KershawAM-5 Pocket Knife (2340), 3.5 Inch Stainless Steel Blade with SpeedSafe Assisted Opening and Frame Lock, G10 Black Gripped Handle and Deep Carry Pocket Clip

Update: after some oil and repeated opening, the blade is much easier to open. Still not as easy as a Leak, but this one doesn’t have a safety like the Leak has. I would dare say this has become my favorite EDC and I would buy another in a heartbeat if I lost this one.Good quality you expect from Kershaw. I own serveral other Kershaw knives. Very disappointed by the difficulty in opening this knife. The flipper is way too stiff almost to the point where it's impossible to open. I imagine if you add some pocket lint or dirt to the pivot point, you wouldn't be able to open it with one hand. The price was great, but I believe it's low because of this.

Having read all the reviews I was prepared to find this knife difficult to open and it didn't disappoint. What I discovered is that one reason it is so hard to open is that the scales are smooth and slick. There is a faint 'grain' imprint on the outer scale but grip is nonexistent. It is hard to manipulate the flipper when you can't keep a good hold on the knife. This is a pet peeve of mine, why design an EDC that will squirt out of your grip when it is so easy to have textured scales? I took a file and slightly stippled and scored the surface of the outer grip and the flipper until I had sufficient hold to flip the blade open. I also took a small torx screwdriver and backed the pivot screw out about a quarter to half a turn and the problem is solved. The liner lock didn't engage the first time but that hasn't happened since. This knife is otherwise well made and very sharp.

I own a thousand knives (I'm a collector). After obtaining my 250th flipper model, I think I can say what is good and what is not good. I love the look and feel of this knife, it came fairly sharp, although I sharpened it myself (I would have whether it came sharp or not). I can say without a doubt, the designing dept for this knife failed miserably and just s*at the bed! The flipper is wide but not prominent, so it takes 100 lbs of pressure to engage the blade (100 lbs may have been a scientific guess, but then I may have underestimated the 100 lbs). It is very difficult to open. I have never seen a "flipper" model that just does not want to be opened, this was my first. It literally hurts your fingers pushing the flipper stump. Kershaw really failed with this one's design. I am not advising to avoid, just be warned - it is extremely hard to open. Additionally, I learned that the longer the knife goes between openings, the harder that initial opening is. Cannot explain that, but that is my observation.

Great knife other than the flipper. It's hard to open. Even after break in, it takes some magic to get this thing to open. Flipper is way too small! Otherwise, it's a good knife. Arrived sharp and the handle fits nicely in my hand.

After some break-in, polishing of the washers, little filing on the lock stop of the blade, and training to not indexing fingers on the lock bar this is a excellent knife. The above work took about 20 minutes. I have two AM 5’s and one AM 4. Best indoor/around the house knives I have. Ergos are great, blade wicked sharp (easy to sharpen/maintain), fits in hand great, and I’ve invested about $50 for the three of them. That leaves $150 for the “next knife” fund instead of getting one genuine Al Mar, which I really can’t do now that I have these. I take care of them but use them a lot more than I would a genuine Al Mar as I have spares and can easily get another. I have experimented on one of thw AM 5’s adding some jimping to the top of the handle which helps a lot IMO. Wouldn’t of done that to a real Al Mar. So buy a couple of these and save some cash in the “next knife” fund. Cheers

I have the AM-3 and-4 and love them both. I also own a few regular Al Mar knives. Also great. I bought this one despite all of the negative reviews complaining about being difficult to open. I’m glad I did. Yeah the flipper’s ergonomics aren’t great, but it’s hardly difficult to open. Rather than flipping it like other Kershaws, you push down and rotate. Not a problem. I like this knife maybe even more than the others - the finger cutouts are cool af.

This is not like any other speedsafe opening knife as it is almost impossible to open because of the way the flipper tab is designedI tried the Kershaw Al Mar AM-3 and AM-4 and both seemed ok so when I seen it on a ECop flash sale for $13.99 here on Amazon I thought I’d give it a try and I think that was too much for this junkI own a lot of Kershaw knives and this is the worst. Almost as bad as the cheap Frost knives