I lastly bought round to getting a brand new pocket knife this 12 months after beating the shit out of a Kershaw Dividend for the previous couple of years. I went with a a lot nicer (and costly) Benchmade Casbah 4400-1 in blue grivory, with a drop level plain-edged blade. This knife value about 3 occasions what I paid for my Kershaw, and so is the Casbah 3 occasions the knife. I purchased the Benchmade about 2 months in the past now and have been utilizing it the identical as I did with the Kershaw, after which some. I need to be clear this isn’t a destruction check. I didn’t attempt to push the knife to its breaking level. The aim of this was to simply see how properly this may maintain as much as common every day use for many and a bit extra.
Going off the specs of the knife alone it’s a well-rounded knife, a push-button computerized knife nice for simply basic every day use. A good blade dimension made with a superb high quality metal that has good corrosion properties, a giant issue for me. At first look the packing is rather a lot nicer than the Kershaw’s was. It got here packaged in a pleasant field as a substitute of a clamshell package deal. There’s a Styrofoam insert contained in the field to guard the knife in transit. The Casbah comes with a small pouch for the blade together with all of the authorized and care papers about Benchmade. So fairly customary for higher-end knives however nonetheless good.
The preliminary learn on the Casbah is, thick. The Grivory scale makes for a thick knife and a bigger presence in your pocket. The Casbah is about 30% thicker than the dividend, however having plastic scale as a substitute of metal/aluminum scale corrosion isn’t a priority. I had loads of issues with the Dividend’s scale holding moisture and salt and inflicting corrosion earlier than. The knife grip texture may be very grippy even when moist. The jimping on the again of the knife deal with is a part of the motion and is produced from steel. The protection on the knife is a bit sharp however truthfully, I haven’t used it in any respect except I used to be simply fiddling with the knife. The button for releasing the knife is well-machined and well-rounded. The design of the deal with for the button does a superb job of holding you from by chance urgent it. My greatest criticism straight away in regards to the Casbah was the manufacturing facility edge. You would see the scratches from the sharpening job, the knife wasn’t uninteresting however positively not the sharpest knife out of the field.
Okay past the manufacturing facility edge the whole lot else is nice on the knife. There’s no side-to-side play within the joint of the knife, and the automated motion is robust. I must say there actually aren’t any aftermarket modifications you are able to do with the Casbah. Whereas I don’t take into account this a unfavorable for some who prefer to tinker or give their knives a personalized effect this may be unfavorable.
So my plan for testing the knife was to simply use this knife until I wanted to re-sharpen it. To only use it as a mean individual would until it wanted some upkeep. I run a restaurant that has loads of stay seafood so my knives take care of loads of moisture and salt together with loads of containers to interrupt down. Together with some fishing and breaking down some fish, there shall be no destruction assessments on this assessment. I didn’t baton any wooden, pry something, or reduce something tougher than some contemporary bones.
As quickly as I bought the knife I needed to transfer 10 instances of stay flounder into the tanks, it was simply tape and foam containers so nothing robust on the sting. Whereas I felt the sting may have been sharper, it did make quick work of opening all of the stay fish luggage and containers. So it was positively a workable edge. The knife bought completely dunked in saltwater and was given a rinse in contemporary water after the whole lot was achieved. Then it was wiped all the way down to dry it off, however there was nonetheless moisture within the deal with.
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I put the Casbah again in my pocket for a number of hours and checked it later within the day to see how the metal was holding up. The residual moister and possibly salt did trigger some speckling of sunshine floor rust. Nothing severe however just a bit staining, 95% of it simply got here off the metal when rubbed with some paper towels. So that is wanting good, the Kershaw didn’t maintain up as properly when it got here to salt publicity so the Benchmade is already doing higher.
Salt and knives don’t make the perfect of associates and I wouldn’t suggest sticking a knife you want right into a bag of aquarium salt. The stuff is tremendous nice and sticks to about the whole lot. Similar remedy once more for the knife, rinse with some contemporary water, pat dry with paper towels, and again into the pocket it goes. And naturally a number of extra spots of sunshine rust right here and there. 2 months of this form of salt remedy and no substantial ranges of corrosion has occurred to the knife on any elements except for mild spots of rust that may be wiped away.
Now for fishing use, whereas I couldn’t make it all the way down to the gulf for a tough corrosion check of the knife, however I used to be capable of make it out to the lake a number of occasions to see how the casbah held up. It bought the bait knife remedy and was used to hack up herring and bluegill throughout these journeys. Nothing uncommon to say about it, it reduce up the bait properly and bought coated in scales. Cleaned up simply and stayed grippy when moist. Once we caught some catfish the knife was used to dispatch and break down the catfish. This concerned utilizing the blade as a mind spike to kill the catfish after which to undergo their backbones when cleansing them.
The casbah held up properly, there’s a first rate quantity of meat to the blade so no flexing when going by means of bones. To only check how it will maintain as much as chopping a bit, I used it to undergo the vertebrae as a substitute of between them. And even for a smaller knife it did properly with no edge deformation or chipping. However I do need to say it struggled a little bit bit after a few journeys when it got here to reducing the pores and skin of the catfish. The sting was nonetheless sharp sufficient to chop most issues, however the catfish pores and skin took a number of slices to get by means of when gutting a few them. Once more I bought to say the feel on the deal with may be very grippy, even with catfish slimed fingers the knife was simple to maintain a decent grip on.
The final catfish I cleaned, for the catfish coubion, was proper after I determined the knife wanted to be sharpened. It was nonetheless sharp sufficient to chop open and break down containers, however too uninteresting to simply push reduce paper. So it was time to sharpen it, I used 3 Shapton Kuromaku Ceramic whetstones to do that. Beginning with a course 320 grit stone to take away the unique manufacturing facility scratch sample and begin the sting contemporary. I sharpen the blade until a burr types then flip the blade until one other burr types, holding the identical grind angle for each side. As soon as the burr fashioned on the second aspect, I moved on to the following stone. The following stone was a 1000 grit stone which provides you a pleasant sharp edge however it may be sharper through the use of the next grit ending stone. The ultimate stone was a 5000 grit stone used as a ending stone, which provides a nicer nice edge.
I’d say you don’t must go this in-depth with sharpening your knives, particularly for a pocket knife, however this was a check to see how properly the blade sharpened. And I’d say this was a comparatively simple sharpen blade. It was too simple the place you must fear about how sturdy the sting is however not onerous to sharpen both. center floor to be at for the knife.
General I’d say this buy was positively well worth the cash, sure it was thrice the price of my outdated knife. However in each facet, it’s confirmed itself to be a more sensible choice. The corrosion resistance wasn’t even a contest, the outdated knife would rust simply being close to the ocean in my pocket all day, whereas the casbah will be dunked in salt and rinsed and be nice. The construct is way nicer, the joint is rugged and has no play to it. And the sharpening of the knife is straightforward however not too simple. The outdated knife was a breeze to sharpen however that edge was gone fairly fast, the metal was too mushy. So sure thrice the associated fee, however positively see myself having this knife for thrice as lengthy.
