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Benchmade Extends SOCP Line with Big New Folder

July 27, 2018

For the second time this week Benchmade has revealed a new product. This time it’s the 390 SOCP folder, a Black Class model that is the biggest folding knife in Benchmade’s active product catalog.

The first thing users will notice about the SOCP is its size. “[It] has a long blade – it’s around four and a half inches long,” says Benchmade’s Derrick Lau. This makes it larger than other big Benchmade folders like the Crooked River or the Adamas. But designer Greg Thomson intended that the massive, coated D2 blade would deploy quickly and easily via thumb disk, and the quick deployment method plays well with the SOCP’s thin dimensions and deep carry clip.

Ergonomically, Thompson and Benchmade kept things simple. The slim handle may remind some of the recently released Fact, but here the construction is G-10, rather than aluminum, over the steel liners. The divots on the scale flats line up with users’ fingers, and jimping along the handle edge further locks things in. The neutral shape means that the SOCP is equally comfortable in standard and reverse grips, and a carbide glass breaker has been implemented at the butt end of the knife. The SOCP weighs 4.63 oz. and, unusual for Benchmade, uses a liner lock.

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Thompson is the mind behind SOCP (Special Operations Combatives Program), a fighting system designed for real world use by special ops forces. He also created the Benchmade SOCP Dagger, and the SOCP folder falls into the same use category is a backup defensive tool in a close combat scenario. If a soldier can’t use his primary weapon than the SOCP folder can be accessed quickly and easily to help him fight back. The fixed blade SOCP released alongside a edgeless trainer model, and Lau tells us that the folder will have the same option as well. “We’ll also be providing a trainer version for practice deploying and using this folder.”

The SOCP folder will be available later this year, and comes in both plain and combo edge configurations. MSRP for either model is $205. The trainer SOCP folder can be had for $160. This announcement bookends a busy week for Benchmade. Monday marked the debut of their first puukko design, a fixed blade made from 3V steel.

Knife featured in image: Benchmade 390SBK SOCP Folder

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