A few months back I was looking for a new EDC. Long story short, ended up with a Benchmade 950 Rift.
http://www.benchmade.com/products/950
The Rift was a fantastic knife in pretty much every way and I highly recommend it to anyone who's on the fence about picking one up. They are definitely worth the price of admission.
Anyway. I was out at a tile store maybe 3 weeks after I bought the knife and I handed over my Rift to the owner of the store to cut open some shrink-wrap on some tiles we wanted to see, he pushes the knife straight through the box, and FUBAR's the blade on the tiles inside.
Next day I Fedex the Rift off to Benchmade HQ to have the blade replaced ($25 - thank you BM!). Two weeks later I walk into my office to find a package on my keyboard. Inside I find a dripping wet piece of paper - the one that I had shipped off with my knife containing my return address, instructions, and registration info .... I mean DRIPPING wet. The only other thing inside the package is a letter from Fedex telling me they are sorry, but my package was damaged in shipping.
The debacle that was dealing with Fedex to get reimbursed is way too long to print here, but the final outcome was that about 6 weeks later I had a check for an amount that totalled the full purchase price of the knife + what they had charged me to ship my knife in the first place. Like I said, the Rift was fantastic, but here was an opportunity to try something else so I decided to hold off and see how I felt.
I scoured the net looking at various knives, watched at least 100 YouTube reviews, and ultimately ended up back at my local store looking at the 950 Rift and the 520 Presidio.
The Presidio is slightly larger than the Rift in just about every dimension. The Rift was already large, and I definitely wondered if the 520 could really be pocketed as a true EDC. The Presidio weighs enough over the Rift for anyone to be able to tell, but this reflects the bank-vault-like feel of the Presidio. My Rift had the slightest bit of vertical play in the blade ... and I mean slight ... but when the Presidio's blade is deployed it feels like it's permanently fixed in place.
The balance on this knife is truly exceptional. The Rift was pretty good too, but that honk'n blade, made the knife feel a bit tip-heavy ... not so with the Presidio. The stepped G10 handles are laddered towards the center of the knife - a creative feature that means you'll be tearing apart your pants pocket not only on the way out, but on the way in as well. That said, I've had the knife for 4 weeks now and I've seen no evidence of pocket-wear.
The coating on the pocket clip, as you should be able to see in my photos above, has come off a bit around the edges of the clip, but I have yet to see a hint of rust so I assume the clip itself is made of a stainless steel. The Axis lock is ... well, Axis. If you've had one - you know. If you haven't - get one. Deployment via thumb studs (my preferred method) is quite quick, as quick or quicker than any auto-folder I've ever handled.
The blade had a gritty feel during deployment, similar to other Axis knives I've had in the past. I threw a drop of Weapon-Shield on the pivot joint immediately after buying it - worked the action a few hundred times over the next 3 weeks, then lubed it one more time. She is like silk now. This knife came with the dullest blade I've ever had on a new Benchmade. Every previous knife was arm-hair-shaving sharp - my particular Presidio isn't. I'm personally not worried as the blade is still plenty sharp enough for my needs, and I'll be sending it back for a LifeSharp service after enough use anyway.
The biggest difference between the Rift and the Presidio is actually the aesthetics. While the Presidio is all business, the Rift had a flare to it that said, "Show me off - I'm really really cool." I did a lot of that. I couldn't wait to show off the cool scaled, multi-colored handles of the Rift and the unique reverse-tanto blade. The Presido however, sits in my pocket waiting to be used as a tool.
So to conclude - the Presidio is a Glock. Black, bulky, not overly attractive, and decidedly purposeful. It has everything you need in a self-defense-use folder, and nothing you don't.
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