- Joined
- Jun 8, 2005
- Messages
- 4,761
I finally got my 480-1 back from Benchmade customer service a week ago and have had some time to play with it.
We'll start with the bad--when I first got this knife (prior to sending it in) the blade was badly off centered and rubbing the liner. It also had noticeable vertical play. I packed it up and send it back.
But now it's nearly perfect. The centering is flawless and although I still can generate some slight vertical play, I'm putting a bit more energy into the blade than this tiny knife was probably designed to handle. Light force in the blade doesn't generate play in any direction, and that's probably the amount of power this thing was designed to take.
Ultimately, now that it's fixed, I love it. It's absolutely gorgeous and now essentially flawless. The carbon fiber scales have a lot of depth and are not simply a flat slice of of CF, but rather, a 3 dimensional terrain which reveals a lot of detail in the material. The anodized titanium liners add a little kick to the design which is nice. Also, it has some neat file work on the space which gives a nice custom-impression. Really a gorgeous knife.
The action on this knife is very smooth, but quite odd. It's highly inconsistent--in different degrees of being opened, it can be super smooth or just adequately smooth. I have no idea what would cause that. All in all, it's satisfactory, and its tiny blade mass is probably a factor. Where a minigrip's blade weight would smooth out any difference in smoothness by inertia, for instance. At any rate, it can easily be flicked open.
The lock works well. It seems quite similar to the William Henry sort of lock, which is basically a liner lock engaged by a button in the handle. I haven't paid attention to the details of WH's version on the few I've held, so while functionally identical, they could be implemented entirely differently. The knife can be flicked closed if the pivot is loose enough, but it's a bit tricky to do, not nearly as easy or consistent as an axis lock. Despite this, it's nice that your hand never needs to get in the blade's path to close it.
I like the blade shape--simple, effective, not flashy. I like the finger choil too. As another owner has mentioned, it would be quite easy to slip onto the blade due to its shallowness. That said, it's still comfortable and again, this thing is for opening letters and cutting tape on boxes or loose threads, not for stabbing car hoods. For those sort of purposes, I can't imagine it being a problem.
Interestingly, for my average size hands, not only does it fit well using the finger choil, but it even fits satisfactory with my grip completely on the handle (before the choil). This may be due to the protruding lanyard hole at the bottom. I think most ordinary men will be satisfied with the ergonomics of the knife, but if you're 6'8 or something, you may need to look more at the CRKT Ripple or some WHs.
I haven't gotten to use the steel that much, so I can't report on how m390 performs, but from all reports it's great. Given the light uses for this knife, it's conceivable that this could be carried daily yet go years between being sharpened.
Now, this knife, again like a WH, comes with a pouch and no pocket clip on the knife itself. The pouch, I'm afraid to say, is of rather poor fit and finish. Nonetheless, it's still very effective and comfortable, and I really don't care how it looks so long as it does its job. I like the idea of never having to worry about scratching the knife with my keys. The soft leather has meant I can't even feel it in my pocket.
I wish they wouldn't have used a shiny clip on it though. This is a knife meant to be small and subtle, but this'll be a beacon. I'll probably give it a brushed finish to darken it.
Knife came very sharp. Not incredibly, amazingly sharp, but I was satisfied with the initial edge.
All in all, not a bad way to spend $180 or so, depending on the dealer.
We'll start with the bad--when I first got this knife (prior to sending it in) the blade was badly off centered and rubbing the liner. It also had noticeable vertical play. I packed it up and send it back.
But now it's nearly perfect. The centering is flawless and although I still can generate some slight vertical play, I'm putting a bit more energy into the blade than this tiny knife was probably designed to handle. Light force in the blade doesn't generate play in any direction, and that's probably the amount of power this thing was designed to take.
Ultimately, now that it's fixed, I love it. It's absolutely gorgeous and now essentially flawless. The carbon fiber scales have a lot of depth and are not simply a flat slice of of CF, but rather, a 3 dimensional terrain which reveals a lot of detail in the material. The anodized titanium liners add a little kick to the design which is nice. Also, it has some neat file work on the space which gives a nice custom-impression. Really a gorgeous knife.
The action on this knife is very smooth, but quite odd. It's highly inconsistent--in different degrees of being opened, it can be super smooth or just adequately smooth. I have no idea what would cause that. All in all, it's satisfactory, and its tiny blade mass is probably a factor. Where a minigrip's blade weight would smooth out any difference in smoothness by inertia, for instance. At any rate, it can easily be flicked open.
The lock works well. It seems quite similar to the William Henry sort of lock, which is basically a liner lock engaged by a button in the handle. I haven't paid attention to the details of WH's version on the few I've held, so while functionally identical, they could be implemented entirely differently. The knife can be flicked closed if the pivot is loose enough, but it's a bit tricky to do, not nearly as easy or consistent as an axis lock. Despite this, it's nice that your hand never needs to get in the blade's path to close it.
I like the blade shape--simple, effective, not flashy. I like the finger choil too. As another owner has mentioned, it would be quite easy to slip onto the blade due to its shallowness. That said, it's still comfortable and again, this thing is for opening letters and cutting tape on boxes or loose threads, not for stabbing car hoods. For those sort of purposes, I can't imagine it being a problem.
Interestingly, for my average size hands, not only does it fit well using the finger choil, but it even fits satisfactory with my grip completely on the handle (before the choil). This may be due to the protruding lanyard hole at the bottom. I think most ordinary men will be satisfied with the ergonomics of the knife, but if you're 6'8 or something, you may need to look more at the CRKT Ripple or some WHs.
I haven't gotten to use the steel that much, so I can't report on how m390 performs, but from all reports it's great. Given the light uses for this knife, it's conceivable that this could be carried daily yet go years between being sharpened.
Now, this knife, again like a WH, comes with a pouch and no pocket clip on the knife itself. The pouch, I'm afraid to say, is of rather poor fit and finish. Nonetheless, it's still very effective and comfortable, and I really don't care how it looks so long as it does its job. I like the idea of never having to worry about scratching the knife with my keys. The soft leather has meant I can't even feel it in my pocket.
I wish they wouldn't have used a shiny clip on it though. This is a knife meant to be small and subtle, but this'll be a beacon. I'll probably give it a brushed finish to darken it.
Knife came very sharp. Not incredibly, amazingly sharp, but I was satisfied with the initial edge.
All in all, not a bad way to spend $180 or so, depending on the dealer.
