Benchmade Elishewitz 690 Knife

Reviewed by corwin99 on August 20th, 2010

I’ve owned 3 of these Benhmade 690 knives, and still have two of them in my posession and I have to say that it is one of the nicest Benchmade knives they ever made. It has been produced in several variations, all of which are very well made. I’ve owned one of the blue-dyed wood models as well, which was a beautiful piece.

The Benchmade 690 has long since been discontinued and was designed by Allen Elishewitz for Benchmade, back before they had a falling out. Early models carried Allen’s maker’s mark on them, while later versions that were produced after they parted ways no longer carried Allen’s mark and his name was removed from all literature. Even now the archives on the Benchmade site do not mention Allen and say “Benchmade Design” – which kind of disgusts me.

Allen’s designs have always been solid and appealing. The 690 brought a lot of Allen Elishewitz’s custom features to Benchmade’s production knives…. features like the extra wide pivot pin, wide leaf-shaped pocket clip, and beautiful rosewood handle and bolstered construction. The bolsters on the 690 are somewhat interesting – they are actually only half-thickness, and below them is a layer of Rosewood. The reasoning must have been some sort of manufacturing method.

The blade on the Benchmade 690 is stonewashed and sating finished 154CM, with a single thumbstud (I wish they were double). There is an ever-so-slight recurve on the blade, but its basically a standard clip point. The titanium liners are annodized blue, and have a slight shadowbox effect around the handles, which gives the knife some depth. No backspacer on this one, though I would have liked to see it on something with this type of style since it goes well. Just your standard stand-offs.

When I first started collecting knives, Allen Elishewitz was my grail of knife makers. I always wanted a piece from him, and when I bought my first Benchmade 690, it was like a semi-dream come true. I had owned several of the other Elishewitz designed Benchmades like the Dark Star and Stryker, but the 690 actually looked like a custom Elishewitz! While the quality isn’t quite the same as a custom piece, it sure does look the part.

To this day, still one of the best looking and most well-made Benchmades around.

Specs:
Blade Length: 3.25″
Blade Thickness: 0.133″
Blade Material: 154CM
Blade Hardness: 58-60HRC
Blade Style: Clip-Point
Weight: 3.00oz.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.