BM 710...convince me

I have had it for a month, then I sold it. Jimping sucks pretty much, blade steel is too hard for me and I wouln't be able to sharpen it.. And ofc. slow deployment (high blade rention). Overall its a great knife, but not for me.
 
I love my BM 710 D2...once I got it reprofiled and stropped to near perfection - it's shaving sharp and won't seem to get dull! :thumbup:

Buy One!
 
I would be all over one if they would make one without recurving blade. I've had enough of recurved blades and somehow its just not my cup of tea. All recurves have been traded or sold from my collection. Other than recurve the BM 710 is everything I could wish from knife.
 
Well, I just received my 710 D2 after about 2 weeks of waiting. This knife is really nice. It's quite a handful, almost like my 806. The G10 is not smooth like the photos above. It's more like the way the Spyderco G10 looks, so that's a plus. Everything about the knife is flawless, except the edge. I gotta say this has to be one of the worst factory edges I can recall getting from Benchmade. Mine must have been sharpened on a Friday afternoon by a guy that was just learning how to sharpen a recurve. Not a huge deal, since I had already planned on reprofiling it, but I've not done much sharpening on a recurve myself, so I may have to wait until I get home from Afghanistan and put it on my Wicket Edge system. Only problem with that is, I gotta order the stone kit designed for recurves, and they're ceramic, so I think doing a full reprofile job may be a challenge. I have a set of DMT continuous stones headed my way, as well as every grit serration diafold they have, so hopefully I can get something done. I just know as it is right now, it won't even shave hair or slice paper. Had this been my first experience with Benchmade, I would really be disappointed, but having received my new Kulgera and Rift 2 months ago, I know they can do better. The good parts, like I mentioned, the blade is absolutely perfectly centered, and has no blade play. A bit tight to just flip open, but flicks open with my thumbnail very nicely. I've actually started tightening all my Benchmades to this level since it 100% eliminates even the slightest amount of blade play. It also takes away any possibility that I could be accused of having a gravity knife. My other Osbornes like the Kulgera, 940 and 943 were so slick, I could literally pull the axis lock back with the knife pointed to the ground, and the blade would swing open. Too much like a gravity knife. And they only showed slight blade play if you really grabbed the blade and wiggled it. Since I've gone to using my thumb to flick the blades open, I decided tighter was better, so the way my 710 came from the factory is perfect for me.

I do have to say, while this knife is not as attractive as my Kulgera or my Rift, it will definitely get used. This whole thing just screams for hard use. I guess the only problem I have is deciding which knives I'm going to carry. I really like the Kulgera for general use. It's pretty sheeple friendly, light, nice in the hand, and just a pleasure to fondle. I also now have a Small Sebenza Insingo on the way to me, so I don't know how I'm going to decide what to carry and what to use. I do know the 710 will sit in a pocket for hard chores, and I don't see my Kulgera losing its place in my right front pocket. I just don't know what I'm going to do with my Sebenza when it arrives. I definitely need to give it an honest fair chance of winning me over, so I need to actually use it. Oh well, decisions decisions...
 
Good report - for what it's worth, I've had good luck with the Spyderco Sharpmaker and 710 blades.

Medic1210 said:
Well, I just received my 710 D2 after about 2 weeks of waiting. This knife is really nice. It's quite a handful, almost like my 806. The G10 is not smooth like the photos above. It's more like the way the Spyderco G10 looks, so that's a plus. Everything about the knife is flawless, except the edge. I gotta say this has to be one of the worst factory edges I can recall getting from Benchmade. Mine must have been sharpened on a Friday afternoon by a guy that was just learning how to sharpen a recurve. Not a huge deal, since I had already planned on reprofiling it, but I've not done much sharpening on a recurve myself, so I may have to wait until I get home from Afghanistan and put it on my Wicket Edge system. Only problem with that is, I gotta order the stone kit designed for recurves, and they're ceramic, so I think doing a full reprofile job may be a challenge. I have a set of DMT continuous stones headed my way, as well as every grit serration diafold they have, so hopefully I can get something done. I just know as it is right now, it won't even shave hair or slice paper. Had this been my first experience with Benchmade, I would really be disappointed, but having received my new Kulgera and Rift 2 months ago, I know they can do better. The good parts, like I mentioned, the blade is absolutely perfectly centered, and has no blade play. A bit tight to just flip open, but flicks open with my thumbnail very nicely. I've actually started tightening all my Benchmades to this level since it 100% eliminates even the slightest amount of blade play. It also takes away any possibility that I could be accused of having a gravity knife. My other Osbornes like the Kulgera, 940 and 943 were so slick, I could literally pull the axis lock back with the knife pointed to the ground, and the blade would swing open. Too much like a gravity knife. And they only showed slight blade play if you really grabbed the blade and wiggled it. Since I've gone to using my thumb to flick the blades open, I decided tighter was better, so the way my 710 came from the factory is perfect for me.

I do have to say, while this knife is not as attractive as my Kulgera or my Rift, it will definitely get used. This whole thing just screams for hard use. I guess the only problem I have is deciding which knives I'm going to carry. I really like the Kulgera for general use. It's pretty sheeple friendly, light, nice in the hand, and just a pleasure to fondle. I also now have a Small Sebenza Insingo on the way to me, so I don't know how I'm going to decide what to carry and what to use. I do know the 710 will sit in a pocket for hard chores, and I don't see my Kulgera losing its place in my right front pocket. I just don't know what I'm going to do with my Sebenza when it arrives. I definitely need to give it an honest fair chance of winning me over, so I need to actually use it. Oh well, decisions decisions...
Click to expand...
 
Figured I'd take some comparison photos to give the OP an idea what the 710 looks like beside my 806, as well as the Rift and Kulgera. If I'm not mistaken, the 806 has the same handle design and size as the 805 TSEK. As you can tell, the 710 is not as shiny as the 806, but you have to remember, the 806 is about 10 years old or so. Don't remember exactly, but it's possible some of the smoothness is from just carrying it through the years. Photos best viewed at full size.
 

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bigmo66 said:
I have the Blackwater edition and it's the only BM that has not left my collection. It's a great EDC and a sexy looking blade.

stripped2.jpg


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Click to expand...

Where did you buy this one? I like the shape of the blade, and need to get one. Can you post a pix of it closed?
 
It's a 16707BT Blackwater Recurve, made for Blackwater by Benchmade. The coating has been removed from Bigmo66's knife.





They are discontinued, so the secondary market may be the only way to aquire one.
 
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Well, I got my 710 edge reprofiled and sharpened how I like my knives. I used the DMT Dia-Fold sharpeners. Really wish I had Extra Coarse, because doing the reprofile on this D2 really took a long time. Anyway, I set my primary bevel somewhere around 30-32 inclusive, and took the polish down to the DMT EF stone. I then set an approx 40 degree inclusive micro using very light passes with the DMT EEF stone. I tell ya, this thing is S H A R P now. I can't tell if the hair on my arm is jumping off in fear or if the blade is actually cutting them, it takes so little pressure. It will whittle a coarse hair easily. Anyway, I'm happy with the results, and feel like I can really use this knife now. Here's a before and a couple after shots of the edge.

In the before shot (cropped closeup) you can actually tell where the original bevel was put with a belt sander. You can see where the edge of the belt was touched to the recurve every 1/2cm or so. It almost created a stair step pattern. I think they must have used an 80 grit belt or something as coarse as that edge is. Obviously the second and third shots are the result. Looks much much nicer. Not a Knifenut edge, but rather and edge I'm not worried about using and messing up either... ;) Oh yeah, it was my first time reprofiling a recurve blade too.
 

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That looks really good Medic1210 and ready for the XX-fine diafold & a strop for a near mirror edge. That'll be one heck of a cutter though - I can tell.

Did you use the Magna-guide or freehand that? I do both depending on how uniform I want my scratch pattern.

Btw, I use my coarse/fine diafold so much that I shelled out the $30 from Amaon (free shipping) and got the X-coarse/coarse. The X-coarse really shaves a ton of time from a re-profile job. You won't regret buying one. :)
 
I used the magna-guide since it was a recurve, and I'd never done one before. It alowed me to use a back and forth sawing type action to set the bevel. Even with the magna guide, my bevel isn't as even as I like, but it's 1000 x better than the factory edge. I have the EF/EEF diafold. That's what I put the micro bevel on with. I wasn't really interested in polishing this one to a mirror since I'd already spent a few hours on it. I find the longer I work on getting a perfect edge, the less I want to use the knife for fear of messing up all my hard work, LOL. This edge should be easy to maintain with the micro bevel. I have a set of DMT continuous plates (EC to EEF) and a leather strop on the way to me, but I think I'm gonna save those for regular edges. The narrower diafolds, while not perfect, let me get into the recurve, if only touching the edges of the diafold. Wider plates wouldn't have worked. I think I'll reprofile the new small Sebbie Insigo I have coming my way too. Not too interested in trying to learn how to sharpen a convex edge.
 
Knifenut1013 advised me to use the diafold on the 710 in a manner that the plate contacts the blade at a "straight" on position _V_ even through the recurve. It takes a bit of jockeying around and great care. You seem to have really pulled it off nicely. That D2 is gonna cut n cut n cut with nothing but some stropping to tune it up. I love Benchmade's D2. I have the same knife and it just keeps going and going. :thumbup:
 
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