[ruger357]

Picked up a BM190 today at the gunshow. On the box and the knife blade it states 274/300 Pre-Production. Anyone have any info on this? Thanks.

[45R]

You could always check the Benchmade forum.

[tyme]

or bladeforums.com

[pwrtool45]

Probably standard pre-prod fare. If the run was only 300 that seems small, though I haven't bought a Benchmade in four or five years. All the pre-production and first-production branded knives I've seen were runs of 1000 units. Both my Nimravus and Ares are pre-prods and neither are drastically different than current models. The Nimravus' blade steel is ATS-34 and the sheath is an IWB instead of a belt clip (it also doesn't have that gaudy butterfly on it). The Ares is also made of ATS-34 instead of 154CM.

I don't think they're particularly desirable, though I could be wrong. I've been using my pre-prod Ares as a pocket knife since I got it back around 2000 (IIRC), though I've kept the Nimravus LNIB mostly because I don't have much use for a "combat sheath knife."