• This is an excellent knife for cutting all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Whether they are hard, ripe, or overripe the Kershaw Rainbow Leek slices through them with little effort.
• Hard cheeses and butter do offer a problem as the knife is not of a uniform thickness, these materials tend to slow down and bind the knife. From what I have observed, the issue is the thickness at the back end of the knife, materials like cheese and butter cut better with as thin a blade as possible. While I don't use butter much in the outdoors, I do like to bring cheese, getting a good slice of cheese just isn't possible, I need to settle for thicker pieces, or broken thin pieces.
• Meat is a different story. I have had no problems slicing through sausages, luncheon meats (pepperoni, summer sausage), even a nicely cooked steak.
• Tapes and packages cut extremely well, and the Kershaw Rainbow Leek is able to do these tasks even better than the standard razor blade openers.
• The hard plastic packaging is a mixed blessing, the Kershaw Rainbow Leek's sharp point makes piercing the packaging easy, but slicing the packaging is something else. Like with the cheese, the thicker back side of the knife makes opening the plastic packaging difficult, and a little unnerving. The force needed to pull the knife towards me had me concerned about it slipping out and cutting me. This is a task I will leave to other knives in the future.

I was easily able to make the fuzz stick, the Kershaw Rainbow Leek made the thin slices in the dried branch that are needed to make a fuzz stick with little effort. Fuzz sticks are used as the second stage material used to start a fire (tinder, kindling, fuel), and can be made out of any small branch or twig found on the ground. Making one can quickly dull a blade made from inferior material as dried twigs tend to be harder to slice than green twigs. This was not the case, and I was easily able to prepare and eat the rest of my lunch.

Additionally, this trip required the knife to do some unexpected duties, primarily cutting through ropes and fishing line. In an area used for small campfires during hunting and fishing season someone left a web of twine, fishing line, and plastic 6-pack holders as a gift. I managed to cut them apart with no effort.

• The fuzz stick test, more than any other, has impressed me with the blade on the Kershaw Rainbow Leek - after having made the fuzz stick I thought the blade would need sharpening before it could be used for other slicing tasks. Surprisingly, I have been able to slice through all types of fruits and veggies since with no problem.
• One of my concerns about a smooth-blade knife was its ability to cut rope without shredding or major effort. During this test period I was able to test the knife out on fishing line and 1/8 in (3 mm) twine, the knife was able to perform this task better than I had expected.
• I have developed more of a comfort level with closing the blade single handed, a concern I expressed in my Initial Review. Using the thumb to hold the locking mechanism (see photo) in the open position, and sliding the back of the blade against my pants leg, closes the blade nicely.
• One drawback in design that I have noticed is with the Safety Lock (see photo), the purpose is to prevent the blade from accidentally opening - especially while in a pocket. Over the months, the Safety Lock has loosened a little causing it to slide down into the unlocked position while in my pocket. This has only happened 3 or 4 times, if it happens on a more frequent basis I will probably contact Kershaw to determine if there is a way of correcting the problem, at this point it is not frequent enough to be of concern.

• Immediate plans are to test the Kershaw Rainbow Leek's ability to cut various type of rope (cotton, poly, nylon, hemp; braided and twisted). Ropes are used in a variety of outdoor tasks, and I regret not doing this test before now.
• Sharpening the Kershaw Rainbow Leek is another task I plan on doing soon. To this point I have been using the knife as it was delivered, and have been more than impressed. Now I want to try sharpening it and seeing how it performs afterwards. A factory sharpened edge is not always easy to reproduce, and a hand-sharpened knife will not always perform equally well.