Benchmade - 485 Valet Knife, Drop-Point Blade, Plain Edge, Gray G10 Handle

Even with more Benchmade knives in my collection already than I care to admit I still found myself extremely attracted to this knife a few months ago. After reading a few reviews as well as watching a few videos regarding this knife however I was a little dismayed at what some people were saying; "not sharp out of the box", "blade poorly centered", "too small and difficult to open easily", and the one statement that I found to be quite subjective in comparing it to another Benchmade knife, "not as good as the Mini-Griptilian" ( the addition of M390 blade steel and G10 grips of the Valet made me wonder about this statement). Finding myself to be continuously drawn to and coming back to the Valet and marveling at its sexy appearance and aesthetic promise of being the perfect Gentleman's folder, I said the hell with it and pulled the trigger on one any way. I couldn't be happier with my decision. Mine came hair popping sharp out of the box. The blade was perfectly centered, and I loved the understated grey G10 handle scales. It was a tad tight but the blade had absolutely no play vertically or horizontally so rather than tweak the pivot screw I opted to simply add a slight puff of Ballistol to the bushing area and worked the knife for about 5 minutes. The lack of blade play remained the same and the action loosened up to a perfect blend of quick solid one hand deployment and easy closure. While the AXIS Lock is considerably smaller than some of my other Benchmade's, it's proportionate to the over all size of the knife and I actually find no difficulty whatsoever in opening or closing it with one hand. While being slightly smaller in length than my Mini-Griptilian its much sleeker lines give it the illusion of being longer and when open its leaf shaped drop point blade add to the over all sexy look of the knife. I'm glad I didn't neglect this knife on a few negative opinions of others and like the Valet as much as my other Benchmades. It is a little pricey at its MSRP but I was lucky enough to get mine at about $20 less here on Amazon. I'm sure you can find other knives of this shape and style for less but if like me you believe in the built in quality and value of Benchmade knives I'm sure you won't be disappointed with the 485 Valet should you choose to own one.

This is a great small to medium knife. High quality materials including advanced blade steel that really does take an extremely sharp edge. Comfortable sculpted handle. Solid build. Strong Axis lock. Interesting design, a lot of blade (a hair under 3 inches) for a moderately sized handle. I did have to tweek the pivot screw a bit to get the easiest and smoothest blade opening and closing without having any blade play in any direction. It came very sharp out of the box and even sharper after a few strokes on a very fine diamond sharpener and then a few strokes on a ceramic sharpener for an extremely sharp edge. After a good lubrication with a advanced lube it now is a fine EDC and finds a place in my rotation. This knife is small enough and light enough that I've removed the clip and it fits nicely in my coin pocket.

Knife is smaller than expected, but it's the size I was looking for. The knife looks larger in photos, it's slender design gives it a deceivingly larger than look than it really is. Knife is sharp out of the box but not as sharp as expected considering the reputation benchmade has. I'll have to put the edge on it that I expected it to have. If your looking for a knife that leaves room in your pocket for other things like car keys, coins or your hand this is the size your looking for. There's nothing more annoying than trying to reach inside your pocket and fish out some change and there's no room for your hand because the knife is too wide. I don't like having my knives in my back pocket so the side pocket is the only place for it to go. I also like I can clip it on and I can forget about it. I just doesn't get in the way when I'm working, driving or doing any other activity. I've carried knives on my person for over 40 years and I've had more knives than I can remember but this is the nicest knife I've had. It looks great in the office or the field. Great design! I wont go into detail on the technical details as you can get that in other reviews. Benchmade, it's all you have to know, this is a solid knife it does the job I want it to. It's an EDC and part of being an EDC in my book besides cutting, prying, scraping or anything I need it to but it's to disappear on my person when I'm not using it. This knife does that. I really like this knife! I'd give this knife five stars but I feel it's over priced. Maybe that will change after I've had it for a few years.

The steel is just insane. I cut several hundred feet of cardboard before it needed sharpening, but I was able to touch it up in about 5 minutes on my sharpmaker. The blade shape/size makes it great for packages, and small food prep (lunch, fruit, ect..). The pocket clip is one of the very deep models, but I don't find it hard to grab. G10 is great both in the hand and on my pocket. The axis lock components were downsided to 75%, so that took a little bit of time to get used to, but I couldn't be happy with this, my 4th benchmade, and my first m390 blade. I'm looking for others as a result.

Like all the other eleven bencmade knives I own, this one does not disappoint. It is extremely light and goes well with a pair of slacks or would fit in with a business suit. There is no play in the blade and it is well balanced. The M390 blade is extremely sharp. With its size comes one particular hazard, be careful when trying to close this knife with one hand; it is extremely easy to get the palm of the hand in the way of the blade. Other than this issue, the weight of this knife and its size makes it an ideal everyday carry or money clip. Update: There are very few knives that I would replace, especially with the cost considered. With the Valet, I have to replace it. Some words of wisdom, keep track of where you place this knife. The profile is so slim and small that it is easy to put it in a back pocket of one's jeans and totally forget about it until you look for it and find out that it has slipped out of the pocket. Having this knife for awhile, I did put it thru some testing at work, and it went through some quarter inch cardboard with ease. Edge retention was excellent, and I was amazed at how sharp the M390 steel could become with a few light swipes through the Spyderco Tri-angle . The Valet was one of those knives I could not live without. All of the Benchmade knives that I have encountered are extremely well made, but with the Valet, this one is on the level of being legendary in my book.

Love this knife. I swap between it and my Spyderco Grasshopper, or Benchmade Proper. I think the ergonomics are a bit small for larger hands, the axis lock is smaller than the one on the mini grip for example. I don’t really mind it, but if you’ve got mitts, you probably want to avoid it. I love the size and blade shape. Small, but a decent length cutting edge. I really disliked the grey handle scales, think primer grey, so I bought some liquid Rit dye and with an empty tin can dyed them deep green. The scales took the color surprisingly well, and 6 months later, the color is still rich and saturated. Anyway, love the knife.

After buying a couple of Benchmade knives equipped with the axis lock, I wanted to try a smaller knife to use when wearing dress pants. When I saw this knife, I really liked how it looked and I was curious about the M390 steel used for the blade. The knife is very nice looking and has an excellent deep-carry pocket clip. I like pretty much everything about how this knife looks--the color, the shape of the blade, the shape of the handle and the pocket clip. I do think this knife is right at the limit of how small a knife with an axis lock should be. The springs on the axis lock are quite strong and the action is a bit stiff. Since the knife is pretty small, I find it hard to open or close safely with one hand. I'm not a big fan of thumb studs, but I can usually just flick open Benchmade axis-lock knives. Since the blade on this knife is fairly short and pointy, the blade just doesn't have much momentum for flicking open. The M390 seems to take and hold a good edge, but honestly I would guess most people wouldn't use a knife this small and expensive for heavy duty cutting chores. I know I'd be reluctant to risk damaging mine. A cheaper blade steel would probably suffice.

Pros: Absolutely perfect size for a pocket. Doesn't take any room, you barely notice it. Just the right size for your every day cutting tasks. The steel is amazing. I've used it pretty hard for a while and it still has a shaving edge on it. Knife open/close action is super smooth. From the factory it was a bit tight but a VERY slight loosening of the bolt and this thing is smooth as hell. By pulling down the axis lock mechanism I can flip this open and closed with nearly no wrist motion. Cons: No assisted open. If this had assisted open I'd probably never need a new knife again. My normal go to is the Kershaw Leek but after having this beauty I may never go back and not even miss the assisted open function. The leek had a few more drawbacks than this especially with the liner lock but the assisted open really was a nice feature I will miss. If you need to do some heavy duty cutting this isn't a handful of knife so you might not get the leverage you want. That said, it's sharp as heck and will stay that way for quite a long time so might not require as much force as your old EDC.