Most cheap folding knives spend their money the same way. They pair decent steel with a plastic handle, and you feel it every time you open one. The Kershaw Helitack does the opposite.
🛒Price: $45.74
Where to Buy: Amazon
It puts a basic 8Cr13MoV blade in a full steel frame, coats both parts in gray PVD, and sells for about $45 on Amazon. Whether that trade works depends on what you need the knife to do.
The Helitack isn’t new. Kershaw released it in 2024, and it’s settled in as a steady catalog item rather than a breakout, ranking mid-pack among Amazon’s pocket knives. It carries 4.6 stars across 172 ratings, which is a modest but consistent record.
Kershaw Built the Helitack Around Its Frame
The blade is 3.26 inches of 8Cr13MoV steel, drop point, with a gray PVD coating and a 0.11-inch spine. The handle is stainless steel with the same gray coating, 0.44 inches thick. Closed, the knife is 4.49 inches. Open, it’s 7.75 inches and weighs 3.8 ounces.
It opens with Kershaw’s assisted opening and a flipper tab. A frame lock holds the blade open, and a black-oxide stop keeps the lock bar from bending too far.
The pocket clip deserves more attention than it gets. Kershaw lists it as an extra-deep-carry clip that flips to either side, tip-up only. The screws and clip are black-oxide, and there’s a lanyard hole at the end.
The Steel Question
8Cr13MoV is where a lot of buyers stop reading. It’s a Chinese stainless steel that sharpens fast and fights rust well, but it dulls sooner than tool steels and powder steels.
That’s the deal Kershaw made, and it’s worth knowing before you buy. D2 and MagnaCut hold a working edge much longer. What 8Cr13MoV gives back is speed on the stone, since a few passes bring the edge right back. For a knife that cuts cardboard, zip ties, and tape all day, that’s a fair place to save money.
Our sub-$100 roundup put this steel at the bottom of the budget tier, next to AUS-8, in the sub-$50 workhorse group. The difference here is what’s around it. That roundup describes the group as simple liner locks with basic G-10 or plastic scales, not a coated steel frame.
Where the Weight Comes From
3.8 ounces is heavy for a 3.26-inch blade. A CIVIVI Elementum weighs 2.89 ounces with a slightly shorter 2.96-inch blade, and Kershaw’s own Kuro, which pairs a nylon handle with a 3.1-inch blade, weighs 3.2 ounces. Plastic and G-10 knives this size land closer to 3 ounces than 4. The steel handle is the likely reason for the gap, since the blade is thin and the hardware is light, though Kershaw stops short of publishing part weights.
Some people feel that weight as solid and reassuring, and others feel it as dead weight on a belt loop. Both reactions are fair, so hold this one before you buy if you get the chance. This article is built from Kershaw’s published specs and our coverage of similar knives, not from carrying it ourselves.
Who the Helitack Is For
This is a work knife, and Kershaw says so in its own listing. If your knife lives in a truck, a toolbox, or a jobsite pocket, the coated steel frame earns its keep. PVD is generally credited with better scratch and moisture resistance than bare steel. Extra weight matters less on a tool belt than in dress slacks.
If you want an office knife that disappears in a pocket, look elsewhere. Kershaw’s lighter models make more sense there.
People mix up assisted opening with automatic knives, but the law treats them differently. A 2009 change to the federal switchblade law set one-hand and assisted-opening knives apart from switchblades, and they’re legal to own in all fifty states. What can still trip you up is blade length and concealed carry, which change from state to state and sometimes city to city. A few states, Oregon among them, name assisted openers in their rules, so check the 3.26-inch blade against your local limit before you buy.
Paying for Hardware Instead of Steel
Kershaw sells the Helitack for $57.99 on its own store, down from $71.99, but Amazon has been closer to $45.74. The model number is 5570, and it’s been in the catalog since 2024.
Kershaw will engrave the knife for you, which is a small thing until you’re buying a gift. It comes with a limited lifetime warranty. Kershaw also sharpens its knives free for life, which takes some of the sting out of the 8Cr13MoV edge retention issue.
Kershaw is clear about where the knife is made. Design and quality control happen in the USA, and manufacturing happens in China. Kershaw also runs a separate USA-made line built start to finish in Tualatin, so this is a per-model choice rather than a company-wide one. That’s common across the budget folder bracket, and it matters if origin factors into your buying.
Kershaw’s Fringe makes a similar bet, pairing the same 8Cr13MoV with a coated steel handle and a carbon fiber insert, at 3.5 ounces on a 3-inch blade. If the Helitack feels like too much knife, the Fringe is the closest in-house option.
🛒Price: $45.74
Where to Buy: Amazon
Making Sense of the $45 Helitack
The Helitack was never built to win a steel argument, so judging it on steel alone measures the wrong thing. It’s a coated steel work knife at a price where most rivals use plastic or G-10. The steel is the compromise that pays for everything else.
If that’s the trade you want, Kershaw executed it well. If you’d rather have better steel in a lighter knife, Kershaw sells that too, and it costs more.
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