I received this knife through the pass around forum to use for a week and review. The dimensions from the Benchmade web-site match the sample of the knife that I have, except for the length of the handle, which on this one is 5 3/8” long. The other item that I often look for is the thickness of the knife, this one measures 0.460” (without the clip) and for those who are interested the washers are phosphor bronze, the obverse side being slightly larger than the reverse side. I can’t give measurements of the washers as this is not my knife and I won’t be taking it apart.
If you are in the market for a LARGE folder, this is one worth looking at. The blade opens and closes very easily and smoothly. The lock is easy enough to manipulate without being released inadvertently. For a knife of this size, it carries well enough in the pocket, I carried at work (did not use it in front of anyone) for most of the week, wearing Dockers, and while I knew it was there, I could live with it. This is due to the thinness of the handle, which has the pro of being comfortable to carry and the con of getting uncomfortable for extended heavy cutting chores. I used the Skirmish to point some fallen Oak branches; it worked, but after a short time, you realize a thicker, rounded handle would be easier on the hand. Everything is a compromise, somehow.
The model that I reviewed is anodized green with blue to gold accents. A very attractive package and the anodizing is holding up well.
The knife arrived with last 2” of blade very sharp, but the rest needed to be touched up and the blade had a couple of small chips out of it near the tip, one of which is explained below. The blade sharpened up very easily to shaving sharp in less the ten minutes time.
Three items I particularly like about this model. First is the clip. It has enough spring to it to stay put, but it is not so stiff that it only works well on certain slacks. Most knives with clips that I have used are too stiff. If you put enough bend in the clip to hold well in say dress slacks, they are to tight to be used in a heavier pair of jeans. If you loosen the clip enough to hold well on jeans, they don’t hold on to thinner pants. This clip also doesn’t get in the way of your hand when holding the knife.
I also like the opening hole better than the more common thumb stud. I find is easier to use, it doesn’t get in the way of sharpening the way many studs do and it doesn’t catch on your pocket when removing the knife. It is nicely chamfered, which adds to comfort when repeatedly opening and closing the blade, but this also makes it slightly more difficult to open with gloved hands. Like I said, there are always compromises.
The third positive feature about this knife is the lock design. Yes, I know, Chris Reeve came up with the design, from the liner lock by Michael Walker, based on the old brass leaf lock used on whaler, navy and electricians knives since around the turn of the century. In my opinion, Benchmade does it one better than any other design I have seen by using a radius at the heel of the blade instead of a flat cut. Without going into the design details of why this is better, suffice it to say, it is easier to use and, if done properly, adds more potential surface area for lock engagement. I have used or owned many framelock style folders and I believe the Benchmade design is the best.
What I don’t like about this particular model is the design of the recurve. I don’t mind recurve blades as such, but on this one, the end of the recurve at the heel of the blade is in the same place as your thumb when releasing the lock and closing the blade. It ends up hitting your thumb nail when closing the blade if you don’t remove your thumb from the lock bar. I think it could be improved by removing the last ¼” of edge and adding a choil in its place. On a knife of this size a choil could be useful and remove that drawback. The other item that I believe is improved on newer models is the clearance between the blade and the last standoff. When I received the knife it had two small chips in the blade toward the point. I have seen a number of posts complaining that the blade hits the standoff when closed. On this model it doesn’t actually hit the standoff, even when applying pressure to the back of the blade. What happens is that if the knife is tapped on its side, such as if you were to rap the side of the handle on a table with the blade closed, the inertia of the blade causes it to hit the radiused part of the stand off. This could easily happen during shipment or if the knife is dropped. Again, easily corrected by not allowing the blade to close quite so far.
One other item that I think would benefit this knife (and most framelocks) is the Hinderer Lock Stabilizer. It would eliminate the possibility of overstressing the lock when releasing it and also support the lock bar in the vertical direction.
I may end up having to purchase the 635, the Skirmishes smaller brother as I really am fond of this model, but don’t need a knife with a 4.3” blade that folds.
I will have the knife for a few more days before sending it on to the next person in this pass around, so if you have any questions, please post them and I will do my best to provide a satisfactory answer. Thank you.
Q
If you are in the market for a LARGE folder, this is one worth looking at. The blade opens and closes very easily and smoothly. The lock is easy enough to manipulate without being released inadvertently. For a knife of this size, it carries well enough in the pocket, I carried at work (did not use it in front of anyone) for most of the week, wearing Dockers, and while I knew it was there, I could live with it. This is due to the thinness of the handle, which has the pro of being comfortable to carry and the con of getting uncomfortable for extended heavy cutting chores. I used the Skirmish to point some fallen Oak branches; it worked, but after a short time, you realize a thicker, rounded handle would be easier on the hand. Everything is a compromise, somehow.
The model that I reviewed is anodized green with blue to gold accents. A very attractive package and the anodizing is holding up well.
The knife arrived with last 2” of blade very sharp, but the rest needed to be touched up and the blade had a couple of small chips out of it near the tip, one of which is explained below. The blade sharpened up very easily to shaving sharp in less the ten minutes time.
Three items I particularly like about this model. First is the clip. It has enough spring to it to stay put, but it is not so stiff that it only works well on certain slacks. Most knives with clips that I have used are too stiff. If you put enough bend in the clip to hold well in say dress slacks, they are to tight to be used in a heavier pair of jeans. If you loosen the clip enough to hold well on jeans, they don’t hold on to thinner pants. This clip also doesn’t get in the way of your hand when holding the knife.
I also like the opening hole better than the more common thumb stud. I find is easier to use, it doesn’t get in the way of sharpening the way many studs do and it doesn’t catch on your pocket when removing the knife. It is nicely chamfered, which adds to comfort when repeatedly opening and closing the blade, but this also makes it slightly more difficult to open with gloved hands. Like I said, there are always compromises.
The third positive feature about this knife is the lock design. Yes, I know, Chris Reeve came up with the design, from the liner lock by Michael Walker, based on the old brass leaf lock used on whaler, navy and electricians knives since around the turn of the century. In my opinion, Benchmade does it one better than any other design I have seen by using a radius at the heel of the blade instead of a flat cut. Without going into the design details of why this is better, suffice it to say, it is easier to use and, if done properly, adds more potential surface area for lock engagement. I have used or owned many framelock style folders and I believe the Benchmade design is the best.
What I don’t like about this particular model is the design of the recurve. I don’t mind recurve blades as such, but on this one, the end of the recurve at the heel of the blade is in the same place as your thumb when releasing the lock and closing the blade. It ends up hitting your thumb nail when closing the blade if you don’t remove your thumb from the lock bar. I think it could be improved by removing the last ¼” of edge and adding a choil in its place. On a knife of this size a choil could be useful and remove that drawback. The other item that I believe is improved on newer models is the clearance between the blade and the last standoff. When I received the knife it had two small chips in the blade toward the point. I have seen a number of posts complaining that the blade hits the standoff when closed. On this model it doesn’t actually hit the standoff, even when applying pressure to the back of the blade. What happens is that if the knife is tapped on its side, such as if you were to rap the side of the handle on a table with the blade closed, the inertia of the blade causes it to hit the radiused part of the stand off. This could easily happen during shipment or if the knife is dropped. Again, easily corrected by not allowing the blade to close quite so far.
One other item that I think would benefit this knife (and most framelocks) is the Hinderer Lock Stabilizer. It would eliminate the possibility of overstressing the lock when releasing it and also support the lock bar in the vertical direction.
I may end up having to purchase the 635, the Skirmishes smaller brother as I really am fond of this model, but don’t need a knife with a 4.3” blade that folds.
I will have the knife for a few more days before sending it on to the next person in this pass around, so if you have any questions, please post them and I will do my best to provide a satisfactory answer. Thank you.
Q
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