Can someone help identify a mystery steel on an old Benchmade?

[M4Life]

Hey guys I need some help. So my dad carries an old Benchmade that he has had for over 20 years, as best I can tell it is an some sort of first production Griptillian or something (I'm not super familiar with Benchmade knives), it has a partially serrated tanto blade, and a blade length of about 3 inches. the handle is some sort of plastic with partial steel liners, it says it was designed by by Mel Pardue. Here's the kicker the blade says Balisong Steel on it and despite scouring the internet, I have been unable to figure out anything about what steel that actually is.

I was hoping someone could help me figure out what steel this really is. I don't have the knife with me but when I do I will put up some pictures of it in this thread.

[dsvirsky]

Given the age of the knife, it's probably 154CM. The word, "balisong" used to be part of the Benchmade logo.

[JD Spydo]

Some of the older Benchmades had ATS-34 and some of the really old ones had G-2. I've had models with both steels and the 154 CM as previously mentioned. You could e-mail a pic to Benchmade and I'm willing to bet that whoever is working in warranty and repair would indeed know exactly which blade steel it is. I always found Benchmade's ATS-34 to be pretty decent overall.

[The Mastiff]

My guess is Gin 1 (G2 as marked on early Spyderco knives). The same composition as BD 1. I have a Panther from that era and that is Gin 1. It was the standard steel in Benchmades from that era and upgrades ( ATS 34 and then M2 HSS) were marked with their names to signify the upgrade. It was and still is a good, premium steel that when used on my Endura showed me it was ok to use a stainless steel. I shunned all stainless prior to that due to having poor experiences with stainless and the edges they took for the effort expended sharpening. I was a 1095 guy back then.

Joe

[StuntZombie]

Some of the first Griptilians were made with 440C, so it's possible that's what it is.

[JD Spydo]

Some of the first Griptilians were made with 440C, so it's possible that's what it is.

Yeah I think you're right about that. Because they made quite a wide range of different knives with 440C. I know that one fillet knife they had about 5 years ago had 440C. And there were some early fixed blades that also had it too.

I had about 6 of those Boguszewski Spike models that were all made with ATS-34 and as far as I know that was the only steel they used in that particular model. They used ATS-34 longer than just about any knife company I know of with the exception of Klotizli out of Switzerland who still uses it at this time.

Now the model BM 1000 was made with G-2. It was the automatic version of the Boguszewski Spike model. I think there were two other automatic BM models that they used G-2 steel for their blades.

[The Mastiff]

I thought about 440C but every one I saw had the steel marked on them with that and any other steel except Gin 1. I'm certainly no expert on Benchmades but I used to sell a few when I worked the Gun & Knife shows. That was during the 440C era. Perhaps my memory is playing tricks though. :)

Joe

[Doc Dan]

Is it one of these?