I have the Benchmade and I love it, it is small, light, comfortable to use, the S30V stays sharp, and looks great. However it may not be good as an outdoor knife because the blade doesn't have much of a flat belly, so it isn't very well suited to carving tasks and it doesn't have the sharp point a lot of people like. The blade shape is however a very good skinner shape and it does very well with normal edc tasks (opening boxes, mail, slicing out articles, ect)

If you like Benchmades there is a new Snody neck knife soon to be out that is excellent. Just wait a little while until it is released.

JAF,

The Mikro in A2 @ .150" blade thickness holds up reasonably well to corrosion, but I know what you're talking about. I fish the VA tidewaters as much as finances will allow me to travel. Hence, we offer the Mikro II in Sandvik 12C27 @ .125" blade thickness. BRKT's proprietary heat treatment drives 12C27 to very respectable edge holding characteristics. Both blades are convexed, but sharpening is certainly not difficult, it's actually very easy to do. Here's a link to a decent convex sharpening tutorial...

http://home.nycap.rr.com/sosak/convex.htm

M

I looked at the Benchmade Activator yesterday, when I was in Blade Show. I HAD thought about buying one a few weeks back, but when I was actually feeling it, the blade was WAY too thick for a short length. At least, for me <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I bought a Sebenza, another Massey blade (4" length 52100 blade with sheep horn handle), and a John Fitch 5" (sort of) damascus bowie..., and I don't any of them were as thick as the Benchmade Activator <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />