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Benchmade Mini-Pika II Review
Folks, this is a Chinese made knife with a blade of Chinese steel and the blade has a round hole in it. If you cannot get past those attributes, no worries. Just close this thread and move on to the next one. If you can get past that set of attributes, read on.I bought this knife because I was curious about the steel and I liked the sound of the overall design: 3" blade of supposed to be pretty good steel, lockback, dual stainless liners, revamped hole, $23 plus shipping. This is Benchmades second go at the "Pika". In the Pika II they addressed several of the complaints that were made about the original version.
Benchmade has two Chinese alloys in their steel lineup and on the web site they are described as below:
8Cr14MoV: A Chinese steel with similar performance characteristics to AUS-8. An excellent value priced steel for its performance.
9Cr13CoMoV: A Chinese made high-carbon stainless steel with increased levels of cobalt added for greater edge retention. Offers a higher level of corrosion resistance at a great value.
The Pika II series has the 9Cr13CoMoV steel. My interpretation of the Benchmade promo material is that they consider this steel to have better edge retention and better corrosion resistance than AUS8. I EDCed the Mini-Pika II for a week when I was off work for the holiday break. Used it for some random back yard cutting chores and did some comparison cutting with it.
First the overall impressions of the knife.
Out of the box, the blade, which had been wrapped in plastic, was dripping oil. I dont normally consider this a good sign, but I cleaned it up and started to use it. OY VEY! This was the STIFFEST lockback I have used in 30 years of using lockbacks. Took me a day of opening it two-handed before it worked in enough to open one-handed. After that, it felt pretty normal, though no one, even somebody holding it by the blade, is ever going to "flip" the knife open. The issue is not the pivot pin. Its the détente plus I think the rounded back portion of the blade that rubs against the lockbar is not polished enough. It feels rough as I open it, but with the lock bar depressed, the blade moves quite easily once you get past the détente.
Out-of-the-box sharpness was OK but not spectacular. Edge angle was ~20° per side. Minimal grind marks along the cutting edge. Going from memory, they were no worse than I saw on my Native III. They came out easily with a little sharpening work with the dark Sharpmaker rods on the "40°" setting.
Blade lockup was and remains solid. No wiggle at all.
Ive read several reports on the original Pika that the handle felt flimsy. This one does not. The steel liners make it really solid. Benchmade calls the handle scale material "glass filled Nylon", which may be a euphemism for FRN, (depends on what form of glass was used). I think I would recommend a slightly higher glass loading. The main texture design of the handle was nice, but the plastic itself was a bit slicker than other FRN handles I have used. Overall I thought it was OK, but some folks who already dont care for FRN may not like it. The back end of the handle kind of curls up to make a place for your little finger, except that my little finger does not land at that place on the handle and I find it mildly annoying. I have small hands, so YMMV on this. The knife overall is thin and carries well in a pocket.
The clip can be attached four ways for right or left, tip-up or tip-down carry. It came mounted for right-hand tip-down carry. I changed it to tip-up and used it that way for about five days, but I found the knife somewhat uncomfortable to use in heavy cutting and felt like the knife was a bit exposed in my pocket. The end has a lanyard hole and therefore the clip is mounted a bit low when in the tip-up position so that the end of the knife is quite visible when clipped to the pocket. On the sixth day I changed the clip back to the tip down position. I found that the knife carried very low in the pocket as I like it to be and I found the handle much more comfortable during heavy cutting.
The blade is a pretty clip point design. It is 0.098" thick. The clip point makes for a very pointy knife that penetrates blister packs very easily. I dont think I would try much prying with it though if that is what you are into. It also has a sharpening choil, which I like. The blade is hollow ground. The 0.433" diameter hole is well done. I understand that hole on the original Pika was beveled and hard to grab. The hole on the Pika II is not beveled and it is easy to open the blade once you get the blade worked in. Works as good as my Native III.
OK, so what about that steel?
Benchmade had the hardness range for 9Cr13CoMoV in two places on its web site. The numbers didnt match. Sigh. The detail description for the Pika II series said the hardness was 58-60. The BM steel chart lists the hardness as 57-58. I took my knife into the metallurgical lab at work. The blade measured 57.55. I contacted Benchmade and asked about the hardness. They said the chart was correct at 57-58 and that they would correct the detail description. As of this evening they still have both ranges on the web site.
I changed the angle on the edge to 15° with no secondary bevel using a Crystolon India combo stone and a Sharpmaker. I found 9Cr13CoMoV steel sharpened with a little more effort than AUS8.
Cutting chores: I had to put a new end on a garden hose, the Pika cut it nicely (old thick reinforced hose, pretty stiff). I cut a second piece with a KaBar Large Dozier. I think the Pika cut it more easily, but that is mostly the blade shape. I cut some small of some bushes that I was trimming in the back yard. Then I used it to cut up a cardboard box so it would fit in the trash. Blade stayed sharp and seemed quite usable after the chores.
Cutting Comparison: I wanted to do something to compare the edge retention of the 9Cr13CoMoV to that of AUS8. This is what I did. I touched up the edges on a Spyderco Native III with VG10 blade measured at Rc 59, a Large KaBar Dozier with AUS8 blade measured at Rc 59 and the Mini-Pika II. All edges angles were 15° per side. I examined the edge of each blade with a 3X lens under a halogen bulb to ensure there were no flat spots on the edge (ie, no bright spots). With each blade, I made 20 cuts in 3/8" manila rope, then examined each blade for flat spots under a halogen bulb using the 3X lens. I saw a couple of places on the VG10, a fair amount more places on the 9Cr13CoMoV, and a continuous line on the AUS8. I re-sharpened the blades and repeated the process. Saw approximately the same thing. Sorry, I have no suitable equipment to make photos. To me, it looked like the 9Cr13CoMoV had a bit better edge retention than the AUS8, but not as good as that of the VG10. I found I had to study the AUS8 and the 9Cr13CoMoV edges to tell them apart after the cutting, but the VG10 was immediately apparent as being superior.
Conclusions: 9Cr13CoMoV blade may have slightly better edge retention than AUS8. I like the blade design. The knife feels really solid in your hand and locks up tight. The hole is done correctly. When the clip is mounted for tip-down carry I found the knife very comfortable to use. I think the action needs to be smoothed up. But overall I think I like the knife, especially for use in an urban environment as I think the shape of the blade works well for typical urban chores (opening packages, cutting cardboard).
Final note: I dont think I would buy this knife as a gift for someone unless I were willing to take the time to clean it up, sharpen it up, and loosen it up before giving it. But once you do that, it's good.
) BM 800, 806, 812, and 814. 
