The Benchmade 940 Is Still the Answer to a 940 Kind of Day
“940 kinda day” is the entire caption, and it is enough. The Benchmade 940 Osborne has been in continuous production since the 1990s, appears in carry threads every single week, and remains the knife people reach for when they do not want to think about what knife to carry.
The design is the reason. Warren Osborne's reverse tanto gives a straight, strong edge with a piercing tip, the 3.4-inch blade in S30V sits right at the width most people can carry legally, and the aluminum handle with a purple standoff is recognizable from across a room. At around 2.9 ounces it is light enough to forget, and the AXIS lock makes one-handed opening and closing reliable with either hand.
None of those numbers are impressive in 2026. S30V is a mid-tier steel now, the aluminum scales scratch, and the knife costs more than a dozen competitors with better materials. What it has is two decades of refinement and a shape that works: the handle is thin enough for dress pants, the blade is long enough to be useful, and the lock has a track record that newer crossbar designs are still earning.
The 940 is also the clearest example of a knife that gets bought twice. People lose one, buy another, and eventually own three because the green handle and the black blade versions feel different in the pocket. That is not rational behavior, but it is the strongest possible review: nobody replaces a knife they do not miss.
Verdict: buy the 940 if you want one knife that handles an office, a campsite and a moving box without drawing attention, and you are willing to pay for a design that has been tuned rather than marketed. Skip it if you want the best steel or the newest lock for the money, because there are cheaper knives that beat it on paper.
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