- Joined
- Jun 8, 2005
- Messages
- 4,761
I just wanted to do a brief overview of the Gravitator for people that can't play with one in real life.
The most obvious feature of this knife is it's strange (but beautiful) styling. I specifically chose this knife to replace my blue bump because of its eccentricity.
The G10 is used to magnificent effect. This is a very different texture than most G10, using long (vertical axis) grooves down the black area, and smooth silver twill at the top. The silver twill itself has a lot of depth and gives it a bit of a 3D appearance. It's not a bright as the silver twill in the Spyker, if I recall though.
The attention to detail is the greatest of any production knife I've ever seen. This is a knife for people who want custom styling at a reasonable price. This knife is not boring to look at from any angle. The shiny large backspacers, the brilliant wharncliffe or the grooved lock are all impressive. Snody and Benchmade didn't neglect a single visual aspect of the knife.
The action is incredible. This is the smoothest and most free (without blade play, anyway) liner lock I've ever used, comparable to Emerson's production knives. This makes the knife very flickable.
The lockup is perfect, with the entire very thick titanium lockbar touching the tang, but with 50% of the tang left to account for wear. The lockbar takes just the right amount of force to unlock. All too often my crosslocks will take so much forced to get the bar across again that my thumb builds huge calluses. Not so with the gravitator. This might reduce lock wear also.
The balance of the knife is the best of any folder I've ever had. It feels perfect.
This knife is only available in right side tip down carry, so a lot of people will be left out. The clip works well (it's the same one used on most Benchmades) but is unattractive, in my opinion. I'd rather have an anodized and plain clip like on the morpho. No big deal though, I think I'll pay STR to make me some new clips.
The blade is 154CM and is a really interesting wharncliffe design. This is my very first wharncliffe, and it's quite a departure from my normal love of recurves. I really like the thumb rap on the back, it's much longer than normal and is concave. It really allows you to utilize your thumb during cutting.
The ergonomics are surprisingly excellent. The weird handle shape had initially discouraged me, and Benchmade (in my opinion) only rarely has very good ergonomics (at least in compariison with Spyderco and some Kershaws). The feel is very reminiscent of the dodo, except the grooves in the handle are much less pronounced on the gravitator. This makes it slightly less comfortable than the dodo, but more adaptable in different grips. Further, it's probably more compatible with extreme hand sizes in either direction.
Fit and finish is excellent. Blade is centered, the grind is even and there's no play at all, despite how easy it is to open. There is one minor flaw, a tiny unfinished area before the thumb ramp, but it's extremely small and I don't think anyone would notice it casually.
One slight concern I have is that there's not much ball detent in the knife. It's adequate, but I could definitely see it opening on its own once or twice in its life time. However, being tip down only, not really that big of a deal.
The thumbstuds are larger than normal and are placed very well for the thumb. Opening this knife is a sinch.
Overall, an excellent knife. It won't replace the morpho as my favorite, but this will definitely stay in my EDC rotation for years.
UPDATE****************************
I've been using this knife pretty extensively for a couple weeks now. Here are a few things I've noticed: first, the knife isn't particularly sharp...I'm so often disappointed with out of the box sharpness, but I think this is the least sharp knife I've received in awhile, which is borderline dull. My months old 960 is still much, much sharper than this was new. Benchmade has to be the least consistent in sharpness of the high end production knives...from absolutely excellent to acceptable to not very good, it seems like a random draw. But, I find this barely acceptable. It's useable, at least.
The knife is a little too wide when closed...the thumb ramp is excellent, but the upswept turn makes it a little bigger than it should be, not unlike a spyderco (due to the hole). I'm not sure if I'd change it though...it's a compromise. Spyderco fans shouldn't find this bothersome.
I really like Benchmade's interpretation of the liner lock. In every aspect it seems better than my other company's linerlocks.
The most obvious feature of this knife is it's strange (but beautiful) styling. I specifically chose this knife to replace my blue bump because of its eccentricity.
The G10 is used to magnificent effect. This is a very different texture than most G10, using long (vertical axis) grooves down the black area, and smooth silver twill at the top. The silver twill itself has a lot of depth and gives it a bit of a 3D appearance. It's not a bright as the silver twill in the Spyker, if I recall though.
The attention to detail is the greatest of any production knife I've ever seen. This is a knife for people who want custom styling at a reasonable price. This knife is not boring to look at from any angle. The shiny large backspacers, the brilliant wharncliffe or the grooved lock are all impressive. Snody and Benchmade didn't neglect a single visual aspect of the knife.
The action is incredible. This is the smoothest and most free (without blade play, anyway) liner lock I've ever used, comparable to Emerson's production knives. This makes the knife very flickable.
The lockup is perfect, with the entire very thick titanium lockbar touching the tang, but with 50% of the tang left to account for wear. The lockbar takes just the right amount of force to unlock. All too often my crosslocks will take so much forced to get the bar across again that my thumb builds huge calluses. Not so with the gravitator. This might reduce lock wear also.
The balance of the knife is the best of any folder I've ever had. It feels perfect.
This knife is only available in right side tip down carry, so a lot of people will be left out. The clip works well (it's the same one used on most Benchmades) but is unattractive, in my opinion. I'd rather have an anodized and plain clip like on the morpho. No big deal though, I think I'll pay STR to make me some new clips.
The blade is 154CM and is a really interesting wharncliffe design. This is my very first wharncliffe, and it's quite a departure from my normal love of recurves. I really like the thumb rap on the back, it's much longer than normal and is concave. It really allows you to utilize your thumb during cutting.
The ergonomics are surprisingly excellent. The weird handle shape had initially discouraged me, and Benchmade (in my opinion) only rarely has very good ergonomics (at least in compariison with Spyderco and some Kershaws). The feel is very reminiscent of the dodo, except the grooves in the handle are much less pronounced on the gravitator. This makes it slightly less comfortable than the dodo, but more adaptable in different grips. Further, it's probably more compatible with extreme hand sizes in either direction.
Fit and finish is excellent. Blade is centered, the grind is even and there's no play at all, despite how easy it is to open. There is one minor flaw, a tiny unfinished area before the thumb ramp, but it's extremely small and I don't think anyone would notice it casually.
One slight concern I have is that there's not much ball detent in the knife. It's adequate, but I could definitely see it opening on its own once or twice in its life time. However, being tip down only, not really that big of a deal.
The thumbstuds are larger than normal and are placed very well for the thumb. Opening this knife is a sinch.
Overall, an excellent knife. It won't replace the morpho as my favorite, but this will definitely stay in my EDC rotation for years.
UPDATE****************************
I've been using this knife pretty extensively for a couple weeks now. Here are a few things I've noticed: first, the knife isn't particularly sharp...I'm so often disappointed with out of the box sharpness, but I think this is the least sharp knife I've received in awhile, which is borderline dull. My months old 960 is still much, much sharper than this was new. Benchmade has to be the least consistent in sharpness of the high end production knives...from absolutely excellent to acceptable to not very good, it seems like a random draw. But, I find this barely acceptable. It's useable, at least.
The knife is a little too wide when closed...the thumb ramp is excellent, but the upswept turn makes it a little bigger than it should be, not unlike a spyderco (due to the hole). I'm not sure if I'd change it though...it's a compromise. Spyderco fans shouldn't find this bothersome.
I really like Benchmade's interpretation of the liner lock. In every aspect it seems better than my other company's linerlocks.
.
