Today, we're going to disassemble and maintain the Benchmade Phaeton Out-the-front automatic knife, but take a bit of time for education, showing how the mechanism, including the "safety stop" feature, works.
Just had a quick point of clarification, otf knives are not in tension when deployed or retracted. The act of moving the button stretches the springs and the button itself moves the gates allowing that tension to be released. That's why they are more safe than people think, because at no time when it's closed or open is the blade under any tension outside of the tiny tension keeping the spring in place.
I'm very impressed with how BM simplified the internals. The slide plate is completely flat with no holes or recesses, and the blade lock are twice the thickness of other knives, plus their design allows them to extend up further to put more surface area behind the blade's locking surfaces. This looks to be a VERY strong knife, with high reliability.
This makes so much sense! I “disassembled” my Phaeton once Michigan’s laws changed and sent the tip right into my finger. It was only after that I learned about the half-way point.
Thanks for a great vid friend!! I just picked up a Pheaton 4600 the other day and by golly was it painful and hard to eject the blade!! 2 days of playing with it and it’s ripping skin off the thumb, sore and red. A calus was sure to form. I knew I had to do something but didn’t want to just rip er open without some prior insight. Needless to say, I’ve now taken it apart, cleaned and oiled. I can 110 percent feel a HUGE difference. The wife can actually eject the blade now. Thanks for the vid!!
I like these videos cause my favorite thing to do is not watch it first but to disassemble what ever I'm working on struggle with ot for 30 mins get mad put it in a box and the next day I watch the video see what I was doing wrong.
Can't have those where I live sadly... Probably for the best though, it would be an A.D.D. nightmare for me. Knife goes out, knife goes in, knife goes out, knife goes in etc. PS: THIS IS KNIFE!
I just picked one of these up the other day after losing my mini grip that i had for years. Ive always thought these were super cool and don’t need it for any heavy work so decided to pull the trigger on a black phaeton. I’m really impressed with it and seems to be amazing quality.
Great job on the takedown. Mine was so jacked I could barely slide the button down with two thumbs to get it to retract. Now she runs as smooth as ever 🍻
same for me. would have been weeks for me to dealer to mfr to dealer to me... all because of some pocket lint gumming things up. thx nick. love the accent.
Just bought a Benchmade Infidel and a Benchmade Phaeton today. Thought the insides were more complicated than what they are. Makes me feel more confident about the lifespan on them both as they were very expensive. Nice video
So this knife has a double spring and the button is still softer than the Ultratech 85. I think the Hadron is built exactly like this even though it's made by Hogue. The spring tip on my UTX 85 broke but it was really easy to just bend a new hook on the spring end and attach it back. Thanks.
Great video! I wish OTF's were legal in Canada. Its cool you are trying new things, and it looks like you upgraded your camera, looks good! Also, loving the instagram live!
Andrew Ollerhead CBSA changed their rules such that one-hand opening folders are banned for import. There have been no changes to carry or ownership laws, so you can still enjoy what you have, but no more ordering from the U.S. or abroad (or sending stuff out for repair). Kevin Cleary has a very comprehensive video about it.
Have you ever handled the old HK Turmoil OTF knives made by Benchmade? That's what this knife is. It's Benchmade's new version of the Turmoil and it is awesome! The same goes for the old HK Epidemic. Benchmade's Precipice is the new version of the Epidemic. The only difference is the CNC milling on the chasis. Great upload!
Hey Nick, I'm pretty excited to see this being reviewed as I'm currently debating on my first and perhaps only OTF purchase. In the running is the Ultratech (probably G10 scale version) and this Pheaton. My delimma is M390 on the Ultratech vs the S30V on this Pheaton. I like the action better as well on the Pheaton but alas we circle back around to M390 vs S30V. If the Pheaton used M390 it'd be a no brainer. Anyways if you can do some competitive option comparisons in your review that'd be excellent!!!
NICK!!! U need to check out the new 2018 ZT knives! There’s three of them and they’re gorgeous, especially the 0393 and the 0609 and I guarantee you’ll like them!!!! And also the 0393 has the hinderer customizability with the scales.
That front lock bar being above the blade is what causes the constant up and down blade play. Brands like Horizon bladeworks aka Horizon Andy OTF knives lock at the bottom. This puts upward pressure on the blade canceling out play when in use. So many high end knives like the Pheaton, or Ultratech otf-knives just have that lock Wrong. I sure I will get hate for saying this. But if the blade stays firmly put in use. The play doesn't matter. If you put the lock pin below it is amazing the difference it makes!
Thanks for the videos.. I break everything I touch and try and avoid any disassembly unless really needed..But, this and others have been helpful.... Good timing.. In a moment of insanity, I bought a LE 10th anniversary Infedel.. I'm pretty sure they have the same action.. It's illegal in about 3 ways in Boston but the cops have more to worry about then some idiot in his 50's with a DE auto in pocket (hopefully)....
I sometimes use a little grease on the spring to silence the “twaing” that some have when opened and closed. I don’t know if the Benchmade has this issue like some Microtechs.
Would love to see a disassembly of an auto folder. I got one from Pro-Tech and they have a decent warranty, but I'm afraid if something happened to it that I wouldn't be able to get it to them because, even though it's legal to own an auto in the state where I live, it's illegal to ship an auto across state lines unless you're LEO or a dealer. It has me considering doing the maintenance myself.
InfiniteEnso You can have a dealer send it into the manufacturer for you. Or if all you need is a new spring they should send you a replacement spring.
Nick I seen a Benchmade that caught my eye, the the Benchmade 560 Freak to be more specific. I was curious if you have any experience or know of anyone who does/did. I've seen a bunch of reviews and 99% all positive with a few critiques obviously. Thanks in advance
Very clever knife. I wonder if they put some sort of rubber fitting in the front and the back of the handle that could catch and wedge the blade in place a bit might remove some blade play and make it quieter at the same time. It would probably increase the risk of incomplete deployment/closing though which would be worse I suppose. If they shaped the tip of the blade kinda like the CRKT Pilar, for example, it could make it a lot safer.
That knife has some serious blade locks! They make the beefy units in Microtech knives look puny! I'm sure this knife will hold up to having the blade hammered through a 2x4 as well or better than a MT model.
Out of curiosity but do you know where you can get replacement buttons for that to retract and detract the blade itself? I see that it just came right off after you took off part of the cover and I wanted to get a different slider for that or whatever it's called?
I was wondering if you were going to pick something like this up. Being a michigan resident as well, I only just found out autos were made legal three weeks ago. I'm currently waiting on this same knife in black from a local store. I'm still a bit to uneasy about the federal laws to order one online. Curious on your thoughts about ordering autos online, and if you do yourself? If you're willing to talk about that.
Federal law restricts dealers from shipping autos across state lines. I don't believe it says anything about receiving autos. It's the dealer taking the risk shipping it, not you receiving it. General disclaimer - I'm not a lawyer, I just read the above on an auto review site.
I'm going based on this site: www.akti.org/federal-switchblade-act/ Again, not a lawyer so please don't blame me if the feds bust down your door for ordering a Phaeton :)
OTFs are super cool from an engineering perspective to me, but they also seem like a solution in search of a problem. The only thing I see that they offer over a more traditional folding arrangement is the ability to carry something double edged. Though the everyday utility of DE blades is arguable, at best. Do you see any other reasons to carry an OTF other than the 'cool' factor?
If I may answer from my observation of owning (and selling) a UTX-8, it's a narrow, pocket-friendly construction. The handle doesn't need to be much wider than the blade it protects so it's compact, which I liked a lot. The slight necessary blade play of all double-action OTF's (with the exception of the G&G Deadlock) bugged me a little and the joy dissipated after a while.
Without getting into the legalities, and at the risk of touching off a firestorm, do you think you could do a video with your opinions on the pros and cons of the various flavors of automatics?
Nick help please. I bought an HK Tumult by Benchmade. It has the exact same interior mechanism as this Phaeton but the springs on mine dismount and or the blade jams after I put it together. I can't figure it out. Could it be a bad blade pin or something wrong with the spring connectors? I noticed the plastic spring sleeves but they seem ok. Hey thanks man.
This is the same as the Benchmade Precipice 4700/4700dlc, that being said if you don’t just jerk the knife apart like a idiot then it’s pretty damn straight forward and easy.
So I bought one from sportsman wear house and comparing the two with my buddies..,my knife appears to have tampered with screws and the blade wiggles inside the box...,is it possible they sold me a display model? I’m kinda upset as my friends also has more of a weight to it. We paid the same and from the same place.
I thought I'd get it but I've just come to the conclusion that benchmade employs wizards. Which is great I'm sure the job market is a bit rough out there for them.
Microtech's single spring system seems to be less reliable after seeing this. I can imagine if one of the springs fail, the other 2nd spring would still be able to fling the blade out?
You could probably test it. My Infidel has two springs but one is used for opening and one for closing. I like my phateon a little more because it used both springs from opening and closing.
You mean *not* using Loctite is a recipe for stripping out threads? If you don't use Loctite, then you're counting on friction to hold the threads; friction that is applied with force by turning the screws tight. Loctite allows the threads to hold without over tightening and thus much less chance for stripped threads.
Justin Nemeth In the U.S. and here in Canada most of the auto bans are because politicians were afraid of how they looked in West Side Story and The Outsiders lol.
