Mom, I want a Benchmade Model 42.

We have Model 42 at home.

Model 42 at home:

This is the Bradley Mayhem. Unlike the Bradley Kimura we looked at earlier, the Mayhem was made for Bradley back in the day by… You guessed it, Benchmade. And it shares one big similarity with the legendary Model 42, which is…

…The very positively spring loaded squeeze release latch, exactly like the '42 has.

I think the Mayhem was going for some kind of wonder material super-knife vibe, aimed squarely at nerds, collectors, and spec sheet obsessors, and possibly no one else. More’s the shame, really. It has an S30V blade with a stonewashed finish, the darling supersteel of its time. The handles are matte titanium. The pivots ride on phosphor bronze washers. And the handle spacers are this swanky blue anodized diabolo design:

Here you can see the tension spring driving the latch’s spring action, too. It uses a kicker pin-less design which Bradley called “Zen Pins.” So everything about it seems to be tailored towards a specific type of individual.

Heyoo! Guess who.

I must shamefully admit that I actually used this knife for quite a while, and it rode in my pocket on a daily basis for probably about a year. Thus, it’s accumulated a couple of wear marks and little scratches that have probably totally ruined the collector’s value. Oh fuckin’ well.

Of course, the first thing you’ll probably notice about the Mayhem is the rather distinctive curve in it. Strangely enough, despite this rather pronounced Banana Factor, the blade is actually straight once you get it out. When fully deployed it’s about 8-3/8" long overall, with the curve extending downward through the last half of the handle. There’s a finger relief for your index finger in the handles, and a section of jimping on the spine of the blade. The spine is also nicely rounded over. The blade is 3-3/4" long from the tips of, uh, the furthest forward handle. Actually, that’s a possibly a point of contention because one pivot sits further forward than the other when the blade is out. Contemporary sources call this a “four inch” blade, which I guess it is – specifically if you measure starting from the center of the pivot that’s furthest back to the tip. I’m not sure why you would do that. (It’s like TV’s back in the day. “32 inch screen!” Sure, if you count the two and a half inches of tube that’s behind the bezel that you’ll never see.)

The usable edge is about 3-3/8", which a pronounced choil at the base which also acts as one of the two pockets the “Zen” not-kicker pins fit into. The blade’s width is 15/16" at its widest, and it’s 0.151" thick. At 120.8 grams (4.26 ounces), the Mayhem is actually rather light, but still has a good heft in the hand. Most of the weight is in the blade thanks to those titanium handles.

Wonder of wonders, the thing actually does come with a pocket clip, so you can EDC it. Actually, it comes with one whether you like it or not – it fits into this neatly machined pocket, and will leave an obvious void there if you remove it. It also can’t be relocated in any way, shape, or form. There is no alternate pocket on the other side, and you couldn’t even fudge it because there’s no matching screw hole on the other side. Plus, one of the clip mounting screws goes into the threaded end of the latch pivot pin, and the other end of it has a smooth head that’s bigger than the screw. You can’t insert it backwards, even if you tried. Which is a bit of a bummer, because as usual it’s on the wrong side of the handle, in my opinion, for right handed users to clip to their right hand pants pocket.

The pivot pins also have smooth heads on the reverse side, adding slick “impossible” screws to the list of bullet points for the spec sheet.

Despite being light, the handles pivot very cleanly on the bronze washers within. Manipulating this knife definitely takes some getting used to. The curved handles have a really weird feel in your hand if you’re used to a knife with straight ones, like most other balisongs. The cross section of the handles is also kind of square. None of the edges feel particularly edgy, and they’re all rounded over, but you are definitely aware of the flats as you roll the handles. The super matte surface is also a little grippy. It’s not unpleasant, just different.

The spring latch design is really simple, but it brings a couple of extra tricks to the party. It works exactly like the latch on a Model 42, no surprise, which means it sticks straight out the bottom all the time and is held there by its spring tension, unless you push it home into the opposite handle either latching the knife open or closed.

Here it is compared to a '42. Same same. That constant spring tension keeps the latch from flapping around while you’re flipping the knife, so the Mayhem is spookily silent. The handles don’t make much noise when they hit the rebound pins, either, just a soft click. Because the spring pulls the latch into the dead center position all the time, you can also squeeze-to-unlatch when the knife is locked open, not just when it’s closed, which is something that cam style spring latches can’t do (like the one on the Morpho, or that Boker I reviewed the other day).

The mayhem is actually a little shorter overall than a Model 42. That makes it a little easier to carry as an EDC pocketknife, if you’re the type of weirdo who’s into that sort of thing. Not that I’d know anything about that. But I hear they’re very handsome people, those types of people. That’s what somebody told me.

I will now proceed to tarnish my collector’s value further.

Here is the Mayhem reduced to its constituent components, consisting of all four handle parts, that blade with its funky offset pivots, shiny blue spacers, and many, many little screws.

The wide bronze pivot washers. Curiously, my knife came completely bereft of lubricant on the pivots from the factory and it hasn’t seemed to need it, ever. So far I’ve just left it alone. The bronze in these types of washers and bearings is actually minutely porous, and will hold in lubricant applied to it semi-permanently. The washers feel very slick, but they’re not wet.

You can also see the round head of one of the pivot pins here, free of any type of screwdriver head.

Wiggle test time:

Premium though it may be, the Mayhem is actually kind of bad in this department. I actually never really noticed until I measured it, but here it is. The free play is about 5/32" at the tips of the handles. This isn’t noticeable when you’re using it, though. A tiny, tiny turn of the pivot screws can completely eliminate the play, but then the handles won’t move anymore. There’s zero threshold between locked solid and 5/32" of free play. Strange.

The ring light in my photo box also reflects trippily off of the shiny button on the end of the latch.

OooooOOOoooOoo…

The Inevitable Conclusion

If you want a very competently built and certainly unique balisong that’s made of various fancy supermaterials, the Mayhem might just be the knife for you. Of course, they don’t make the things anymore, so it’s not like you can just pedal your bicycle down to your favorite knife retailer and buy one. So my telling you all this was pretty much academic, and probably doesn’t serve a whole hell of a lot of purpose other than allowing me to rattle on about silly old knives that I like. But you can’t fuckin’ stop me; I’m like the Mad Flipper what Flips at Midnight. Well, maybe you could stop me if you pay my ransom… Perhaps enough to by a Flytanium or two, and a used Spyderfly in good condition. Leave it in unmarked, nonsequential bills by the old oak tree down by the bend in the river. Make sure nobody follows you.

But I’ll tell you what, the Mayhem’s got a lot of the charm and some of the chops (har) of the much sought after Model 42, while even on the used collector’s market it’ll cost you a damn sight less… For now. If you can get your hands on one, you should. Even if it’s just to put something different in your collection.