Opinions on the Monolock/Mini Monolock?

DrRollinstein

DrRollinstein

Joined
Feb 20, 2018
Messages
1,440
Im interested in the knife, love the look of it, but id like to hear some general thoughts on it. The price is a bit heavy but id be willing to pay it if its solid. The regular is a tad bigger than i buy normally and the mini is a tad smaller, so thats another decision id have to make.
 
I have the mini, and it's a great knife for light edc use. Mine doesn't see much action, as I've given the M390 blade a mirrored edge that is freakishly sharp and I don't really want to use it :D. The pivot is on bearings, so it's almost always smooth. I'd say the Monolock series is one of the best non-axis knives Benchmade has ever produced.
 
I really like the looks of this line, and the mini is just the right size for me. I got to try one in a store and it was VERY smooth and felt great in hand -- but it was too right handed for me. I'm a lefty and I just couldn't get along with the frame lock and the right thumb only thumb stud. Wish they made one for lefties.
 
I'd recommend holding one if you can. I was interested and finally found one at a local store to try. It's well built, but I found the spot where the lock bar cutout was (with a little overtravel stop tab) to be extremely sharp-cornered and very uncomfortable in hand, even just holding it lightly. On heavy use I'm quite convinced it could even draw blood. Perhaps that was just how my hand fit on it, but that paired with the pocket clip that has almost no flex put it firmly in the no-go pile for me. Confirming that last point, if you watch almost any video of someone pulling it out of their pocket you'll notice that it rides awfully high out of the pocket (high enough on the mini that it almost wants to tip out of the pocket) and is quite difficult to draw. Just my 2 cents.
 
They have a very high quality feel to them. Sort od like an angular sebenza. I know that the bigger one only came tip down only when first releases, and the smaller one came tip up but I think you could switch it.

Not sure if the latest versions of the large let you decide. It is overall a very nice knife. I am pretty upset I missed out on the BM proxy.
 
Hold one before you buy. Lock bar cutout is really sharp. Loved the knife but sold it for that reason.
 
I recognize the issues mentioned here, but they dont bug me too much. I just got one in from a member here and i love it. Possibly one of my favorite knives. Maybe i just really like titanium frame locks.
 
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