What wrong with the BM Rift

I have the cf version that I got from another BC member. Don't know why he sold it but I'm glad I was able to get it. I like the blade shape a lot and the handle woke great to me. I have XL glove hands BTW

That's good to hear. All my work gloves are XL. I was wondering how big the hands of those that said the horn separated there fingers and felt awkward was.
 
I have medium/ large hands and wear size 9 to 11 gloves depending on the brand. The Rift fits my hand perfect. I grab the knife so that the 'horn' sits between my pinky and ring finger and I don't even know it's there. My index finger then sits right behind the 'flare' by the pivot right where it should be. Between the two of them, they provide quite a bit of resistance to your hand sliding forward towards the blade during a stabbing cut. Not as secure as a full guard but enough to make me feel safe. I don't know the names of all the different grips but I have grabbed the thing every way I can think of and none of the positions are uncomfortable.

So it sounds like smaller hands would cause the knife to be uncomfortable. Even then it seems like your hand could fit on the handle ok, there might just be a bit of handle sticking out of your hand and not allow you to choke up on the knife. I will get my wife to tell me if she thinks it is uncomfortable when she gets home.

I can take a picture of my grip if it might help anyone?

I also have used the knife a lot and pretty darn hard and I have never found the 3D machining to hurt my hand. Sure I can feel the ridges but they are not painful at all and don't even cause hot spots in my experience. I can feel the jimping and sharp 90 deg corners on my Manix 2 much more than anything on the Rift. But even those are not uncomfortable.

Everyone has different hands and find different things comfortable. As I have mentioned here and many threads over the last couple years, I just can't find anything that I like better than the Rift and I have been to Blade and held most of the production and semi-custom folders that are available. I wonder how much it would cost to have a custom made blade with a full flat grind and something like ZDP-189? It would then be absolute perfection.

Edit: My wife came home and I had her grab the knife and she has little hands and said it wasn't uncomfortable. She can grab it with all 4 fingers in front of the 'horn' and be choked up on the blade some or in the same way I grab it and she doesn't have a problem?
 
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The only things I can say that I've noticed that seems to be a trend:

1- Off center blade on a high number of this model. It took a while, but I disassembled my knife and got the blade centered. It took about 5 different tightening sequences before the blade was down the middle and the sweet spot on the pivot was finalized.
2- Rough edges on the G10. It doesn't bother me really, but others have commented and ultimately sanded it down to be less aggressive on the part of the hand between the thumb and index finger.
3- Dull blade. Nothing new and most Benchmade knives arrive with a really obtuse bevel. Easily remedied with a few minutes on the Edge Pro.
4- Ergonomics on the handle nearest the blade are a little odd to some. It takes some time to get used to.
 
It came from factory with very sharp handle edges...
Also, i don't get why they didn't give it a forward choil too.
I'm making my own with a coarse DMT sharpener.
Also, it couldn't hurt to upgrade to cpm154...
Pretty much my favourite folder of all time aside from that.
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I don't complain about my hand size, but i guess they are big it is hard to find gloves that fit, and I can readily palm a basketball. I love my Izula as an example. but I have had no problems with the RIFT's size, I like it alot and I carried it for about 2 years solid. and only a few weeks ago switched out to a SAK soldier, and a couple of weeks later combined it with an IZULA II for EDC.

The rift is a solid knife and DID NOT FAIL ME, nor did it rub me wrong under use. What is the horn they speak of? The tapered end of the handle with the finger groove?
 
I liked mine a lot, but I had a sweet trade (for a knife I had to have) in the works, and that's the knife the other guy wanted, so I traded it. I'll pick up another one, I'm sure. . . .
 
The horn is the bump that sticks up about an inch from the end of the handle and causes your fingers to be spread a little to get a comfortable grip.

As far as off center blades go I haven't had that issue. All 7 of mine are essentially centered. I would be surprised if many are off center since there is not a liner or frame lock pushing the blade over.
 
Loved the Rift when it came out and bought two of them. I thought 'finally BM is putting out something to make up for dumping the Ares'. I've been on board with the Ares since day one and I want BM to make it or produce a real replacement for it. The Rift doesn't really replace the Ares but because I sorta had that expectation the Rift was a bit of a dissappointment. Nice knife but mine are both gone now.
 
I EDC'd a 950 Rift for a few months. While it was a well made knife, and the Axis lock was fun to play with, I gave it away to a friend headed into the Army. First off, I really don't like Benchmade's 154CM. It chipped a fair amount and didn't seem to hold that great of an edge under hard cutting. Luckily, it wasn't a very tough steel to sharpen. Second, I really liked the blade shape, but the ergonomics were non-existant. No thumb ramp/jimping, so my thumb always wanted to be on the back of the blade, where the handle abruptly stops. Also. no choil and blocky handle with 90* edges. Just not my cup of tea.
 
I've always like the looks of this knife and never owned a BM other then an Ambush that I bought for my son, which was a nice knife for the price, AUS8, but kind of thick.

Anyway, I've noticed a lot of Rifts up for sale on the exchange. Why are they not being kept and used?

Two of these were mine. You got it all wrong, I loved the Rift so much I bought a BUNCH of backups. Then I realized it was so reliable of a knife that backups are silly. So I sold a couple.
 
I have 2 Rifts, G10 and CF, and no intention of selling either. Love them both. Along with the Grip, about my favorite BMs.

I'll grant the G10 Rift can be less than comfortable if you are doing a lot of cutting. But the neat looking black & charcoal makes up for it. ;)
The CF is more friendly to the hand and pretty nice to look at too.

Always liked the blade shape and find it very funcitonal.

Overpriced? As someone noted, depends what you paid. I got the G10 at a reasonable price and the CF for ony $10 more, which I thought was a huge bargain.
I have several issues with BM (including their pricing policies); it use to fret me some when I wanted to love BM, but I decided it wasn't worth the aggravation so I moved on.
 
Horn? What horn?

Nice mod. For my small/medium hand the horn was uncomfortable between ring finger and pinky. And trying to squeeze all four fingers in front of the horn was too cramped.
 
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I really like the look of the Rift but seeing it next to a Griptilian I know it isn't for me.
With the raving reviews about Griptilians I bought one and found the handle design forced my fingers way back from the edge.
I hate this feeling, you're loosing a lot of control for fine tasks.
I like to have my grip as close to the edge as possible.
I see the Rift comes close to the Griptilian in design of the selfguard, def not my cup of tea.
The Manix shown few posts above is much better in this area.
 
Cool looking, 3D milled handle actually isn't very comfortable. I could've rounded off all the sharp edges on the handle with a file and sandpaper, but chose to sell it instead because it also has a bead blasted blade, and I've grown very tired of this cheap/quick/dirty finish on knife blades.
 
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Got my Rift in the mail the other day.

Quick assessment:

-The horn falls in place right between the pinky and the ring finger, but I could see how someone with a bit smaller hands would be annoyed.

-I like the shape and grind of the blade, but I don't see a point in the squared off mini-choil.

-I like the lock and how smooth it opens. One of the smoothest opening knives I've handled.

-The thumb ramp would be much better if the handle had a clean smooth transition to the blade, this at times really bothers me.

-The edge had a bur that needed to be stropped.

-For a knife it's size it carries well.

-The G-10 is nice, it feels like a river stone to me.
 
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Glad you decided to get one. I just wanted to say that like the others I see nothing wrong with this knife at all. Sure, I would like to see it a little heavier, like the Bone Collector, but that is just my issue to deal with:eek:, I love the reverse tanto shape of the blade. I have a couple; a black Rift, and the AutoAxis Rift, and both see time in my pocket, are easy to carry, and handle whatever job I'm doing. I picked one up for my son last yesr at Christmas, the Knifeworks exclusive in M4 blade steel, marked as 1 of 50, and he carries it everyday because he likes it so much. As far as the 154CM blade steel goes, I've never had any problems with this steel. I think BM does a good job on the heat treat for 154CM.

Be sure to come back and tell us how it goes in the long term!:D
 
-I like the shape and grind of the blade, but I don't see a point in the squared off mini-choil.

Funny you should mention this. I was messing around with mine today and wondered how hard would it have been for them to put a deeper crescent one the handle? Other than that its tailored for bigger hands. Congratulations on the purchase :thumbup:
 
I EDC'd a 950 Rift for a few months.
I gave it away to a friend headed into the Army.
I really don't like Benchmade's 154CM.
I really liked the blade shape,
the ergonomics were non-existant.
Also. no choil and blocky handle with 90* edges.
Just not my cup of tea.


Now don't leave us hanging here, what did you replace the 950 Rift with :confused:
 
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