My "new" BM970

Tony8179

Tony8179

Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Messages
4,066
This was one of the first quality knives I ever bought probably about 15 years ago. I ended up chipping the edge pretty badly in a few spots so it went back into its box and the plan was to send it to Benchmade to see if they could do something with it. That never happened and it just sat in the box. While I was cleaning up a few things I found it and decided I wanted my 970 back. I contacted Phillip Dobson and boy did he hook me up. Got rid of the serrations, raised the grind, gave the front edge a convex, gave the whole blade a satin finish, made scales of amboyna burl, bolsters of black paper Micarta, and flipped the clip to tip up. All I had to say was "Wow!" when I opened the box. Phil even threw in a ferro rod with what appears to be a denim micarta handle. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

I know that a screw is missing from the clip, but it's right where the old lanyard hole is so I'll either have to shear a screw down to almost nothing and glue it in place or have a custom clip made. I'd like to keep the Benchmade clip on it though.

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1353 (800 x 600).jpg
    IMG_1353 (800 x 600).jpg
    75.8 KB · Views: 309
  • IMG_1352 (800 x 600).jpg
    IMG_1352 (800 x 600).jpg
    72.6 KB · Views: 306
  • IMG_1356 (800 x 600).jpg
    IMG_1356 (800 x 600).jpg
    61.1 KB · Views: 307
  • IMG_1355 (800 x 600).jpg
    IMG_1355 (800 x 600).jpg
    56.2 KB · Views: 306
  • IMG_1351 (800 x 600).jpg
    IMG_1351 (800 x 600).jpg
    75.5 KB · Views: 307
Last edited:
What happened to the carbide?
 
This has an ATS-34 blade. My box says ST. I always figured ST stood for the partial serrations.
 
After doing a bit of research I found that the ST models had a Titanium blade with a carbide edge. I don't understand what ST stands for, but obviously what I have is not an ST model. And for all these years I thought ST stood for serrations.
 
I don't think it stands for Serrated Tanto. I've been delving into a bit more research on the 970ST name and I've found that some ST models came with a partially serrated blade and some did not, but all are Titanium blades with a carbidized edge. Here's a little Q & A I found.

Q - Titanium is not very hard, why did you use it for the blade on the model 970ST?

A - The model 970ST was built at the request of a military organization who needed a strong, lightweight, non magnetic, non corrosive, folding prybar with some limited cutting ability. In our efforts to increase the cutting ability we discovered the tungsten tantalum carbide that is deposited on the cutting edge of the blade.

While the Sharptek carbide treatment DRAMATICALLY increases the cutting potential of the titanium blades, it is not a magic coating and is not superior to steel in terms of edge retention.

We do not recommend the 970ST as an every day working knife. You would be much better served with one of the steel blades for every day use. Where the titanium blade would really shine is as an emergency tool in a corrosive environment where it would require very little maintenance but would be there, and work, when you REALLY need it.
 
Tony8179 said:
Here's a little Q & A I found.

Q - Titanium is not very hard, why did you use it for the blade on the model 970ST?

A - The model 970ST was built at the request of a military organization who needed a strong, lightweight, non magnetic, non corrosive, folding prybar with some limited cutting ability. In our efforts to increase the cutting ability we discovered the tungsten tantalum carbide that is deposited on the cutting edge of the blade.

While the Sharptek carbide treatment DRAMATICALLY increases the cutting potential of the titanium blades, it is not a magic coating and is not superior to steel in terms of edge retention.

We do not recommend the 970ST as an every day working knife. You would be much better served with one of the steel blades for every day use. Where the titanium blade would really shine is as an emergency tool in a corrosive environment where it would require very little maintenance but would be there, and work, when you REALLY need it.
Click to expand...

I suspect your 970 got mixed up with a 970ST box at some point. As has already been stated, the ST is a special edition with a titanium blade and a tugnsten carbide edge. I disagree with their assessment of the carbide's performance, however, based on what I know about TC and it's use on knives (which isn't much but I'll give my opinion anyways). The 970ST was one of the first knives to use tungsten carbide on the edge, and maybe they didn't know much about it or have much experience with it. Edge retention=wear resistance. While TC does not have great wear resistance, it always provides it's own toothy edge (microserrations). As one layer is worn away, another presents itself with the same cutting capacity. Steel doesn't do that. With steel, you have to resharpen, with TC, it mostly sharpens itself. So if you just had a little on the edge then it could wear away quickly, but if you have a nice amount, it would take a long time to burn through it, so I would call that excellent wear resistance in terms of the knife's performance. The blade on this knife cuts very well. I think it is well suited for EDC
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top