Why did Benchmade change the holes ?

338375

338375

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Nov 4, 2006
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The Mini Grip is one of my absolute favorite knives, and my collection continues to grow...

I recently picked up an early MG in 440C, which is what my very first MG was. This one has a thumbstud, and I have yet to own an HG MG with the hole instead of the thumbstud. In all honesty, I don't really care for the look of current round hole, but the more I look at the old ones with the oval shaped hole, I really want one.
I think they look a lot better than the round hole. YMMV of course.. So... I'm not sure if I ever knew, or have just forgotten over the years, but why did BM change from the oval hole, to the round hole ?
 
IIRC the old 550/555 had flat ground blades and oval holes, the 550HG/555HG are hollow ground with round holes. I think they changed after the trademark dispute with Spyderco got sorted out.
 
Own a couple, I like the modified sheepsfoot blade, and opening with a hole, nothing to drag on stuff getting cut, easier to open with your index finger instead of thumb, good edge for cutting or slicing with a lowered tip good for detail work when you don't need to peirce anything tough. The Hollow grind is good, fairly high grind with a thin sharp edge that should last through plenty of resharpenings, huge improvement over a flat sabre grind on an EDC that won't be abused. I like the round hole better, your finger or thumb rotates around in it as the blade opens under control, where an oval hole doesn't open as smooth. Only changes I want would be better steel, slightly larger hole(14mm vs 12mm) and thumb ramp to space the center of the hole further from the handle, and G10 scales. They have plenty of 551 exclusive and limited editions, need to do a couple with the 550HG plain edge, one of their best practical EDC folders.
 
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