I personally have an appreciation for well-crafted things, one of those being knives. I’ve been into knives for a long time, I’m just not a collector. I buy them to use and to keep with me as an EDC, or everyday carry. That being said, I’ve been wanting a new knife. After a lot of research, I’ve decided to pick up the Kershaw Bel Air in the carbon fiber configuration. I knew from other reviews that this was going to be a pretty good knife, but I have to say that this knife has got me so excited that I had to make a video about it.

I want to preface that I’m by no means a knife expert, but for the sake of this video, I do have to provide some background info and explain various aspects of a knife, at least to the best of my ability. In this video, I just want to share with you my experiences with this knife in hopes that it helps you with your buying decision if you are in the market for it.

First, let’s talk about the general design of this knife. Here we have a USA-made folder with a 3.1” straight-edge reverse Tanto blade, as Kershaw has labeled it. This particular Bel Air features marbled carbon fiber scales, and if you’re into cars, it’s very reminiscent of forged carbon. I don’t think online pictures and videos do these scales any justice, as they just look amazing in person. It’s a matte carbon, but when the light hits it, it is a bit bright and reflective. From there, we have black hardware, black liners, and a black Cerakote extra-deep pocket clip.

Overall, this knife weighs 2.5 oz, and in hand, it feels like nothing. It’s more than half the weight of the 5.3 oz SOG-TAC XR that I’ve been carrying and noticeably shorter and thinner when folded or deployed. Personally, this is probably the smallest and thinnest folding pocket knife I’ve ever had. But if you want even lighter, the Bel Air often gets compared to the Benchmade Bugout, which sits at 1.85 oz, which is just insane to me considering how light this knife feels in hand for what it is. I personally never really cared about how lightweight a pocket knife is because they never really get too crazy. Most of the time, it sits in my pocket so I don’t really feel it. And when I use it, I generally use it for a few seconds, so it’s not like it’s putting a lot of strain on me. That being said, there was a bit of a learning curve with such a small knife in the Bel Air. When I first got it, I found that because this is a smaller/thinner knife, in conjunction with the way that I was holding it, when I went to close the knife, the tip would be able to graze the palm of my hand and cut it. That’s completely a me thing, but that also goes to show how sharp this blade is right out of the factory, that it was able to cut through my skin like nothing.

Speaking of the blade, it is made from CPM Magnacut, an extremely hot commodity in the knife world at the moment, as it provides us with strength, durability, good edge retention, and very high corrosion resistance. Basically, it’s the best all-arounder. This is my first Magnacut blade, so I can’t give first-hand experience, but if it’s what everyone is portraying it as on the internet, I have no complaints. On paper, it seems to be the perfect EDC blade material for most people.

Now, when it comes to pocket knives, I’m really picky about the locking mechanism. Over the years, the Benchmade Axis lock has become my favorite for a folder. That being said, I’ve always been too cheap to buy an Axis lock-equipped Benchmade knife. Back in the day, a company named SOG got away with something called the Arc lock, which is basically a modified Axis lock. So in a sense, SOG gave us the Axis lock for half the price, and I was about it. I was using the SOG Vulcan line of knives for a while. But as time progressed, the patent on the Benchmade Axis lock expired, and today we get an Axis lock or some sort of crossbar locking mechanism from every major company. Case in point, the Kershaw Bel Air with its Duralock.

Again, I’ve never had a real Axis lock knife, so I can’t directly compare, but in comparison to the SOG Arc lock and this XR lock that they are using now, I would say that there is such a night and day difference. The Kershaw Duralock is, no doubt, the smoothest knife locking mechanism that I’ve ever used. This thing has no friction to it and is so fast and buttery smooth. That, in part, has to do with the ball-bearing system that’s used for the hinge. This is my first experience with such a thing, and it’s like, where has this been all my life? It’s just mind-blowing how much better this is than what I’m used to. This is actually so fast that there is some getting used to when opening and closing this knife. I do find myself missing the closed position because the blade falls down so fast that I don’t engage the lock in time, and the blade bounces back up a bit. Again, just crazy how fast this blade can move.

Overall, I’m in love with this knife. Again, I’ve been carrying the SOG-TAC XR for some time now, but I’ve always kind of hated this thing. It functions as a knife, but the user experience just kind of sucks with it in my opinion. The scales are a bit too grippy, so it’s constantly dragging against whatever material bottoms you wear. Most importantly, the XR lock, at least in this example, is so stiff and hard to deploy that it’s just made me want to replace this knife. The carbon fiber Kershaw Bel Air is really a dream come true. It’s kind of weird to be excited for such a small thing, but this is something that I’m going to be carrying every day, so it will make a bit of an impact in my life. So if you’re looking for an opinion, the Kershaw Bel Air in carbon fiber gets an easy recommendation from me.

If you're considering buying any of the products mentioned, please support my work by using the links below.

Kershaw Bel Air Carbon Fiber https://amzn.to/4ou6ZRk

Benchmade Bugout https://amzn.to/45Dkzu9

Want to support my work?

Consider visiting the shop and buying "Absolutely Nothing"
https://www.HaiHoangTran.com/shop/absolutely-nothing

Become a YouTube member!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLUO-2ltlWfydRZ7pRRnXkw/join

Become a Patron!
https://www.patreon.com/HaiHoangTran

Buy some official merch!
https://www.youtube.com/haitran/store

PayPal
https://www.PayPal.me/HaiHoangTran

Just shop on Amazon via this link!
https://amzn.to/2FgsDnG