Here is a link to the Bladereviews.com video review of the Leek which you can use to get a good visual on the knife, as well as another reference point for your own evaluation. Here's pictures of my stainless Leek.
Short Form: The Leek handles most EDC chores and has nice fit and finish for the price, but has some stylistic quirks that keep it from being a good "all around" pocket knife.
Size: Medium
The 7" open length puts this firmly in the medium size category. Good size analogs would be the Spyderco Delica 4 (7.125" open) and the Benchmade Mini-Griptilian (6.78" open). Mine, which is the steel frame-lock version, clocked in at 3 ounces exactly. The handle is a super-slender 5/16" thick without the pocket clip, and the handle is slightly less than 1" wide at the widest point (with the blade closed).
Usage Rating: Light
There's going to be some debate here. I put this in the light usage category, for three reasons.
1. Thin tip - The tip, as is discussed in many reviews, is needle fine. This ain't a bad thing (see below), but if you even think about thinking about prying with it, the tip will snap off. Similarly, if you tried to pierce a heavier material, I suspect the tip would bend or fold. I've also heard a lot of stories about people losing the tip when the knife gets dropped.
2. Thin blade - The blade thickness is 0.090", which is the same as a Delica 4, but it tapers quickly and gets dramatically thinner well before the tip of the knife. While this does help the knife with slicing performance, the trade off is strength. The fairly steep secondary bevel makes for a razor-sharp edge... but it rolls quickly. If you took this thing into the woods, you'd likely be sharpening it a lot.
3. Slick grip - The grip is very slick. The jimping on the thumb ramp and choil certainly help, but this is not a knife you'd want to use with wet hands or gloves. The lack of texturing on the scales and the rather amorphous handle shape (not molded to fingers) keeps this blade from really locking into your hand. In my opinion, if the grip ain't great, you really shouldn't be using a blade for anything other than light duty. (I make no commentary on the G-10 version. That might be an improvement, but I can't see where even grippier scales would have a drastic impact on this knife's "hand profile".)
The reason I say there's debate on the usage rating is the price tag. I can see where some people would beat on this knife and ramp it up to medium usage. I got mine from Amazon.com for $38 and change. That isn't so horrifically expensive that you couldn't replace it if you maimed one beyond repair. It should also be mentioned that Kershaw has fantastic customer service. I've seen a lot of instances where they will simply send out replacement parts for free if requested, and they have a blade replacement service for a paltry $10.00. When you take that into account, I suppose medium use could be feasible.
Blade Steel Quality: Moderate
Current models come with Sandvik's 14c28n steel. This is Kershaw's flagship steel and for good reason. The rust resistance has been good (better than on my Spyderco Persistence with 8cr13Mov), and this steel takes a very fine edge (similar to the VG-10 in the Delica 4). In terms of wear resistance, it is hard to say what to associate with the quality of the steel and what to associate with the geometry of the knife. This is a very thin blade with a very steep bevel, and a very steep secondary bevel. It makes for a fine, "scary sharp" cutting edge, but that thin edge is prone to rolling when you put it to work. I'm not sure if this just the steel or the thinness of this particular blade. I'll have to put a few more 14c28n blades with different geometry through the paces and update this when I do.
Note: The edge's tendency to roll under pressure isn't necessarily a bad thing. Unlike chips in the edge (which are common with some of the harder steels), you can hone the rolls right out of this blade and get it back to shaving sharpness with a common kitchen steel. Even stropping it on a belt will more or less put it back where you want it.
I'm not a metallurgist, so I can't give you all the technical crunch and lab data, but I can tell you this: I've got to sharpen this blade slightly more often than I do my VG-10 blades that get put through the same paces, but significantly less often than my 420 HC and 8cr13Mov blades. On average, I'd say it took one trip to my Sharpmaker for every month I used it regularly. (You should note that A - I did only use it for light jobs and B - I sharpen before the edge gets too dull; it was still a working edge when I cleaned it up.)
Deployment Method: Ambidextrous (?) One-Handed Assisted
The knife has Ken Onion's patented "Speedsafe" assisted opening, which consists of a small torsion bar (read - stiff piece of wire) nested in the handle scale opposite the frame lock. It works well and flips the knife out quickly. Kershaw's literature has said that each one of these torsion bars has 10,000 openings of mileage in it. No idea if that is right. Mine is still snappy after a lot of use. They'll send you a replacement if you wear one out.
You can easily open this knife with either hand, but since this is a frame lock, I would imagine that closing the blade one-handed with the left hand would be problematic. Hence my question mark above.
Ignore all the reviews that talk about how much the thumb studs suck. They aren't thumb studs. Read the literature that comes from Kershaw. They're called blade stops. Their size and location differentiate them from thumb studs. If Kershaw's own literature is to be believed, they did not intend these studs to be used for opening the knife. (As an aside, I have used the blade stops to open the knife from time to time, and after a little practice, they work just fine.)
Performance Aspects:
1. Slicing - I was a little nervous about the wharncliff style blade, with virtually no curvature. There was no reason to be. This thing is so thin and steep at the edge that it will slice through most materials with virtually no resistance. Fresh from the sharpening stone, easily glided through paper and light cardboard. It even handled heavy cardboard and paracord well, though the edge did degrade fairly quickly on those tougher substances.
2. Piercing - I know of no folding knife which pierces better than this folding knife. The needle tip (which people bemoan constantly) makes this thing perfect for opening up boxes and most packaging. There's virtually no resistance for most substances. This feature (which I thought I'd hate) turns out to be one of the knife's best points (no pun intended).
That said, I'd be nervous trying to pierce tougher substances like linoleum, because I think the tip might give before the material did.
3. Push-Cutting - Mixed bag here. Push cutting means more pressure on a smaller surface area in the cutting edge. Do a little push cutting and you'll get great performance because the blade is so dang thin. Do a lot and you're going to have problems because of how the edge degrades under high pressure.
Retention Method:
1. Functionality - The pocket clip is one of the weird things about the Leek. A mixed bag in all respects. What makes this a good "suit knife" is that the scales are slick and the clip isn't super-tight. This means that you can clip it on without worrying the fabric getting ripped to shreds. The problem, though, is that it is slick. If the clip catches on anything, this thing will slide out of your pocket. (This happened to me 3 times in the first month I owned the knife, and I was a habitual knife-carrier for 10 years when this occurred.) As such, the clip doesn't function to keep this thing firmly in your pocket.
2. Discreetness Factor - Another schizophrenic area for this knife. The blade is super-slim, which would make it discreet, except that the clip is over two inches long (way big on a knife that is four inches closed), and it is broad and shiny, to boot. The clip attracts the eye and anyone with half a brain will know that you are carrying a knife. If there was any doubt on this point, in tip-down carry, there is about three quarters of an inch of shiny knife sticking out of the tip of your pocket. Go tip up and I believe you've crested an inch of exposed knife. That is a lot. Between the brazen pocket clip and the speedsafe (which could be intimidating to non-knife carriers), this design just doesn't seem quite sure where it fits into things in terms of whether it is people-friendly or not. Possibly the biggest issue with the blade, in my opinion.
3. Versatility - You can only go right side tip up and down on this one. Left sided handle scales are completely smooth, so lefties are left out in the rain here.
Fit and Finish:
Kershaw generally does well in this department, and the Leek is no exception. Blade was perfectly centered when I got it (impressive for a sub-$40 frame lock), and stayed that way after a lot of use. Everything was flush and there was no blade play.
Quality of the screws was an issue, though. When I went to migrate the pocket clip for tip up carry, the first screw stripped. It stripped even though I used the appropriate torx bit and applied gentle pressure. Kershaw was good to send me new screws and a new clip free of charge, but this was definitely a disappointment. When I finally got the clip off, I saw the likely culprit for the stripped screw. The screws had been covered with blue loc-tite (or something similar) from the factory. For a knife where you've got the option to remount the clip, sending it out of the factory with loc-tite seems like a strange choice. If you do move the clip on this one, be careful and do whatever seems best to you in order to navigate loc-tited screws.
Wish I'd known about that before trying to move the clip.
Ease of Maintenance:
The Leek does well here. The almost perfectly straight blade is very easy to sharpen, and steel takes a razor edge very easily. Open, flow-through construction makes cleaning the knife easy. It isn't a lint magnet. Despite my above warning about not taking it into the woods, I did exactly that and the knife didn't rust even though it spent the better part of 24 hours moist. The satin-finish blade likes to grab on to little pieces of adhesive when you open packages, but it is nothing that a little Goo Gone can't fix. As previously mentioned, honing the knife back to a true edge is very easy, and while I don't speak from personal experience, youtube makes it seem as if replacing the torsion bar isn't terribly challenging.
Conclusion:
For around $40, there's a lot to like about the Leek. For a knife I actively disliked when I acquired it (long story), it grew on me and still sees time in my pocket with some regularity. It definitely has unique looks that appeal to a lot of people, even if it does cost the blade some of its functionality. The slim profile, easy deployment, and superior piercing make this a really nice knife to use for day to day chores. This is a nice knife to have in a rotation if you know what jobs might get thrown at it on a given day. Given its limitations, however, I wouldn't go with this blade as a sole EDC. For a little more money, you can get a better all-arounder (hint: Delica 4). If you're brand-loyal to Kershaw, you could go with a Skyline get a lot more functionality for almost the exact same amount of money.
