Benchmade Mini Griptilian: A year of EDC

I

imbryan715

Joined
Jan 16, 2012
Messages
399
Intro: A few weeks ago i had the idea of purchasing a new knife and doing something a little different. I want to carry it for a year and document that year. This knife is going to be my primary go-to edc. This thread is going to show initial impressions, cut tests, updates, ETC..... i chose to purchase a Mini Griptilian for many reasons. its popular, its cheap, its a Benchmade and it is a knife a lot of people want to own or do own.

Initial impressions : I purchased this mini grip new for $70. I really love the size of the knife. After carrying 4 inch knives for the last 2 years, i really enjoy the small portable size. The handles are very comfortable and feel more sturdy when compared to the full size griptilian. The standard Benchmade pocket clip works very well. It holds the knife in the pocket good, has nice tension, it is strong and carries deep in the pocket. The clip is painted but i do not care when the knife is only $70. The 154cm drop point blade is very nice. The grind is rather thin and cuts very well. The knife came somewhat sharp but could have come a lot sharper from the factory. The axis lock is nice but is still sticky. Over all the construction and quality of the knife is very good and i look forward to carrying it for the next few years.













I hope you all enjoy the thread. I should be posting a cardboard cutting test soon!
 
Im interested to see how this goes. Is that the only knife you'll be carrying the whole time?
 
This will be interesting, fan of the Mini Grip myself. I will be interested in seeing how the coating holds up.
 
jkwithawave said:
Im interested to see how this goes. Is that the only knife you'll be carrying the whole time?
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I have been carrying victorinox tinker as a backup edc for the last few years. its main use's are the screw drivers, tooth pick and tweezers. In a public situation I might use it over the mini grip but I don't think the sheeple will care about a small 3 inch folder.
 
Be sure to keep track of what you use it for and how many times you open and close it. I know with the Axis that's going to be hard because those suckers are fun to flick, but try to be as accurate as you can for posterity.
Carrying just one knife for a year sounds impossible so in that regard you are a better man than me.
Have fun and keep us posted. :cool:
 
benchwarmer380 said:
Be sure to keep track of what you use it for and how many times you open and close it. I know with the Axis that's going to be hard because those suckers are fun to flick, but try to be as accurate as you can for posterity.
Carrying just one knife for a year sounds impossible so in that regard you are a better man than me.
Have fun and keep us posted. :cool:
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I have already lost track to be totally honest. I have probably opened it about 100 times trying to get that axis lock broken in. It still has a little bit of stick
 
Im looking forward to following this thread too. I also Just got a mini grip yesterday and it will be my work knife from this point on. Im not a big fan typically of such a small knife so it will take some getting used to. In addition to the size, I got the sheepsfoot blade with the hole opening, also things im not used to.

Good luck with your experiment and thank you for keeping us updates. These are my favorite types of threads!
 
richstag said:
Very cool. Hope to see how this turns out. I started similar here http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1087324-Cpm-m4-556
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Richstag I check your thread daily for new updates haha. Ive turned into a total knife geek and enjoy following threads like these. But mostly i like to learn and increase my knowledge. I don't know anything yet about sharpening on stones and honestly not sure where to begin. Im barely comfortable sharpening my blades on my spyderco sharpmaker.
 
If you want send me a PM and I will help you out on the sharpening end. I really can't wait to see how yours builds character and honest feedback as you use it for different tasks! I am now subscribed to your thread.

Kevin


mromeo23 said:
Richstag I check your thread daily for new updates haha. Ive turned into a total knife geek and enjoy following threads like these. But mostly i like to learn and increase my knowledge. I don't know anything yet about sharpening on stones and honestly not sure where to begin. Im barely comfortable sharpening my blades on my spyderco sharpmaker.
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richstag said:
If you want send me a PM and I will help you out on the sharpening end. I really can't wait to see how yours builds character and honest feedback as you use it for different tasks! I am now subscribed to your thread.

Kevin
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I appreciate the offer for help sharpening. Im unable to pm tho. And although i just got a new mini grip this isn't my thread... yours and imbryan715s thread will be much more informative and interesting than mine would be haha
 
Right, I misread. My mistake. Shoot me a visitor message if you like.

mromeo23 said:
I appreciate the offer for help sharpening. Im unable to pm tho. And although i just got a new mini grip this isn't my thread... yours and imbryan715s thread will be much more informative and interesting than mine would be haha
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imbryan715,

I thought as you posted previously, your purpose in buying a Benchmade Mini Grip was specifically to see how quickly you could break the AXIS lock Omega springs as you've already broken 8 AXIS locks and sent them back?
See post # 1 & 36

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1102377-looking-for-feedback!


You've also stated 8/22/13 that you would Never buy another Benchmade again Ever.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...ould-never-buy-again!?p=12560385#post12560385

Post# 111


and you've repeatedly stated that Spyderco is your favorite go to knife and back up EDC and brand.


http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-three-favorite-edc-s?p=12560680#post12560680

Post# 33


Forgive me for saying, but I'm a bit suspicious of your motives here as your inrto seems to be in conflict with previous statements?

Continuously posting your displeasure with Benchmade products, your preference for other brands and now posting this does leave me wondering?
 
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Yup your right. I have had a lot of negative experience with Benchmade. A lot! Part of this test is to test the durability of the axis lock. I said I know I can break it. Not that I am going to break it.

To make this simple.

Spyderco is my favorite company hands down

I have had a lot of negative experience with Benchmade

I never did plan on buying one again until I thought of this test.

I'm not going to go into a Benchmade forum and bash their products. I'm not that stupid.

I won't be able to post a picture right now since I am at work. i only have the ability to use the taptalk app off my iphone now but I will post a picture of my watch (date and time stamp) with two benchmades that I own to show that i am carrying them . That mini grip and a Benchmade 5000 that stays in my turnout gear.
 
Your intro states:

" i chose to purchase a Mini Griptilian for many reasons. its popular, its cheap, its a Benchmade and it is a knife a lot of people want to own or do own."

Your previous statements repeatedly state your displeasure with Benchmade, you always break the spring's and it's not a brand you would want to own. This was just a week ago.

But now, this is the brand you decide to use for your "test"? Again, forgive me for questioning your motives here.

I think if I repeatedly posted that I had issues with Spyderco, my ability to break their locks, or the tips of their blades, praised Benchmade in every other post I made, and then went into the Spyderco sub forum and started a similar thread "testing" a Spyderco just to see how is does, some might question my motives also?

Again, forgive me if I'm wrong here. It just seems, well, maybe your motives are different then stated in your intro.
 
A year from now we will see if this adventure actually lasted that long. As someone who can barely go a day or two with the same knife in my pocket, I could never do it. I admire you guys who can, though. There is some strange level of sanity found in not having to switch knives every 4 hours. :thumbup:
 
It's honestly not bad after the 2 or 3 month mark. You eventually get attached to the knife and don't like carrying anything else. I just put a military away that had about 2 years of carry on it. I will carry it again but I wanted to do a long term test and document it because of my poor luck with past Benchmade models. I'm really looking forward to it. So far I do like the knife. Just looking forward to seeing its durability under edc use
 
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pbcg said:
Your intro states:

" i chose to purchase a Mini Griptilian for many reasons. its popular, its cheap, its a Benchmade and it is a knife a lot of people want to own or do own."

Your previous statements repeatedly state your displeasure with Benchmade, you always break the spring's and it's not a brand you would want to own. This was just a week ago.

But now, this is the brand you decide to use for your "test"? Again, forgive me for questioning your motives here.

I think if I repeatedly posted that I had issues with Spyderco, my ability to break their locks, or the tips of their blades, praised Benchmade in every other post I made, and then went into the Spyderco sub forum and started a similar thread "testing" a Spyderco just to see how is does, some might question my motives also?

Again, forgive me if I'm wrong here. It just seems, well, maybe your motives are different then stated in your intro.
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I totally understand your thoughts. I did not want to start this thread out as a bash on Benchmade. So I kept my personal experience to myself. I do want this Benchmade to hold up well. I have said I love many of their models. I just chose not to purchase them for a while because of the lock. I don't make a lot of money to be honest. I'm not buying a knife i don't want to use or carry. End of story
 
pbcg said:
Forgive me for saying, but I'm a bit suspicious of your motives here as your inrto seems to be in conflict with previous statements?

Continuously posting your displeasure with Benchmade products, your preference for other brands and now posting this does leave me wondering?
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i told you i would post a picture i took at work of me carrying it. sorry it took so long. i did not want to upload personal pictures onto a fire department computer. your post from yesterday was at 6:25pm and i replied at 6:36 pm...... as you can see the picture is from 7:09 pm on 09/01/13. i also added my accountability name tag from my helmet to prove it is my picture.

 
imbryan715 said:
i told you i would post a picture i took at work of me carrying it. sorry it took so long. i did not want to upload personal pictures onto a fire department computer. your post from yesterday was at 6:25pm and i replied at 6:36 pm...... as you can see the picture is from 7:09 pm on 09/01/13. i also added my accountability name tag from my helmet to prove it is my picture.


My post in your thread has nothing to do with the validity of your identity, posting pic's that your actually using the knife at work or proving they are your pic's. Not sure how you arrived at that but ok.

My post had to do with conflicting statements you made in other threads pertaining to your motives for doing this test and the reasons then given or stated in this thread in your intro.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but my impression of what you are doing from what you stated is you decided to buy the smallest, cheapest Benchmade knife and use it in an attempt to see if you would have better success or results then you did with the last eight BM's you claim to have broken in the last year to see if it will restore your confidence in the brand. Is that about right?

If so, ok and good luck.

You stated in your previous posts that you obsessively flip your knives while watching TV and when it was suggested to keep a count of opening's and closing as it may be the cause of all the failures you experienced you replied "I honestly could not keep track of that. Over a year it would probably be in excess of 10,000 times"

Well, if that amount of incessant flipping lead to the breakage of Eight knives as you also speculated, why would you expect a different result this time around?

For there to be value to your test don't you think keeping count of the opening's and closing's is relevant if you have attributed that as the likely cause of all the failures with the Omega springs you previously experienced ?

That's why I felt that you set up a predictable result based on previous experience, the most important element you will omit as you already said you don't plan to keep track of that?

I think I've made my point and explained the reason for my skepticism. I really have nothing more to add.

I would suggest again however, if you really believed that your excessive flipping was the cause of all the failures you claimed, then keeping count is a very important element of your testing and should not be omitted for there to be real value and transparency to your test and the results.

That really is all I have left to say on the matter. Good luck and all the best!
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