Despite my life-long status as “unmanly”, I’ve always been a knife guy. It started when I was a kid and I’d buy these “totally awesome” replica blades. Of course, they were all junk. The handles would break, or the blades were over-sharpened, and would shatter.
Then I moved to Arkansas around the time I turned 13. For my birthday, a neighbor named Jean (a gritty old southern boy who cast his own bullets) gave me my first knife. It was this small little thing not much longer than my finger.
He told me it was a “rabbit knife”, meaning it was less than four inches long. He was right, too. It was my only knife for over a decade before I lost it. I have no idea where it went, but I found it was missing after I moved 1,000 miles to Arizona. I wasn’t going back for it any time soon.
For the last three years, I’ve gotten by with a small steel knife. It wasn’t much good for whittling, but it cut boxes fine, and I don’t hunt anymore. But I’ve kept my eyes open for something better. You know, something to write about. Finally, I found the Benchmade 940-1 from KnifeArt.
The Benchmade 940-1 Osborne is a stellar knife featuring a plain-edge satin-finished blade made from CPM-S90V. For those who don’t speak “industry steel”, CPM-S90V is a modified stainless steel, to which vanadium, molybdenum, and carbon have been added to increase durability. This means that a CPM-S90V blade is very difficult to grind. While this does make it harder to sharpen, it means the knife edge will stay sharp for a very, very long time.
Speaking of “sharp”, watch out! This is the kind of knife you don’t let your kids near. Not even to pass it to you, okay? This is one of the sharpest knives I’ve ever handled, and I’m including scalpels in this assessment. The blade also slides open quite easily, which is great for ease-of-use, but terrible for kids. Not kid friendly, not even a little.
But how big is it? Well, if a mini-fig isn’t a good enough frame of reference, I guess we can use numbers. The blade is a “rabbit”, at 3.4″ long, and 0.12″ thick. The blade should be shorter than most adults’ fingers, and the handle brings it up to 7.87″ long. It fits beautifully in my hand, and is well balanced, to boot.
The blade features two studs to facilitate one-handed opening. Once opened, the blade is secured by an AXIS lock mechanism. Simply press the small rod towards the base of the handle (pulling towards yourself, away from the blade) to release the blade.
But what about weight? All that steel has to be heavy, eh? Nope. The carbon fiber frame is light and durable, providing a sturdy sheathe for the blade, and a comfortable contoured grip for the hand. It’s designed to be used in either hand, and the clip can be moved to the opposite side if that is what you need.
Drawback? Cost. KnifeArt.com sells them for a cool $263.50, and they are similarly priced on Amazon (with free shipping). Now, I wouldn’t just throw that kind of money around on a whim, but I can testify that this blade is worth it. Light, strong, sharp, and stylish, I’m glad to tote it with me everywhere.
Disclaimer: The author was provided a unit for review purposes.
