Strength of Benchmade 761 blade?

MicroAlign

MicroAlign

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Feb 1, 2004
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Personally I try to keep my knife purchases below the $250 range, but this newer BM titanium frame lock is awfully appealing. I haven't handled one yet, but just looking it over in pics it seems like the point area might be a tad thin for my taste. My thought is, if I am going to pay for the durability of a high end frame lock, I'd like a little more point strength, especially if using M390 steel. Just curious if those of you that have one have confidence in the point strength. I've had a BM 581 Barrage in M390 which was a little thin too, just curious if it is thicker or thinner that this model. Any comparison to a BM 940? Thanks in advance.
 
What are you using your folding pocket knife for that makes you suspect the 761 tip would be too fragile for your purposes?

The 761 has a thicker blade (ever so slightly) than the 710 I've beat on for years that has never failed me, and that 710 has a pretty pointy shape to it as well . . .
 
My concern is more of a combination of the M390 steel and the tip thickness. My experiences with M390 have been less than stellar in terms of toughness. I might just take the leap and get a Sebenza 25.
 
the 761 blade should be near indestructible. Handled a first production run 761 and aside from having nearly no detent which led to the blade flying out into lockup whenever any kind of kinetic energy was delivered to it whenever the pivot end came anywhere near downward and a lockbar that you could feel bend inward a touch when gripped the blade itself was pretty impressive and a touch thicker than the Barrage...
 
MicroAlign said:
My concern is more of a combination of the M390 steel and the tip thickness. My experiences with M390 have been less than stellar in terms of toughness. I might just take the leap and get a Sebenza 25.
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Do it. The Sebenza is ALWAYS the answer to the problem. :thumbup:
 
If M390 isn't tough enough to handle what you're doing with your folding pocket knife, IMO you're probably doing the wrong stuff, or using the wrong tool.

I've used the hell out of a knife in M390 (well, at least Carpenter's version of M390, CTS-204p) including bouncing it repeatedly off of metal, brick and concrete because I'm a clumsy idiot sometimes, and I've never managed to do any damage that required anything more than sharpening out a knick.
 
evilgreg said:
If M390 isn't tough enough to handle what you're doing with your folding pocket knife, IMO you're probably doing the wrong stuff, or using the wrong tool.

I've used the hell out of a knife in M390 (well, at least Carpenter's version of M390, CTS-204p) including bouncing it repeatedly off of metal, brick and concrete because I'm a clumsy idiot sometimes, and I've never managed to do any damage that required anything more than sharpening out a knick.
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I have actually had 3 knives in M390. Two from BM, and one from ZT. All of them seemed to achieve the same level of sharpness and edge holding ability, so good heat treats. At first I didn't like the smooth edge properties of the steel, which didn't bite as well as lower chromium steels. However, that smoothness seemed to resist edge damage pretty well, so I found that to be a bonus. Where I started lacking faith in M390 as a hard use steel was when I took the edge down to a more acute angle and did simple wood scraping tests for kindling. During sharpening at that angle, the steel started roll over into a significant burr, which chipped off when the knife was flipped over to sharpen the other side. During the scraping tests, the edge chipped pretty significantly(I tried this on all 3 knives). I also found that several ELMAX knives did the same thing, which all I can attribute to is probably the higher levels of chrome in the alloy. Don't get me wrong, I like the high chromium steels, but at least for my purposes they have a smaller niche in what tasks and configurations they are acceptable for.
 
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