Benchmade 915 Triage: Full Plain Edge or Combo-(Plain with Serrations)

M

mikellen

Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Messages
203
Hello,

I have decided to purchase a Benchade 915 Triage. The use for this kniife will be for its designed purpose of rescue type incidents.
According to what I've read on this forum, in general it seems to that a plain edged blade is desired more than either a fuly serrated or combo edged blade. I don't really understand the reason for this as I am a knife novice, but I was wondering if the partial plain and serrated blade would be better for this particular type of application of a rescue type knife. I know the Benchmade 915 Triage has a designated seat belt cutter, but if that was not able to be utilized in a scenerio where for example, I needed to cut someone out of their seatbelt, or needed to cut rope in a hurry, would the partially serrated blade be a better choice than the full plain edged blade?

I could sure use some help in this because I want to purchase the knife very soon and need to know which model Traige to choose (Plain or combo edged).

Thanks in advance for your recommendations.
 
I would go with the combo edge, spent over 10 years using folders with full serrated or partial serrations on a regular basis. If you do a search on google with this -

site:bladeforums.com Sal Glesser serrations

it will help explain better and with more authority than I can. A lot of people who depend on knives a good bit, use knives with serrations because of the way they handle

1. some things a plain edge might not be able to

2. some things that a plain edge can handle, but faster and with less energy expenditure

3. times you might not get a chance to sharpen after you cut some tough crap before you have to cut some other tough crap - time is of the essence

For emergency/rescue it makes good sense.

If you need to use it for fine, delicate work like whittling on a toothpick while waiting for a call - it's still a folder that is a relatively small knife, easy to choke up and use the very tip if you want for fine work.
 
Combo

Those who dislike serrations are mostly discussing wood-processing or making neat cuts, neither of which are relevant to the design of the Triage. There have been cited instances in the military where issued knives had to be recalled and redesigned with proper serrations (which the Triage has) because the knives they had lacked the necessary ability to quickly and efficiently effect the rescue of passengers from compromised vehicles resulting in deaths of many soldiers. The superiority of a well-designed serrated blade over a plain-edge blade for specific purposes is well known, the physics obvious and well understood. Get the combo-edge, you won't regret it (vs. regretting the plain-edge, where the consequences of the choice could be dire indeed).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top