Benchmade 810 contego
Knife Review
General Specs
Blade Length: 3.98"
Blade Thickness: 0.156"
Handle Thickness: 0.550"
Blade Material: CPM-M4
Blade Hardness: 62-64HRC
Blade Style: Reverse Tanto
Weight: 5.92oz.
Pocket Clip: Tip Up, Black with Butterfly Logo, Deep-Carry
Lock Mechanism: AXIS
Overall Length: 9.28"
Closed Length: 5.30"
Overall 9/10
I love this knife. Simply put there is very if anything to say bad against it. The things that keep it from getting a perfect 10/10 are the: insane jimping around the knife(making gripping the knife for hard cutting tasks somewhat hurtful) and the weight might be too much for some although it's perfectly fine for me.
Blade Style 11/10
The reverse tanto has to be one of the best most useful blade styles ever. It has excellent belly, an extremely strong tip, superb slicer, and has excellent piercing capabilities. Just absolutely astounding for EDC use, skinning game(verified by me on three deer this season), and self defense roles.
Blade Steel/Edge Retention 10/10
M4 is used in many cutting competitions. I was actually surprised to find CPM M4 in this cheap of a knife. The CPM simply put means that the steel was mixed up extremely throughly before molding occurred. Think of it as cake batter being throughly mixed in a mixer. This gives the still more consistency, no weak points in the blade , and better edge retention.
While we are on the topic of edge retention this knife has the best of any knife I've ever owned. This steel is ran slightly hard at 62-64 but it still doesn't chip(thanks to the thick blade stock). So with the extra hardness and the general amazingness
of M4 it is just excellent.
Handle Retention 10/10 for me
This is a subjective aspect of the knife. Some people like a knife to be really hard to get out of the handle eliminating the chances of it coming open in your pocket. This knife does that but it doesn't have a hard time getting past that point to open. The Omega springs that Benchmade uses in their axis lock design for blade retention and lockup when deployed some have complained about failing. I've never noticed that but will update if I do.
Blade Lockup 10/10(now)
When I first got this knife(bought it from sooner state knives and won't be going back) it had quite a bit of blade play side to side. And when tightening down the pivot point it would slow the deployment down considerably. So I sent it into benchmade and now it is a bank vault. Absolute perfection for a knife that deploys this quick. All it cost me was shipping to benchmade.
Out of Box Sharpness 10/10
Just perfection. Perfect relief edge. Nothing else need be said
Traction 10/10-8:10
Why give it two ratings? Because it's all relative. This knife is NEVER slipping in your hand, and your fingers would NEVER end up on the blade slicing yourself open if used in a self defense role. It wouldn't matter if it was raining, if your hands were sweaty, or hell if your hands were covered in baby oil. The extremely high traction g-10 scales along with the astonishingly high amount of jimping give the user confidence when using.
Now the catch to this amazing traction is the jimping that is found on every nook and cranny on this knife can be uncomfortable to a bare hand when using extremely hard. I never notice it doing common tasks, but if you are making a feather stick or cutting copious amounts of rope it might not be great on the hands. My recommendation is that if you plan on using this knife extremely hard just wear gloves, or use a fixed blade you crazy person!
One thing to note with this high traction g-10 is that it causes wear on pants pockets if you are wearing thin or not well constructed pants if removing and returning the knife a lot. Jeans not so much.
Features 9/10
It has the axis lock system, which allows for great lock up, and lighting fast deployment. If you are in a state were autos are illegal to carry, buy an axis lock knife and you won't care anymore.
It has a glass breaker which small and not in the way yet functional. It is in this steel backstrap(which has crazy tank tread jimping) so I do not foresee it ever falling out or failing in any way. This would also be a viable non leathal way to impact someone and stop them in their tracks.
The Deep carry pocket clip is awesome. Revers able for right and left hand carry TIP UP which is how it should be IMO. Excellent retention. Hides the knife extremely well. It is skinny like a pen or pencil clip making it not attractive to someone's eye. It has a butterfly on it for crying out loud!!! That can't be a huge knife that it's connected to!! Extremely good for low profile carry in a college or workplace setting.
My one gripe no the clip is the coating. It's just black paint and it will chip. Why they use such a cheap coating is beyond me.
Blade Coating 8/10
The coating is cerakote. Even the "satin" finished versions of this blade are coated with clear cerakote. This is done because M4 is a semi-stainless tool steel, and it will rust on you. So if you are going to store this knife for extremely long times make sure it is in a climate controlled area and you may want to coat the edge with oil. The coating is very wear resistant in the aspect of wearing down to the actual blade. But the coating itself smooths out creating some smooth areas. So they are visible but the actual blade isn't exposed to the elements. It got an 8-10 because a perfect coating IMO is DLC(diamond like coating) and even SOG's TiNi coating is more durable than this. It gets the job done though.
The photo below shows the satin version, and the picture above you can find , my personal knife, the black coated version. Both non serrated of course.