I own a few Benchmades. This is the second one I bought, and it's become my hard-use knife. I was carrying it on a tree-planter (basically a plow with a seat that gets drug behind a tractor), and lost it. Riding this planter is like riding a mechanical bull in the rocky terrain around here, and it could have bounced out anywhere over nearly fifty acres. Plus, the planter opens and then closes a 15" deep hole, where the knife could have been buried.
Two years and about 150,000 trees later, I was riding along when the tractor driver stopped and pointed. He saw a knife bouncing on a 2" wide steel beam that makes up the frame of the planter. This planter had been disassembled, driven over miles of dirt roads, and worn through three cutting discs and two plows. Where on this simple device the knife could have been jammed for two years, I have no idea. Yet, there it was!
We were re-united. Other than a couple chips to the scales and some superficial staining that polished right off, it was in great shape. It was even still sharp. I had replaced the knife since then, so I created a new slot in my lineup for extreme knife abuse. Whenever I'm heading out to do a job that might require mis-use, I take this knife. It doesn't complain.
Anyway, after several such days, it was pretty nasty. I hosed it off and wiped it down, but it still looked like this when I took it apart:
It was very nice to make it all smooth and shiny and ready for action again. Such satisfying work:
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