An ideal keyring sized knife for everyone
What you see is what you get. The Cinder from Kershaw.
I’ll be honest, I have a small ‘thing’ for knives, mostly because I use one several times a day (not counting the one I use for dinner!). From opening the packages I receive daily, to sharpening my pencil and a whole bunch of cutting tasks in between. Because I tend to swap ‘hat’s’ several times a day from doing the school run to fixing something on a clients property, I need several knives, big sturdy ‘bulletproof’ workhorses on site, down to a tiny pocket knife I can carry anywhere on my car keys.
Enter the latest keychain knife I got from Heinnie Haynes last week; the Cinder made by Kershaw (model 1025). Now Kershaw bill the Cinder as a ‘non-scary’ knife and it’s a perfect description, because that’s exactly what I wanted. Some of my knives are fixed blade (Fallkniven F1) and some are more ‘tactical’ looking (Gerber Obsidian) and all have one thing in common, whenever I get them out people go ‘woah! that’s a knife’, rather like that Crocodile Dundee moment!
Now I don’t want you to think I’m a ‘Rambo’ nutcase, it’s just that you don’t see ‘proper’ knives in highstreet stores anymore and unless you’re familiar with online superstores like Heinnie.com the chances are that you’ve never seen anything other than a swiss army knife. Obviously these kind of knives have no place on the school run, either practically, legally or morally.
So to avoid ‘that’ reaction on the high street, what I needed was a knife that still has plenty of cutting power, but in a smaller “key chain” size. Enter The Cinder; small enough to attach to your keychain or car keys, yet still able to do most of the tasks you carry a knife for. The Cinder is designed by Rick Hinderer, famous in knife enthusiast circles for designing ‘real world’ usable knives, and coupled with the manufacturer Kershaw, it all adds us to a great little knife at a ridiculously affordable price (they make ideal and impressive presents too, I think!).
Tiny knife… big specs.
The blade is just 1.4″ (36mm) long, but because the tip is upswept, there’s plenty of useful cutting edge. On a knife this small, it’s normally difficult to create a safe grip, but Rick designed this grip where your finger comes forward past the pivot point, onto a non sharp part of the blade, enabling a full three-finger grip (unusual on a knife this small). The handle is a grippy textured glass-filled nylon with plenty of feel and friction. It also has some small jimping (google it lol!) on the top edge of both the blade and the frame for additional grip. The blade itself is stonewashed which is great for hiding scratches and helps it to look even more ‘non scary’.
Three finger hold and cool looking liner locking mechanism keeps your fingers safe.
The Cinder’s blade is easily opened with a thumb stud and held secure with a cool looking liner lock. This is the only feature that could cause a problem on the high street (in the UK at least). Technically the liner lock makes this knife a ‘locked blade’ which means you’ll need a good reason for carrying it. Fine in the woods or walking the dog (in case he gets tangled etc.) but in the supermarket…hmm less clear. Difficult to imagine getting into real trouble with a keychain knife but you have been warned… Check out the local knife laws where you live to be safe.
There is also a huge lanyard hole (rare on most small knives) on the Cinder which makes it even more brilliantly easy to carry on a set of car keys or keyring. I popped a small split ring through mine to make the knife sit even better with my bulky car keys. And don’t forget the built in bottle opener, perfect for those ‘after work’ moments…
Here are the Cinder’s full specs…
- Manual opening with thumbstud.
- Liner lock.
- Bottle opener.
- Lanyard hole.
- Steel: 3Cr13, stonewashed finish.
- Handle: Glass-filled nylon.
- Blade length: 1.4 in. (3.6 cm).
- Closed length: 2.6 in. (6.6 cm).
- Overall length: 4 in. (10.2 cm).
- Weight: 0.9 oz. (25.5 g).
And to see the Cinder ‘in the flesh’ here is Kershaws rather ‘dry’ video on youtube.com…
I hope that helps if you’re also looking for a simple pocket knife like the Cinder; I bought mine from the brilliant (as always) Heinnie Haynes folks in the UK (they ship worldwide) and it cost me £8.95… bargain. If you’re reading this stateside, The Cinder at amazon.com will cost you about 9 bucks, which is an even bigger steal…
Stay well
Ian
