Benchmade 710HS blade problem?

teknical · Oct 28, 2002

Upon disassembly, I noticed a small tear-drop shaped hole at the rear (tang?) of the blade in the pivot area (am I using the terms correctly?). Is it supposed to be there? If it is, my guess is that it's used to hang or otherwise secure the blade during manufacture, but w/ two other holes in the blade right around there, I'd rather know for sure.

Thanks,

roshi · Oct 28, 2002

My guess is that it's the hole that enagages a ball detent mechanism to hold the blade in the closed position.

I'm sure one of the 710 experts will clarify this for us. I've never had mine apart.

teknical · Oct 28, 2002

No, that's not possible. The lock, itself, keeps the blade closed. If your knife is loose enough, you can feel this happen very clearly when the blade goes just over the "hump". The "hump" you feel, when you close the knife, is the tip of the hook just aft of the end of the sharpened part of the blade. Once the lock bar gets over that, it catches in the hook and continues pushing forward, soft-locking the blade in.

The sides of the blade around the pivot are in full contact w/ two washers (where you see the circle mark on the BT2 coating).

AlphalphaPB · Oct 28, 2002

The AFCK 806D2 has that hole too. Maybe it's easier to secure the blade for grinding, etc. with two holes in it.

Samurai6 · Oct 28, 2002

That's how they used to mark the M-2 blades to differentiate them from the ATS-34 blades. Not sure what to think about the mark on the D-2 blades.

Orion · Oct 28, 2002

I have 3 710s... the SBT, the AH and the HSSR... none of these have this hole. What it appears to be (to me) is that maybe the blade blank was originally going to be ground for another knife, an automatic, and the hole is where the spring attached to the blade. Maybe the original blade was larger than the 710 blade and they were screwed up while being ground so instead of throwing them away they ground the smaller 710 blade from it. Just a theory.....

Peace-
Cam

knifenerd · Oct 28, 2002

As far as I know, BM has never made a 710 auto---but--the day is not over yet.

SarcoBlaster · Oct 29, 2002

The 710 I had didn't have that hole in the blade either.

Orion · Oct 29, 2002

I was not suggesting that the blade was supposed to be a "710" auto. My theory is that maybe the blade was originally ground to be a blade for an auto that had a bigger blade than the 710, an entirely different knife altogether. For some reason the blades were messed up while being ground or the model was scrapped altogether after the blades were ground. To cut down on waste the blades were then ground to the smaller 710 shape so they could be utilized in 710s. Just a theory....

Peace-
Cam