- Joined
- Jun 8, 2005
- Messages
- 4,761
Elizabeth delivered my 41MC to me tonight. It brings the hightlight of a long week of studying 10+ hours a day. It's especially nice since we had begun to believe it had been lost in the mail.
The first thing I notice about the knife was the weight. I had expected the knife to be much lighter, being titanium. As it stands, it's only slightly lighter than my spyderfly. I'm actually even a little nervous that I might have received an SS model by mistake. I wish I had my lab here so I could actually weigh them but maybe I'll make a trip over there in a couple weeks and test.
Despite this, it is still pretty light for its size. It feels much lighter when open, inexplicably.
The balance is far superior to the spyderfly...you never feel that there is a lead weight at the end of the handles...this is more or less because it's true--the handles are pretty much the same all the way through. This seems to make it more predictable.
The play is slightly less than that of the spyderfly out of the box, but fairly comparable. The benchmade is pretty noisy...it is even a little squeaky. It's too bad, because the spyderfly sounds beautiful when it "sings."
The latch is a mixed bag. On the plus side, it takes more effort than the spyderfly, which occasionally opens in my pocket (scary). However, the latch takes huge effort from my hands to open...it's fairly uncomfortable. Likewise, it takes a lot of effort to close the latch. It does stay out of the way well and looks much nicer than the Spyderfly's latch. Furthermore, it can be latched open, so I can set it aside during use.
On the downside, the handles aren't even close to as grippy as the spyderfly's. The belt clip is definitely in the way of latch drops. I'll take the spyderfly any day for flipping hand comfort. Nonetheless, the benchmade is much more comfortable in my hand when open. On a side note, it's also much less noticeable in the pocket due to its greatly decreased width. However, the spyderfly's spyderhole equivalents make it very easy to draw. The spyderfly's belt clip is also vastly superior in both looks and actual function. Furthermore, the shape of the spyderfly's belt clip (two separate bars with space inbetween) lends to its grippiness.
The blade is probably the most unique and interesting part of the 41MC. It's called the recurve blade, but I've seen a lot of recurves in my day and none of them looked like this. Preferences aside, this is a beautifully crafted blade that puts everything else I own to shame. I do like the recurve style blade, but not as much as some alternatives. It definitely adds an exotic feel. When you think recurve, I think you'd be better to picture "khukuri-light." Perhaps the diet coke of khukuris. But a photo is worth a thousand words. Or picture. Whatever.
The blade is made out of a favorite steel of mine, D2, which was a large reason I purchased this particular benchmade bali. Feeling along the blade, I was surprised that it didn't feel sharp at all. I decided to put it to the test with a cardboard box, or the technical name, Canadian Cardboard monster. It absolutely demolished the cardboard like nothing I've ever seen before, including my VG10 Spyderfly and other D2 benchmade minigrip. It cut a line straight through the entire length of the box, about a foot in length, with almost no effort outside of gravity. This is one bizarre edge. It also shaves hair like nothing I've seen.
Fit and finish is perfect. It has superior fit and finish over any other knife I own, including my other benchmade and pacific cutlery. And, more notable in the bali world, the fit and finish is vastly superior to my spyderfly, which not only has imperfections, but actually came with a bent latch. Flawless...you certainly will not be disappointed in this area.
It's quite pricey at about 140 from NGK (is there any other store?), especially considering you can get a spyderfly for 70. If you look hard, you can even get a VG10 one (like I did). Does twice the money get you twice the knife? The quick answer is no. I'm still not sure which is my favorite between the two. They're roughly equals, in my opinion. But I nonetheless love my 41MC and must wholeheartedly recommend it to bali fans, but moreso to normal pocket knife users (like myself)....the bali, as a simple user, has really impressed me--seriously, all tricks aside, find a decent bali (spyderfly, 42 etc) and USE it. My spyderfly quickly found preference over some very decent folders.
Update:
Some users felt that I should note my inexperience with bali flipping in the review, so--I'm inexperienced with flipping. I only know a few tricks, and the only bali I can really compare this to is my spyderfly.
One thing that has been recently impressing me is how solid this knife feels when open and locked. Around production folders, you hear a lot about "folding fixed blades." This is the first knife I've used that really feels like it could deliver on this promise.
The first thing I notice about the knife was the weight. I had expected the knife to be much lighter, being titanium. As it stands, it's only slightly lighter than my spyderfly. I'm actually even a little nervous that I might have received an SS model by mistake. I wish I had my lab here so I could actually weigh them but maybe I'll make a trip over there in a couple weeks and test.
Despite this, it is still pretty light for its size. It feels much lighter when open, inexplicably.
The balance is far superior to the spyderfly...you never feel that there is a lead weight at the end of the handles...this is more or less because it's true--the handles are pretty much the same all the way through. This seems to make it more predictable.
The play is slightly less than that of the spyderfly out of the box, but fairly comparable. The benchmade is pretty noisy...it is even a little squeaky. It's too bad, because the spyderfly sounds beautiful when it "sings."
The latch is a mixed bag. On the plus side, it takes more effort than the spyderfly, which occasionally opens in my pocket (scary). However, the latch takes huge effort from my hands to open...it's fairly uncomfortable. Likewise, it takes a lot of effort to close the latch. It does stay out of the way well and looks much nicer than the Spyderfly's latch. Furthermore, it can be latched open, so I can set it aside during use.
On the downside, the handles aren't even close to as grippy as the spyderfly's. The belt clip is definitely in the way of latch drops. I'll take the spyderfly any day for flipping hand comfort. Nonetheless, the benchmade is much more comfortable in my hand when open. On a side note, it's also much less noticeable in the pocket due to its greatly decreased width. However, the spyderfly's spyderhole equivalents make it very easy to draw. The spyderfly's belt clip is also vastly superior in both looks and actual function. Furthermore, the shape of the spyderfly's belt clip (two separate bars with space inbetween) lends to its grippiness.
The blade is probably the most unique and interesting part of the 41MC. It's called the recurve blade, but I've seen a lot of recurves in my day and none of them looked like this. Preferences aside, this is a beautifully crafted blade that puts everything else I own to shame. I do like the recurve style blade, but not as much as some alternatives. It definitely adds an exotic feel. When you think recurve, I think you'd be better to picture "khukuri-light." Perhaps the diet coke of khukuris. But a photo is worth a thousand words. Or picture. Whatever.
The blade is made out of a favorite steel of mine, D2, which was a large reason I purchased this particular benchmade bali. Feeling along the blade, I was surprised that it didn't feel sharp at all. I decided to put it to the test with a cardboard box, or the technical name, Canadian Cardboard monster. It absolutely demolished the cardboard like nothing I've ever seen before, including my VG10 Spyderfly and other D2 benchmade minigrip. It cut a line straight through the entire length of the box, about a foot in length, with almost no effort outside of gravity. This is one bizarre edge. It also shaves hair like nothing I've seen.
Fit and finish is perfect. It has superior fit and finish over any other knife I own, including my other benchmade and pacific cutlery. And, more notable in the bali world, the fit and finish is vastly superior to my spyderfly, which not only has imperfections, but actually came with a bent latch. Flawless...you certainly will not be disappointed in this area.
It's quite pricey at about 140 from NGK (is there any other store?), especially considering you can get a spyderfly for 70. If you look hard, you can even get a VG10 one (like I did). Does twice the money get you twice the knife? The quick answer is no. I'm still not sure which is my favorite between the two. They're roughly equals, in my opinion. But I nonetheless love my 41MC and must wholeheartedly recommend it to bali fans, but moreso to normal pocket knife users (like myself)....the bali, as a simple user, has really impressed me--seriously, all tricks aside, find a decent bali (spyderfly, 42 etc) and USE it. My spyderfly quickly found preference over some very decent folders.
Update:
Some users felt that I should note my inexperience with bali flipping in the review, so--I'm inexperienced with flipping. I only know a few tricks, and the only bali I can really compare this to is my spyderfly.
One thing that has been recently impressing me is how solid this knife feels when open and locked. Around production folders, you hear a lot about "folding fixed blades." This is the first knife I've used that really feels like it could deliver on this promise.
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