- Joined
- Dec 9, 2005
- Messages
- 2,402
I'm very happy with the 950 Rift in M4. The edge is thinner than any other Benchmade I've had. Mine locks up tight and the blade is centered. I know others were not so forunate to get a good one, however.
I haven't used the Bradley as much, but so far its seems great. I read that the Rc on the Bradley may be close to 65, which would be fantastic. I'm eager to get some confirmation on that.
Yeah, my Rift had blade play and was gritty as hell, but Benchmade fixed it. The edge thickness is .021", which is 50% thicker than the .014" edge on my 154CM Rift. My Bradley has a .017"-.019" edge on a deep, high hollow gring and really slices. It also sharpens up sharper and crisper then the Rift, which is probably because it is heat treated harder. I'll report back the RC readings on both knives before I get them heat treated. If my Bradley is already close to 65 RC I'll leave it alone, but I'm pretty sure the Benchmade will need to be re done to get anywhere near 65 RC. I really like the Rift design, but the Bradley really snuck up on me as a liner lock that I actually like. Mine is extremely smooth with the best build quality I've ever had on a production folder, it is just an excellent design built with excellent materials (the CF is real nice) and the fit and finish is top notch. For $130 or so you could do a lot worse.
My 760 had both a horribly off center blade and horrendously thick edge (which Tom Krein fixed). It took lots of tweaking to get the edge anywhere near center, but after tons of time it finally got close. I ended up selling it because again the steel seemed a bit soft on the stones compared to my Mule and Krein custom (both at 62.5-63 RC). Don't get me wrong, it got real sharp, but just not like my other M4 knives.
Mike
