BenchMade 850 Pardue - Pearl

[UnknownVT]

BM850 - special Mother of Pearl handles - standard anodized titanium bolsters and liners -
the rec.knives knife 1997

I believe Santa Fe Stoneworks actually makes/sells these (obviously without the rec.knives etch)

http://santafestoneworks.com/showcustom.html

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Vincent

http://UnknownVincent.cjb.net/
http://UnknownVT.cjb.net/

 

[Dark Nemesis]

I had one of the Santa Fe customized BM850's during my hardcore Benchmade years. Back then they were selling for over $200, and quite frankly not worth it at all. While it was a nice collection addition, the pearl was not of very good quality.

 

[UnknownVT]

I had one of the Santa Fe customized BM850's
<snip> the pearl was not of very good quality.

Thanks for the response.

I don't know much about mother-of-pearl -
how does one determine the quality of MoP, is it just looks?

The MoP I have seems pretty nice looking (hopefully shown in the photo) -
these were from 1997 - probably before Santa Fe Stoneworks actually went in to production - at the time of the rec.knives knife this was probably a real special -

I thought Benchmade for this special run had got the MoP scales and fixed/glued them on themselves.

It wasn't until some years later I saw the MoP version in the Santa Fe Stoneworks catalog and recognized the similarities.

However although I am quite pleaseed with the MoP - the workmanship is somewhat flawed - as the MoP scales aren't fixed/glues quite flush with the liners - but that's pretty minor and goes unnoticed unless one looks for it.

I'm not sure - but this may have been the only rec.knives knife - I know that the following year there was very underwhelming response to do another rec.knives knife.

Have there been BladeForums.com knives?

Thanks,

--
Vincent

http://UnknownVincent.cjb.net/
http://UnknownVT.cjb.net/

 

[UnknownVT]

the other side's the mother of pearl handle

when I first got this I didn't really appreciate how nice the MoP handles were on this sample - I still don't know that much about MoP - but these are rather nice - as the photos hopefully show.

As someone said in another thread about MoP handles - one should really see the knife and MoP before purchase - as with any natural material - the visual appeal can vary enormously - and with MoP looks are very, very important.

I consider myself very lucky in getting such a nice (for me) sample - as the knife was bought sight unseen - since all transactions were done via e-mail.

--
Vincent

http://UnknownVincent.cjb.net/
http://UnknownVT.cjb.net/

 

[trane fan]

Beautiful knife UVT!! I've always liked the 850 although I've never owned (no clip). The MOP scales are great looking, sorry they don‘t match up with the liners all that well. I recently picked up a Knife House Hara "Lakeland" with the most gorgeous MOP scales I'd ever seen. MOP adorned knives make for very elegant looking Gent knives. Congrats!!