Kershaw XCOM Folding Knife 3425 Review

Kershaw XCOM Delivers a Classic Military Design in a Modern Folder

The Kershaw XCOM 3425 by Les George centers on the classic design of a WWII trench knife wrapped into a folding design. If you’re like me and love links back to what made the Greatest Generation great, this is one worth taking a closer look at.

Pros

Classic WWII trench knife look with a folding design
Excellent value
Reversible deep-carry belt clip

Cons

Partial serration would make it more functional
Clip could be stronger

Recommendation

If you’re a fan of military-inspired knives, the Kershaw XCOM 3425 is one to take a look at. The folding trench knife design has a place in an aspiring knife collector’s arsenal with a price you won’t mind using as an EDC. The design emphasis a defensive look at feel over the broadest possible function, but we’re not complaining.

Blade

The business end of the Kershaw XCOM is a spear point with a bayonet grind. Only one side is sharpened since the opposite in is exposed in its folded position. There’s no denying its defensive carry potential with an intimidating piercing tip that draws you eyes to it. There’s not as much belly on a spear point design, so slicing isn’t as natural as it is on a drop point blade.

As a purely defensive knife and sticking to the traditional look and feel of a trench knife, there’s nothing wrong with the blade. To make it more functional for your outdoor adventures, I’d like to see a partial serration for cutting rope.

There’s no bearing or spring assist in this knife, but the blade has enough mass to still open quickly using its ambidextrous thumb disk. I prefer a finger flipper over a thumb disk. However, this one is very effective for a single motion deployment. As we’ve said way too often, sorry, Canada, you’re not allowed to carry this one thanks to the deployment.

The blade is made from Kershaw’s standard 8Cr13MoV blade steel and gets a black oxide coating. It’s easy to sharpen with reasonable corrosion resistance and decent edge retention. If you’re used to any of the “super steels”, it wears down more quickly. When you’re trying to keep the cost down, this is an excellent balance of edge performance and price.

Handle

The Kershaw XCOM 3425 has one of the most secure handles you can hope for on a folding knife. Its contoured handle reaches toward upper and lower choils at the blade with deep grooves along the way.

The handle uses glass-filled nylon for construction that gets some additional texture to secure your grip just a little bit better.

Moving to the butt of the handle, there’s a lanyard hole behind the backspacer. Right next to it is the deep carry clip that you can switch between the left and right sides. It’s a tip-up carry only. For its size, the clip has some bend to it. Keep that in mind if you’re prone to bending out your clips (guilty!).

Hiding inside the handle, the liner lock releases the blade for folding up. When you deploy the blade, it does a great job of fully engaging the blade securely. As far as liner locks go, it’s one of the best I’ve seen.

Price

The Kershaw XCOM has an MSRP of $49.49 and we’re seeing online prices closer to $30. That’s a pretty attractive price with material choices and manual deployment that help keep the price down.