Benchmade 10402-1 Pika II TI

Reviewed 12/01/2011 by WMoon

-Price Paid: $48.00
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

I'm a custom maker and do a lot of customization of knives, work with knives every day, and have owned literally thousands of knives. The Pika 2 Ti is the best of the Pika series of knives, but I still only think it's an 8/10. The biggest problems are with the quality of materials... Chinese produced knives are advertised as using Ti handles but instead of using 6Al4V (Grade 5) like all American produced knives use, they use CP (commercially pure) or occasionally grade 2, and it's cast not milled so there are a lot of impurities in the Ti. Titanium is strong, but if it's cast improperly in can flex and as such some of these knives can have a bit more wiggle in the blade than you'd want. I also have found that the Chinese do not use heat treated screws, so expect a screw or two to strip out on you if you ever try and take the knife down or change the pocket clip from one side to the other. Other than that it's a fine knife, shoudl give you plenty of service life.

Reviewed 01/09/2010 by JM

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

I just recently got my Benchmade Ti Pika. All around it's a pretty solid budget knife. The make a version in FRN, but the Ti feels much more stout to me,

The knife is reasonably light, and resembles the Benchmade AFCK. I really like the blade shape, the Ti feels nice in hand, and the knife is visually appealing.

The blade is made out of a chinese steel. It is ok, but I've had to sharpen it since I got it. It does take an ok edge and is easy to sharpen.

I do have some complaints with the knife though. I gave the knife a 6 in ergonomics because when wet, it does get slippery. There is absolutely no texture on the handle. I also do not like how the lock on this knife allows for up and down blade play when fully locked out. The knife was designed to have this, and it is not a fault of poor tolerancing. A knife with blade play is never confidence inspiring to me.

Overall, the knife is pretty well build. This is especially true when compared to knives built in China. This knife does cost 50 or 60 bucks, and for what you get, I think the Spyderco Tenacious is a better knife at half the price.

I really wish Benchmade would make an Axis lock or liner lock version of this knife with G10 and decent steel. Oh wait, they already did. It's called the AFCK, and it is a very difficult knife to find.

Anyways, this knife is cool for EDC and general use, but it will get slippery in wet conditions.