**What is your opinion of the Benchmade 690 Allen Elishewitz?**

I'm looking at mine now and wondering if I really like it or not. Yeah, I guess I like it. It is very pretty, with the wood, carbon fiber, and blue liners. It flicks open very easily and feels a bit bulky in the hand, even though it is no bigger than other folders. Maybe just a sense of the squareness from the wood. Its about as thick as my Kershaw Blackout, but the squared off edges give it a thicker feel.

The knife was not shaving sharp from the store where I bought it. In fact, this knife had the worst sharpening job of any Benchmade I ever seen, with rough and visible grind marks. A few minutes on the belt sander took care of this, but it makes me wonder about other aspects of their knife making. This knife looks well made, with solid liner locking and no noticible play. I've not done the spine wack test to test it because I think this could risk cracking the wood.

The clip is shorter than most, which is mixed blessing. The shorter clip is less intrusive, which is nice. However, to make the clip hold tight, it is harder to clip on. For loose pants, this is a problem, since it requires a bit for work and fussing to get the clip on.

As I mentioned, it is easy to flick the blade open with the thumb stud. However, it is not so easy for me to open it slowly, like other knives. Something about the shape of the area near the thumb stud makes this difficult. Actually, many other thumb studded knives are difficult to open slowly. There is a bit of friction just as the blade comes out - good for keeping the blade from opening in my pocket, but bad for slow, steady opening. I haven't tried loosening it yet. This is just a first impression after having had this knife for a week.

The blade has a nice shape. Described as a clip point, it has a very slight recurve (either that, or they screwed up the sharpening, which wouldn't surprise me)

Walt
 
I definately like mine, it's probably the prettiest knife I own. The wood and carbon fibre aren't quite as shiny as they appear in the photos, but it looks really nice against the blue Ti liners. The "posts" on the back where the backspacer would be are a really nice touch. The handle *feels* thicker than on those on my other Benchmades, but I haven't measured them to be sure. It does fill my hand quite nicely and is very comfortable.

Fit & finish was really good on my knife, it was a bit tight out of the box but it smoothed out nicely after I cycled it a few (OK, about 50
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)times. The edge was shaving sharp but barely, and would tear up newsprint. On the bright side it was sharpened at a decent angle so I won't have to thin it out much. The blade does have a small recurve, and it looks like a scaled down 710 to me. Mine's been spine whacked and it holds just fine with no damage. The pocket clip's perfect for me, it doesn't look like a knife clip and it works great on my jeans. The only thing I'm worried about is how well the wood and carbon fibre will hold up over time.
 
My 690 came from the store sharp as a razor and better finished than another BM I know of except for the 940 and Mini Strykers. I love the 690, it is the most faithful reproduction of a custom style knife that I know of. Put one next to a custom Elishewitz and you will see that you get a knife virtually identical to a custom for 25% of the price.
 
I don't own it, but I might. I don't know. Yeah it looks nice, but why couldn't BM have put the scales flush with the edges? And another thing about the blade shape. It's not a clip point, it's not a spear point, it's a DROP POINT with a swedge cut short of the tip to give it a more tactical look. It's a nice knife but I really hate it when drop points are "dressed up"

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"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what's right" -Hari Seldon, Foundation, -Aasimov
 
I own a partially serrated model, which came shaving sharp. The action was also a bit tight but loosened up nicely after a few openings. I really like this knife, but I also wonder how the wood will hold up being bonded with the carbon fibre. The blue titanium liners give it a very nice touch and I think it is the nicest looking folder Benchmade has released to date. The lockup on my model is solid with no side or up/down play. My only complaint is that some of the torx screws used to hold the scales to the liners extend a bit towards the inside of the knife and are visible if you open the knife and look inside the handle. They don't make contact with the blade when closed, but I've never seen this on other Benchmade models. Mine is one of the First Production Run, so I don't know if this has been corrected or not on other models.
 
I was quite pleased with mine. Personally, I was getting tired with all of the knives, nowadays, being produced with black handles. Don't get me wrong, I love tacticals, but that's why I'm truly pleased when a company like Benchmade can make a knife that looks "special." It was nice that I was able to get a "custom" looking knife without having to sell off my new-born first. When carbon fiber handled knives started coming out, I saw it as a breath of fresh air, away from the Zytel and G-10. But the wood/carbon fiber on this one looks great. It was a little stiff, but broke in nicely. The clip is also nice because it's different. Finally something other than the black stamped BM clip. A couple of things though...I'll have to agree that the liners and the scales should have been ground smooth with each other. It's size is different from all my other knives (not a big deal) but since the handle is a little smaller and the thumb stub isn't and it's placement is the same of that of a larger folder, I find I have to change my grip significantly more than with other knives of the same size. I'd love to see one a little larger. Of course it would change it from a gentleman's folder, to a tactical. Overall,I give it a...Ahh, who cares. Just don't cut yourself. I approve.
 
Ok. Here's a quick question. The pocket clip on my model 690 has a sort of "stone washed" finish, but it has a blemish. It's not scratched or stained, but rather it seems that whatever process was used, it missed a spot. Can it be polished? Will a metal polish (paste) ruin the finish?
 
I have a partially serrated one that also came razor sharp. The knife is very well put together and sure looks great. Even my non knife friends comment on sweet it looks. I have been dreaming about buying a custom fro Elishewitz for a long time now and this is pretty close...However I am not a big fan of the thumb stud. I prefer the disc or a spyderhole...

[This message has been edited by Guntaholic (edited 05-07-2001).]
 
I love my 690 with BC-1 coated blade! I've had a very checkered past with Benchmade, and I have to admit that the 690 is helping me turn back their way. So much so, that I just ordered an 820S from Bayou for 52 bucks! Somebody STOP ME!

Chris
 
rogue,

I didn't like the pics on the WWW, but when I handled one in a store I was impressed. Not at the top of my wish list, but it's a nice looking, well made knife.

Smooth opening and a good lockup...but it doesn't fit into a category...kind of an oddball.
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Steve-O
 
Looks very very nice!

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Wayne.
"To strive to seek to find and not to yield"
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To me, the 690 is a custom caliber piece at a production price. Fit and finish rival knives costing four times as much. I am amazed at the thin layer of stabilized wood behind the CF. Time will tell if that is good or bad in the field. The new BC1 finish has raised more eyebrows than any finish I have ever offered. BM is making some good stuff...hope I can keep getting it. md
 
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