New (old) automatic knife | Benchmade AFO

[@DadsKnives]

What do you think about automatic knives? Do you use them? Comment and let us know!

[@matchstickdesignco]

First Gen AFO (9000) had no safety lock and no clip. The ORIGINAL (as in the very first ones ever made) AFO was made by Benchmade under contract for the DOD and were issued exclusively to certain military units. These had no safety, no clip, and also no markings whatsoever.

[@DadsKnives]

Thanks for the info. I think this one is the 9050. Didn't know about the 9000.

[@jeremiahstillings]

Yep were issued to us in USAF and many of us traded them out with other branches knife as these were hard to open and would open in bags during travel if not carefully stored. I think I gave mine to my ex father in law

[@DadsKnives]

@@jeremiahstillings Interesting, so it's a problem with this design.

[@jeremiahstillings]

I'd say yes. The button always took a push and then what seemed like a harder push to open. Sometimes just 1 accurate hard push. The issue for us is the knife wasn't usable in a chemical environment due to gloves and button size and how hard it was to operate even without them.

[@Tony-bo3rw]

It might be that the spring in there is pretty old already. I remember them having a pretty snappy and responsive opening action. That model is probably the 1st auto ive ever handled, it was my dad's knife lol

[@DadsKnives]

You might be right, this knife is pretty old and well-used.

[@jerrydonquixote5927]

That's definitely an old model the butterfly on it is old and the shape of it and I've never seen one with that type of button so that's definitely one of the first ones! I had an AFOII in my first collection that was the Toronto style that was about 12:14 years ago and it was like the one I bought three or four years ago and neither one of them are like the ones you had mine have jumping around the swell like you mentioned. So I guess they really have improved it from the original. I like it I think it's a good knife.

[@DadsKnives]

Thanks for the confirmation. Yeah, it looks like the AFO II is much improved over this one.

[@jerrydonquixote5927]

@@DadsKnives yeah I just sold mine of maybe a few weeks ago, but it was a good knife!

[@THExDUDEx8624]

When you say it hesitates ,how do you mean? Like after you press the button it takes a second to actually fire?

[@DadsKnives]

Yeah, like it seems to take longer than it should between pressing the button and the opening. Not sure if it's rusty or worn out or if that's how it's supposed to work.

[@thebacktreeboys1430]

I like them and would us it every day