Kershaw Launch 22 Auto – 3.45″ CPM MagnaCut Blackwashed Blade, FDE Anodized Aluminum & Green Micarta Handle USA Made

The Kershaw Launch 22 FDE is a USA-made side-button automatic folder with a 3.45-inch CPM MagnaCut blackwash blade on a Flat Dark Earth anodized aluminum and green Micarta handle — the warm-earth-tone colorway of the Launch 22 platform, pairing Crucible’s benchmark alloy with the field-ready FDE anodize and the organic grip texture of natural fiber Micarta.

CPM MagnaCut is the steel that changed the conversation for American-made production knives. Engineered by metallurgist Larrin Thomas and produced by Crucible Industries, CPM MagnaCut simultaneously outperforms CPM-S35VN and M390 in edge retention, toughness, and corrosion resistance. The Launch 22 FDE brings this benchmark alloy to the side-button automatic folder format — the only Kershaw Launch folder running CPM MagnaCut. The blackwash blade delivers the dark, low-profile carry aesthetic with a functional corrosion barrier on top of CPM MagnaCut’s own near-H1 resistance. The FDE anodized aluminum and green Micarta handle is the warmer, more field-oriented of the two Launch 22 handle colorways. Where the blue aluminum version carries a cooler, more visually assertive color contrast against the Micarta, the FDE version unifies the handle in the same warm earth-tone register as the green Micarta — both handle materials reading as natural, field-ready, and organically grounded. FDE anodizing creates a hard aluminum oxide layer integral to the metal surface; Micarta is natural fiber saturated with phenolic resin — together they create a two-material handle where both components carry the same earth-tone visual vocabulary. The dark blackwash blade against the warm FDE-and-Micarta handle creates a darker-blade-on-warm-handle combination that carries with field credibility in any outdoor, tactical, or professional environment. All assembled in Tualatin, Oregon on Kershaw’s USA production floor.

• Blade: CPM MagnaCut steel, blackwash finish — benchmark edge retention, toughness, and near-H1 corrosion resistance under a dark blackwash coating; the only CPM MagnaCut side-button automatic folder in the Kershaw Launch lineup
• Handle: FDE anodized aluminum and green Micarta — the warmer, more field-unified of the two Launch 22 colorways; FDE and green Micarta share the same warm earth-tone register, creating a more tonally cohesive handle than the blue aluminum variant
• Deployment: Side-button automatic — press the button on the spine; KVT ball-bearing pivot delivers fast, smooth, one-hand deployment; liner lock retention
• Carry: Tip-up, USA made (confirm clip configuration)

Buyers who want the Launch 22 MagnaCut platform in a FDE earth-tone handle rather than the blue aluminum of the other variant — FDE and green Micarta share a warm, natural color register that reads as more tonally unified and field-purposeful than the cooler blue aluminum pairing. Tactical, outdoor, and field carry buyers whose kit runs in the FDE and earth-tone palette who want the CPM MagnaCut Launch 22 to match that system. Collectors completing the Launch 22 MagnaCut pair who want both the FDE and blue handle variants alongside each other.

CPM MagnaCut, blackwash blade, FDE anodized aluminum and green Micarta, USA-made side-button automatic, and Kershaw Lifetime Warranty — the Kershaw Launch 22 FDE is the warm-earth-tone CPM MagnaCut automatic folder in Kershaw’s Launch lineup.

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