Pros: Weight, Ease of Opening, Handle Material, Pocket Clip, Blade Material
Cons: None
Difficult to Review...
I would definitely consider myself to be a "knife guy". I own, carry and use a good handful of knives from various brands, with several of them being Benchmade. About a year ago, I purchased a full sized Adamas as a birthday present for a friend of mine (who is just a really big guy in general, so the big Adamas looks almost like a normal sized pocket knife in his hand, haha). After holding that full sized Adamas for myself and being very happy with the overall quality and execution of it, I was basically sold on the Mini Adamas for myself, figuring that I'd get basically the exact same thing, just scaled down for my non-bear paw sized hand. I had gone back and forth about which version of the Mini Adamas to pick up for a long while, but when I saw that Knife Center had the 2022 Shot Show version on last chance sale, the decision was almost made for me. Out of the box, I was actually really disappointed with the knife. As I mentioned before, I own several Benchmades, myself, and I have also given them as gifts to close friends and family. While I think they are great knives for the most part, I've also just come to expect that the factory edge on any Benchmade I buy will leave a lot to be desired. In my experience, they are just overly "toothy", to the point that they don't cut through lighter materials very cleanly. This is normally not a problem for me, as I am comfortable with sharpening stones, so I usually just put my own edge on them anyway. The factory edge on my Mini Adamas, though, was by far the worst I've ever experienced on any knife. There was a visible burr along almost the entire length of the blade, and the cutting bevel was very uneven. There was a small-moderate amount of lock stick from the Axis bar (which will usually just work itself out as the knife breaks in), but the lockup felt solid. The action on the knife was extremely stiff and felt very gritty, bordering on grind-y. In addition to sharpening, I also prefer to do all of the maintenance and cleaning on my knives, so I'm comfortable with disassembling and reasessembling them. So, after reprofiling and sharpening the edge, taking the knife apart to clean and lubricate it, and putting it all back together, I now have exactly the knife that I wanted and expected. It looks great, feels great, and cuts great, but it took a lot of work to get it to do those things. I'd say that even though I got my Mini Adamas on sale, I was still very disappointed in the factory fit and "finish" for what I paid. Had I paid the full retail price for the one that I received, I probably would have been angry. The Mini Adamas, itself, is a very good knife, but Benchmade's name is way too big and their prices are way too high to let quality control problems like this exist. This is a difficult knife to review or recommend, because after adjusting the fit and doing the finishing on the knife myself, I am very happy with it. If you are capable and willing to do the same on yours (if necessary, maybe mine was just a particular bad one), then I have no doubt that you will be happy too. But if you want a knife that is immediately ready to go for your $250+ (and who could blame you), I'd say you should probably consider something else...
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