1 Year OTF EDC Challenge/Review (BM 4600 DLC Phaeton)

[gastonian]

1 Year OTF EDC Challenge/Review


Hey Everyone!


I have been wanting a quality OTF for a long time now. As a Texas resident, I can legally edc an OTF, so I thought why not? I read reviews here and watched plenty of YouTube videos on different OTFs and narrowed down my choices to the Microtech Ultratech and the Benchmade 4600 Phaeton. I am fortunate enough to have a fairly large knife dealer with a wide selection of automatics and OTFs to handle and choose from nearby. I was able to hold and compare both the Microtech and Benchmade and (obviously) chose to go with the Benchmade Phaeton. I feel like both knives had their pros and cons. The Ultratech had the best blade steel (M390) and was also about $60.00 cheaper than the Benchmade. The Phaeton had overall better build quality, for example, the firing button (trigger?) on the Phaeton has no slop or wiggle like on the Ultratech. Both OTFs had almost identical blade play, spring strength, and effort required to fire and retract the blade. I ultimately chose the Benchmade because I have always liked their S30V, the handle felt slightly better in my hand, I liked the lack of glass breaker on the butt end of the handle, and I have had great experience with Benchmade’s warranty in the past.


The Phaeton is my first quality OTF and I want to see how they are as an edc knife. The consensus on most of the threads I have read seem to be that OTFs aren’t the best for edc. I want to see for myself whether this is true, or just people parroting what they have heard others say. So, I have decided that I am going to make the Phaeton my edc knife for one year.


I plan on carrying the Phaeton everyday (as long as it's legal for me to do so) and using it for everything I would normally use my edc knife for. I also plan on updating this thread every month or so with pictures of the knife and documenting any issues or thoughts I have on both the Phaeton and edcing an OTF knife in general. I will also carry my Alox Pioneer which is attached to my keys. I hardly ever use the blade on the Pioneer though, it's just there for opening bottles, finger nail filing, and prying.


Here is my new edc until next Christmas Eve:
Benchmade 4600DLC Phaeton

January update on post 11

 

[colin.p]

Cool. I will follow this thread with great interest, even though I'm not quite sure why, as I live in a country that prides itself in babysitting us. Auto knives are "verboten".

 

[Cypress]

I'll be curious to see how this goes. My Phaeton would occasionally fail to retract the blade if I was holding it upside down. Easily the weakest spring I've ever had on an OTF.

 

[Cow51]

It'll be interesting to see how this goes, good luck!

 

[jaypowell0185]

This should be good

 

[gastonian]

I'll be curious to see how this goes. My Phaeton would occasionally fail to retract the blade if I was holding it upside down. Easily the weakest spring I've ever had on an OTF.

I will let everyone know if this happens to mine. So for so good. The 4600 opened a lot of packages at a Christmas party yesterday. Everyone that handled it was impressed. Most people struggled to get it open though, which surprised me. I guess after collecting hundreds of knives I have developed tough thumbs as I was initially impressed with how smooth it fired open!

 

[wovivi]

This will be fun to follow. I have a Phaeton that doesn’t seem like it could fail to retract. It seems to have the strongest spring of any OTF I have owned, including the Infidel.

 

[stonproject]

I've got a precipice on the way and I may just join you on the long term benchmade otf edc. I hope it can hold up to incessant deployment, cause an otf never fails to bring a smile to the face

 

[Lapedog]

Awesome idea for a thread. I will definitely be checking in on this one.

Not that I can carry one anyway but, one of my concerns with carrying an otf would be if I used it for food prep and it got into the handle.

 

[stonproject]

Awesome idea for a thread. I will definitely be checking in on this one.

Not that I can carry one anyway but, one of my concerns with carrying an otf would be if I used it for food prep and it got into the handle.

Like my dad always said, just wipe it on your pants it'll be fine

 

[gastonian]

Hey everyone!


It has now been a little over a month into this one-year edc challenge with the Benchmade Phaeton and I wanted to let you all know my impressions so far. So, what is it like carrying an otf every day? It's been great so far! I have received a lot of compliments on the knife, and a few people have told me that it is the coolest knife they have ever seen.

A few years ago, I gifted my dad and brother a lightning otf as a novelty, but they loved those things and have been carrying them ever since. When I showed my Phaeton to my dad a month ago, he said that he really liked it. Fast forward to yesterday and he called me to ask me where I bought it. I warned him that the Phaeton is literally ten times the price of the lightning that he has, and he told me he didn’t care because he knew after handling mine it was at least ten times the knife!

I also want to include these common concerns that I often here about edcing an otf knife and I will update them monthly throughout the year. If any of you think of anything that you would like for me to add to the list, just let me know.

Number of time the knife has failed to deploy: 0
Number of time the knife has failed to retract: 0
Number of negative comments received about the knife: 0

 

[Skeeter87]

New member here and came looking info on this specific knife. Hoping to not be disappointed in the results.

 

[boss_crew]

Any updates after your 1Q gastonian ?

 

[Honed_Edge]

I just want to let the OP know what that other path would have looked like...
About two months ago I was at GPknives and picked up two ultratech's, one for me and one for the wife.
She has carried hers most of the two moths and doesn't hold back at all. Her edges take more abuse thine mine .
I have carried mine along side a lefty L21 that I refuse not to have on me.
Hers failed to retract once, mine has worked perfectly. She didn't wipe strawberry juice off one day!
We have both loved them, no gripes from anyone, my step dad has one now and the myth is busted for me.
DA OTF's are legit for EDC if your state is cool. They are higher maintenance cleaning wise and due to blade geometry restrictions they don't slice as well. I have not used it a few times, at certain places, due to the sound of deployment. I like how they are child safe. Side openers nearly always pop open when dropped. No child could fire an ultratech and it won't accidentally open. I was given a Infidel as a gift a few years ago. I used to carry it some. It fails to fire a lot, the spring is so weak. Dry or lubed it's poor.

 

[gastonian]

Hello everyone!

I started out strong and made it all the way to March before I gave into temptation and carried another knife.

It all started when I found out that Microtech did a run of Socom Elite knives. I had wanted one for about six years and could not resist carrying it when I was able to score one. About two weeks ago, I also picked up a Bugout with my REI dividend. What a great edc! I did not think that I would like this knife as much as I do. It has been in my pocket every day since I received it.

Here is my three-month report

Number of time the knife has failed to deploy: 0
Number of time the knife has failed to retract: 0
Number of negative comments received about the knife: 0

To be clear, the 4600 is an awesome knife and a great edc. Mine has been fired literally hundreds of times without fail. I am just a crazy knife nut that can't stick to one knife!

 

[ARH1956]

To revisit a 1.5+ year post, I chose a Phaeton as my EDC knife a while ago. I have a tan with the DLC blade and a tan with the silver blade that I alternate weeks carrying them. I carried many OTF's prior to these; Microtechs: UTX-85, Ultratech, Troodon, Combat Troodon, and still carry a Cypher when I need a bigger blade. I also tried several Benchmade Automatic Flip Opens, as well as Infidels, a Single-Edge Pagan, and an Autocrat. But I settled on Tan Phaetons for EDC and a black on black Phaeton for dressier occasions, or a small Benchmade CF 770 Axis w/out the pocket clip.