- Joined
- Jan 8, 2005
- Messages
- 597
Had to share the good news. A new baby? A new job? Nope - my new Benchmade Rukus arrived today! Here's the offical specs, then first impressions and some pictures:
Blade Length: 4.25"
Blade Thickness: 0.150"
Blade Material: S30V Stainless Steel
Blade Hardness: 58-60HRC
Blade Style: Utility Drop-Point; Ambidextrous Dual Thumb-Studs
Weight: 7.70oz.
Clip: Black, Reversible, Tip-Up
Lock Mechanism: AXIS
Overall Length: 10.12"
Closed Length: 5.95"
Sheath Material: No Sheath
Class: Blue
First impression - huge! Bigger than I thought it would be, even with the over 4-inch blade. If you look at the pictures below, you can see that the handle length is about the same as the 5.5 inch Maxx. The handle is quite wide, and a very nice touch is that it is contoured, with a "palm swell" near the top third of the handle, and narrow down toward the bottom. With the wide but not too "deep" handle, and its gentle sculpturing, its the most comfortable handle of any folder I've had. Usually, you take a flat handle for ease of pocket carry but its not the best for hard use - the Wegner Pro Hunter suffers from this. The Benchmade AFCK and the LoneWolf T2 have pretty good handles though, I'll admit.
The liners are very thick, as is the blade - this is one sturdy knife! Could this be the elusive "folding fixed blade?"
There is just a tiny bit of side to side blade play, but I think if you got it so tight as to eliminate every last bit of play, you'd never be able to open the knife. The blade is excellent, evenly shaped, edge doesn't "wander," perfect centering in the handle, came shaving sharp out of the box; actually it just wiped the hair right off my arm. I did the test where you gently put the blade on your fingernail to see how it catches... and it just effortlessly shaved off a thin layer of nail. I also tried it out on a wide pine dowel - closet hanger rod I think it used to be - and it "whiffed" off large pieces with no effort. Its a big wide flat grind and cuts wonderfully. Very very pointy too. I love the blade shape, for me its the most useful style.
Axis lock works very well, and they've correctly adjusted it so that there's room for self adjustment as the bearing surface wears over time.
Fit and finish are excellent. The g-10 is textured but smooth, not sandpapery at all, and the micarta is done the same way. Good grip retention but you could also use it for many hours and not worry about blisters.
As the Rukus has great self defense potential, I'll mention that the front guard actually works as a guard - you are not going to slip forward onto the blade with this knife if you thrust into a hard target. That's something the T2 fails to offer, along with large number of "tactical" folders. Blade shape is perfect for defense, and the wide handle a joy to hold. Also, the handle is so long that unless your hands are huge, you can easily hold it with the back three fingers in the rear curve of the handle and the index finger in the middle curve, giving you about the same reach as if you had a six inch blade on a four inch handle.
Flaws? Hard to find. I take the clips off my knifes, and doing that revealed that the shallow "troughs" on both sides of the handle for the reversable clip are not cut evenly - one is a fair amount deeper than the other. But its not too bad. I'm not thrilled with the thumb studs - they are small and kind of "edgy" or "pointy" under your thumb. Not sure how they could have made it much different though. Also, they are screwed together and so they have little holes in them... which is going to irritate me when I have to clean them out. The only other thing that stood out to me was that the part of the blade that is contained in the knife, the little "tang" where the pivot hole is, is only about half the width of the visible blade. I suppose though it will be pretty unlikely that this "weakness" will manifest itself in a failure of the blade in the field.
Ok, here's some pictures. The first is just the Rukus, then compared to a T2 and an AFCK, and finally the width comparison with, left to right, T2, AFCK, Rukus, Skirmish, and 5.5" Maxx.
If you want a big sturdy comfortable general use and defense knife, I'd highly recommend it. I got mine for $169, and getting such excellent quality for that price just makes a knife nut like me smile.
Blade Length: 4.25"
Blade Thickness: 0.150"
Blade Material: S30V Stainless Steel
Blade Hardness: 58-60HRC
Blade Style: Utility Drop-Point; Ambidextrous Dual Thumb-Studs
Weight: 7.70oz.
Clip: Black, Reversible, Tip-Up
Lock Mechanism: AXIS
Overall Length: 10.12"
Closed Length: 5.95"
Sheath Material: No Sheath
Class: Blue
First impression - huge! Bigger than I thought it would be, even with the over 4-inch blade. If you look at the pictures below, you can see that the handle length is about the same as the 5.5 inch Maxx. The handle is quite wide, and a very nice touch is that it is contoured, with a "palm swell" near the top third of the handle, and narrow down toward the bottom. With the wide but not too "deep" handle, and its gentle sculpturing, its the most comfortable handle of any folder I've had. Usually, you take a flat handle for ease of pocket carry but its not the best for hard use - the Wegner Pro Hunter suffers from this. The Benchmade AFCK and the LoneWolf T2 have pretty good handles though, I'll admit.
The liners are very thick, as is the blade - this is one sturdy knife! Could this be the elusive "folding fixed blade?"
There is just a tiny bit of side to side blade play, but I think if you got it so tight as to eliminate every last bit of play, you'd never be able to open the knife. The blade is excellent, evenly shaped, edge doesn't "wander," perfect centering in the handle, came shaving sharp out of the box; actually it just wiped the hair right off my arm. I did the test where you gently put the blade on your fingernail to see how it catches... and it just effortlessly shaved off a thin layer of nail. I also tried it out on a wide pine dowel - closet hanger rod I think it used to be - and it "whiffed" off large pieces with no effort. Its a big wide flat grind and cuts wonderfully. Very very pointy too. I love the blade shape, for me its the most useful style.
Axis lock works very well, and they've correctly adjusted it so that there's room for self adjustment as the bearing surface wears over time.
Fit and finish are excellent. The g-10 is textured but smooth, not sandpapery at all, and the micarta is done the same way. Good grip retention but you could also use it for many hours and not worry about blisters.
As the Rukus has great self defense potential, I'll mention that the front guard actually works as a guard - you are not going to slip forward onto the blade with this knife if you thrust into a hard target. That's something the T2 fails to offer, along with large number of "tactical" folders. Blade shape is perfect for defense, and the wide handle a joy to hold. Also, the handle is so long that unless your hands are huge, you can easily hold it with the back three fingers in the rear curve of the handle and the index finger in the middle curve, giving you about the same reach as if you had a six inch blade on a four inch handle.
Flaws? Hard to find. I take the clips off my knifes, and doing that revealed that the shallow "troughs" on both sides of the handle for the reversable clip are not cut evenly - one is a fair amount deeper than the other. But its not too bad. I'm not thrilled with the thumb studs - they are small and kind of "edgy" or "pointy" under your thumb. Not sure how they could have made it much different though. Also, they are screwed together and so they have little holes in them... which is going to irritate me when I have to clean them out. The only other thing that stood out to me was that the part of the blade that is contained in the knife, the little "tang" where the pivot hole is, is only about half the width of the visible blade. I suppose though it will be pretty unlikely that this "weakness" will manifest itself in a failure of the blade in the field.
Ok, here's some pictures. The first is just the Rukus, then compared to a T2 and an AFCK, and finally the width comparison with, left to right, T2, AFCK, Rukus, Skirmish, and 5.5" Maxx.
If you want a big sturdy comfortable general use and defense knife, I'd highly recommend it. I got mine for $169, and getting such excellent quality for that price just makes a knife nut like me smile.
