5 Sweet and Svelte Posted by Wavicle on 15th Dec 2017

Being a Gold Class edition of the Valet, this one goes all the way on materials, finishes, and mostly on workmanship. The titanium is bead blasted and then anodized giving you a color shift from different viewing angles due to the light diffraction through the clear oxide (titanium anodizing does not use dyes). And the milling on the scales is excellent giving you a very good grip on this little gem. It's not readily noticeable but the back spacer is Damascus, and I assume it is Damasteel but maybe not the hardened version used for the blade. And the Ladder pattern in the blade is awesome. Of all the Damascus blades I have this one has unique patterns and it took me about 5 days to finally visualize the ladder. I did say "mostly" on Benchmade's workmanship and that is because the blade on mine, number 371, is reasonably off-center towards the non-clip side. It's not touching the black DLC stainless liner, but close. I may try to center it at some time but for a seven hundred MSRP knife Benchmade should make certain the final assembly is flawless. This will be a carry knife and certainly one I will show off when appropriate. Kudos to KSF for excellent sales service shipping it out from Escanaba at warp speed.