BM Dejavoo - Questions and Pic Request

K

kindred_spirits

Joined
Jul 16, 2006
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Hey guys, I'm thinking about getting a BM 745 or 740. I had a couple questions though.

With the opening hole, I hear the points on the handle can get in the way of opening. Is this true for both models, and how much do they get in the way?

How is the liner lock on this model? Is it relatively thick or thin?

How weak is the detent? Is is flickable?

Some pics along with a 710, 551, 615, etc would be nice.

Thanks in advance!
 
Google is your friend.

Type in whatever you want and click on pictures , you will find many more pics than you will get here.
 
I have the mini dejavoo and it is very easy to open using the thumb hole- both flicking or just causal opening. The liner lock is the thickness of a typical liner lock. Keep in mind that is is a Titanium liner lock, so i doubt that the liner lock would fail under normal circumstances. It's a Benchmade...enough said!
Other than that, i'm not sure what you mean by the detent. Email me at ep1523@hotmail.com if you'd like pictures
 
SharpOne said:
I have the mini dejavoo and it is very easy to open using the thumb hole- both flicking or just causal opening. The liner lock is the thickness of a typical liner lock. Keep in mind that is is a Titanium liner lock, so i doubt that the liner lock would fail under normal circumstances. It's a Benchmade...enough said!
Other than that, i'm not sure what you mean by the detent. Email me at ep1523@hotmail.com if you'd like pictures
Click to expand...

Thanks! E-mail on the way.

As for the detent, I've heard that the detent ball is weak, so the knife is easily opened and not held closed very securely.
 
Easily flickable. The liner is a little on the thin side for me, as is the blade. I can't help but think BM could have gone heavy duty on this knife and had a winner on their hands.
 
To me (I have a full size, black blade model) this knife is a slicer, that is set-up so with a slight flick of the wrist blade will literally fall out of it's handle. I like it for it's razor sharp, thin blade and easy open ability. Might not be extra heavy duty but it is a great cutter.
 
I had a 740 and i loved it but i sold it to fund another project and because i thought i was getting a custom. Well the custom didnt happen (yet) and i wish i still had my 740.

This knife is a great slicer with a thin full flat ground blade. The liner is a bit on the thin side but still much thicker then alot of knives out there. As others have said this knife is easily flicked. In fact i didnt need to use the opening hole at all. I could just flick my wrist and it would open and lock up tight.

Make no mistakes about it though. This is not a heavy duty knife. It is a good choice for edc and can handle light to medium tasks well. It also rides really really well in the pocket.
 
My 745 flicks easily, and the points on the G-10 don't pose problems when opening the blade. (For me, at least...) The liner is titanium on the lock side and stainless 420j on the 'support' side.

The lock is smooth and the S30V blade came sharp and is now even sharper after stropping. The blade was centered and the locking mechanism a little tight but loosened up after a couple of weeks.

RIP Bob Lum, I really like it!
 
i can help you with a comparison shot between the 2 sizes

even though it wasn't intended for heavy duty use, the dejavoo doesn't shy away from difficult tasks
 
It not a bad knife but it is effectively a 'gravity knife' because the detent on all three models I've handled doesn't hold at all and this is the same from three others I've been contacted about separately from other individuals here all say theirs act this way so I'd say be careful in New York with it and perhaps Illinois among other states where they are hyper critical of such things. I saw no ability on the balls part to hold the blade closed from even a very light movement of the hand. Its also one of those I'd elect to leave tip down carry just for this reason.
STR
 
SharpOne said:
Keep in mind that is is a Titanium liner lock, so i doubt that the liner lock would fail under normal circumstances.
Click to expand...
Ti is softer than steel, the lock face is more prone to deformation, so why would a Ti liner be less prone to failure than a steel liner lock?
 
there's a topic and review on the benchmade forum.

one reasonable down point was that the scales get slippery when wet.
 
I will say from experience that the scales are slippery even when dry. It's just personal preference but I like a little grit to my knife handles to keep them in my hand. And I also agree with the weak detent. All this being said, I still have no plans to get rid of my 745. I do plan to rough-up the scales though. It is a wicked slicing machine.
 
HoB said:
Ti is softer than steel, the lock face is more prone to deformation, so why would a Ti liner be less prone to failure than a steel liner lock?
Click to expand...
To my understanding, titanium is just as hard as steel but much lighter..and expensive
 
HoB said:
Ti is softer than steel, the lock face is more prone to deformation, so why would a Ti liner be less prone to failure than a steel liner lock?
Click to expand...

The titanium will not rust, will absorb more shock, and ultimately have a longer fatigue life.
 
Titanium is not as hard as the hardened stainless locks and as a result it can and does indent easier and will suffer more from things like spine whacking. The ti locks wear faster also but ti does have a tendency to stick or gall to dissimilar metals and even itself which is something that makes it capable of somewhat making up for any shortfallings of a poorer than ideal lock contact that stainless would slide off of easier when mated to so its got its advantages.

The wear rate difference between a titanium lock and a stainless one is nil really until you take it to the next level approaching abuse with extreme wear type activitiy like the spine whacking so in normal use titanium is a fine choice. A 410 stainless steel lock can be heat treated if you max it out with oil quenching instead of air to about a 45 Rockwell hardness. Most knifemaker grade titanium hovers around 39 Rockwell.

Also, ti does have other advantages besides this galling tendency over stainless. For example, ti can be color anodized to make it more attractive and decorative and it has what we call 'memory' so even after being drastically bent to a degree that would surely permanently damage steel or aluminum the titanium would bounce right back to the original shape it had. In this regard titanium is superior to these other metals.

Titanium is not as strong as stainless but it is lighter weight and has a higher strength to weight ratio so this is another reason it is sought after for knives and particularly folders. Of course titanium will not rust either so it very desireable there as well. It is also worth mentioning that titanium has one other thing going for it that stainless doesn't and that is the fact that you can buy it and use it as its shipped with no further need or added expense to heat treat it.

STR
 
STR...

Steve, I'm never failing in my amazement of your knife knowledge. Someday we'll do business once again. You're one of the good guys.
 
Thanks, STR, those are exactly the points I wanted addressed. Unfortunately, the going assumption is, that Ti, because it is used in Jet engines and on rather pricy knives, it must be some miracle material and that liner/frame locks made from Ti can not possibly fail. That the advantages of Ti are not strength related seems often to get lost. That Ti lock faces have a tendency to wear faster as you have often pointed out, is also not common knowledge as is obvious from some posts in this thread.

Thanks, again Steve, you are a big asset to the forums. I would like to encourage anyone interested in this issue to look through some past posts by STR. They contain a wealth of information.

As an aside: I think, that Ti truly shines as a clip material: Perfect spring rate, excellent elasticity (even when you catch the clip on a door frame, you rarely get permanent deformation), lightweight and corrosion resistant.
 
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