Review of Benchmade Morpho 51 and 32

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polaria
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:36 pm

Review of Benchmade Morpho 51 and 32

Post by polaria »

Benchmade Morpho 51

I got this piece almost purely to review it and it is actually the first Benchmade I’ve owned. Expensive knife, I know, but it is a Benchmade so when I feel I won’t need it I’m sure I can sell it on at reasonable price. Now, first of all I always review the knives from one viewpoint: Day-to-day, 24/7 carrying and use that varies from very light to very heavy. Being something of a collector I do have knives that are little more than toys to me, but these puppies ain’t. They are for use.

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The first thing you notice about the knife is how absolutely weightless it is for its size. With 4.25” blade and overall length 9.25” opened the 3.3 oz weight is nothing. Part of the lack of weight is attributable to the G10 handles and titanium liners, but it is worth noting that the blade is only 0.1” thick. While more than enough for most tasks its not something I’d like to put under lot of sideways force.

Out of the box the knife was ready to use, as could be expected. It was razor sharp and action was very well finished and ever so smooth. It flips beautifully, but it is worth mentioning that the handles are very light and thus it requires a technique slightly different from heavier metal handles. What was a bit of a disappointment was the finish of both the G10 handles and the anodized titanium insets: Both came straight from the box with slight abbrasions and a couple of shallow scratches. Now this is obviously a quality control problem, since my other Benchmade (Morpho 32) which I got later had none of that. However, in all honesty I have to say the problem isn’t huge by all means. You can only see the minute defects under good light and scrutiny. Just look at the above pictures and you probably don’t see them from those.

The knife is locked into unopened position by a patented spring lock mechanism which is kept in place by slight tension in the handles. If you squeeze the handles the lock snaps open and you can flip it. After you’ve opened the blade you need to squeeze the handle and push the locking pin back into place. Opening and locking it open can be done with just one hand, but closing a knife once its locked open requires both hands. Which is okay for me, since the ability to open it one handed is much more important.

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One interesting thing is that contrary to most balisongs there is no stopper pin to hold the opened blade. Instead, the blade locks open by two small pitons inside the liners. It’s a clever and very nice solution and there is absolutely no play in the knife when you’ve locked it into open position.

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The blade itself had no trouble with the various materials I pitted it against and it held its edge quite nicely through several months. Unlike the handles, the blade finish seemed picture perfect and the D2 tool steel held the finish with not a single scratch or nick in the blade after a few months of light use. Due to the fact that I might very well resell this knife I did not subject it to any heavy use so I can’t say anything about the strength with 100% certainty. The steel is hard and made for heavy use but the blade shape and 0.1” thickness means I would be careful with using it as a crowbar.

Too Long, Didn’t Read Version… or, all the important questions:

Can I flip it?

Yes, you can, but beware, the knife is VERY light.

Is it pretty?

Depends on your taste. I think it is.

Does it fit with my iPhone?

No, not really. Its modern and pretty, but the finish is a bit off.

Is it sharp?

Out of the box it was razor sharp and held the edge well. I’ve had no need to resharpen it yet.

Can I open a wooden ammo crate and then cut open the soft-metal ammo containers with it?

I’m sure you can, but due to the length of the blade and the fact that it is quite narrow near the handle I would use caution in crowbarring anything.

Does doing it ruin the blade?

It doesn’t ruin the edge, but I’m not sure about the blade. I’m actually worried that due to the blade length and the total length of the opened knife you might actually be able to project enough force to bend the blade near the tang.

What is the single best thing about the knife?

The weight. It is featherweight and thus a great item for day-to-day carry.

What is the single worst thing about the knife?

It’s actually a bit long for my tastes. I prefer the Morpho 32 length.
polaria
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:36 pm

Re: Review of Benchmade Morpho 51 and 32

Post by polaria »

Benchmade Morpho 32

Unlike the Morpho 51 this one I got with the clear intention to use it as my daily carry knife. And I did. The reasons why I'm not carrying it now will become clear later in the text... In any case as you read the review, like before, bear in mind my point of view: Day-to-day, 24/7 carrying and use that varies from very light to very heavy.

Like the Morpho 51 the 32 version is VERY light. Basically weightless. Which is a good thing for daily carry, especially if you are, like me, frequently carry tons of stuff on your person in both work and your free time. Morpho 32 has a 3.25" blade, a full inch shoretr than 51, and weights only 2.7 oz. Its only 4.4" closed so it fits a pocket quite snuggly even without the clip. Like 51 the blade is quite thin, but as it is shorter it feels a lot sturdier.

Out of the box the knife was beautiful and ready to use as should be in this price-class. Details are pretty much the same as in bigger morpho so no need to repeat them here. Compared to the Morpho 51, though, the finish was picture perfect. Looking at the two knives side-by-side made the little nicks in the G10 handles of my Morpho 51 stand out as the 32 had none. Same goes for the anodized parts where the finish of the 32 beat the 51 clearly. As I mentioned before the finish of the 51 wasn't bad by any means, but it surprised me there was such a difference between the two right out of box.

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So far the knive has served me in variety of work extremely well. The handle is comfortable, it flips open well and holds its edge. What more can you hope of a knife? Well, to be honest after a year the blade was not razor sharp anymore, but it was still sharp enough to open cardboar boxes and such without extra force and slice meat without trouble.

Now for the bad parts... As I am writing the knife is going back to Benchmade with Warranty slip attached. The reason is that one of the inside liners that also acts as a spring for the opening mechanism has broken in two. Considering the fact that the G10 handles should protect them quite well and the only tension they come under is resulting from their actual purpose of being a spring I find this pretty surprising. My guess is that this is a design flaw. The purpose of the spring is to keep the latch spring-loaded when the knife is folded and then release the latch very fast as you squeeze the folded knife, thus allowing very smooth and easy one-handed opening while still keeping the latch tight enough that the knife should never open in your pocket on its own. Now in Morpho 51 the handles are a lot longer so if the system was originally designed for 51 size handles and then the exact same thickness and strenght liner is put into 32 size handles it might explain the problem. In shorter handles the spring that is shorter but has to bend as much comes under several times more stress than in longer Morpho 51 handles.

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In all honesty I hope it was material defect, a badly tempered spring, but I can see that it might be a design flaw.I'll keep you posted on how the Warranty claim goes.

Too Long, Didn’t Read Version… or, all the important questions:

Can I flip it?

Yes, you can. Its smooth, but lightness and small size make it very different proposition from the usual bali.

Is it pretty?

Depends on your taste. I think it is.

Does it fit with my iPhone?

Surprisingly yes.

Is it sharp?

Out of the box it was razor sharp and held the edge very well. After a year I’ve still had no need to resharpen.

Can I open a wooden ammo crate and then cut open the soft-metal ammo containers with it?

Sure. You might void your Warranty though as Benchmade does prohibit using its knives as crowbars. Still, I don't think using this one as a crowbar is its weakest point.

Does doing it ruin the blade?

Nope.

What is the single best thing about the knife?

The weight and size. It is ideal for day-to-day carry.

What is the single worst thing about the knife?

Liners. One of them broke well before expected.
polaria
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:36 pm

Re: Review of Benchmade Morpho 51 and 32

Post by polaria »

Morpho 32 got back from the maintenance with a ticket that the liner has been changed, screws re-adjusted, mechanism oiled and blade sharpened for free. The warranty service was very efficient since it took less than a four weeks for the knife to travel from Europe to Oregon and back. Interestingly enough I noticed that instead of changing one line they actually changed BOTH and the new liners are clearly anodized differently with darker color. So maybe there was a faulty batch of liners around and mine was one of them?

In any case the color difference can be seen when compared to my Morpho 51:

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polaria
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:36 pm

Re: Review of Benchmade Morpho 51 and 32

Post by polaria »

Story continues. The replaced liner broke again in exactly the same way as before, this time with only a few weeks of use:

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I made another warranty claim, this time specifying that it was a second breakage of exactly same type. Once again the warranty service worked quite fast but this time they did not bother to fix anything, instead they just sent me a completely new knife. I hope it was just a freak incident and this one holds up better.

One thing I have to say about this new knife though. The finish in this one is top notch. Not even the slightest little scratch.
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