BM 805 m390

A

ar0maticdecay

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Jun 1, 2009
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http://www.knifeworks.com/benchmademodel805tsekaxislock393blade.aspx

I'm thinking of ordering this knife. i need a knife in stainless and this knife seems to fit what i'm looking for. big grip,nice jipping and axis lock. the only thing that i'm unsure about is the steel. Bm is notorious for putting out soft heat treatments on knives and i was wondering how their m390 is. any1 who owns a 710 in m390 that has used it a lot can u give me some info how it stacks up against other steels like s30v, m4,zdp 189. thx
 
I haven't really seen much as far as conclusive testing on M390 goes, its basically a lot of speculation as of now. Rumor has it that it is great and stacks up with the very best of them however looking at its stats I personally find that hard to believe. Don't get me wrong its probably just as good as s30v and some of the other common "good" steels but I don't think it will fair as good as ZDP-189 like many are saying.

Go check out the Benchmade Forum. Theres tons of talk going on lately about both M390 and the upcoming 805.
 
Search back a few weeks in the reviews forum and you'll see a few testing threads about the 710 in M390. There's a bunch of garbage posts in them deabting testing methods, but you can get a good feel for the durability of BM's M390 compared to a couple of other steels in the review. The tester did a thorough job with the process he used. I have one and like it alot, although I admit I haven't put it through any stressful cutting. So far, it has held it's edge well, comes very sharp out of the box, and the knife is very solid and well made (especially compared to my griptillian). I bought it because I have a SOG team leader in duratech 20CV and the M390 is similar steel. In all honesty, I could have saved $50 and bought the regular BM 710 in D2 and probably not noticed a big difference in performance, although the M390 is easier to put an edge back on than my other D2 knives. Check out the reviews and the videos with it, and you can decide for yourself.
 
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Like others have said, just search around and you'll find quite a few reviews/comparisons of BM's M390 to other steels. Regarding hardness, I remember Ankerson saying that he had some BMs with M390 tested, and they consistently came out at 60.5 HRC. The steel might perform a bit better at a slightly higher hardness, but at least it's not way below its optimal range like, say, their M4.
 
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I don't have any experience with m390, but I have an 805 and it is very well designed. My is in 440C ,HA! It's a great knife. It fits in the same niche as the 806 or the spyderco military, but I like it better that both of those, because of it's wide blade and sturdy tip.
 
Having used the 710-1 myself, I can say that the steel would be somewhere between S30V and CPM-M4. I can't say definitively whether it's better than ZDP-189 or not, but it's definitely up there in the same class.

Now I just need to get the Para2 in S90V and compare the two.
 
Noctis3880 said:
Having used the 710-1 myself, I can say that the steel would be somewhere between S30V and CPM-M4. I can't say definitively whether it's better than ZDP-189 or not, but it's definitely up there in the same class.

Now I just need to get the Para2 in S90V and compare the two.
Click to expand...

I just finished re-profiling and sharpening my 710-1 and found that it 'feels' like it falls between BG-42 and S90V. It takes a mind boggling edge and keeps it's hair whittling sharpness longer than S90V, yet it sharpens up similar to BG-42. Frankly, it is a wonderful steel, IMO.
 
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