Benchmade Water Series: 18050 Intersect

Shoguns

Shoguns

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Jun 6, 2022
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I'm a member at REI and a couple times a year receive a 20% discount on anything in stock. They don't carry many knives but did have a few of the new Benchmade water series coming in. I was looking for a small fixed blade and the Benchmade Intersect looked like it would fit the bill; plus I liked the colors, what can I say. MSRP was $200, and with the discount I paid $160 on May 20, 2024.

Initially I was worried that the handle would be too small. I use large size gloves and usually prefer handles that are 4.25 inches or longer. I was surprised that the barely 3.8" handle on the Intersect felt comfortable. The lanyard really helps and the Santoprene material is super grippy.



The blade is short and stocky and has some pretty great jimping running almost the length of the blade (not too sharp, but still provides lots of grip). From the factory the edge is paper-slicing sharp with no burrs, but has uneven bevels and is not shaving sharp.
 
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Here it is with some other USA Magnacut knives, for reference.



A few concerns that I have are: (1) the sheath is basically garbage, it's difficult to get the knife back in and inside has a few plastic retention prongs that will eventually be crewed up by the blade (see picture below); (2) I'm told the handle is full tang Magnacut and the Santoprene is formed around the metal, but this leaves small gaps on either side where I expect dirt and grime will get packed in between the handle and the metal tang (see picture below), I'm debating whether to just leave it or to try and glue this down now to avoid having to struggle with it later; (3) less of a big deal, but the lanyard knots were pretty loose and are already starting to unravel just from a couple minutes of handling.


Anyway, I'm going to go beat on the Intersect for a while and will report back. Cheers
🍻
 
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Shoguns said:
Here it is with some other USA Magnacut knives, for reference.

https://imgur.com/Ml6tUx6

A few concerns that I have are: (1) the sheath is basically garbage, it's difficult to get the knife back in and inside has a few plastic retention prongs that will eventually be crewed up by the blade (see picture below); (2) I'm told the handle is full tang Magnacut and the Santoprene is formed around the metal, but this leaves small gaps on either side where I expect dirt and grime will get packed in between the handle and the metal tang (see picture below), I'm debating whether to just leave it or to try and glue this down now to avoid having to struggle with it later; (3) less of a big deal, but the lanyard knots were pretty loose and are already starting to unravel just from a couple minutes of handling.

https://imgur.com/3P8FoN5

https://imgur.com/ZU06CJa

Anyway, I'm going to go beat on the Intersect for a while and will report back. Cheers
🍻
Click to expand...

Nice job!! Thanks for your thoughts!!👌
 
Can anyone comment on how thin the grind is?

I like the profile of this knife, but I have generally found Benchmade’s fixed blades to be too thickly ground for my tastes.

IMO, the unbonded Santoprene handle is going to be a rust issue for anyone that plans to repeatedly immerse the blade in salt water. The handle design doesn’t really match the use case that it is marketed for.

I will say that Benchmade’s injection molded Santoprene handles work well, as long as you can prevent water ingress. I think Benchmade should have used bolt on slab handles for their water series. No issues with dirt ingress into my 200 Puukko handle.
 
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When you post pics, make sure you are using the "insert image" tool, not the "media" tool".

3P8FoN5.jpeg
 
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