The Case of the Smooth Thumb Stud

The last time we sold this knife, Mehtizen and blade-hound @hollandnm bought one, and noticed that unlike pictures he’d seen elsewhere of this knife, the thumb stud was smooth, without the machined indentations he was expecting, and the steel type wasn’t stamped on the blade. He wondered what was up.

Not to be outdone in their knife geekiness, a couple of other resident knife sleuths jumped on the case. @nhedler “confirmed that these are genuine Kershaw manufacture, but they are a different run at the request of ‘some distributors’”. And @awm submitted side-by-side photos of his new Meh-purchased knife and his previously-purchased-elsewhere version of the Kershaw 3820 Injection 3.0, showing differences in the thumb studs, the taper of the handle, and the stamping on the blade.

It was a fascinating detective story, an interesting exploration of how the same product can differ from one manufacturing run to another, and a perfect example of our forum at its best. The whole thing taught us a valuable lesson.

And that lesson was: at least one person owned this knife already, and then bought another one.

Whoa. Naturally, we decided to offer it in a two-pack. Not that we really understand why you would want two. But apparently somebody does, and that’s good enough for us.

Call it an instant knife-fighting kit. No more hunting around for two knives when you need to settle questions of honor! Or maybe you use one knife to open the package of the other knife, or something. If you buy two two-packs, you’re well-stocked for a knife-juggling act.

But three two-packs really opens up the possibilities. Just add a dartboard for a rousing game of knife darts. Equip your entire hockey team to settle things once and for all with your rivals. Use each one once for a different bite of your steak, then throw it away, Howard Hughes-style.

Nobody really needs more than one of these knives. But that hasn’t stopped you before. And to us, that’s a bigger mystery than any thumb stud or plastic washer could ever be.