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Benchmade Drops New Meatcrafter Fixed Blade

June 8, 2020

Benchmade is keeping up its string of surprise releases with the debut of the 15500-1 Meatcrafter fixed blade. Benchmade designed the Meatcrafter to fill a unique food prep role in their lineup.

With a name like “Meatcrafter,” it’s not hard to grok the 15500-1’s intended role: this is a knife modeled after the cimiter or scimitar kitchen knife. Not to be confused with the sword of the same name, the cimiter is a long, curved blade used to cut meat into its final proportions before cooking. The Meatcrafter’s long, trailing point blade emulates the classic cimiter shape, providing a curved edge that can readily cut through meat, while being thin and controllable enough to shape those cuts to the user’s preference.

Benchmade is also breaking some new ground in its catalog with the Meatcrafter’s steel. Crucible debuted S45VN, the successor to its famous S35VN steel, last November, and we’ve seen it just begin to appear on production knives, with Spyderco taking a notable initiative here. The Meatcrafter will be the first Benchmade knife to be made from this next-gen powder metallurgy steel.

As with most knives designed for work around food, the Meatcrafter has simple, universal ergonomics. A noticeable finger guard and parrot beak provide a bracket for the user’s hand, while a swell in the middle helps fill in the grip. The premium, unusual material selection continues with the scales, too. Benchmade created a ‘reverse bolster’ look here, with a smaller section of ivory G-10 capping the back end of the knife, paired to a larger section of black and grey G-10. The materials have been fully contoured, and of course the Meatcrafter is a full tang knife. A fitted Kydex sheath is included for carry.

Benchmade has unequivocally been on a roll. In less than a month we’ve seen four new models from the Oregon City, OR-based company. They kicked things off with the carbon fiber Mini Freek in May, then followed with a one-two punch of the 9400 Auto Osborne and 602 Tengu Tool in the last couple of weeks. Perhaps the notable increase in releases is due to the original dates for Blade Show 2020, which would have happened last weekend but was postponed until August due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Knife in Featured Image: Benchmade 15500-1 Meatcrafter

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