Benchmade makes lots of fancy knives. Fighting knives, automatic knives, and more. Sometimes, knives like the Redoubt slip through the cracks. The Redoubt isn’t necessarily fancy or doesn’t appear to be fancy. It’s a simple folding pocket knife at first glance, but after spending some quality time with the Redoubt, I uncovered a sleeper hit that shouldn’t be ignored. The Redoubt is a very competent knife and a potentially awesome EDC option.
The Benchmade Redoubt – Simple and Robust
The Benchmade Redoubt is a manual folding knife that utilizes an Axis lock. The Axis lock locks the blade open at the rear and is a strong lock type favored by Benchmade for many of its knives. The handle is made from what Benchmade calls Grivory. Grivory is a proprietary thermoplastic composite used in a variety of applications, and thanks to Benchmade, it now includes knives.
The blade is made from CPM-D2. CPM-D2 is a refinement of the classic D2 steel. It’s a tough steel that resists chipping and breaking. This can make it a little tougher to sharpen, but it has excellent edge retention. The CPM-D2 steel isn’t stainless steel, but it does give you decent corrosion resistance. In a place like the Gulf Coast of Florida this is quite handy.
It doesn’t resist corrosion as well as stainless steel, but Benchmade follows the steel up with Cobalt Cerakote to help keep rust at bay. The Benchmade Redoubt is simple but robust and made to be durable and useful as a whole.
The Redoubt In Your Hand
Grivory is odd branding, but I can’t complain about how it feels in my hand. The material weighs very little, and the knife weighs 3.7 ounces. The Grivory material has a multicolor design. The majority of it is green, but there is a heavily textured darker green portion. The texturing wraps around the sides and over the top of the grip. Up front, there are two sections with additional texture.
This creates an aggressive grip texture for a true nonslip grip. It’s currently summer, and it’s 98 degrees outside. I’m covered in sweat after about a minute of doing anything outside. This includes my hands, which will be dripping sweat if I do anything related to tools—including knives. The Redoubt sticks to your hand and won’t slip or slide when dealing with sweat.
The Redoubt allows you to slice and dice in the heat of the day without worrying about your hand slipping. However, its aggressive texture, with its rough and rugged appearance, makes my hand itch. They cover everything with texture, and it’s tough to find smooth surfaces.
The texture at the rear of the grip allows for excellent control over the blade. Up front, there is a small finger guard that keeps your finger from slipping upward when working. The grip itself fills my hand, and I can comfortably use a hammer grip, a thumb forward grip, or even a reverse grip.
Benchmade took some effort to create a comfortable, functioning grip. The thick, rounded handle makes it easy to handle and easy to commit to hard work.
The Blade In Action
The Redoubt comes with a 3.53-inch blade and several options for blade tip design. Mine has the tanto tip, but a drop point is also available. The tanto allows for deep penetration and a strong tip for stabbing deep and resisting tip breakage. The downside is that you have to deal with two edges to sharpen, which makes sharpening a bit of a hassle.
The corner between the tip and main blade allows for deep cuts against harder materials. If I have to deal with clamshell packaging and expensive electronics, I can use the corner to nick the clamshell packaging open. The little corner can cut deep.
The blade lacks a traditional curved belly. It’s more like a straight razor edge. This makes deep cuts against soft materials a little challenging. However, it does allow for forceful cuts and press cuts that move smoothly and cleanly. I’ve diced tomatoes and onions for taco night, and the Redoubt does a great job of cutting things into very small pieces and portions.
The Redoubt glides through most material really easily. Drag it over paper, and you’ll have two cut pieces of paper. You won’t waste effort working through apples, oranges, or canvas-like materials. It’s a tough cutter that does a good job chewing through most materials.
The Redoubt’s blade works extremely well for carving and cutting straight. The Redoubt could do it if I wanted to whittle a stick or sharpen a spear. The blade comes incredibly sharp, and Benchmade offers to keep it sharpened for life. They can certainly sharpen it better than I could.
Having Redoubt
The Redoubt is a moderately sized pocket knife. It might be large for some, but if you carry a gun daily, it doesn’t matter much. It’s 4.75 inches closed, so it’s smaller than a spare magazine. The Redoubt offers a tough and durable knife. It’s a bit like a meaty upgrade to the Bug Out. It’s a working knife that’s perfectly suited for military, police, or EDC use.
For more information, please visit Benchmade.com.
