Saturday, August 6, 2011

Griptilian Replacement Review

Three Benchmade knives come immediately to mind. As most of us know, the Griptilian, like all of its sisters in the Benchmade harem, is an incredibly useful as well as well made cutting instrument. To replace an aged and decrepit Mini Griptilian I humbly suggest: another Mini Griptilian, the Mini Stryker Nitrous or the newfangled Mini Barrage.
Pluses and minuses:
Griptilian + good blade geometry, lower price point - PLASTIC scales, no Nitrous

Stryker + great blade geometry, moderate price, G10 scales, Nitrous, I am the satified owner of a high performing full size Stryker - 4.25 inches long

Barrage + good blade geometry, moderate price, Nitrous - PLASTIC scales

You're probably guessing by this point that I'm not a fan of pastic handles on higher quality knives.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

coach thank you for your well thought out review. However I do have two questions. How does the locking mechanism on the stryker compare to the other knives reviewed? Second does the barrage come in pink?

Coach said...

The Stryker has a titanium liner locking mechanism. Though potentially not as "bank vault" secure as the mechanical cross bolt on the Griptilian and the Barrage, I'm not aware of a higher tren in failure rate.
The Barrage does not come in pink, at press time...