BM Mini Rukus Photo review/my thoughts *warning 55 pics - bandwith intensive*

[JCK]

First off let me say there are 55 pictures here, so it will probably use up a lot of bandwidth/strain your internet connection if its slow

Hey every one. So as you might know I got a second hand (not that you would know) Benchmade Mini Rukus nearly a month ago, on the 28th of February, plain edge with the satin finish. I paid $190 AUD for it so really that not a bad price. I know this knife has been reviewed a number of times but thought I'd add mine, and this is more of a pretty pictures type review rather than in depth discussion of stuff I don’t know.

I think that for a webcam, the images turned out pretty well, and sorry there are no “action shots” as I can’t quite get the pc to the backyard, even with an extension cable

The Box

So as you know the 615 is a part of the Benchmade blue class, and so comes in a blue Benchmade box. In case you’ve never seen a blue class Benchmade box before, I snapped some pics, just in case. Inside is the standard - packaging foam, knife care manual, and of course your knife contained within a Benchmade pouch.
And as you can see, even inside the pouch the form factor is still quite good.

The Benchmade box with my knife inside

Exploded Contents - pouch, foam, knife, box

Pouch without knife inside

Pouch with knife inside

Label on one side of the box

Knife pose shot (my favourite picture)

 

[JCK]

Specifications
I got these from the Benchmade website, however I did measure the knife myself too, shown below in the pictures.

Blade Length: 3.40"
Blade Thickness: 0.121"
Blade Material: S30V Premium Steel
Blade Hardness: 58-60HRC
Blade Style: Utility Drop-Point; Ambidextrous Thumb-Stud
Weight: 5.90oz.
Clip: Black, Deep Pocket, Tip-Up
Lock Mechanism: AXIS
Overall Length: 8.50"
Closed Length: 5.10"

The 615 open, is about 216 mm long (8.50 inches)

Another shot of the Mini Rukus, open

[FONT=&quot] When closed, it is about 133 mm long (5.2 inches)[/FONT]

 

[JCK]

The Knife
From all the other reviews I had read it was meant to have a fair bit of weight to it. However I had never handled it and like I said before I was a bit concerned about the size of the handle. However once I saw it in person, I knew it wouldn’t be overly long for my hand

Side by side comparison with my right hand. In case you’re wondering, my right hand is 19 cm long, middle finger tip to palm heel

Another shot of my hand next to the knife, for size comparison.

When I grasp the knife in my hand, only about 20mm sticks out, so not a problem

Another shot of the knife in my hand

Knife closed in my hand

Another shot of knife closed in my hand, lengthwise

Knife closed in hand grip



Body

The body also has some (I think) quite functional jimping on the top end where your thumb would go, and underneath where your index finger would be. It also has some jimping on the rear top end, which, whilst maybe not serving much of a purpose to me, and as other people in many reviews have said its useless and ugly and should not be there, I must disagree, as even if it has no function, it appeals to me aesthetically.

Top view, showing Jimping on the knife’s spine, start of handle and end of handle

Jimping on first finger groove, and it is better than the smooth second groove.

The liners are, from the places I’ve read 410 Stainless Steel, black coated, as you can see, they are also skeletonised, with holes drilled/milled out of them. While this does reduce the weight a bit, it wouldn’t have bothered me if they weren’t skeletonised, as I find the weight to be quite comfortable. According to the Benchmade website, the 615 weighs in at around 167 grams, or 5.90 ounces. I can’t back this up but as I said before that’s a good weight for a knife like this I think.

[FONT=&quot] Photo showing skeletonised liners on clip side, which is identical to the non clip side as well[/FONT]

 

[JCK]

The Handle
Whilst some people here hate finger grooves, the ones on the Mini Rukus are really comfortable for me and I definitely think they add to the overall ergonomics and look of the knife.
The Mini Rukus has 2 finger grooves at the start of the handle, then a smooth space until the end of the handle, where the lanyard hole, pocket clip screws and “glass breaker tip” are. I think that you could use the end as an impact device, to break glass or maybe smash some heads in, although I haven’t tried it yet.

A pic showing you where the finger grooves are, maybe put it in perspective for you

A close up of the end of the 615, showing the lanyard hole adjustable torx screws for mounting the clip and the “glass breaker/head smasher” tip.

Handle Scales
I stuck with the standard green micarta and black G10 and think that it looks very good, however in the future I would like to get a set of G10 scales as I think that would look even better. I’m not sure what type of micarta the handles are although it is smooth so I don’t think it would be linen micarta and I might try to roughen them up just to see if that improves grip.

In many of the pics on the internet floating around on various sellers websites, the green micarta appears to be at least 10 different shades, however my mini Rukus’s green micarta is dark, and whilst in my pictures they appear lighter, just imagine them a bit darker. However this could just be my knife, and maybe it hasn’t been washed - either way I don’t care it still looks quite good.

Nice close up showing where the micarta and G10 joins together

Side view of the knife, closed, like I said the micarta is darker than what this picture shows it to be.

Clip side, just to see that it is a nice and consistent colour


The Axis Lock

Ok I won’t bore you explaining the details of the axis lock, but on this knife it works really well. When open the underside of the knife shows the polished and smooth silver pivot bushings. This allows the knife to open very smooth and can be opened fast or slow, and still be very nice and smooth. I have not lubricated the knife yet, however I imagine that when do so, it will have an even better opening.

There is only slight blade play, laterally/side to side and only to one side, however unless you go looking for it, and try to find it, you would not know it’s there. However to fix this I have found some info on the Spyderco forum, and have been told it’s an issue with the pivot screw.

The polished pivot bushing

Close up of the great axis lock

The blade is slightly off centre, as you can see in the following pics.

Top view of the blade

Blade on side, showing slightly off centre blade

[FONT=&quot] View from top, showing that when open it does not appear off centre at all[/FONT]

 

[JCK]

The Blade

As you all know its s30v steel and from what I’ve heard is meant to get really sharp and hold an edge for a decent amount of time. I’m not a steel enthusiast/know lots and lots about steel, and from what I’ve heard I think s30v will suit my needs perfectly. I can’t tell you much about its edge holding ability however it did come razor sharp from the Benchmade factory and I haven’t touched up the edge as this isn’t an EDC blade (yet I have been EDC’ing it to get a feel for weight and such), I intend to use this whilst hiking so I think the slightly thicker edge will give it some more strength. Also it doesn’t need to be sharpened (yet) as I’m finding the level of sharpness to be quite sufficient.
The point of the knife also appears to be quite strong, and whilst not as thick as other knifes, I’m happy with it.
The blade is, according to my measurements, about 96 mm long (3.7 inches), and about 2 mm wide, 3mm at the widest point and reduces to 1mm closer to the tip, with and actual tip of about half a millimetre.
Also on the blade is the Benchmade Logo on the axis lock side and the Neil Blackwood logo, which is the old style I’ve been told, so that’s kind of cool as well.
Under the Axis lock section I have pictures of the slightly off centred blade.

Close up of the Benchmade logo

Close up, showing the words S30V, indicating that it is indeed, S30V steel.

Close up showing Neil Blackwood logo

The 96 mm long blade, which is sabre ground

Top view of the blade, 3mm across at the jimping, 2mm across at the spine, decreasing to 1mm closer to the tip and about a half a mm tip.

A picture of the tip, taken in a (sort of) cool way

Another shot of the tip, front on, focused (as much as I could) right on the very tip

[FONT=&quot] The standard paper test - this is after lightly using it for a few weeks, so it’s not as sharp as it was Also note that the slice on the right of the hole is the paper actually separated, but not cut all the way through, so it is very sharp.[/FONT]

 

[JCK]

The Pocket Clip
The pocket clip is also black, probably to match the liners and it definitely looks better this way. It does retain the knife decently, but after just clipping it on my pants the usual way, i have noticed being upside down or if you rigorously shake what it is clipped onto, it will come loose, and I will look into modifying it for better and more secure retention.
However. this is not an issue for me whilst hiking, as the pants I wear either have a zippered pocket or a mini pocket/piece of fabric I can clip the knife onto inside the actual pocket, so the chance of it falling out is pretty low
Note in the second picture there is no gap between the head of the tip and the knife body
From the past week and a bit I’ve been carrying it, the knife does ride low, however an even deeper pocket carry clip would be good, and I actually put it in my pocket, as I was getting too many double looks from people, but in other countries/ on the track this might not be a problem. I found that in jeans, being a thicker material, that whether or not I was using the pocket clip, it was really quite unnoticeable in my pocket, so this knife I think is suited to pants or shorts made out of a heavier material.

close up of the clip

another view of the clip, top side

[FONT=&quot] How it rides in shorts, material is similar to slacks or dress pants, only a bit thicker.[/FONT]

 

[JCK]

Miscellaneous

Here are the random photos that I took, like some more size comparisons and one of the sharpie marker that helped bring you this review.

My indestructible sharpie marker, had it for nearly 5 years now, starting to run out of ink.

Mini Rukus next to ruler, regular Bic lighter and regular size zippo for comparison

Here are a few pictures of my Victorinox Alox Barleycorn. As you can see it’s the silver version, and it comes with a knife, nail file/screwdriver and scissors.

Blade (mm long)

Scissors

Nail file with small flathead screwdriver

Victorinox self- defence mode, open everything and throw it at your attacker

Next to a Australian 20 cent and 10 cent coin. The 10 cent coin, is a bit larger than a US nickel, and the 20 cent coin is about the size of a US 50 cent coin.

Side view showing thickness

 

[JCK]

Here are some more images, just playing around with focus and such

Close up of end, focus on the keyring end in the foreground

Image showing Victorinox logo

Side by side with the Mini Rukus

Alox Barleycorn closed on open 615 blade

Side by side comparison, showing thickness difference

So there you have it, a few pictures + my thoughts on the Benchmade 615 Mini Rukus. Overall I love this knife, its everything I expected and then some. I know that when I take it out when I go hiking later this year, it will perform just as I want it to.


Here is a link to all my photos on the mini Rukus if anyone wants it - http://s830.photobucket.com/albums/zz230/JCK124/Mini Rukus/?start=0

Thanks for reading my review

JCK

EDIT:When I get my Spydie Dragonfly G10, I'll maybe find some time and do a similar write up on that knife

 

[JCK]

Can a mod move this to the reviews section thanks - I think it would be better there than in the general knife discussion area?
also did i overdo it with the pictures?

 

[Peter Parker]

Good review JCK! I have enjoyed my 615 now for almost three years. The only slight imperfection with mine is the micarta scales are a little off on the shade or color. It is the easiest of all the Axis locks I've had to thumb open looking like assist! The more you own and use it, the more you'll realize what a fantastic knife it is!

 

[the kid]

Can a mod move this to the reviews section thanks - I think it would be better there than in the general knife discussion area?
also did i overdo it with the pictures?

You can never place to many pictures.
This is 2010 almost everyone has broadband internet in the western world and for those who don't, to bad.

Thanks for taking the time to make and place the pictures.

 

[Kaizen1]

Excellent review. I bought one for myself for one of my birthdays. I eventually sold it and I'm not really sure why. I did find the ergos to feel a little bit blocky, but aside from that and the kinda weak clip, I had no complaints. Like the kid said, you can never have enough pictures. For those who can't get one in their hand, these types of reviews are truly the next best thing:thumbup:

 

[Apec]

Nice review. An offcenter blade and axis lock play were also issues with my new fullsize Rukus (unfortunately they were bad enough that the edge dented against a backspacer while closing)

When tightening the pivot, just need to find the spot where the blade won't play, but still operates the action smoothly. Loctite is optional, though it helps.

 

[JCK]

thanks for the kind comments guys, I think I just scared everyone off with all the pic

yeah, not too sure who doesn't have broadband AND visits this site, would be quite hard I'd imagine, especially if you were to stumble upon a massive picture review by mistwalker or maybe even this one

@Kaizen - what you said about not being able to handle it, thats a good point, but I guess becuase they are discontinued and hard to get, not many people are looking into buying them, and so don't want to scroll through 5 pages of it. Also its had a bit over 200 views, wish people would lever their thoughts, even if they think its crap, leave a comment saying so - its all contructive criticism to me

But like I said, I'll be sure to do one on my new g10 d'fly when that get here

thanks
JCK

 

[dinozzo]

Great review:thumbup::thumbup:

Ive always loved the design of the ruckus and mini ruckus...they are just great looking blades:thumbup:

I really enjoyed the pics! thanks for sharing:thumbup:

 

[JCK]

Yeah Im trying to get a Full size Rukus, then that will be it for all the folders I want, might get a Manix - kinda like the spyderco equivalent of the Rukus - meant to be just as tough

But yeah 2 more then no more - I know your all going to day not true, but I'll stick to my word - poor student = no money for knives

 

[dinozzo]

Yeah Im trying to get a Full size Rukus, then that will be it for all the folders I want, might get a Manix - kinda like the spyderco equivalent of the Rukus - meant to be just as tough

But yeah 2 more then no more - I know your all going to day not true, but I'll stick to my word - poor student = no money for knives

Ive stopped saying that...i know its not true hahah but i trade alot more then i buy so im not spending too much money

 

[cziv]

Yeah Im trying to get a Full size Rukus,

Me too they're getting sold out everywhere except for vendors wanting MSRP. 55 PICS!! No wonder the servers crashed last weekend!

 

[JCK]

hahaha no wonder the real reason behind BF outages

 

[nevermind35]

Good job on your review. I love my BM 615. It's definately one of my all time favorites. I can't think of a much better folder for the outdoors. I've always thought that it felt like a folding bushcraft knife (minus the scandi).