Bradley Kimura 6

I’ve been fortunate to be able to buy several new knives lately, and easily the coolest of my recent purchases is the Bradley Kimura 6.

I’ve thought balisongs were cool every since I watched my first Steven Segal movie. I even had a few as a young teenager. They were, of course, flea market junk and never lasted long. I haven’t owned one since I was about 14, but I’ve thought about picking up a quality balisong for many years.

Like many of you I don’t have a limitless flow of cash to drop on the more expensive knives on the market. This is what always deterred me from getting a balisong. It seemed like anything worth buying was at least a couple of hundred dollars. I was pleasantly surprised when I found the Bradley line of knives, as many of these are sold for around 80 USD on the Internet. I got an even better deal because I was able to pick up a cometically blemished model at a reduced price.

The Kimura series is made by Kershaw for Bradley Cutlery. The execution is superb.  As much as I like a well forged blade, a well machined knife carries it’s own kind of precise beauty. I prefer to carry any knife I review for several days before I really make a decision on it. In using the Kimura for day to day tasks, I’ve found out why these knives are so popular. They are quick to open and quick to make safe. You can easily have the blade out, make your cut, and stow it in just a few seconds. This is much faster than I can do with my more standard folding knives. I’ve found that carrying this knife just makes my work flow better. I spend less time focusing on my tools and more on my tasks.

The blade came screamingly sharp and has stayed that way after going though lots of paper, tape, and plastic lanyards. As a total novice to flipping, I’ve found it very easy to just open and close the knife for use. I really thought that the very rectangular handles would make it harder to flip the knife, but the long voids cut out of the handle make it easy for me to get a perfect pinch grip.

This knife has no belt clip, so it’s been riding in the coin pocket of my jeans, where it fits snugly. One of the things I noticed right away is that, when folded, the Kimura is the perfect size to be used as a pocket stick. The tang of the blade ends in a point, making it a great surface for striking.  This means the Kimura is a self-defense tool that fills two roles well.

The fit and finish of the Bradley Kimura 6 has to be seen to be believed. Everything is just very clean and crisp, with no tooling marks or uneven grinds. I can’t say how this knife stacks up to it’s more expensive competitors, but judged on its own merits, it is one great knife that I would highly recommend.

2 thoughts on “Bradley Kimura 6

  1. I got a Kimura VII recently and can’t get over how quiet this knife is compared to the relatively cheap trainer I got a couple of weeks before it and compared with videos I’ve watched on youtube of many other balisongs, including the legendary Benchmade 42.

    BTW, the link at the beginning of your review goes to a page at the Bradley website that requires a login to view. Bradley seems to have otherwise erased the existence of this line of knives from their site. Go figure.

  2. A mag flash light holster works perfectly as a sheath. Takes a few days to stretch it out a little bit (I used a box end wrench to expedite the process). I love my kimura

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