It’s New Knife Day, kids. This just showed up in the mail.

This here’s the Kershaw Frontrunner, and despite having what I can only describe as some intense design, I don’t think this one’s quite weird enough to put in my usual weird knife roundup. Kershaw’s marketing paragraph says this knife is “inspired by the ZT 0999.” I guess they’re trying to imply it’s a good poor man’s alternative to a premium collectable knife, and maybe it would be if it looked anything like it. Here’s the Zero Tolerance model 0999. I’m not seeing the resemblance myself.

But the Frontrunner’s got one big thing going for it, in that it’s actually for sale. Two big things, then, when you consider the 0999 was $750 when it was still available, and the Frontrunner’s more like $65. If you’re going to have a knife that’s a design student’s senior thesis, I think I like the latter price point a lot more.

Kershaw goes on to say, “Several handle components join together, including stainless steel and machined G10 pieces. A custom G10 pivot collar stands out on the front handle, and a back handle overlay serves as an overtravel stop.” And, “Negative space plays a crucial role in improving the look of the handle.”

I’m not super sold on that. The Frontrunner is definitely funky looking, for sure, but all this has a whiff of wine snob bullshit about it to me. You know, in order to try’n make themselves sound erudite and sophisticated, some wanker swirling a glass around will tell you he senses notes of this and undertones of that, when in reality you know damn well the stuff is just fermented grapes and a lot of words are getting wasted attempting in vain to differentiate something that ain’t got no differentiation. Same deal here if you ask me; I’m not seeing any “negative space” in the handle at all except for the little bite taken out behind the pivot and even that’s only on one side.

That’s not to say I don’t like it. I just think there’s a distinct lack of a straight and honest description out there about this knife, and the product blurb is very finely crafted to give you the impression that maybe there’s more to this knife than there is.

What the Frontrunner is, is, an EDC sized frame locking folder with a D2 blade and ball bearing pivots. The knife is almost all metal except for the copper-ish handle inserts, the spacer, and one other weird exception, so it’s pretty dense: 115.3 grams or 4.07 ounces. The impression you get from looking at the pictures is that it might be really bulky, but it isn’t. It’s about 4-1/8" long closed, 7-1/8" open. The blade is D2 steel and is basically exactly 3" long, and a pretty normal feeling 0.110" thick with a clip point profile. Across the thickness of the handle scales, so not including the pivot screw heads sticking out or clip or anything, the knife is 0.439" thick – about 7/16". The clip is pretty low profile and just about what you could consider “deep carry,” and brings the thickness out to 0.544 at the thickest point – a little under 9/16".

So despite maybe looking like an H.R. Giger prop, the Frontrunner is actually pretty slim and sanely proportioned, which means you could actually carry it and not just lock it in your showcase.

Here’s a comparison with several other not-too-chonky EDC knives, and for good measure one that is. From the top is a Kershaw/Emerson CQC-6K, the Frontrunner, a Kershaw Skyline, and a Ganzo G704. The Frontrunner is about on par with the first two for fatness, neither of which are very thick knives. It’s noticeably slimmer in the hand than the Ganzo.

This is a flipper opener, so there is no thumb stud. It’s not spring assist, either, but it flips open pretty neatly on a pair of thrust washers around the pivot as soon as you push past the traditional detent ball built into the frame lock.

And yes, underneath this is just a regular old frame lock knife. The Frontrunner looks like it ought to have some kind of trick mechanism, or maybe a funny lock. Something to do with that black toggle thing over the pivot? Nope. The mechanism is completely bog-standard.

Said black toggle thing doesn’t move, and actually just holds the pin that serves as the end stop for the blade’s travel when you open it.

So, boring the Frontrunner may be from a mechanical standpoint. But it sure looks the business, and it actually feels pretty decent in the hand. There’s a very generous index finger notch formed by the flipper heel when the blade’s open, and the spine of it has some definitely present but not-too-sharp jimping on it. That section of the spine is rounded over to it feels nice there, too. And you don’t notice the runnels and groves and whatever else in the handle when you’re using it, really.

People will probably have opinions about the clip, though. Like I said a minute ago, it’s technically just a deep carry design and leaves the knife riding pretty much exactly below the hem of your pocket. It’s not very wide, and it’s very tightly sprung. It has one position and one position only: tip up, with the spine of the blade facing rear or towards the seam of your pocket, if clipped on the right hand side. It’s not reversible and it’s not very easily removable, either, since the two screws holding it on are on the inside of the knife. You can see them in the picture above. Taking the clip off (or replacing it) requires disassembling the knife entirely.

Speaking of which.

Here you can see that despite its board-of-many-planks aesthetics, the Frontrunner’s construction is actually significantly simpler than it appears. Only the coppertone accents are separate pieces, and the rest of the handle scales are all one lump. The side with the frame lock is unitary, but the other side is actually a scale over a flat steel liner which would not be odd if not for the fact that I can’t figure out why the two halves are built differently. I didn’t bother to take the copper accent pieces off. They’re just screwed on. The accents are implied to be G10 by the product description but whatever they are is definitely not metal, and their copper finish appears to be painted on. The natural texture and fibrosity of G10, if that’s what it is, has been thoroughly covered. Only time will tell how easily this wears off and what it’ll look like once it does.

The pivots are indeed thrust bearings which explains the ease and smoothness of the flipper opening action. The pivot screw looks a bit indistinct on the end there because it is – It’s made of plastic, or at least some manner of composite. Not steel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. Don’t crossthread the screw when you reassemble it, then.

Here’s the frame lock, and its rather large detent ball that gives the knife very positive retention when it’s closed.

The lockup works like this. The black composite teardrops are just decorative. The actual load is borne by the steel liner underneath.

As usual for Kershaw, the machine work and all the parts fitment is pretty much impeccable. I have nothing to complain about there. The pivot, the lockup, the snap shut, it all feels very nice. Due to the thrust bearings there’s no need to leave any clearance in the pivot, either, so there’s very little wiggle in the blade when it’s locked open.

Here’s something we don’t get to see much, which is the factory edge on a knife before I start fucking with it. The Frontrunner’s edge grind is actually very fine and it’s acceptably keen enough for use right out of the box.

The point geometry is within tolerable bounds of whackitude…

…And the edge is only marginally out of true down to its point. A full sharpening of this knife will probably involve knocking a degree or two off of the last quarter of an inch on one side.

The Inevitable Conclusion

The Frontrunner’s weirdness is only a facade, which you could take one of two ways. You could call it a sham, with its coquettish looks leading to your eventual dismay in learning that it’s got nothing interesting under its clothes. Or you could take it as a statement piece that’s bold enough to look different but neatly avoids falling into the trap of being too damn weird to be functional, or too expensive to use.

Your choice.