M390 + Carbon Fiber Military - They're Here...

Got it. Very very nice. Perfectly centered blade, even grinds, good action. Outstanding!


Now the question is - use it and be happy, or keep it pristine and set it aside to possibly sell for profit later? Shoulda ordered two, I guess! :o
 
Heh...nah, i was parked. I grabbed the package from my mailbox as i was leaving for work and took a few minutes of quality time with them before i left. Thanks for the concern though.
 
Sal and his team done good with this one. I haven't had a chance to test the steel yet, but Spyderco has a great track record with steel treatments.

My Military M390 came with a perfectly centered blade. The lock is perfect. The leading edge of the locking bar carries to 50 percent. The blade lock up is solid. The knife opens smoothly. Very smoothly. My best Military. Fit and finish are excellent.

The edge is sharp and grind is pretty even -- 18 degrees on one side and 16 degrees on the other. It will reprofile to 15/15 easily. The point came very pointy, which is not all that common these days with factory knives.

Besides being a well-made knife with lots of blade, the Military is perfect for fine use. The full flat grind coupled with a narrow shoulder-to-shoulder edge width and a pointy point makes for an incredible slicer and detail cutter.

I compared it to my AFCK in M390. The AFCK is a little heavier and a little thicker. Benchmade did a good job with its M390, and the AFCK is pretty awesome because it has such a narrow edge shoulder width, which is a prime determinant for cutting ability. For comparison:

Military M390: 0.025 shoulder width
AFCK M390: 0.024
Gayle Bradley: 0.023
Sebenza: 0.017

All these knives are excellent slicers with narrow shoulder widths. The Sebenza is also backed by a hollow grind blade, so it's in a category of its own. The Gayle Bradley also has a hollow grind blade, but it's not as high as the Sebenza. The Military's full flat grind is excellent. The AFCK is a sabre grind. It's a little difficult to compare the AFCK to the Military because the Military has an advantage in the FFG, but the AFCK blade stock is slightly thinner. However, the distal taper is is different between the two, so I'm guessing the Military and AFCK are very close.

The Military carries better than the AFCK, but it's close. I like the axis lock better, but the Military is so smooth that it doesn't really matter that much. I know with the Military M4 a state-of-the-art framelock/RIL was used, but I never felt that the liner lock on the Military was a weakness.

The ergos on the Miliary and the AFCK are similar. I like the AFCK a bit more because of the thicker handle. And I like the sculpted G10 scales better. But the Military carries better and is lighter. It's a wash. I like both the Military and AFCK better for ergos than the Sebenza and a lot more than the GB.

M390 is my favorite EDC steel. Easy to sharpen. Stainless. Holds a sharp edge extremely well. I'm not sure about toughness, but it's more than enough for an EDC.

Mostly, I'm just really, really happy with the new Military. Get one if you can. I'm almost ready to forgive Sal for dropping the original Manix.
 
Twindog said:
Sal and his team done good with this one. I haven't had a chance to test the steel yet, but Spyderco has a great track record with steel treatments.

My Military M390 came with a perfectly centered blade. The lock is perfect. The leading edge of the locking bar carries to 50 percent. The blade lock up is solid. The knife opens smoothly. Very smoothly. My best Military. Fit and finish are excellent.

The edge is sharp and grind is pretty even -- 18 degrees on one side and 16 degrees on the other. It will reprofile to 15/15 easily. The point came very pointy, which is not all that common these days with factory knives.

Besides being a well-made knife with lots of blade, the Military is perfect for fine use. The full flat grind coupled with a narrow shoulder-to-shoulder edge width and a pointy point makes for an incredible slicer and detail cutter.

I compared it to my AFCK in M390. The AFCK is a little heavier and a little thicker. Benchmade did a good job with its M390, and the AFCK is pretty awesome because it has such a narrow edge shoulder width, which is a prime determinant for cutting ability. For comparison:

Military M390: 0.025 shoulder width
AFCK M390: 0.024
Gayle Bradley: 0.023
Sebenza: 0.017

All these knives are excellent slicers with narrow shoulder widths. The Sebenza is also backed by a hollow grind blade, so it's in a category of its own. The Gayle Bradley also has a hollow grind blade, but it's not as high as the Sebenza. The Military's full flat grind is excellent. The AFCK is a sabre grind. It's a little difficult to compare the AFCK to the Military because the Military has an advantage in the FFG, but the AFCK blade stock is slightly thinner. However, the distal taper is is different between the two, so I'm guessing the Military and AFCK are very close.

The Military carries better than the AFCK, but it's close. I like the axis lock better, but the Military is so smooth that it doesn't really matter that much. I know with the Military M4 a state-of-the-art framelock/RIL was used, but I never felt that the liner lock on the Military was a weakness.

The ergos on the Miliary and the AFCK are similar. I like the AFCK a bit more because of the thicker handle. And I like the sculpted G10 scales better. But the Military carries better and is lighter. It's a wash. I like both the Military and AFCK better for ergos than the Sebenza and a lot more than the GB.

M390 is my favorite EDC steel. Easy to sharpen. Stainless. Holds a sharp edge extremely well. I'm not sure about toughness, but it's more than enough for an EDC.

Mostly, I'm just really, really happy with the new Military. Get one if you can. I'm almost ready to forgive Sal for dropping the original Manix.
Click to expand...

You know, I woke up this morning thinking I wanted to do a comparison between the Military in M390 and the AFCK in M390. Thank you for writing this up. I agree with 95% of what you wrote.
 
For those interested, a couple of cellphone pics of the M390 blade alongside the M4 blade. I am guessing that the extra through-hole in the M390 blade is a process/tooling hole, but that's a WAG.

c36blade1.jpg


c36blade2.jpg
 
capid1 said:
You know, I woke up this morning thinking I wanted to do a comparison between the Military in M390 and the AFCK in M390. Thank you for writing this up. I agree with 95% of what you wrote.
Click to expand...

I'd be interested in where we disagree. On a good day, I'm usually wrong 75 percent of the time, so I have a lot of wide open spaces to grow.

I like to compare these two knives because they are, in my mind, the best expression of Benchmade and Spyderco's EDC philosophy.
 
Twindog said:
I'd be interested in where we disagree. On a good day, I'm usually wrong 75 percent of the time, so I have a lot of wide open spaces to grow.

I like to compare these two knives because they are, in my mind, the best expression of Benchmade and Spyderco's EDC philosophy.
Click to expand...

The information you supplied was spot on from what I read. I honestly wish the Military was just a bit heavier but less than the weight of the AFCK.
 
That's an interesting thought. Obviously there's no single right answer, just personal preference. When the hybrid Military dealer limited edition with one titanium scale and one G10 scale, I thought that they'd achieved an optimal in-hand balance ratio between the all-G10 and the all-Ti. Life being what it is, and me being somewhat fickle, I've gone back to preferring (very slightly) the all-G10 and find my M390 AFCK a little heavy (due to those full, thick liners).

capid1 said:
The information you supplied was spot on from what I read. I honestly wish the Military was just a bit heavier but less than the weight of the AFCK.
Click to expand...
 
The Military M390 struck me as being too light, as well, but I think that's because we've come to think of weight as a proxy for quality. In reality, the new Military's light weight is testament to the superb engineering that went into it. Weight is important in a hammer or ax, but it isn't needed in an EDC knife.

And these days, I carry a large kit in my pockets: EDC knife, multi-tool, flashlight, magnesium fire starter, mini-prybar, lighter, English/metric tape measure, keys, etc. All these things are light, but the weight adds up. I appreciate that I can get such a large knife as the Military in such a light weight.
 
In fairness (or something like that), the earlier Military was even lighter! :D OTOH, the full-Ti version feels a little heavy - there's a lot of metal in that version. Choice is good!!! :thumbup:

Twindog said:
The Military M390 struck me as being too light, as well, but I think that's because we've come to think of weight as a proxy for quality. In reality, the new Military's light weight is testament to the superb engineering that went into it. Weight is important in a hammer or ax, but it isn't needed in an EDC knife.

And these days, I carry a large kit in my pockets: EDC knife, multi-tool, flashlight, magnesium fire starter, mini-prybar, lighter, English/metric tape measure, keys, etc. All these things are light, but the weight adds up. I appreciate that I can get such a large knife as the Military in such a light weight.
Click to expand...
 
Mine arrived today and I couldn't be happier! It makes a nice pairing with my CF/S90V P2 and may have just bumped my G10/Ti M4 Millie out of it's top slot in my Spydie collection. A big thank you to everyone at Spyderco and KW.
 
capid1 said:
The information you supplied was spot on from what I read. I honestly wish the Military was just a bit heavier but less than the weight of the AFCK.
Click to expand...

the fluted milie may be your best bet, from what i've read it's way lighter that the normal flat TI and slightly heavier than a G10 one.
 
pwet said:
the fluted milie may be your best bet, from what i've read it's way lighter that the normal flat TI and slightly heavier than a G10 one.
Click to expand...

I may have to look into that. If the blade can be swapped without recourse it may be "perfect" for me!
 
capid1 said:
I may have to look into that. If the blade can be swapped without recourse it may be "perfect" for me!
Click to expand...

Total crap-shoot IME! :) I was going to post on this anyway, so....here's a pic of my second try at this, below. This one works great, locks up safely. The first try, with the blade from my other M390 Military, did notlock up safely. :(

For those who haven't picked up what we're talking about, take a look at the handles, especially the side that's only showing in the cutout. We're doing a blade swap with the CPM-M4/Ti+G10 KW limited. The M390 blade is a very nice swap, but all the usual warnings apply - you risk your warranty and maybe your fingers, don't do this unless you are sure you know what you're doing with a blade swap on these or any knife. (Sorry, gotta say that... ;) )

M390TI.jpg
 
I figured it might be a crap shoot and an expensive one at that. It is my first Military so I'll give it a fair enough time in the pocket but if it doesn't work out I'll put it on the Exchange.

JNewell said:
Total crap-shoot IME! :) I was going to post on this anyway, so....here's a pic of my second try at this, below. This one works great, locks up safely. The first try, with the blade from my other M390 Military, did notlock up safely. :(

For those who haven't picked up what we're talking about, take a look at the handles, especially the side that's only showing in the cutout. We're doing a blade swap with the CPM-M4/Ti+G10 KW limited. The M390 blade is a very nice swap, but all the usual warnings apply - you risk your warranty and maybe your fingers, don't do this unless you are sure you know what you're doing with a blade swap on these or any knife. (Sorry, gotta say that... ;) )

M390TI.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Here's some more pics of the Ti/G10/M390 hack. :D Again, this it totally at your own risk (fingers, warranty, etc.)

M390TI1.jpg


M390TI2.jpg


M390TI3.jpg


M390TI4.jpg


M390TI5.jpg
 
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