The Benchmade Crooked River is a very cool folding knife…
It has that traditional look, but it still has some important upgrades that bring it into the modern age…
And in this Benchmade Crooked River review, we’re going to check out all of its important features…
Let’s start by going over the size of the knife...
The Benchmade Crooked River is a fairly large folding knife because it was created as a folding hunting knife…
It has a blade that comes in at 4 inches long, and the handle comes in at 5.30 inches long…
So the overall length on the Crooked River is around 9.30 inches long when the blade is locked out…
In addition to that, the Crooked River comes in at 5.41 ounces in weight. That’s fairly heavy compared to many other folding knives.
The Blade steel on the Crooked River is CPM-S30V which is an awesome steel. It’s a great knife steel for several reasons too…
First of all, it does a great job at resisting rust and corrosion, so it’s unlikely you’ll have any issues with that…
But aside from that, CPM-S30V takes a fine edge and it maintains that edge through a lot of cutting and use…
In addition to that, its not a very difficult steel to resharpen once you eventually do wear down your edge…
So with the Crooked River you’re definitely getting a high quality steel that will give you good performance.
The handle material on the Crooked River is wood, but it’s actually not your average wooden handle…
The wood used on this knife is a composite material that has been filled with resin. This makes it a very strong handle material, stronger than natural wood…
And it makes it pretty much impervious to the elements like rain and snow. In addition to that, its a very comfortable material to hold…
And it actually gives you a pretty decent grip on the knife when you’re using it to make cuts.
The locking mechanism used on the Crooked River is the Axis Lock locking mechanism…
The Axis Lock is a fantastic locking system for a many reasons. It works by incorporating a spring tensioned bar that moves back and forth within a track in the handle…
The bar wedges against a flat area on the tang of the blade and that locks it into position. It’s a very secure locking system, and and it deploys the blade very smoothly as well…
You can also deploy the blade very quickly and in a number of different ways too.
The pocket clip on the Crooked River only allows you to carry in the tip up position. So you won’t be able to carry tip down if that’s what you prefer…
That being said, you do have some adjustability with the clip because you can reverse it to either side of the knife…
This may not seems like an important feature, but it actually is because it allows you to set the knife up for left handed or right handed carry very easily.
In the end I think that even though the Benchmade Crooked River has some drawbacks, it’s still an awesome folding knife…
It is large, which makes it heavier to carry around, but it also increases your cutting capability significantly. It also gives you a great knife steel that performs…
The handle is very strong and very comfortable, and the Axis Lock is a very secure system…
Now if you want to learn even more about the Crooked River, click here and you’ll be taken to a very in depth comparison between the Crooked River and its little brother, the mini Crooked River…
Well, bye for now!