Benchmade 10 Year Anniversary Infidel Knife Review

The Benchmade 10 Year Anniversary Infidel

 

For over three decades, Benchmade has been producing exceptional knives. Benchmade began by a man named Les, who wanted a butterfly knife that used higher quality materials, while using the newer technology to create a great knife. He had taken a shop class in high school, so he put those skills to use and blueprinted his dream butterfly knife. He later met Victor Anselmo, who helped to grind the first ever Bali-Song prototype. Les himself finished it in his home garage and promptly took it to a local gun shop and asked if they could produce 100 more. For the first few years, this company focused on only making butterfly knives. Within the next seven years, they expanded their products to encompass fixed blades and the traditional folding knives.

The Infidel is one of the knives that Benchmade has produced. And to celebrate the Infidel’s 10^th birthday, Benchmade decided to revamp this blade. This celebration is a great opportunity for you to get your hands on an exceptional knife that will help you throughout your life–the 10th Anniversary Infidel OTF Auto.

 

The Blade:

 

The originally Infidel rocked D2 steel, which is a good steel. D2 is a semi-stainless steel, because it provides you a good amount of resistance to corrosion, but it isn’t quite completely stainless. D2 is also not as tough as many of the steels that you are going to come across and is actually very hard to sharpen. In almost every single case, you will need a master sharpener to actually get a fine edge on a D2 blade. However, this steel is very hard and holds an edge pretty well because of that fact. To really celebrate this knife, Benchmade decided to upgrade the steel into CPM S30V premium stainless steel. This new steel really gives us something to celebrate. CPM S30V steel is made by Crucible and they designed this steel to be especially for knives. CPM S30V steel is mainly used for high end premium pocket knives or expensive kitchen cutlery. That gives you an idea of how great this steel is and how great your knife will be, now that it has this newer steel option. Crucible added vanadium carbides to help bring extreme amounts of hardness to the steel. Usually, when you get a crazy hard steel, it will lack on toughness, because the harder a steel is, the more brittle it will be. That is not the case with S30V steel. In fact, this steel is considered to be the perfect balance between hardness and toughness. The Infidel’s blade will be able to take on the toughest of tasks and you will not need to be worrying about whether it can take it or not, because it can. S30V steel has exceptional edge retention and resists rust very well. These two characteristics help cut down on maintenance. And, your blade will come out of the box razor sharp. Plus, you won’t be counting down the days until you need to sharpen your blade again, because it stays sharp for longer than you’ll believe. The steel on this blade has been finished with a black color.

The blade on the Infidel is a double edged dagger shape. This has also been called a needle point blade. This blade shape has been designed around it’s point. Its main purpose is to be able to stab or pierce. It is built by 2 symmetrical sharpened blades that taper to a very thin sharp point. The Infidel has been designed to be a tactical knife, which is a knife that is to be used in extreme situations. One of these extreme situations is that this knife can be used as a great fighting knife. And because of the two sharpened edges, this knife excels at fighting in close combat scenarios. Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks to this type of knife shape. First of all, the tip on this knife is very thin, it is going to be more prone to breaking, especially if you are using it on harder targets. Another one of the drawbacks is that there is absolutely no belly. This means that slicing is not going to be easy at all; it will actually be a challenge. A dagger point blade is going to be found the most on military and tactical knives. Since it is a flat grind, the blade might seem duller than it actually is sometimes and with the flat grind. To keep the edge razor sharp, you are going to have to take off a little extra steel while grinding it. Because of this, you will lose some of the durability that the blade once had.

 

 

The Handle:

 

The handle on this knife has been carved out of 6061-T6 billet aluminum. A piece of billet aluminum just means that the entire handle has been carved out of a single piece of aluminum. This benefits you because there are going to be no weak spots where two pieces of aluminum have been welded together. The 6061-T6 alloy is one of the most common aluminum alloys used today and it has incredible tensile strength. Aluminum has a low density, especially for metal, so while it provides you with a hefty feel, it is actually an extremely light material. Aluminum can be very slippery, unless it has been properly texturized. To help provide you with better grip, Benchmade has added grooves going down the center of the handle on the palm side. The first Infidel had its handle finished by an anodization process. This is one of the most common finishers for an aluminum handle. The original Infidel’s handle was black. This is where the handle gets switched up for this version. Instead of an anodized handle, they decided to dip the handle. This means that there is a coating instead of a chemical change. And instead of being black, like the first one was, this version is bright silver.

 

 

The Pocket Clip:

 

The knife is outfitted with a deep carry, tip down pocket clip. I prefer having a deep carry pocket clip because of two reasons. First of all, I feel like my knife is more secure in my pocket when it is carried this way. The knife lies further down in my pocket, so I know that in my everyday movements, I am not going to lose my knife. There is almost no way that it is going to slip out of my pocket. The second reason that I love having a deep carry pocket clip is because you can conceal your knife more easily. This especially comes in handy for my tactical knives, which this is. The handle has been drilled so that you can carry your knife tip down.

 

 

The Mechanism:

 

The Infidel 10 Year Anniversary Knife is an automatic knife. It has a double action, out the front mechanism. Like always, automatic knives are not legal in every state or area. Make sure that you know your local knife laws before purchasing and especially before carrying this knife. An out the front knife is also known as a sliding knife or a telescoping knife. Basically, it is a pocket knife that has the blade open and close through a hole in one end of the handle, instead of folding out of the side of the handle. There are two different types of automatic OTF knives: single action and double action. The Infidel 10 Year Anniversary knife is a double action OTF knife. This means that when you slide the button forward, the blade will be ejected automatically. And, when you slide the knife backwards, the blade will retract automatically. If it were a single action, the knife would only eject automatically, so having this be a double action is a bonus. The trigger on the original Infidel was silver, contrasting against the black handle. On the Infidel 10 Year Anniversary knife, the trigger is black, contrasting against the silver handle.

 

 

Extras:

 

This knife comes with a Commemorative Challenge Coin. On the front of this coin, there is the shape of the Infidel in the center. On the top, it reads “10^th ANNIVERSARY”. On the bottom it reads, “THE INFIDEL”. On the left side, there is an engraved “2007” and on the right, “2017”. The back of this coin features the Benchmade Butterfly logo in the center. The top of the coin reads, “BENCHMADE KNIFE CO. The bottom of the coin reads, “USA PROUD”.

 

 

Limited Edition:

 

This version of the Infidel is a limited edition knife that has been individually numbered for 2017 only. Get it while you can. You won’t regret it.

 

 

The Specs:

 

The blade on this knife measures at 3.91 inches long, with a thickness of 0.118 inches. When the knife is open, it measures in at 8.91 inches long, with a closed length of an even 5 inches long. The handle on the Infidel is 0.59 inches thick. The knife weighs 4.90 ounces. This is a rather large knife that is going to get the job done when you are utilizing it.

 

 

The Pros of the Infidel 10 Year Anniversary Knife:

 

• Benchmade upgraded the steel, so now it is a fully stainless steel blade, instead of semi-stainless.
• The new choice of steel is easier to sharpen and holds a fantastic edge.
• The steel is very hard and still very tough, which is not an easy combination to come by.
• The steel resists corrosion very well.
• This knife comes razor sharp.
• The double edged dagger shape helps the Infidel excel at being a self-defense knife.
• The point is super sharp and thin, so it will work great at stabbing your target.
• The handle has been made out of billet aluminum, so there will be no weak spots where two pieces have been welded together.
• Aluminum gives you a good, hefty feel, but is actually very light.
• There are grooves running down the center of the handle to help with your grip on the knife.
• Has a double action OTF mechanism.
• Comes with a deep carry pocket clip.
• Comes with an Infidel Challenge Coin.
• This is a limited edition knife which makes it a fantastic knife for your collection.

 

 

The Cons of the Infidel 10 Year Anniversary Knife:

 

• Because of the upgraded steel, the cost is going to be higher.
• The new steel choice is easier to sharpen than D2, but still not easy to sharpen.
• A dagger point has no belly, so you aren’t going to be able to slice.
• A dagger point has a weak tip, which is prone to breaking when stabbing harder targets.
• While the dagger point excels at one thing, it can really only do that one thing—this is not a versatile knife.
• The pocket clip is not reversible, so it is not an ambidextrous knife.
• The pocket clip has only been drilled to carry your knife tip down.
• The aluminum handle is going to be cold if you live in a cold environment.
• Because the handle has been dipped instead of anodized, it is going to be more prone to scratches and those scratches showing up.

 

 

Conclusion:

 

The Infidel has been around for 10 years now. During that decade, it has earned a fantastic reputation of being a reliable and trusty tactical knife. To celebrate the Infidel turning 10 years old, Benchmade created a limited edition revamped version. This version looks sleeker and uses higher quality materials. They started off by switching out the steel used on this knife. They chose to make it out of CPM S30V premium stainless steel. This steel is tougher, harder, and maintains an edge better than the previous steel choice. Plus, it’s fully stainless steel, which does cut down on some maintenance time. They kept the double edged dagger shape, because that is as good as it could get. They kept the handle material as billet aluminum, but decided to switch up the finish and color. They did a bright dip in a silver, instead of anodizing the aluminum to be black. They kept the pocket clip and double action OTF. They will include an Infidel Challenge Coin when you purchase this knife. This is a limited edition knife, so run, don’t walk to get your own.