ounces. For some reason, the 1078 does not have the small glass breaker pin on the handle. Since it is of full tang construction, I’m sure if you were to slam it into a window, the window would break. The 1078 has a black teflon coated blade and a black non-slip santoprene(glass filled nylon) handle. It has the same 3 3/4″ combo blade with a 1 1/4″ serrated section toward the handle and a 2 1/4″ fine edge toward the blunt tip.
Both of these knives are outstanding performers. The combo blades had no problem cutting through a wide range of materials like seatbelts, webbing, and rope. As with just about every knife with a gut-hook style cutter on it, we found it easier and faster to cut a seatbelt with the blade of the knife. The gut-hook type cutters are great for ripping through things like canvas, vinyl tarps, upholstery, and leather pants, but seem to have some difficulty getting started when it comes to webbing. The Kershaw Responders are a quality built and durable knife and would be a welcome addition to any First Response Tool Kit. As with any new tool, an individual should take the time to practice using one of these knives before using it in real life situations.
My guess is that the 1078YL is more geared toward paramedics, First Responders, and Firefighters. The yellow handle makes it very easy to find should you drop it and the glass breaker in the handle could come in real handy. The 1078 with the black handle is probably geared more toward the survival/tactical applications due to it being more difficult to see. No matter what the application, Kershaw has designed a couple of very nice Rescue/First Responder Knives that could be beneficial in a lot of situations. This review was written by Cisco’s trading.
Tags: EMS Knives, EMT knives, Firefighter Knives, First Responder Knives, First Response Knives, Kershaw, Kershaw 1078, Kershaw 1078YL, Kershaw Responder, Paramedic knives
March 21, 2010 at 6:29 pm |
very impressive! i never seen these before. they look very awesome. nice colors, cool sheat, and kershaw has did it again