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- Feb 25, 2001
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Okay. With all of the hoopla lately, I thought Id post an in depth comparison of a few large production folders. Im sorry that I cant add the Sere2000 to the list, but I dont own one. Well just have to live with what I do have, which is a large Classic Sebenza, a Spyderco Military and a Benchmade 710HS. Hopefully, this review will put a few misconceptions to rest, and allow people to make more informed decisions on future purchases. Ill try to be as unbiased as possible, which shouldnt be too hard. I very much like all three of these folders, and feel that all three knives show highly credible designs.
My guess is that, while all three knives are close to the same size range, they were designed with three entirely different sets of design criteria. The Sebenza is a study in craftsmanship. The design is outrageously simple, with a huge amount of attention paid to every tiny little aspect of the knife. It appears that Chris Reeve set out to make a folder that is nearly perfect from a manufacturing perspective, coupled with a high degree of overall functionality. The Military is much more utilitarian in design. From the handle to the blade, the Military is a utility knife, through and through. It does not pretend to be anything else. The Benchmade 710 looks as if the designers shot for the few criteria they found to be most important, and focused on them to the point of exclusion. This makes for a very strong design where it most counts, but also shows a number of small flaws in lesser areas.
Out of box quality was exceptional on the Sebenza. Every aspect of the knife was nearly perfect. Ive never been able to induce any blade play in the Sebenza, with the knife fully assembled. The Military was very well made, but the finish was not nearly as polished and beautiful as the Sebenza. The fit on the 710 was pretty bad. I had my choice of either smooth opening and closing of the blade, or a lack of lateral blade play. I couldnt have my cake and eat it too. The edge was also unevenly ground.
After over a year of use on each knife, the finish on the Sebenza has been damaged the most. The titanium scales scratch very easily. The 710 and Military look virtually unchanged by hard use, although the black scales of the Military may have faded slightly.
Lets take a close look at the ergonomics. The Benchmade and the Sebenza both employ straight handle designs, allowing for a variety of grip positions. This makes both knives quite versatile, from utility work to self-defense. I find the comfort of the 710 to be superior to the Sebenza, but prefer the Sebenza when it comes to grip security. The finger choil of the Sebenza, coupled with the finish of the titanium, grips my hand better than the very slick G10 scales of the 710. The Military has one of the newer ergonomic style grips, made from slabs of G10. Coupled with the handles large size, the Military affords a huge amount of comfort and grip security, providing that your hands arent too small. I can see people with very small hands having trouble getting a grip on the Military. Also, the Militarys G-10 scales may be a bit too abrasive for some peoples skin.
The 710 features traction grooves on the handle where the thumb is normally placed for cutting. The groove pattern is a bit too slippery for my tastes, appearing more cosmetic than functional. Both the Sebenza and Military place the grooves directly on the blade, which I prefer for overall control of the knife. The Sebenzas pattern gives a good grip on the blade, but doesnt hurt your finger. The traction grooves of the Military are very aggressive, and can hurt your thumb over time. Thats the price you pay for the most superior grip of the bunch, especially when the grooves are located on the Spyderco thumb ramp behind the opening hole.
Under slippery conditions, both the Sebenza and Benchmade became a bit hard to hold onto. The choil of the Sebenza helped a little, but not much. The very aggressive pattern on the scales of the Military provided great grip security under wetter circumstances. While such conditions may rarely be encountered in urban life, they are often found when working outdoors. At least they are by me.
From a tough cutting perspective, the Military carries the stronger overall handle design. The large handle, thumb ramp, aggressive scales and deep traction grooves allow a person to get a veritable mountain of leverage on the blade. The Military also allows for two distinct utility grips. The secondary grip allows you to choke up on the blade, with your index finger in a choil created by the junction of the handle and blade. But as good as the Military is, I found the Sebenza to provide the highest degree of control on smaller cuts. The 710 has the best blade shape for detail cuts, but doesnt really allow enough control to take advantage of the blade.
The spine of the Sebenzas blade is nicely rounded, allowing for very comfortable two-handed push cuts, where the weaker thumb is placed onto the spine for added control. Both the Military and 710 have strongly angled spines, which can be quite hard on the hands during long two-handed sessions of cutting.
All three blade shapes are excellent for utility work, showing good amounts of belly and nice pointy tips. The Military has the thinnest tip of the bunch, which is either good or bad depending on whether you value durability over usefulness. The 710 has a particularly excellent and strong blade shape, and even boasts a nice bit of recurve. The 710 is probably the most well rounded in terms of overall blade shape, with the Sebenza not far behind. The huge belly and fine tip of the Military make it especially good for large and small jobs, with some compromise on medium sized jobs.
The overall cutting efficiency, out of the box, was good on all three knives. The Sebenza was the clear winner though, on most cutting chores. It was thinnest behind the edge bevel, and the edge itself was highly polished. Almost all push cuts were a breeze, and slicing was pretty good too. The Benchmade required a bit of reprofiling, due to an uneven grind at the edge bevel. After reprofiling, it cut nearly as well as the Sebenza. The Military came very sharp from the factory, but was much thicker behind the edge bevel. I ended up convexing the edge of the Military, just to thin out the blade a bit. Afterward, the Military became the best cutter of the bunch. In the defense of the Sebenza and 710, I could probably have thinned them out to match the performance of the Military.
In terms of edge durability, the BG-42 Sebenza was left in the dust by the M2 steel 710 and the 440V Military. I managed to chip the all three blades, with the Sebenza chipping more than the others. The Sebenzas edge also rolled much sooner than the others. To top it off, the Sebenza didnt hold an edge nearly as long as the others. Id love to state a performance difference between the M2 and 440V, but to tell you the truth, they both did great. When the right steel is mated with the right geometry, everything comes together beautifully. The convex edge of the Military reduced the 440Vs supposed tendency to chip, and polished the edge enough to push cut along with the M2. If it matters at all, Id say that the M2 is the superior steel, and can be used in a much wider array of blade configurations than either BG-42 or 440V. There are updated versions of the Military and Sebenza, both now made with S30V steel, which may solve certain problems with both knives. I had no rust issues with any of the knives. The only problem, which was merely cosmetic, had to do with the black coating easily rubbing off of the 710s blade.
Both the 710 and the Sebenza were easy to sharpen, with the edge going to the 710. M2 is wonderful to work with. The 440V of the Military was a nightmare to work with until I convexed the edge. Sharpening the Militarys convex edge with wet/dry paper has cured 90% of my sharpening problems. Thank God that Spyderco is moving to S30V on the Military.
Pocket carry is exceptional on the 710. The knife stays in place and doesnt get in the way. The blade is held closed by the lock on this tip up carry knife. The Sebenza makes it a bit uncomfortable to put my hand in the my jeans pocket. Also, the Sebenza is tip-up carry, with only a ball detent to hold the knife closed. Make sure to always keep the blade pressed against the seam of your pocket, or use a sheath. The large handle size and deep traction grooves of the Military makes it almost impossible to use my jeans pocket for anything else. The Military employs tip down carry. As all three knives are nearly the same weight, weight is not much of an issue.
All three knives have lanyard holes. As the Military is tip down and needs no handle extension, I see very little use for a lanyard. The placement of the lanyard hole on the 710 makes it very uncomfortable to use, as the lanyard gets in the way of your grip. The lanyard hole on the Sebenza is just right. I use my Sebenza lanyard to help draw the knife from my pocket.
The locks of all three knives are vastly different. The integral frame lock of the Sebenza is insanely strong and simple. I just cant see the lock ever failing, as long as the folder is used as a folder, and maybe even as a fixed blade. The stop pin can be rotated in order to compensate for wear on the lock. The AXIS lock on the 710 is thought by many to be the strongest lock on the market. The 710 employs redundant lock springs, so the lock continues to work even if a spring happens to break. I have never had a spring break on my 710 though. The only downside of the AXIS mechanism is that dirt and mud easily get trapped, causing the lock to operate roughly. The springs automatically compensate for lock wear. The Military uses a nested liner lock. While many people consider any liner lock to be comparatively weak, Ive never had this lock fail on me. Spyderco did build a great amount of security into their nested liner lock. Also, by holding the knife in the secondary grip position, you almost negate the need for any lock whatsoever. The eccentric pivot pin can be adjusted to compensate for lock wear. Clearly, in terms of locking, the Sebenza and 710 are the stronger designs of the three.
The winner of the ease of opening category goes to the 710. While I personally hate the thumb stud on my 710, flicking the knife open is a breeze. Just push on the AXIS gizmo, and go at it. Big fun and completely ambidextrous!!! The 710 is the most brain dead easy opener and closer of the bunch, and the fastest to deploy. I like the fact that you dont have to put your hand into the blades path to close the knife. The Sebenza opens very smoothly, but Ive never been able to flick mine open. Some people have complained that the Sebenzas thumb stud hurts their thumb. The Sebenza is also not ambidextrous on the thumb stud. You purchase dedicated left and right hand models. The Military is the least smooth of the bunch, but can be spydie dropped by grasping the opening hole and dropping the handle. This locks the blade open. The spydie drop is a very fast method of deployment, but not quite as fast as AXIS. Opening of the Military is ambidextrous, but closing is not. The Military is the only knife that I can open reliably while wearing work gloves, although others have had success with the AXIS lock.
Maintenance is the forte of the Sebenza. There are only four screws, all with identically sized allen heads, to keep you from disassembling the knife. Chris Reeve encourages people to take apart and clean their Sebenzas, and ships the proper allen wrench with the knife. This is a good thing, as the Sebenza tends to collect quite a bit of pocket lint. Disassembling a 710 will void the warranty, and can be a tricky deal. The AXIS lock is somewhat complicated and hard to put back together. This is too bad, as the AXIS mechanism easily clogs with dirt and mud. I believe that taking apart the Military will also void the warrantee, although the operation appears to be pretty simple. I havent had to take mine apart yet, as the design is outrageously easy to clean while fully assembled.
Aesthetics are a very personal matter, so I wont even bother making blanket judgments. I will admit to feeling that all three knives are less than attractive, with the Military being positively butt ugly.
In conclusion, all three knives have their strengths and weaknesses. The Military is the most obvious of the lot. It is designed for hard and nasty utility cutting, at which it is supremely successful. Youll never loose your grip on it, and it will make the tough cuts. This beast isnt even remotely close to a gents knife, but is my favorite for outdoor use. I actually live far enough in the sticks that it fits heavily into my EDC rotation. I could also see the Military being the favorite of the hard working blue-collar crowd. The Sebenza is all about class and understated elegance, and exudes of pride of ownership. This is a great city knife, which can be called upon for hard use when required. The Sebenza is meant to last ten lifetimes, with full bragging rights through all ten. The 710 is more of a true modern tactical. Its as fast as Bruce Lee and strong as an ox. The AXIS alone makes it worth trying, and the blade is superb. The 710 is also an immensely fun knife, that you instinctively just want to pull out and play with.
If I had to summarize things simply, Id compare these knives to various uses of internal combustion. The Sebenza is a Rolls Royce. The Military is a Mack Truck. The 710 is a Stealth Fighter. Pick the style that best suits your personality and wallet.
Did I miss anything?!?!?!?!?! Comparison pictures to follow tomorrow night.
My guess is that, while all three knives are close to the same size range, they were designed with three entirely different sets of design criteria. The Sebenza is a study in craftsmanship. The design is outrageously simple, with a huge amount of attention paid to every tiny little aspect of the knife. It appears that Chris Reeve set out to make a folder that is nearly perfect from a manufacturing perspective, coupled with a high degree of overall functionality. The Military is much more utilitarian in design. From the handle to the blade, the Military is a utility knife, through and through. It does not pretend to be anything else. The Benchmade 710 looks as if the designers shot for the few criteria they found to be most important, and focused on them to the point of exclusion. This makes for a very strong design where it most counts, but also shows a number of small flaws in lesser areas.
Out of box quality was exceptional on the Sebenza. Every aspect of the knife was nearly perfect. Ive never been able to induce any blade play in the Sebenza, with the knife fully assembled. The Military was very well made, but the finish was not nearly as polished and beautiful as the Sebenza. The fit on the 710 was pretty bad. I had my choice of either smooth opening and closing of the blade, or a lack of lateral blade play. I couldnt have my cake and eat it too. The edge was also unevenly ground.
After over a year of use on each knife, the finish on the Sebenza has been damaged the most. The titanium scales scratch very easily. The 710 and Military look virtually unchanged by hard use, although the black scales of the Military may have faded slightly.
Lets take a close look at the ergonomics. The Benchmade and the Sebenza both employ straight handle designs, allowing for a variety of grip positions. This makes both knives quite versatile, from utility work to self-defense. I find the comfort of the 710 to be superior to the Sebenza, but prefer the Sebenza when it comes to grip security. The finger choil of the Sebenza, coupled with the finish of the titanium, grips my hand better than the very slick G10 scales of the 710. The Military has one of the newer ergonomic style grips, made from slabs of G10. Coupled with the handles large size, the Military affords a huge amount of comfort and grip security, providing that your hands arent too small. I can see people with very small hands having trouble getting a grip on the Military. Also, the Militarys G-10 scales may be a bit too abrasive for some peoples skin.
The 710 features traction grooves on the handle where the thumb is normally placed for cutting. The groove pattern is a bit too slippery for my tastes, appearing more cosmetic than functional. Both the Sebenza and Military place the grooves directly on the blade, which I prefer for overall control of the knife. The Sebenzas pattern gives a good grip on the blade, but doesnt hurt your finger. The traction grooves of the Military are very aggressive, and can hurt your thumb over time. Thats the price you pay for the most superior grip of the bunch, especially when the grooves are located on the Spyderco thumb ramp behind the opening hole.
Under slippery conditions, both the Sebenza and Benchmade became a bit hard to hold onto. The choil of the Sebenza helped a little, but not much. The very aggressive pattern on the scales of the Military provided great grip security under wetter circumstances. While such conditions may rarely be encountered in urban life, they are often found when working outdoors. At least they are by me.
From a tough cutting perspective, the Military carries the stronger overall handle design. The large handle, thumb ramp, aggressive scales and deep traction grooves allow a person to get a veritable mountain of leverage on the blade. The Military also allows for two distinct utility grips. The secondary grip allows you to choke up on the blade, with your index finger in a choil created by the junction of the handle and blade. But as good as the Military is, I found the Sebenza to provide the highest degree of control on smaller cuts. The 710 has the best blade shape for detail cuts, but doesnt really allow enough control to take advantage of the blade.
The spine of the Sebenzas blade is nicely rounded, allowing for very comfortable two-handed push cuts, where the weaker thumb is placed onto the spine for added control. Both the Military and 710 have strongly angled spines, which can be quite hard on the hands during long two-handed sessions of cutting.
All three blade shapes are excellent for utility work, showing good amounts of belly and nice pointy tips. The Military has the thinnest tip of the bunch, which is either good or bad depending on whether you value durability over usefulness. The 710 has a particularly excellent and strong blade shape, and even boasts a nice bit of recurve. The 710 is probably the most well rounded in terms of overall blade shape, with the Sebenza not far behind. The huge belly and fine tip of the Military make it especially good for large and small jobs, with some compromise on medium sized jobs.
The overall cutting efficiency, out of the box, was good on all three knives. The Sebenza was the clear winner though, on most cutting chores. It was thinnest behind the edge bevel, and the edge itself was highly polished. Almost all push cuts were a breeze, and slicing was pretty good too. The Benchmade required a bit of reprofiling, due to an uneven grind at the edge bevel. After reprofiling, it cut nearly as well as the Sebenza. The Military came very sharp from the factory, but was much thicker behind the edge bevel. I ended up convexing the edge of the Military, just to thin out the blade a bit. Afterward, the Military became the best cutter of the bunch. In the defense of the Sebenza and 710, I could probably have thinned them out to match the performance of the Military.
In terms of edge durability, the BG-42 Sebenza was left in the dust by the M2 steel 710 and the 440V Military. I managed to chip the all three blades, with the Sebenza chipping more than the others. The Sebenzas edge also rolled much sooner than the others. To top it off, the Sebenza didnt hold an edge nearly as long as the others. Id love to state a performance difference between the M2 and 440V, but to tell you the truth, they both did great. When the right steel is mated with the right geometry, everything comes together beautifully. The convex edge of the Military reduced the 440Vs supposed tendency to chip, and polished the edge enough to push cut along with the M2. If it matters at all, Id say that the M2 is the superior steel, and can be used in a much wider array of blade configurations than either BG-42 or 440V. There are updated versions of the Military and Sebenza, both now made with S30V steel, which may solve certain problems with both knives. I had no rust issues with any of the knives. The only problem, which was merely cosmetic, had to do with the black coating easily rubbing off of the 710s blade.
Both the 710 and the Sebenza were easy to sharpen, with the edge going to the 710. M2 is wonderful to work with. The 440V of the Military was a nightmare to work with until I convexed the edge. Sharpening the Militarys convex edge with wet/dry paper has cured 90% of my sharpening problems. Thank God that Spyderco is moving to S30V on the Military.
Pocket carry is exceptional on the 710. The knife stays in place and doesnt get in the way. The blade is held closed by the lock on this tip up carry knife. The Sebenza makes it a bit uncomfortable to put my hand in the my jeans pocket. Also, the Sebenza is tip-up carry, with only a ball detent to hold the knife closed. Make sure to always keep the blade pressed against the seam of your pocket, or use a sheath. The large handle size and deep traction grooves of the Military makes it almost impossible to use my jeans pocket for anything else. The Military employs tip down carry. As all three knives are nearly the same weight, weight is not much of an issue.
All three knives have lanyard holes. As the Military is tip down and needs no handle extension, I see very little use for a lanyard. The placement of the lanyard hole on the 710 makes it very uncomfortable to use, as the lanyard gets in the way of your grip. The lanyard hole on the Sebenza is just right. I use my Sebenza lanyard to help draw the knife from my pocket.
The locks of all three knives are vastly different. The integral frame lock of the Sebenza is insanely strong and simple. I just cant see the lock ever failing, as long as the folder is used as a folder, and maybe even as a fixed blade. The stop pin can be rotated in order to compensate for wear on the lock. The AXIS lock on the 710 is thought by many to be the strongest lock on the market. The 710 employs redundant lock springs, so the lock continues to work even if a spring happens to break. I have never had a spring break on my 710 though. The only downside of the AXIS mechanism is that dirt and mud easily get trapped, causing the lock to operate roughly. The springs automatically compensate for lock wear. The Military uses a nested liner lock. While many people consider any liner lock to be comparatively weak, Ive never had this lock fail on me. Spyderco did build a great amount of security into their nested liner lock. Also, by holding the knife in the secondary grip position, you almost negate the need for any lock whatsoever. The eccentric pivot pin can be adjusted to compensate for lock wear. Clearly, in terms of locking, the Sebenza and 710 are the stronger designs of the three.
The winner of the ease of opening category goes to the 710. While I personally hate the thumb stud on my 710, flicking the knife open is a breeze. Just push on the AXIS gizmo, and go at it. Big fun and completely ambidextrous!!! The 710 is the most brain dead easy opener and closer of the bunch, and the fastest to deploy. I like the fact that you dont have to put your hand into the blades path to close the knife. The Sebenza opens very smoothly, but Ive never been able to flick mine open. Some people have complained that the Sebenzas thumb stud hurts their thumb. The Sebenza is also not ambidextrous on the thumb stud. You purchase dedicated left and right hand models. The Military is the least smooth of the bunch, but can be spydie dropped by grasping the opening hole and dropping the handle. This locks the blade open. The spydie drop is a very fast method of deployment, but not quite as fast as AXIS. Opening of the Military is ambidextrous, but closing is not. The Military is the only knife that I can open reliably while wearing work gloves, although others have had success with the AXIS lock.
Maintenance is the forte of the Sebenza. There are only four screws, all with identically sized allen heads, to keep you from disassembling the knife. Chris Reeve encourages people to take apart and clean their Sebenzas, and ships the proper allen wrench with the knife. This is a good thing, as the Sebenza tends to collect quite a bit of pocket lint. Disassembling a 710 will void the warranty, and can be a tricky deal. The AXIS lock is somewhat complicated and hard to put back together. This is too bad, as the AXIS mechanism easily clogs with dirt and mud. I believe that taking apart the Military will also void the warrantee, although the operation appears to be pretty simple. I havent had to take mine apart yet, as the design is outrageously easy to clean while fully assembled.
Aesthetics are a very personal matter, so I wont even bother making blanket judgments. I will admit to feeling that all three knives are less than attractive, with the Military being positively butt ugly.
In conclusion, all three knives have their strengths and weaknesses. The Military is the most obvious of the lot. It is designed for hard and nasty utility cutting, at which it is supremely successful. Youll never loose your grip on it, and it will make the tough cuts. This beast isnt even remotely close to a gents knife, but is my favorite for outdoor use. I actually live far enough in the sticks that it fits heavily into my EDC rotation. I could also see the Military being the favorite of the hard working blue-collar crowd. The Sebenza is all about class and understated elegance, and exudes of pride of ownership. This is a great city knife, which can be called upon for hard use when required. The Sebenza is meant to last ten lifetimes, with full bragging rights through all ten. The 710 is more of a true modern tactical. Its as fast as Bruce Lee and strong as an ox. The AXIS alone makes it worth trying, and the blade is superb. The 710 is also an immensely fun knife, that you instinctively just want to pull out and play with.
If I had to summarize things simply, Id compare these knives to various uses of internal combustion. The Sebenza is a Rolls Royce. The Military is a Mack Truck. The 710 is a Stealth Fighter. Pick the style that best suits your personality and wallet.
Did I miss anything?!?!?!?!?! Comparison pictures to follow tomorrow night.
