Benchmade Crooked River vs Cold Steel Broken Skull

They are both excellent knives.

The Broken Skull knife is a great knife, especially if you were able to grab one at that ridiculous $45 price. I am very impressed with it and have had the chance to use it out in the field. Very capable and at that price, I don't mind using it as a workhorse kind of knife.

The Crooked River is on my purchase list as well.

Forget comparing them, just buy both :)
 
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Just got the wood version of the Crooked River. Wow. What a nice knife. I have already sold the G10 version (not that it was bad knife, I just love the G10). Glad I decided to look at it!
 
Can't go wrong with Cold Steel or Benchmade in my book. For me personally, I don't care if it's practical, tactical, pocket jewelry or traditional. If it's well made and functional, I'll give it a go. Just got my Crooked River and it's a keeper. Probably my favorite Benchmade. My only complaint is I wish the blade was a tad shorter, which I find more practical.
 
lots of good knives out there and the bs, wrestler logo or not, is a darn good knife. steel and materials are good. strongest lock in the business. lightweight. the ergos for such a thin light weight blade are quite good. the major flaw is the horrible pocket clip.
 
eon blue apocalypse said:
They're both 4" clip points with good locks, what makes the Broken Skull more practical than the Crooked River?
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I love my Crooked River, but I would say the Broken skull is more practical because it's half the price of a Crooked River. Like Buck and Ka-Bar, Cold Steel markets high quality tools that often rival the performance of competitors with no frills and at fractions of the price. If I needed a knife to use as tool with little regard for pocket prestige, it would probably be a Cold Steel, Kabar or Buck. Schrade, Gerber, SOG, they also kinda do that practical option thing.
 
marcinek said:
I wouldn't touch a silly wrestler-endorsed knife on a bet, so that kinda answers both questions.

And that Crooked River is one of the nicest looking modern folders I have seen in a very long time.
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I couldn't agree more. No comparison in my opinion. Plus I hate the look of the Broken Skull.
 
jbmonkey said:
lots of good knives out there and the bs, wrestler logo or not, is a darn good knife. steel and materials are good. strongest lock in the business. lightweight. the ergos for such a thin light weight blade are quite good. the major flaw is the horrible pocket clip.
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Yeah. The sad thing, is Cold Steel can do better. Look at the clips they used in the last years of the Steel lined American Lawman, and the very first year of the all G10. Those clips were much better than the current ones

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
There is nothing wrong with the pocket clip design. It's just not tensioned properly from the factory.
 
eon blue apocalypse said:
They're both 4" clip points with good locks, what makes the Broken Skull more practical than the Crooked River?
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The Broken Skull offers the user lighter weight, a stronger lock, arguably better steel, a gripper handle and FFG geometry...all at a much lower price.

To be fair, the Crooked River is still a practical design overall, and it does look much better.
 
marcinek said:
I wouldn't touch a silly wrestler-endorsed knife on a bet, so that kinda answers both questions.
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To me it looks like a very sensible wrestler-endorsed knife. The name is silly, but the design looks solid, classic blade shape, nice simple, smooth handle without oversized finger grooves and other sillyness, and it's only 3.1 oz? For a 4-inch blade? That's lighter than an Endura.

I like mid locks, so it looks like I just found a new knife.
 
I keep seeing people say that the lock on the Broken Skull is stronger.
1. Has that actually been proven somewhere and I'm just unaware?
2. Has anyone ever broken an Axis lock in actual use, not just trying to destroy it?

Also, the whole "pocket jewelry" and "pocket prestige" thing sounds like people are buying Benchmades and similar brands to show them off. Personally, that has nothing to do with it for me. Yes, I like a nicer looking knife. But it's not to show off to other people. In fact, it's extremely rare that I ever show another person my knife, other than on BF. It's just that every time I pull it out to use it, a nice, good looking knife just makes me happy. So if that constitutes "pocket jewelry", then I'm guilty. But I like pocket jewelry because it makes ME happy, not because I like to show it off.

To me, the Benchmade is just WAY better looking, looks and feels much better made, and it has an Axis lock. The Axis lock, in my experience, is more than capable, and allows easy one-handed closing, which is huge. I also could not do the Steve Austin thing. Again, not that I would care what others think (because no one would likely ever see it), but it would just make me feel "tacticool" every time I opened it. I don't judge anyone else for having one, as it's a hell of a value, but I'd rather spend more for the Crooked River.

Back to the Axis lock strength thing, I would be very surprised to learn of Axis locks failing under even heavy or extreme real use (not just destruction testing). Part of my job is as an outdoor guide (backpacking, rock climbing, fishing, etc.), so I use the absolute hell out of my knives. That is especially true of my Griptilian H2O, which is my usual outdoor knife.

I remember one specific night when I was guiding some people on a 3-day backpacking trip in Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness, NC. I was teaching them about using natural fire starters on a 33*F night with sleet. I was procuring some fat pine from an old pine stump, and I only had my Griptilian H2O. If you've ever tried to get fat pine out of a stump with a folder, it can be tough. I was stabbing, batoning, and even kicking the knife. At one point, I had driven the Grip point down into the stump with a stick, then stomped on the butt of the knife to drive it further in and split out a section of the wood. It was wet, and I hit off center. The knife looked and felt like it bent about 30* off of straight. I thought for sure it broke, but it didn't. It did the job, and we made our fire in the precip. On another occasion, a climbing partner dropped that same knife (open) off the side of a climb in N.C. It fell about 270ft. The tip was blunted and the blade scratched, but nothing else. Overall, I am impressed with the strength and durability of my Benchmades and the Axis lock.
 
Alfazulu said:
I keep seeing people say that the lock on the Broken Skull is stronger.
1. Has that actually been proven somewhere and I'm just unaware?
2. Has anyone ever broken an Axis lock in actual use, not just trying to destroy it?

Also, the whole "pocket jewelry" and "pocket prestige" thing sounds like people are buying Benchmades and similar brands to show them off. Personally, that has nothing to do with it for me. Yes, I like a nicer looking knife. But it's not to show off to other people. In fact, it's extremely rare that I ever show another person my knife, other than on BF. It's just that every time I pull it out to use it, a nice, good looking knife just makes me happy. So if that constitutes "pocket jewelry", then I'm guilty. But I like pocket jewelry because it makes ME happy, not because I like to show it off.

To me, the Benchmade is just WAY better looking, looks and feels much better made, and it has an Axis lock. The Axis lock, in my experience, is more than capable, and allows easy one-handed closing, which is huge. I also could not do the Steve Austin thing. Again, not that I would care what others think (because no one would likely ever see it), but it would just make me feel "tacticool" every time I opened it. I don't judge anyone else for having one, as it's a hell of a value, but I'd rather spend more for the Crooked River.

Back to the Axis lock strength thing, I would be very surprised to learn of Axis locks failing under even heavy or extreme real use (not just destruction testing). Part of my job is as an outdoor guide (backpacking, rock climbing, fishing, etc.), so I use the absolute hell out of my knives. That is especially true of my Griptilian H2O, which is my usual outdoor knife.

I remember one specific night when I was guiding some people on a 3-day backpacking trip in Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness, NC. I was teaching them about using natural fire starters on a 33*F night with sleet. I was procuring some fat pine from an old pine stump, and I only had my Griptilian H2O. If you've ever tried to get fat pine out of a stump with a folder, it can be tough. I was stabbing, batoning, and even kicking the knife. At one point, I had driven the Grip point down into the stump with a stick, then stomped on the butt of the knife to drive it further in and split out a section of the wood. It was wet, and I hit off center. The knife looked and felt like it bent about 30* off of straight. I thought for sure it broke, but it didn't. It did the job, and we made our fire in the precip. On another occasion, a climbing partner dropped that same knife (open) off the side of a climb in N.C. It fell about 270ft. The tip was blunted and the blade scratched, but nothing else. Overall, I am impressed with the strength and durability of my Benchmades and the Axis lock.
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The triad lock is known to be an incredibly strong lock. Cold steels marketing and and testing is controversial, but has its method IMI. However the axis lock is plenty strong as well.
 
Thanks for the info. I guess my point is that if one is 200% stronger than will ever be necessary, and the other 300% stronger than necessary, then its somewhat of a false selling point to say that the triad is the stronger lock. All that matters is that neither will ever fail during use. If you're only ever lifting a 100lb rock, and you're choosing between two forklifts with 3000lb and 4000lb capacities, saying that forklift B is better because it's stronger is somewhat pointless. Anyway, I just like the Crooked River better. That's just my opinion.
 
Alfazulu said:
Thanks for the info. I guess my point is that if one is 200% stronger than will ever be necessary, and the other 300% stronger than necessary, then its somewhat of a false selling point to say that the triad is the stronger lock. All that matters is that neither will ever fail during use. If you're only ever lifting a 100lb rock, and you're choosing between two forklifts with 3000lb and 4000lb capacities, saying that forklift B is better because it's stronger is somewhat pointless. Anyway, I just like the Crooked River better. That's just my opinion.
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Oh, I agree! The axis lock is my favorite lock currently and has never failed me[emoji2]
 
The Tri-Ad lock is still my favorite lock...and it is certainly stronger than the Axis lock. However, the Axis lock is way more convenient to use and user friendly, and in normal day to day use the difference in strength is entirely negligible. It's up to you, the user, to decide what you like. I personally really like how lockbacks feel and I enjoy using them.
 
Alfazulu said:
Thanks for the info. I guess my point is that if one is 200% stronger than will ever be necessary, and the other 300% stronger than necessary, then its somewhat of a false selling point to say that the triad is the stronger lock. All that matters is that neither will ever fail during use. If you're only ever lifting a 100lb rock, and you're choosing between two forklifts with 3000lb and 4000lb capacities, saying that forklift B is better because it's stronger is somewhat pointless. Anyway, I just like the Crooked River better. That's just my opinion.
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Class act Benchmade is.
 
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