The Kershaw Compound 1940ST is a partially serrated knife that features the company’s Speedsafe assisted open and a durable glass-filled nylon handle with pocket clip. The knife is a tad unusual in that the handle tapers down to a very thin, just 5/8-inch depth at the base of the handle. With a partially serrated blade, the Compound 1940ST is perfectly suited for both slicing and cutting tougher cords or rope. We liked the weight of the knife and the way it fit snugly and deeply into our pocket, with only the smallest amount peeking out – so as an every day carry (EDC) knife this may be an excellent choice for you.
Kershaw Compound 1940ST Folding Knife Features
Looking a bit more closely at the Kershaw Compound 1940ST Folding Knife you can see that it has what’s known as a “combo” edge, partially serrated and partially plain. The steel of the blade is 8Cr13MoV, which is a Chinese steel that is known to offer excellent resistance to rust, good edge retention and an affordable manufacturing cost. There are lots of different steels available on the market and each have their priorities, strengths and weaknesses. One thing we’ve learned is that it’s often not productive, or accurate, to label one “better” than another since there are almost always takeaways.
Tech Note: In the case of 8Cr13MoV, what you get is .80 Carbon (C) content, .40 Manganese (Mn), 13.00 Chromium (Cr), .20 Nickel (Ni), .10 Vanadium (V), .15 Molybdenum (Mo), and a typical hardness of 58-59. Compared to the popular AUS-8 steel, 8Cr13MoV has a bit more Carbon & Manganese and about half the amount of Nickel.
Moving past the steel, the Speedsafe mechanism uses an internal L-shaped torsion bar that applies pressure to both the open and closed positions. It’s an excellent mechanical solution that makes these open-assist, or Speedsafe blades work so very well. Holding everything together are the twin steel liners. This knife also uses a Walker liner lock, and it’s rather thick and worked every time, allowing us to both open and close the knife with the same hand and with little hassle. When I say little hassle, it is important to note that this particular knife was a bit harder to flick open using the rear flipper to activate the Speedsafe mechanism, you have to apply a bit more downward pressure than on some other knives we’ve tested.
Kershaw Compound 1940ST Knife Testing & Use
The 3-1/2-inch V ground blade of the Kershaw Compound 1940ST folding knife seemed to stay sharp for us and we liked that it was easy to sharpen, though we didn’t really have to – it came razor sharp from the factory and even the partial serrated area was incredibly well-honed. The shape of the blade is actually a bit unique – sort of a raked upward sheepfoot design. If you press sideways on the blade, you’ll notice a slight movement, which we do not notice on some of the more expensive Speedsafe knives we’ve used from Kershaw. It didn’t bother us too much, but is worth noting. We carried this knife around for a full week, using it to do such rudimentary tasks as opening boxes to more advanced applications, like cutting 1/4″ nylon rope. And honestly, the box work was probably the worst for the edge, being a complete abuse of what I’d normally expect to see a knife like this used for. Still, it help up beautifully and, even after a ton of cardboard and plastic abuse, the blade remained very sharp, attesting to the decent quality of the 8Cr13MoV steel. We even used it to carve away the plastic end of an 1/8-inch headphone plug that wouldn’t fit into our iPhone case. What we discovered was a blade that was incredibly nimble as well as sharp, allowing us to maneuver it perfectly to slice off the small pieces of plastic as needed.
In carrying the Kershaw Compound 1940ST knife, we definitely liked the pocket clip and how it allowed the Compound 1940ST to sit extremely low in the pocket – and straight down as opposed to being angled towards the front. It remains one of our favorite clip styles among most knives we’ve tested over the past year.The clip angle seemed to favor carry in the right front pocket of our pants which means that if you are right handed this knife might be a good choice for you. If you like to have your blade pointing up, instead of down, the clip is also reversible. This is a great EDC knife that has a small footprint and packs in a lot of versatile uses.
Conclusion
If you want a compact knife with a blade that is a reasonably concealable size and whose handle isn’t obnoxiously large, the Kershaw 1940ST knife is one you should definitely pick up and hold in your hand. At one time the Speedsafe knife opening technology was left for the much more expensive knives in the Kershaw line, Thanks to offshore manufacturing, this knife is able to bring high-end features to a bargain priced knife. Since it comes in both plain and combo edge, it’s also a knife that will meet almost anyone’s needs and the blade should stay nice and sharp and allow you tons of easy use. Sharpening is going to be easy as well with this knife so it is going to have excellent longevity regardless of how much abuse it receives.
