BenkeyDamascus Pocket Knife with Clip Leather Sheath Sharp VG10 Core Folding Knife, EDC with Liner Lock Unique Abalone Seashells Handle for Outdoor Survival Camping Collection

Update from original review:The seller contacted me after reading my original review. They said they made some modifications to solve the issue with opening. They said they would send me a new knife if I wanted! Sure! Send me a new one to see if it works better.When they saw my US address they said it would be too expensive to ship it from China so they would tell the Amazon warehouse to send me 2 knives at random! The warehouse still had some of the old versions. So, will I get 2 old versions or 2 new versions or 1of each?Very shortly I got the 2 knives… BOTH were the new versions!! (I lucked out!) They Both had silky smooth opening!! Perfection! Not only is it beautiful, with a great blade, now it opens easily! Now I can completely recommend this knife, if you get the updated version with a smooth opening.I updated my rating from 3 stars to 5 stars. This is the way flip opening should be. So if you buy this knife & happen to get an old version with a stiff opening return to exchange & hopefully you’ll get a new version with the smooth opening.10 stars for thus seller & the customer service! THEY contacted me on their own & made the replacement offer on their own!!! This is a responsible seller that backs up its products. For all of you who badmouth any & all Chinese products & sellers, this seller is a Good One with integrity! Feel confident to buy from them!!I am very happy with their customer service and the overall results.—————Original review:I bought the regular Abalone shell version. The first one arrived and was impossible to open. I tried and tried, using different lubricants and it was so difficult to open it was painful to my finger. I send it back for a replacement.The 2nd one was a tiny bit easier to open, and the blade was sharper than he first one. Once again I tried different lubricants, to very little effect. I tried to loosen the screw on the rotation disc but t wouldn't unscrew, it would just spin in the knife. I then spent several days literally opening and closing the knife HUNDREDS of times to see if I could wear it out a little. I think it worked a bit but my fingers sure hurt.Its difficult to get past the closed stage at 1st. Once past the initial closed stage it flows smoothly to the fully open position. When closing it flows smoothly until just almost closed, then it snaps shut. Its almost feels like an "assisted Closing" device instead of an assisted Opening device, then stays shut, I know its not assisted closing but the internal design snaps it closed and wants to keep it stuck closed. Hence the amount of force needed to get past this stuck closed position to open the knife. Sometimes its easier than others to open it.I think this is its major design flaw: the difficulty in opening it. It requires a lot of pressure/force, at the right angle to open it. I think the flipper could also be 1-2mm taller and that might help, or the angle of the flipper when closed could be changed for better leverage.Once the knife is open it feels great in the hand. The flipper turns into a small finger guard that feels comfortable. (Maybe they designed the flipper to feel good as a finger guard but didn't take into consideration how ineffective it was as a flipper to open the knife!)The Abalone shell scales are beautiful and feel good in the hand. The scales are a little thick so may not always feel totally comfortable in your pocket, but its manageable. The leather sheath seems ok. The knife fits very snugly in it so its a chore to take it out. I can put it in with the flipper sticking out so I can use the flipper as leverage to pull the knife out, but its a slow deploy. It is only a vertical carry. I wish more sheath makers made horizontal carry an option as well.The tiny "lanyard" is joke and useless and would always catch the tip of the blade making it impossible to open. I took it off.The written description says it has both a flipper AND a thumb hole to open.NOT TRUE! IT DOESN'T HAVE A THUMB HOLE!!The pictures show it accurately. The written description needs to be corrected. There is a DIFFERENT knife, by a different seller that does have a thumb hole but not this knife.And now to the blade:The description and pictures *CLEARLY* state it is a VG10 CORE, sandwiched with Damascus SIDES. Some people complain it is not true damascus. Well, sure. it’s not *solid* damascus through and through, but the description doesn't claim it to be. It *CLEARLY* show the layering, sandwiching. The only lie in the description is the thumb hole. Everything else is accurate. The damascus design on either side of the core is beautiful.VG10 is a great blade steel. It took very little to hone it to supper sharp and it retains its edge.Perhaps it might even have a better edge then some full damascus blades? It depends. Matter of opinion. But the VG10 core is excellent and nothing to be ashamed of. It will serve you well.Overall, would I recommend you buying this blade? If you like its beauty and not going to be using it a lot, and don't mind the pressure needed to open it, yes. But if you want it as an EDC to use a lot, not really, unless you're willing to ignore the constant discomfort and struggle with the opening flipper process.I have other flipper knives the are silky smooth and still stay safely closed. This knife is not one of them. It wants to stay stuck in its locked position, And it is uncomfortable, and sometimes painful to open, depending on the force/pressure needed to open it on any given day. Some days are easier than others.But you might get lucky and get one that opens more smoothly than mine. Good Luck!As they say in Forged In Fire, "A knife should not hurt the end user."It is a beautiful looking knife and nice blade,

This knife checks all the boxes for me: clean design of steel and wood, around 3 ounces and 7.5” long, pocket clip, and an easy flip to open. It is hard for me to imagine how top-end knives could be significantly better than inexpensive knives like this. Maybe they could be 2x as smooth in operation, or 3x more sleek in design (both seem a stretch), but there is no way they are worth 20x the price. Beautiful, solid knife with a good blade. Not as fine a point as a razor, but sharp enough for anything I need it for. A nice, crisp magnetic close, too. I cannot speak to durability, but I’m hopeful it will last for a while. At any rate, at this price I may buy another down the line anyways!

I haven't found anything to dislike. I have never owned an expensive EDC knife so I might not be a good judge of knife quality. But I am very impressed with this little knife. It didn't arrive razor sharp so I did do a little touch up and it is fine. The locking mechanism surprised me with its' clever design. When it is closed, the blade is held shut with enough force to keep it shut but not so much to impede opening it easily with the "flipper." Also when closed the blade shoulder rests upon the front frame bar and not the blade edge. Clever. When open the blade is trapped snugly between the lever lock and the front frame bar. BTW, it also has a lanyard hole(which may interest some users). At first, the pocket clip was too tight and I had to bend it some, but that is the only negative that I have found so far. Initially I thought that the wooden scales might be a problem, but being unable to gouge or dent with my thumbnail I guess it will hold up. Overall I feel that this is a very good EDC knife - it seems sufficiently tough, designed very well for easy use and cheap enough that if broken or lost, cheap to replace. Any advertizer will hype their products by making unreasonable or outright false claims - like D2 steel blade. I really think that this $12 knife is actually D2 because it took a good bit of time to sharpen - it is very hard steel and it did take a "paper slicing" edge. I like it and would buy another.** Update - Quality control has been an issue with products from Asia, so I thought that maybe I got a fluke. I do like the first one so I ordered another and it was just as good as the first. Now I have two EDC knives that I really like for a total of $26. Definitely an inflation fighter! P.S. Neither were as sharp as they can be, but I'm sure the second one will also sharpen up and prove to be genuine D2 steel.

I've had this for a couple of weeks now, and overall I'm very happy with the knife.The blade is very sharp, cuts through cardboard like it's paper.It was a little bigger than I wanted, but it's very light in my pocket.The blade is very easy to flick open, I have small hands and yet have no problem thumbing open the blade.But the locking mechanism feels tight and solid.The handle doesn't really look like what's shown here. The colors are very different.There is a thick layer of some kind of resin on both sides, and the abalone looks more like foil.But that really isn't a big deal, it's still a good knife.Would definitely buy another from this company.