Benchmade 595 Mini Boost Knife Review

Benchmade says, “Our knives are made of many things: steel, aluminum and titanium, to name a few. But perhaps the most important part of a Benchmade knife is expertise. We carefully measure every part at every step in the process. We use the best materials and equipment. WE make world-class knives for world-class users and this is how.”

There are a few steps that go into each of the Benchmade knives that help to make a Benchmade knife truly fantastic. The very first step is the laser cutting, because every blade begins as a sheet of steel. A Benchmade laser cutting technician programs the laser to cut the steel into blanks, giving the blade its basic profile. The blanks are hammered out of the sheet by hand, and for the first time, the steel begins to look like a knife. Of course, like with each step of the process, measurements are taken to guarantee an impeccable knife and streamline the production. If one of the blanks isn’t up-to-spec, it won’t become a Benchmade knife.

The second step in the birth of a Benchmade knife is the surface grinding. The blank from the first step is ground to its precise width. A surface grind technician places each blank in its rack by hand, and each side is ground to its specified thickness. After grinding, the surface grinding technician checks the thickness of each set of blanks. At this step, tolerances are within the width of a human hair. At this step, Benchmade says, “Our knives have no room for error, and neither does a blank’s thickness.”

The third step is milling. This is the step where blade holes, handles, and grooves are cut on high-speed mills. For each job, the blade milling technician programs the mill and measures the blade or handle to make sure it meets their precise tolerances. One of the holes that is cut at this step is the blade pivot, which is vital to the folding mechanism. Benchmade says, “The pivot tolerance is .0005 inches, because the slightest deviation there becomes exponential at the blade’s tip.”

The next step is beveling, which is the step when the blade really starts to take its shape. Up to this point in the process, the two sides of the blade are essentially flat. A Blade Beveling Technician bevels the knife blank one side at a time, and one of the most critical tasks here is to make sure the sides match perfectly. Benchmade says, “Once again, the technician measures the blade to verify that it meets the specified tolerances. An imprecise bevel can hamper the blade’s balance, sharpness, strength, and mechanism function.

The last few steps in the process is back-sanding and finishing. These steps are when the back of the blade gets special attention and finishing gives the blade a more refined look. Lastly, there is assembly and sharpening. Every Benchmade knife is assembled by hand. With the sharpening, a knife is sharp enough only when it can cut through ultra-thin phonebook paper effortlessly without tearing. The knife is now a Benchmade.

Today, we will be talking about one of Benchmade’s newest knives, the 595 Mini Boost.

 

The Blade:

The blade on this knife is made out of CPM S30V stainless steel, which hardness to a 58-60HRC. This steel is a martensitic stainless steel which is a specific type of stainless steel alloy. Stainless steels may be classified by their crystalline structure into three main types: austenitic, ferritic, and martensitic. A martensitic stainless steel can be hardened by heat treatment and gives high hardness and toughness. The steel is made by Crucible Steel Industries, which is based in the United States. This steel has very high edge retention qualities as well as resisting rust effortlessly. CPM S30V steel was designed in the US specifically for high-end premium pocket knives and expensive kitchen cutlery. One of the things that sets this steel about is that Crucible has added vanadium carbides, which work to bring hardness into the steel alloy matrix. This steel is commonly viewed as one of the finest blade steels because for how much you pay for it, you get a perfect balance between edge retention, hardness, and toughness. One of the only drawbacks to this steel is that because of how hard the steel is, it does prove hard to work with and sharpen.

The blade on this knife has been finished with a satin finish. This finish is created by repeatedly sanding the blade in one direction with an increasing level of a fine abrasive, which is usually a very fine sandpaper. As a key, the more even the lines and the finer the sandpaper, the cleaner the satin finish is going to look. Because this is Benchmade and Benchmade is a high quality knife company, the satin finish is going to look very clean. The satin finish is used to show off the bevels of the blade and showcase the fine lines of the steel. This finish also works to cut down on glares and reflections while also cutting down on corrosion. The satin finish is the most commonly found finish in the cutlery industry today and is extremely traditional. It gives the Mini Boost a classic look that will never go out of style.

The blade has been carved into a drop point blade shape. Just like how this knife has the most common blade finish, it also has the most common blade shape. The drop point blade shape is tough and versatile, which is what makes it such a popular choice in today’s world. The shape is formed by having the blade run from the handle to the point in a lose curving manner. Because of the slow curve of the spine, the tip on this knife is a lowered tip, which will provide the user with plenty of control over their cuts. The tip is also a broad tip, which is where the primary strength of this blade comes from. One of the reason that this blade is such a versatile blade shape is because of the large belly that it features. This knife has been designed as an everyday carry knife as well as an outdoor knife. The tough tip is the biggest advantage if you are using this as an outdoor knife, because you won’t have to worry about what you may come across, because this knife is going to be able to take on almost anything. The belly is the main advantage if you are using this knife as an everyday carry knife, because of how easily it makes slicing. The only main disadvantage to this knife is because of the broad tip, the Mini Boost is not going to have the piercing and stabbing capabilities that a finer or sharper tip will, such as the tip on a clip point. However, when it comes to EDC or your outdoor knife, you shouldn’t be too worried about not having that capability.

 

The Handle:

The handle on this knife is made out of Grivory and Versaflex. Grivory is an amorphous nylon copolymer with exceptional dimensional stability. With a Benchmade Grivory, it has 50% or more glass fill. Grivory has been known as the proven material for metal replacement. Some of the benefits of Grivory is that it has high levels of stiffness and strength, resists absorbing moisture, and has good chemical resistance. All of these characteristics make the material durable, strong, and has a long lifetime.

The handle on the Mini Boost has plenty of curves. The spine of the handle has a curved bulge, that makes for a comfortable grip on the knife. The belly of the handle curves inward, which also allows for a secure and comfortable grip. There is a slight finger groove and a finger guard. These two features make for a safe hold, because it protects your fingers from getting sliced if you do accidentally slip. The finger groove will also allow for a more secure grip because it adds a sort of texture to the belly of the handle. On the spine of the handle, there is a short layer of jimping close to the butt of the handle, that adds texture and control when you are slicing. On the dark grey grivory, there is a Versaflex overlay to give you enough texture and grip that you can easily use this knife as an outdoors knife without worrying about the environment.

This handle also features a lanyard hole that has been carved into the butt.

 

The Pocket Clip:

The pocket clip is a Mini Deep-Carry clip. It is a mini clip, because the knife is a mini knife. However, when it is still going to allow you to carry this knife deep inside your pocket. Having a deep carry knife on your EDC knife is a big advantage because you won’t notice this knife as you go about your day-to-day tasks. The deep carry knife will also conceal your knife better, in case you are uncomfortable with people knowing that you are carrying a knife. The deep carry clip is a big advantage when it comes to your outdoor knife because when you are outdoors, you don’t want to worry about your knife flying out of your pocket. With this Mini Deep-Carry clip, you won’t have to worry about that happening. The clip can only carry the knife tip-up; however, it can be reversed for either left or right handed carry.

 

The Mechanism:

This is an assisted-opening knife that uses a thumb stud to assist you as well as being equipped with the AXIS Assisted opening mechanism.

An assisted opening knife is a type of folding knife that uses an internal mechanism to finish the opening of the blade once the user has partially opened it using the thumb stud. Because it is not considered an automatic knife, it does not fall under the same laws that an automatic knife does.

The thumb stud is one of the most common one-hand-opening features in the cutlery industry. A thumb stud replaces the nail nick that is found on more traditional knives. To open this knife, you hold the folded knife, then place the tip of your thumb on the stud and extend your thumb to swing the blade until it is fully opened.

The AXIS is a patented Benchmade exclusive. This is a 100 percent ambidextrous design that gets its function from a small, hardened steel bar that resides forward and back in a slot machined into both steel liners. The bar extends to both sides of the knife, spans the liners and is positioned over the rear of the blade. It engages a ramped tang portion of the knife blade when it is opened. Two omega-style springs, one on each liner, give the locking bar its inertia to engage the knife tang. As a result, the tang is wedged solidly between a sizable stop pin and the AXIS bar itself. The AXIS Assist is easily opened, even with just one hand. This evolution of the AXIS includes a spring that helps to fire the blade into the open positon once the user pushes it beyond a certain point manually. The AXIS lock also has the added benefit of “suck-back,” which encourages the blade to stay in the closed positon. AXIS Assist knives also feature integrated safety lock systems.

 

The Specs:

The blade on this knife measures in at 3.11 inches long with a blade thickness of 0.1000/ the handle measures in at 4.07 inches long with a handle thickness of 0.63 inches. The overall length of the knife measures in at 7.18 inches long. The 595 Mini Boost weighs in at 3.31 ounces. This Benchmade knife was made in the United States of America.

 

Conclusion:

This is the mini version of the popular Boost. This knife features the same dual durometer handles the greatly increase grip performance while maintaining strength, mini deep-carry pocket clip, and the reliable, fast-action AXIS Assist mechanism. You can pick up this new knife today at BladeOps.