Griptilian D2 information

[Gershwin]

Is this knife still in production? --- _556_ BTW.

(I've just ordered a 2d-hand 'grippie') With an eye to heat treating, I wonder what the Mel Pardue name means for me? He is Design Department, so.... The hardening process for this particular steel seems to me to be a responsibility of another group. ??

Do we know the bevel angle to which this knife (probably) has been sharpened?


wanting to learn about my knife,
-Paul

PS'Other observations and notes welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[RevDevil]

http://www.benchmade.com/products/556
Yes, it is still in production as far as I can tell. I honestly cannot understand the second paragraph of your post. Mel Pardue is a custom knife maker (not just design department), if you Google his name, then click on "Images" you can see some of his custom pieces. He does make some pretty awesome knives.

I assume Benchmade does their own heat treating of all their knives. You don't get to their status by farming out that work forever. Hardening regular D2 is well within the ability of a large production knife manufacturer such as Benchmade. Is that somehow hard to believe?

Benchmade typically sharpens their knives to a 80 degree inclusive edge. Since you got it "second hand" I would imagine the person selling you the knife can answer the more specific question you have. As far as other observations? The 556 has been talked about to a large extent in the forums, click the "Search" icon and I'm sure you will find literally hundreds of threads on the knife, comparing it to others, reviews are in the reviews section, etc.

 

[ooitzoo]

My D2 grip is likely my user/edc favorite knife. I think the standard angle that Benchmade ships at is 40 degrees. The knife readily takes a much more acute angle (I have mine at 26 degrees.) The D2 steel is also my favorite blade steel because of this knife.

I don't much about the heat treat in itself but I love Benchmade's D2. The design is the same as other grips and as far as an EDC goes its about as close to a perfect as it gets.