Kershaw Diskin Hunting Knife Review

Kershaw was founded in 1974 to design and manufacture tools that knife users would be proud to own, carry and use. This has meant that every Kershaw Diskin knife must be of the highest quality.

Whether it is a hardworking pocketknife, a special collectors’ edition or a precision kitchen knife, Kershaw always chooses appropriate, high-quality materials and is dedicated to intensive craftsmanship.

With extremely tight tolerances and state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques, you can be sure that Kershaw knives provide a lifetime of performance.

In addition, Kershaw pioneered the use of many of the technologies and advanced materials that are today standard in the knife industry. For instance, their SpeedSafe assisted opening knives were first-to-market. They also introduced the concept of knives with interchangeable blades with their Blade Traders. Recently, their Composite Blade technology that combines two steels into one blade which gives knife users the best of both worlds by enabling them to use steel known for edge retention on the edge and steel known for strength on the spine.

From award-winning technologies and advanced materials to the solid sound of the blade lockup, when you’re carrying a Kershaw, you know you’re carrying the real thing. The real thing means value and plenty of it.

With Kershaw, you get incredible bang for your hard-earned buck. Even their inexpensive models are impressive. In fact, everything about a Kershaw is solidly crafted and reliable and each of their knives is backed for the life of its original owner against any defects in materials and construction with their famous Limited Lifetime Warranty.

As a matter of fact, people do own their Kershaw Diskin knives for a lifetime. (Although, occasionally, a Kershaw has been known to get accidentally left at a campsite, lost in the garage, or permanently borrowed by a friend).

The point is, you can always look to Kershaw…

… for everyday carrying knives that can tame any cardboard box

… to liberate any purchase from its plastic packaging

… for sporting knives that make hunting, fishing, water sports and camping

… to work knives that won’t let you down; and

…for tactical knives that ensure you’re ready for anything.

While the Kershaw Diskin Hunter may not be the most elegant of hunting knives, it is in my opinion, undeniably graceful and at the same time, functional as well.

Designed by custom knifemaker Matt Diskin, it features an overall length of 9 1/2” with a California Clip Point blade that measures 4 5/8” inches in length made from 14C28N stainless steel (Rockwell Hardness unknown) with a hollow grind and a stone washed finish.

The knife also  features a wide bevel, full-tang construction, and textured, G10, handle slabs. Plus, it includes a heavy-duty leather sheath.

Also, while I really like this knife design, I personally consider it better suited to hunting than outdoor survival mostly because the 4 5/8” blade is too short to be a truly effective dedicated survival knife.

On the other hand, it would make an excellent general purpose companion to a larger survival knife such as the Kershaw Camp 10 knife. However, as a hunting knife, this design absolutely shines and thus, in this article, I will review this knife for that particular purpose. Thus, since I like almost every feature of this knife, I will start with the blade.

The blade of the Kershaw Diskin Hunter is of a style called a California Clip Point which simply means that the clip starts more than halfway back on the spine and, as many of you are already aware, I REALLY like the Clip Point blade shape because it so versatile.

Also, I like the fact that the clip places the tip farther down toward the centerline of the blade where it is out of the way when I am performing delicate cutting tasks with the tip of the blade. In addition, I also like the wide blade design because it makes the blade stronger without having to revert to saber grind and the wide bevel on the Diskin Hunter is hollow ground which enables the knife to be honed to a keen edge.

In addition, the blade is made from a Sandvik 14C28N “supersteel” which contains 0.62 % Carbon (requires 0.5% to qualify as high carbon), 14 % Chromium (requires 12.5% to qualify as stainless), 0.6% Manganese (increases toughness and hardenability in steel.) These  makes the knife’s blade a martinsitic, carbon, chromium, nickel based stainless steel that was specifically developed for use in high quality, professional, cutlery.

It is mainly recommended for knife applications which put very high demands on edge sharpness, edge stability and corrosion resistance such as chefs knives, pocket knives, hunting knives and fishing knives.

Thus, while I like most everything about the blade of this knife, I am afraid that I have yet to see the logic of combining a choil with a ricasso; especially when the tang forms an integral quillion on the bottom side of the handle. For this, I personally feel like the designer should have left the choil off and simply included a short ricasso instead.

Moving on to the handle– this is another part of the knife where it is obvious that the designer obviously has experience. Actually using his knives, instead of just designing and making them, because the downward curve of the spine combined with the reverse taper of the full tang and the G10 handle slabswith wide edge bevels makes this a very ergonomic handle design.

In addition, G10 is similar to linen Micarta and Canvas Rucarta in that it too starts as an epoxy resin impregnated cloth that is then heated and pressed under tremendous pressure to form the finished product.

However, unlike Micarta and Rucarta, G10 is made from woven glass fabric instead of woven cotton fabric. Consequently, it is properly called Glass Reinforced Plastic but is most often referred to as fiberglass. Therefore, like Micarta and Rucarta, G10 is also impervious to water, chipping, splitting, or cracking and will likely be around long after the knife blade has rusted away.

Consequently, in my opinion, the Kershaw Diskin Hunter fixed blade knife is an excellent choice for a relatively inexpensive hunting knife.

In addition, choosing 14C28N stainless steel for the blade is an excellent idea since this steel is specifically designed to be a high quality, stainless, cutlery steel as opposed to a tool steel that also just happens to be good for making knives.

Thus, although the Kershaw Diskin Hunter lacks all of the fancy features available from a custom maker, it is essentially a custom knife that is produced on a large scale by a well know manufacturer and it is one that I would feel very comfortable carrying in the field.