Let’s just say it. Kershaw is better known for folding knives than it is for fixed blades that are intended for hunting and bushcraft. This is, after all, the company that brought the world SpeedSafe Assisted Opening Technology. That wouldn’t be of particularly much use to a fixed blade.
Be that as it may, Kershaw has still produced some really solid fixed blades that will excel as bushcraft or camp knives, and even a few that will produce as hunting knives.
One of the best of these – if you haven’t heard of it yet – is the Kershaw Pack Mule.
Let’s take a look at what makes this great as a potential Kershaw hunting knife.
What to Know About This Kershaw Hunting Knife
The Kershaw Pack Mule sports a profile that you could forget if you weren’t looking for it. It has a plain drop point blade and a pretty generic handle.
But that devil is in the details. That featureless drop point blade is sized perfectly for most hunting applications at 3.9”. It’s not too big to be unwieldy or cumbersome, especially on smaller harvests, but it is more than capable of quartering and processing anything you tag in North America.
The steel is another thing entirely. This blade is made of N690, a well-known super steel that is, in a word, one of the best that money can buy.
First, this is a carbon-rich steel. It has more than 1% carbon in the matrix, which makes it perfect for giving a fairly hard heat treatment. With so much carbon in the alloy, it can also take and hold quite a sharp edge. It also sports generally good wear resistance.
But it also has more than 1% of molybdenum, which further improves the wear resistance of the alloy, and also adds general toughness. Molybdenum-rich steels resist chipping, shattering, rolling, and other stress-induced damage.
In addition to these, N690 also has some vanadium (about .1%) and cobalt (1.5%). Vanadium improves toughness and wear resistance, and also forms carbides that improve heat treatment and hardness. Cobalt improves strength, wear resistance and other mechanical properties of the steel.
N690 is also an excellent steel because it contains a surprisingly high concentration of chromium, at more than 17%. Normally, chromium-rich steels are too soft, but given the other concentrations here, it’s a fairly suitable addition, and makes N690 highly corrosion-resistant.
This knife has a fairly forgettable handle profile and is complete with G10 scales, but the good news is that G10 is basically bombproof and will handle whatever you throw at it, requiring no maintenance at all.
And, rounding out this knife, there’s a thermoplastic sheath that sports a secondary retention strap, and which can be rigged nearly any way you like. Wear it tip down on the belt, rig it for cross-draw or scout carry, or lash it to your pack – it will perform.
All in all, despite the fact that his Kershaw hunting knife is aesthetically plain, when it comes down to performance, which is what really matters in the field, it will shine along, or outshine, any competitor you can draw.
And that makes it an excellent option for enterprising outdoorsmen that demand reliability and will accept no compromises.
Explore This and Other Kershaw Knives
Interested in learning more about this and other Kershaw knives? Whether you’re in the market for a fixed blade or are more interested in the company’s catalog of folders, visit White Mountain Knives. They carry a wide range of options and the knife featured here is just one of them.C.
