Benchmade 530 Pardue Mini Review

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schoolbus

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Jun 25, 2009
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Benchmade 530 Review
Written by: me(the one who made this post)

Benchmade-530-2.jpg

Personal rating: 9/10

Comments:
Great tactical dagger style blade which because of the light weight makes a great EDC(every day carry) knife as well. The AXIS lock is smooth as always. It opens fast and locks up with absolutely no blade play even after months of use. The knife also looks really cool IMO. I really like this knife and say it is OUSTANDING! I have the black TiNi(Titanium Nitride) coated blade version.

Pros:
-I'm very impressed with this knife and here's a few things I really like about it. Extremely lightweight, no blade play, easy and fast blade access, completely ambidextrous. Can be categorized as EDC/Tactical(light) which is a big plus to me. The best way I would describe this knife is a "gentleman's-tactical-EDC-folder".

Cons:
-The price is a bit high. Being a Benchmade this knife is obviously precision manufactured but for the amount of material you're getting, the price tag does seem a bit high.
-The axis stud is a bit difficult to actuate because rather then protruding from the handle as with the 940, presidio, griptilian, barrage, etc, the stud is nearly flush with the handle. Therefor some might have a hard time closing the knife one handed. With practice it can become easy and it does not effect the opening function of the knife what so ever. I can see they were trying to keep the knife sleek and streamlined.

Things I would add or change:
-Make the jimping a bit more aggressive.
-

Specs:
Item Number: 530
Manufacturer: Benchmade (Pardue Design)
Locking mechanism: AXIS
Action: Manual
Blade Length: 3.25"
Blade Thickness: 0.090"
Handle Thickness: 0.370"
Overall Length: 7.42"
Closed Length: 4.17"
Blade Hardness: 58-60HRC
Blade Style: Modified Spear-Point
Weight: 1.88oz.
Blade material: 154cm
Handle Material: Grivory(glass reinforced nylon)
Liners: Partial 420J stainless steel liners
Carry system: 2 position, tip-up


In time I may add to this review.

If you have any questions please let me know.
 
The knife is also very symmetrical, a feature some find important for SD uses. I particularly appreciate the knife's light weight and thin profile. The thin handle makes hard cuts painful on the hand but the Grivory material is plenty strong and partially reinforced with metal liners. The thumb stud is hard to access but it really can't protrude any more without compromising the streamlined design. This is a really good back pocket knife. The thin blade cuts well. I carry mine often.
 
Benchmade makes good knives, but for whatever reason, I never picked up many of them. I only kept three: the 42, 710, and 530. And the 530 is the only one I carry now.

Especially with the warm weather, I like a lightweight EDC. With the squirrels and mosquitos around here, I like to carry a good defensive blade. :)
 
The 530 is surprisingly lightweight when you actually feel it in person. Most of my friends are amazed when I show them. I know you should never pry with a folder, but in a pinch, I would NEVER even attempt anything like that with the 530. Still, great knife though.
 
I agree with most everything that has been posted. Also I think Benchmade should make it clear in their catalogs that the liners are indeed PARTIAL as they only go halfway down the handle. Thanks for the comments all!
 
WILLIAM.M said:
How does it cut???
Click to expand...
Outstandingly! Although(as you probably are aware) the spear point blade is not the most ideal design for heavy EDC cutting. Regardless I've never had a problem cutting through most anything I've put in front of it. I have 2 of these knives. A TiNi which I beat around quite a bit and a Satin which I take great care with. I've used the former for some fairly heavy cutting including wood carving, thick rope, small branches, etc. Keep in mind that I am not at all picky about blade shapes so others might have a different experience.
 
I'm a sucker for a dagger style blade, and the BM530 is one of my favorite designs of all time. I wish BM would bring back the old 350 liner lock version too.
 
great review! This is one of my all time favorite edc knives. The blade/cutting surface to weight/thickness of this is outstanding. The 154CM holds an edge very well, and it's fairly easy to get hair poppin. I reprofiled mine because I had an bit of a scary incident of pure stupidity, that resulted in a nice size chip being taken out of the edge: I was using the knife to pry the battery cover from my Motorcycle, and it connected the + and - accidentally.... ARC... me on my ass checking to see if I was on fire! Luckily I had gloves on (which by the way hasn't hindered my ability at all to flip this sucker open) and nice rubber soles on my boots. No shock, no smoldering Stephen. But the result was a chip in the blade. Reprofiled to a 20 degree with the lansky, and kept it away from power sockets ever since ;)
I do love to whip this sucker out when a friend shows me his new "slim" Smith & Wesson knives.. and see the look on their faces when they realize I have 10 times the knife, at 1/10th the weight and thickness.
Loves it!
 
I was considering this one for EDC, but wound up getting a Mini Grip instead since I'm pretty sure this isn't exactly people friendly :D
 
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