I just Today Got in the Mail my Benchmade 10502BK Rant DPT and Fell Instantly in Love with it! The USA Made Craftsmanship with the amazing Mel Pardue Design and the Lovely Black Coating just made my heart melt!

Made out of 440c 58-60HRC steel with a 4.5 (Feels more like just 4 honestly) Inch Blade and a extremely Ergonomic Sanoprene handle with fantastic texture all around it made this knife my "Dream" knife In a heart beat.

The well made Leather Sheath it comes with is just Beautiful and rugged and I wouldnt have it any other way kydex or Nylon. While Yes the belt loop is way Tight I personally was about to cut it off (I dont belt carry) Until I was convinced otherwise for more then belt carry options.

Now for the Negatives! The Tang Is apparently a Stepped Full "rat tail" ish design. I learned this from a Video in which someone rehandled the knife. SADLY They Were NOT SMART enough to take a picture of the tang before putting on the wood handles so they resorted to drawing a picture, of which is the only "visual" info I can go by of the tang without the Sanoprene on it (I guess people just love the rant to much to dissect it).

Another negative is the Finger Guard is made completely of Sanoprene and I do not know how much Id trust it to stay in one piece if roughly abused, Say batoning Or worse batoning in cold weather.

Apparently The Version I purchased is Discontinued. I believe the entire rant line was discontinued ALTHOUGH The rant Has been through changes before and I can only hope for a new version to be picked up and produced thats near identical physically (Maybe a better steel? One can hope.

So I picked It up for 80$ and now I want to just safe queen it and pet it every now and then once a month while I beat the living hell out of my 30$< Knives.

"safe queen" is a new term for my but I've heard it three time in a couple of days. That means collecting right? (Thanks, Izzy!) For enjoyment or profit?

Safe queen is usually a referral to something You tend to love so much you dont use it and keep it locked up lookin pretty and just fondle it once in awhile.....Sounds dirty.....

LOL! That's what I thought. Thanks for clarifying. Doesn't it short change the knife if you don't use it? It's what it was born to do'

But But But....The Black coating is SO pretty...And what if it chips or breaks!

Nice knife!

Benchmades have a pretty good warranty...
http://www.benchmade.com/about_knives/warranty.asp

LOL! I'm not criticizing at all. Just trying to understand. Thinking that a knife is beautiful, I understand. Not wanting something beautiful to break, I understand.

See, I've been awake for half an hour and I've already learned something today. :-)

thanks!

Nice knife!

I thoroughly understand the Safe Queen concept- My Imperial Kamp King is put away. It doesn't do me any service, but after losing my father's to overzealous rent-a-cops in Cleveland...

my Randall #1 hasn't seen the light of day in at least 10years... the Reeve Yarborough made a safe return from Afghanistan....

I guess I have a few safe queens. They're belonged to my dad. Most of them will get used but a few with great sentimental value will go in a drawer, taken out from time to time to play with and remember the good times with Dad.

For me, there's a clear distinction between a safe queen and a collector item. A safe queen is something that's outside of my budget for easy replacement, and that has a build or craftsmanship that is superior to my everyday tools. A safe queen can be replaced with an identical or similar item. It would just be expensive or difficult to do so.

A collector item of mine has a value immeasurable in monetary terms, is a one-of-a-kind, and is irreplaceable. For example, something that "dad gave me" is a collector item and possibly an heirloom. A knife I successfully used to save my life from a bear attack is a collector item. I would buy an equivalent knife to use, but I would retire that particular knife without cleaning it. A rusted knife from the Titanic is a collector item.

Having said that, I do have a few collector items, which I don't even consider as being tools or as subject matter for discussion on this site. However, I don't have any safe queens. I do have some knives and guns that I have not gotten around to using yet. They're brand new, but they're still just tools that I can replace without tapping into my kid's college fund. Also, if my house is burning down, these brand new tools will be low on the priority list of things to save.

Im the kinda person that collects cheap stuff as much as expensive stuff. I also dont have issues with safe queening a 20$ knife because its all about just how much you love somtehing no matter cost or popularity/rarity.

I work as a chef. Maybe 3 or 4 years ago I bought my first $300 kitchen knife, an Hattori FH. It was all gleaming steel and sex appeal. It shipped in a white wooden box lined with blue silk batting. It was beyond beautiful with its ergo-contoured black linen micarta handles. It was so nice in fact that I never took it to work except once to show it off. So it sat and gathered dust for a couple years. When I realized I never used it I sold it. Why own one you don't use?

Six months ago I bought an $800 kitchen knife straight from Japan. It was forged by an artist, a genius. Black-steel at 66 Rc. In your hand it's a living thing; you can feel the energy as you hold it. Even though it's absurdly expensive I take it work every day. I agonized as to whether to buy it, then I just decided to buy it and let go. Sure, it could get a chip or get dinged, but does a carpenter every keep his best hammer in the toolbox so it doesn't get scratched? Besides, I sharpen professionally, too, and there isn't much short of total destruction that I can't fix.

If I'm afraid to use a tool, I don't really own it. It's useless to me.

So, I guess that's what I think about safe queens. I'm pretty liberal politically but tool-wise I'm a hard-@ss man! You gotta earn your keep if you want a spot in my tool box, knife roll or belt sheath.

The IKK is my only SQ and that is for sentiment. I use all of my other gear. In fact, I make a point of buying items to be used. If I ever get a Benchmade Triage, I'll use it, not keep it tucked away.

The IKK is a cool knife. The SAK Farmer is a good modern replacement; it has all the same blades.

Congratulations. I am not big into fixed-blade knives, but that is one I've been coveting for a long time. I could never find the one in black and plain edge, now even the unfinished plain-edge is impossible to find.