Benchmade 761 Initial Review: Beautiful Design, Not Ready for Prime Time

Published: 9 years ago

Here's my initial review of the new Benchmade 761 MLK. This knife is a rare titanium framelock from Oregon City, and it's on bearings to boot! Clearly Benchmade has made a conscious decision to go toe to toe with the other titans in the high-end production knife market, leaving the comfort and safety of its Axis Lock cocoon to do battle not only with ZT and Spyderco, but to challenge the Sebenza itself! The 761, at a blade length of 3.87" and a price of $331.50 at most retailers, is awfully close to the price of a Sebenza, but sadly, falls woefully short in quality and execution.

As of December, 2014, Benchmade is charging its all too enthusiastic customers a pretty large fee to be its R&D department, as the 761 is a horribly engineered, beautifully designed and poorly executed prototype, which happens to be for sale to the public. Beware of other reviews of this knife from sources who have already spent their money on it and might be trying to feel good about it at the expense of rational thought and objectivity. This knife is... ** NOT RECOMMENDED **
sovrn