Benchmade 755 Sibert MPR Knife Review
The Benchmade 755 Mini Pocket Rocket is the brainchild of knifemaker Shane Sibert and Benchmade Knife Company. Shane Sibert makes some pretty nice knives, and the MPR is probably one of his nicest designs. It is the smallest of three custom Pocket Rocket folders that he makes: The Mini, the Regular, and the Monster. Of the three, only the Mini is made by Benchmade.
Upon first opening the box, I was very impressed with not only the design, but the fit and finish of this knife. Having handled a custom Sibert Pocket Rocket before, I have to say that this MPR from Benchmade really looks fantastic even compared with the custom.
Blade
The blade measures 2.9″, but is very wide so feels like a bigger blade than its length would suggest – similar to Spyderco’s Little Big knives. Steel is M390 from Bohler of Austria, which is generally considered at least equivalent to S30V if not superior. I haven’t really used any M390 blades so I can’t really offer my opinion here. The blade is quite thick on the MPR, and also has a saber-ground blade so its not the best slicer. Like all the other Benchmades I’ve purchased, its not super sharp out of the box, but it is acceptable.
Handle
The G-10 handles are nice on this blade, milled out of a single thick piece similar to the Strider SnG – a very cool feature. It also had an overlay of G-10 on the lock side, which adds grip and also serves as a lock bar stop. Nice double duty! However, the lock-side pocket clip rests on the rough G-10 and is a pocket shredder. This happens with some designs sometimes, and in my opinion is one of those things that knife designers/companies know happen, but simply don’t feel is worth fixing.
Fit and Finish
Very good fit and finish on this Benchmade 755. Not suprising, obviously, since it is Benchmade after all. One problem I do have is with the Lock. My particular 755 has what I would not really characterise as a faulty lock, but the lock face interface with the blade tang improperly. When pressure is applied to the spine of the blade when it is open, the lock actually slips back and the knife blade moves. This isn’t a good thing. I probably could have sent the knife back to benchmade and got this fixed, though I have to say that should never have slipped the QC department. However, applying some light sanding to the surface of the blade tang to reduce the smoothness seems to have solved that problem. I also bent the lock bar a bit more to increase the pressure which also helps I think.
Overall
Overall this is a pretty killer knife. The fauly lock seems to be a unique thing.. I checked out another one at the local store and it does not appear to suffer from the same problem, though I think that it is not unlikely that other MPR’s have this problem. Otherwise, fantastic fit and finish as well as a great design from Shane Sibert. Really enjoyed this knife.
Specs
Blade Length: 2.90″
Overall Length: 6.90″
Closed Length: 3.80″
Blade Material: M390 Stainless Steel 60-62HRC
Blade Style: Tactical Drop-Point
Lock Mechanism: Mono-Lock