- Joined
- May 5, 2000
- Messages
- 1,478
My plain-edge satin 520 arrived yesterday. I bought it because 3.5" is the legal carry limit here, so no 710 for EDC and I missed the Axis lock in my pocket.
Fit and finish is excellent--better than I was expecting. The liners, scales, and backspacer line up very well, the blade is centered, and so on. The blade grind is very even.
The sharpness surprised me. It's almost Spyderco-sharp. Shaves easily. I have one of the first 710 models, and that one came with a pretty lousy edge. BM obviously has changed their approach to sharpening.
Everyone talks about the knife as being a "tank." It's not quite as heavy or big as I expected. It's very sturdy and extremely solid, but by no means too heavy.
Most important, of course, is the Axis lock. This one was fairly stiff at first, at least compared to my trusty 710, which is beyond buttery at this point. But I played around with the 520 for a good while, flushed it out with some Ballistol to clean and lube it, and it's probably at 80% butteriness compared with my years-old 710--which already makes it exceptional. (I didn't use FP-10 on it yet, because I want to encourage at least some wear in the break-in process.)
The scale pattern is as grippy as everyone says. I like it. I bought the knife expecting to get custom scales, but I'm not sure now. We'll see how I feel about them after a couple of weeks.
Generally speaking, I'm very impressed with what Benchmade has done in the last few years. They obviously learned how to sharpen, and it looks like they're using a new kind of pivot washer that makes everything quite smooth. So far, it's a 9 out of 10.
Fit and finish is excellent--better than I was expecting. The liners, scales, and backspacer line up very well, the blade is centered, and so on. The blade grind is very even.
The sharpness surprised me. It's almost Spyderco-sharp. Shaves easily. I have one of the first 710 models, and that one came with a pretty lousy edge. BM obviously has changed their approach to sharpening.
Everyone talks about the knife as being a "tank." It's not quite as heavy or big as I expected. It's very sturdy and extremely solid, but by no means too heavy.
Most important, of course, is the Axis lock. This one was fairly stiff at first, at least compared to my trusty 710, which is beyond buttery at this point. But I played around with the 520 for a good while, flushed it out with some Ballistol to clean and lube it, and it's probably at 80% butteriness compared with my years-old 710--which already makes it exceptional. (I didn't use FP-10 on it yet, because I want to encourage at least some wear in the break-in process.)
The scale pattern is as grippy as everyone says. I like it. I bought the knife expecting to get custom scales, but I'm not sure now. We'll see how I feel about them after a couple of weeks.
Generally speaking, I'm very impressed with what Benchmade has done in the last few years. They obviously learned how to sharpen, and it looks like they're using a new kind of pivot washer that makes everything quite smooth. So far, it's a 9 out of 10.
