- Joined
- Feb 4, 1999
- Messages
- 5,786
Well, I dont know what rock I just climbed out from under, but about 10 years too late I finally got my first Benchmade AFCK, actually a mini AFCK with liner lock. I absolutely LOVE it! I never get too turned on by BMs offerings, but I have a Pinnacle that is absolutely fabulous, too, so I dont know what my problem is. This knife is a good 1/2 shorter than the Spyderco Paramilitary in the closed position, and a goof 1/4 shorter in the open position, yet if you compare cutting edge to cutting edge, the mini AFCKs blade is a good 1/2 longer! There is not a centimeter of wasted space in the blade or handle. In fact, when comparing the cutting edge of the full size Military and the mini AFCK, the difference is about 1/2 in favor of the Military, but overall open length of the Military is about 2 inches longer than the mini AFCK and when closed its still over an inch longer. Thats a LOT of knife in a VERY compact package in the mini AFCK.
The handle is not really wide, which I like, and its slim profile fits my hand really nicely. I also love the fact that it has the Spyderco style hole for opening, although the oval doesnt work quite as well as a traditional circle shaped hole. I also love this knife because its a modders dream! With double liners and screw-together construction there are a lot of things one can do to make this knife their own. Most modern folders from the last few years have complex channels and nested liners and a lot of other things that require either tons of patience or a milling machine to make custom scales for.
So, the first thing I did was start modding this knife and Im not done yet by a longshot! I started by stripping the knife and lubing the pivot really well. The lock was REALLY stiff on mine, so I bent the liner lock a bit to ease up the tension, saving my thumb some trauma when unlocking the knife. The straight clip on the knife sort of gets in the way of the deep index finger groove, so I trimmed that back a bit. This would be a perfect knife for the Military/Paramilitary style curved pocket clip, but my trimming opened up the index groove again to make it fully functional.
After easing the lock and trimming the clip down a bit, I finished up by replacing the back spacer with homemade carbon fiber spacers, so my mini AFCK now has open spine construction! My standoffs are really crude (I used carbon fiber and hand shaped it with a file, so the round standoffs are anything BUT round!) but instead of the ugly, bulky black plastic backspacer now I have CF standoffs that keep the whole spine open. My Military is going to get this treatment next, if the CF material fits.
The mini AFCK is a great knife and I cant believe I waited this long to get one. My longer term project for modding this knife is going to be to make custom, rounded scales from carbon fiber or white linen Micarta, which would look pretty sharp, too! I just need the right drills and reams for the precision fit parts. Ill now need a full size AFCK, and maybe another mini just because I love this one so much!
The handle is not really wide, which I like, and its slim profile fits my hand really nicely. I also love the fact that it has the Spyderco style hole for opening, although the oval doesnt work quite as well as a traditional circle shaped hole. I also love this knife because its a modders dream! With double liners and screw-together construction there are a lot of things one can do to make this knife their own. Most modern folders from the last few years have complex channels and nested liners and a lot of other things that require either tons of patience or a milling machine to make custom scales for.
So, the first thing I did was start modding this knife and Im not done yet by a longshot! I started by stripping the knife and lubing the pivot really well. The lock was REALLY stiff on mine, so I bent the liner lock a bit to ease up the tension, saving my thumb some trauma when unlocking the knife. The straight clip on the knife sort of gets in the way of the deep index finger groove, so I trimmed that back a bit. This would be a perfect knife for the Military/Paramilitary style curved pocket clip, but my trimming opened up the index groove again to make it fully functional.
After easing the lock and trimming the clip down a bit, I finished up by replacing the back spacer with homemade carbon fiber spacers, so my mini AFCK now has open spine construction! My standoffs are really crude (I used carbon fiber and hand shaped it with a file, so the round standoffs are anything BUT round!) but instead of the ugly, bulky black plastic backspacer now I have CF standoffs that keep the whole spine open. My Military is going to get this treatment next, if the CF material fits.
The mini AFCK is a great knife and I cant believe I waited this long to get one. My longer term project for modding this knife is going to be to make custom, rounded scales from carbon fiber or white linen Micarta, which would look pretty sharp, too! I just need the right drills and reams for the precision fit parts. Ill now need a full size AFCK, and maybe another mini just because I love this one so much!
