Benchmade 520 Second Impressions

[Shmackey]

I've had this one for a couple of weeks now. So, with a little more experience:

The Good
The knife came with a very good edge. Far, far better than the late-1990s Benchmade edge. The ergonomics are terrific. I've already noted on the Spyderco forum that they really need to make a slick-opening, heavy knife. (All their tank-like knives are lockbacks, and all their slick knives are lightweight.)

The Bad
Even after copious working of the lock, the 520 didn't have that absolutely effortless, fluid opening of the 710. It was by no means bad, and if I'd never had my 710, I would've been very impressed with the 520. But I can open the 710 just by thinking about it. It's absolutely effortless. Combine that fact with the way it locks open tight and stays closed right, and you have the best lock ever. If the 710 is a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, the 520 is a 9.

Then I figured out why.

The black coating on the liners is in (at least) two places where it should not be. The most obvious is the Axis lock bar itself. That's right--the bar that rides against the round end of the blade is coated in the black stuff. The coating is also on the parts of the liner where the bar rides (the cutouts as well as the sides where the thumb-pull things sit).

If you've had this knife for a little while, go ahead and rotate the lock bar by hand. (Grab it between thumb and forefinger and just spin it.) You'll see the spot on the lockbar where the black coating is starting to wear off.

Not being the patient type, I made a tiny sanding stick and polished off the rest of the black coating. (I did this after an hour of manipulating the lock halfway by hand and deciding that it would take another two weeks to get where I wanted.) I blew it out with some Ballistol (the only thing I have under pressure), and it already feels better. I'll clean it out again and then use some FP-10; it should be much smoother than before.

(As an aside, I'm hesitant to flush out the whole thing with hot water and soap because the Axis setup seems like it has places that might not dry too well. Does anyone have actual experience cleaning their Axis like this? Should I just go ahead and do it?)

More impressions to come, I'm sure...

 

[Blop]

I would have thought the tang is different. I just can compare the 806 and 550 to the 520. On the 520 there the tang seems to be larger, pressing harder on the axis bar.

It is a bader flicker but keeps closed better and will never be suspected to be a gravitiy knife.

Looking at my custom blade, after nearly half a year it is a nice flicker but will never come out by a wrist flick like a 806 or 550, same was on the original. I always have to give the stud a push.

 

[almtiba]

Now that you pointed it out, I see the lock of my 525 is not smooth as it should because of the coating on the Axis lock bar. But I'll be patient and wait for it to wear naturaly...

 

[mlot51]

I have 2 520's and they both opened as smooth as could be right out of the box. They are even better, now that they are broken in. Easily as smooth as my 5 year old 710. I think the coating on the axis parts has little to do with it. It will wear off where it needs too anyway, so dont waste your time sanding it. You could always loosen the pivot a little if you want the blade to really "fly" out. If that doesnt make the knife as smooth as you want it, I would have Benchmade look at it. You shoudnt have to "sand" the lock components to get a smooth action..

 

[Blop]

I mean, i know how the original 520 was and how the custom blade rotated.

BM did it better, even though the knife has broken in know.

Give the pivot one or two drops Militec-1 from time to time.

 

[mwelch8404]

Firstly, THE smoothest Axis I've EVER had was my Grip.

Now, on to the sand.

A few weeks ago, my boys and I moved 250-300 sand bags – I never did count.

We used the sand to fill several low spots after I’d concreted up the possible entry ways for water.

I (and my teenage boys) used my 710HS to slice up a couple hundred sand bags. I figured that I’d write up the results after I’d used the 710HS for the two days of slicing we had to do. OK. I’m NOT that Stiff Clump guy, I don’t (generally) test to destruction – unless someone else is paying.

Well. After two days of being jammed deeply into 200 sand bags, the action was quite “gritty” but was still smooth enough to flick.

My cleaning consisted of dish soap, a tooth brush I keep in with my knife and rifle tools (I really like my knives, but NOT enough to share a toothbrush,) and running water.

After the scrubbing with soap and spraying with water until the action was smooth (2-3 minutes) I blew everything out with the compressor. After a dose of Rem-oil, the only way you can tell it spent two days cutting canvas and sand, is the worn coating.

Pros: Still works like new.

Cons: Did (unsurprisingly) really wear the coating.
Would you believe it took me 20 minutes on ceramic to get the edge back? I guess cutting sand and sand filled canvas for two days kinda dulls the edge…

So, there surely appears to be NO problems with the Axis even after the “sand test.”

So, I guess the answer to cleaing the Axis lock (in my case, anyhow) is soap, water, air and lube. Pretty much in that order.

 

[Shmackey]

So, I guess the answer to cleaing the Axis lock (in my case, anyhow) is soap, water, air and lube. Pretty much in that order.

I took the plunge, literally, and went with hot water and dish soap (with the 520 soaked and shaken in a container), followed by lots of hot water for rinsing, followed by a hair dryer, followed by FP-10.

The Axis setup is very smooth now, after my polishing the bar and then cleaning, but it still doesn't flick out easily like my 710. It occurs to me that the extra 1/2" of blade length might provide a lot of extra torque.

Edit: Yeah, this thing is smooth now.

 

[mwelch8404]

I'm pretty sure that after 3 or 4 minutes with my compressor, I got all the moisture out - I especially focused on the holes on the inside of the frame to make sure.

I've used both silicon (which displaces water well) and denatured alcohol (less water in it than rubbing alcohol.) I don't really like the alcohol since I'm afraid that it strips any lube away that may still be valiantly hanging on after my cleaning...

Of course WD 40 was MADE to get rid of moisture, is a petroleum product, but NOT considered "real" lube by most folks here...