A few days ago when I got my new mini crooked river- I, like any good social media knife
bro who buys knives primarily for internet points instead of cutting things, I uploaded
some half assed pictures to Instagram, Reddit, and Imugur and waited for the likes to come
in.
I thought about blade forums, but I decided not to because that would be spamming.
Anyway Instagram bro embrace_the_suck said and I quote: If an animal isn’t processed
during the review I’ll leave a very Mediocre comment.
Very mediocre.
Alright you got your wish!
However I can promise him without any caveats I’ll make an extremely mediocre review.
Also Emanuel B added to the discussion with #puremichigan.
Sorry say hello to your daughter…
So before everyone falls asleep or can’t finish one of my videos for the 9th time (is
it?), let’s go over the dimensions like the overall length and weight.
In parenthesis you’ll see the dimensions of the man sized Crooked river.
Blade length and cutting edge.
Still about 3 1/4 inch cutting edge.
Oh I mean 3 1/4 inch ish.
Handle size and grip area.
You know if I didn’t say ish someone would complain it was 3.18 and not 3.25.
Spine thickness and handle thickness.
Plus I do occasionally screw these up.
And tallness closed.
Oh shit I forgot.
Oh shit I forgot again.
Let’s see uhh review.
The Benchmade Crooked river mini, is not a mini version of the Crooked River in the classical
sense.
Like say the Mini Griptilian vs the standard griptilian is.
The Benchmade Crooked River Mini is more like a normal size knife for the rare people who
don’t hunt large game as their day job.
Both knives feature the same clip point blade style, the mini of course being a smaller
proportioned version.
Clip points are identified by the appearance of having the forward section of the blade
clipped down by a third.
This blade style lends itself to piercing things like the stomach cavity of an elk or
the plastic wrapper on some grass fed beef from a machine killed cow.
The clip point blade is made from S30V that features a flat grind just like the full size.
The finish looks like it has somewhere between a satin and stone washed look depending on
how the light hits it or how much you’ve drank.
S30V is a good stainless steel known for it’s wear resistance, corrosion resistance, but
not a resistance to people bitching about it in a knife much more than $100.
The lockup is handled by an Axis lock that holds up well to whacking it.
You deploy the knife by the thumb studs up top or by pulling back the axis lock, and
flicking your wrist.
As per my demonstration here.
As far as all my knives with axis locks, this one was a little muddy out of the box.
I added some 3-in-1 to get it ready, but if you saw my spam on r/Knifeclub you knew that
already.
Tovarishworks did!
Then a light twist of the pivot, and it made it much nicer.
The blade doesn’t fall quite as nicely when open as my full size crooked river, but that
may have more to do with that having a heavier blade.
It still isn’t quite as nice as my Griptilian deployment or my 940-1, but those are both
broken in more from fidgeting and some beatings.
Also if you bounce the knife and fling it downward just right you can get it to deploy…
it’s hard to do but you can do it.
I mean if you can’t you’re a weak failure, but you should probably be able to.
Blade rentention when closed is pretty good, I reckon.
The handle… the ergonomics on the original crooked river were nice… great for big hands…
and this one is pretty good too.
If you’ve ever held the 940-1 before it has about the same amount of hand room as
that, but with a pronounced curve.
I like the grip on it a lot and my hand fits it well.
There’s a little recessed jimping above the axis lock, but it doesn’t do a whole
lot for me as my thumbs sits further up the blade spine.
The handle is comprised of stabilized diamond wood handle scales and aluminum bolsters over
skeletonized stainless steel liners.
The wood scales on this are slightly darker than on the full size and the bolsters also
look slightly different.
The full size had aluminum bolsters, but although the product description on blade hq and knife
center say aluminum, it looks titanium ish.
The mini saves about 2 full ounces over the full size, and a lot of this has to do with
a lot of consideration taken to weight saving everywhere.
Thinner liners thinner blade stock, thinner bolsters, thinner handle.
This doesn’t mean the knife is flimsy, as it feels sturdy.
but if you know anything about my opinions on knife trends in general is that I think
many many knives are overbuilt for no real structural reason, also and everything needs
to be more tactical.
That said the original crooked river is still a pretty lightweight knife given it’s size
too.
Since the handle is smooth and refined…
it may be a hard hard to hold in slick conditions, like elk entrails, or KY jelly.
It has a very nice comfortable handle although I wouldn’t call it the grippiest knife out
there.
The Para Military 2 still has an overall gripper feel if you need it.
And if you don’t good for you.
The clip.
The clip, without taking it off and measuring it with calipers looks to be a complete carryover
from the full size.
It seems to be the only carry over other than maybe some of the screws.
The clip is a split phallus style that’s not deep carry.
Expect about 3/4 an inch to stick out of your pocket, while sitting at your computer desk.
It’s reversible to the right or left in a tip up configuration, which is ideal.
It has a good amount of springiness and slides into the pocket easy, but also grips it.
Because it’s a clip!
I like it.
Alright how about some size comparisons.
I personally think this is probably my new favorite benchmade, maybe even more than the
940-1.
It’s a great every day carry size.
But let’s look at a few knives to give it context.
First the mini crooked river.
It feels like a lifelong companion or student loans of a knife.
Not too big, not too small, under 4 ounces so its just right- especially since Benchmade
has paid me large sums of money to say this.
So let’s see the full size.
The full size is also a beautiful knife, something I don’t even say about most people… but
maybe should.
Is it ok to like a knife more than people?
Discuss.
However, as smiling gator put it on instagram… if you’re a hunter it might be too small
a folding knife.
Unless it’s just tree rats.
That said… everyone prefers different sizes of knife depending on what sort of alternative
life styles we live.
I don’t hunt much as an adult, because the store.
And work.
And I make stupid youtube videos…
but I do like a good knife for daily things like opening packages of knives, and breaking
down amazon boxes.
And cutting my meat into small pieces.
This The mini does all of these very well.
The full size is too big a knife to carry at work for me, so it doesn’t see much pocket
time.
How about the Para Military 2.
Also a great knife one of my top 5, depending on what emoji I’m feeling…
It is a grippier knife…
mostly the poop one… the G10 scales and handle shape, and blade jimping add points
of friction for theoretical wet conditions and supposed harder cutting.
I for one do mostly boring things with my knives so both work fine for me.
I know I review knives but is $180 too much for an every day carry?
Benchmade doesn’t seem to think so, but most people outside of the knife community
think a $180 is insane.
Who’s wrong, the knife community or the rest of the world.
Discuss.
Now the 940-1.
This is a very nice knife…
it’s more expensive- maybe even more so now that they raised some MSRPs.
It’s about an ounce lighter, which admittedly isn’t a big deal when the knives have a
similar footprint.
I mean it’s noticeable, but at some point a knife is just lighter.
I tend to equally carry knives that are 4 ounces or less.
ISH.
I like to think the clip point of the mini crooked river is more versatile because it’s
more pokier.
Let’s compare it to the mini griptilian now.
A smaller knife with a smaller handle and a blade.
Had the mini crooked river come out before the full size it might not be called the mini,
but also Benchmade couldn’t have sold two crooked rivers to us suckers.
I like the crooked river mini better and may not have bought the full size.
The mini grip is about a $100 knife however.
I feel like the price of the crooked river mini should be about $120-$140.
Any others?
maybe the 765?
the crooked river has a better hand feel and slightly larger proportions although over
$100 less.
What about the Bugout.
Yeah what about it?
Maybe my 4th favorite bench made… and 6th if you count gold classes I don’t own.
Alright we’re done.
I think the crooked river mini might be my favorite bench made knife now.
If you are still subscribed in 6 months, I wouldn’t be, but if you are maybe ask me
again.
It has a very useful blade style for every day carry, it’s light, the handle is the
right size, it looks good like me when I’ve had a few drinks.
I dunno- I don’t know what else to tell you?
If I have to point out one or two nitpicks, it’d be that it’s a bit too expensive
for me to tell everyone they need it, and maybe a deep carry clip would have been an
improvement…
then a few people who hate deep carry would have complained, and it wouldn’t be the
damn internet if everyone agreed about everything.
If you like this video subscribe to my channel, give the video a thumbs up, follow me on instagram,
and write bench made a love letter about how you like this video and they should give me
a whole bunch of free knives.
Believe it or not they must have felt a disturbance because they are sending me the fact to review.
Anyway… now if I could get spyderco to even acknowledge my emails then we’d be set.
Thanks for watching!