Benchmade Unveils PSK Personal Survival Knife

With inflexible, full-tang constructions and beefier blade thicknesses, survival and bushcraft knives are just about all the time of the fixed-blade selection. From time-to-time, nonetheless, we see folding knives engineered for these extra hardcore outside makes use of, and that’s precisely what we’ve bought right here with Benchmade’s latest release, the PSK — or “Private Survival Knife.” 

Supplies

Made in America, the Benchmade PSK is constructed round a set of full liners crafted from stainless-steel. Set over the complete metal liner are a set of G-10 bolsters paired with both G-10 or or extra top-shelf carbon fiber deal with scales (seen right here). Mated to the handles a drop level blade made out of Crucible Industries’ revolutionary CPM MagnaCut powder metallurgy blade steel and fortified through a Cobalt Cerakote end. The blade additionally boasts a trio of eye-catching fullers.

Lockup & Deployment

In traditional Benchmade style, the PSK’s blade is deployed utilizing a set of thumb-studs and locks up utilizing the Oregon Metropolis outfit’s proprietary AXIS lock mechanism. In contrast to most knives in Benchmade’s catalog, the brand new PSK is provided with the model’s spring-assisted mechanism — identified merely as AXIS Help.

To forestall unintentional deployments, the Private Survival Knife has additionally been bestowed with a security slide mechanism on the backbone of the deal with that forestalls the spring-assisted blade from firing — a setup borrowed from Benchmade’s totally computerized knives. 

Dimensions

The PSK spans 8.40” tip-to-tip — 3.45” of which is comprised of its 0.11-inch-thick blade. The knife suggestions the scales at 5.328oz for the all-G10-handled model and 5.223oz for the carbon fiber-scaled mannequin. 

Outside Facilities 

The PSK differs out of your common EDC folder in a number of methods. For starters, its mixture of an ultra-sturdy AXIS lock and a full metal liners afford it much more power and structural integrity than most on a regular basis carry blades. Furthering its conduciveness to survival and bushcraft purposes is a devoted putting choir on the base of the blade that enables it to be struck with a Ferro rod for beginning fires. 

What Makes It So Particular?

Whereas there are some folding knives that excel at survival and bushcraft tasks — just like the Condor Krakatoa, Extrema Ratio RAO, and the Chilly Metal Final Hunter — this style of blade remains to be pretty uncommon. An enormous a part of what makes the PSK so noteworthy, nonetheless, isn’t simply its capability to lend itself to outside makes use of, but in addition its immense versatility, because it’s simply as conducive to common on a regular basis use. It additionally has a bit extra power than most Benchmade folders, plus sports activities a number of outdoor-focused options. 

Is It A True Survival Knife?

Although it is ready to tackle greater than its fair proportion of survival tasks, the PSK nonetheless lacks the general power of a hard and fast blade, and its considerably paltry 0.11-inch blade positively doesn’t permit it to face as much as hard-use duties — like log-splitting — fairly as nicely, although it’s nonetheless nice for whittling, camp cooking, feather-sticking, and so forth. 

I’m somewhat shocked that Benchmade opted to bestow the PSK with a full flat grind — somewhat than a extra bushcraft-focused Scandi grind — although I think about this alternative was performed in order that it may higher lend itself to on a regular basis carry. I additionally don’t actually know what to make of Benchmade’s option to deal with the PSK to an assisted-opening mechanism, as these setups are extra susceptible to getting gunked up when used off-grid — plus it’s laborious to think about a method wherein an assisted-opening blade makes the factor extra conducive to survival and bushcraft purposes. 

Similar to with the remainder of the model’s knives, the PSK not solely comes backed by a lifetime guarantee, however its worth additionally contains Benchmade’s LifeSharp Providers, which incorporates free manufacturing facility cleansing, sharpening, and tuning for all times. 

Spec Sheet

Pricing & Availability

The Benchmade PSK is offered for order now, with pricing beginning at $400 for the all-G10-scaled PSK 593BK and going as much as $450 for the carbon fiber PSK 593BK-01 mannequin. 

Benchmade PSK

The Benchmade PSK is a flexible, tough-as-nails assisted-opening folding knife with a MagnaCut blade and the flexibility to lend itself simply as nicely to EDC because it does survival and bushcraft use.