Just before the 2026 SHOT Show, Benchmade Knife Company unveiled its most innovative creation to date—the Codex87 Horizon Edge™—in a private preview for media and industry professionals. This isn’t just another new knife; it represents a revolutionary approach to blade manufacturing: selectively applying two different steels along a single cutting edge to achieve precisely zoned performance.
Traditional knives are constrained by the limitations of a single steel, forcing compromises between edge retention, toughness, and corrosion resistance. The Codex87 Horizon Edge™ shatters that paradigm.
At its core lies a dual-metal fusion structure:
- The blade body is crafted from Benchmade’s proprietary Hakkapella™ Damasteel®, a Damascus steel prized for its strength, resilience, and striking visual grain.
- Along the critical cutting edge, a layer of ultra-high-hardness powder steel—Rex 121—is metallurgically fused using a proprietary laser process.
Rex 121 is renowned for its extreme wear resistance and unparalleled edge-holding ability—but it’s also notoriously brittle, making it unsuitable for use in an entire blade. Benchmade’s breakthrough lies in deploying this “extreme” material only where it matters most: the cutting edge.
The result is extraordinary:
- During delicate tasks like skinning or precision slicing, the Rex 121 edge delivers surgical sharpness and exceptional longevity.
- When subjected to lateral stress, impact, or prying forces, the tough Hakkapella™ base provides structural integrity and shock absorption.
One blade. Two optimized performance zones. Seamlessly integrated.
“The Codex87 Horizon Edge™ challenges a deeply entrenched assumption: that a knife must rely on a single material to perform all tasks,” said Vance Collver, Benchmade’s Director of Culture & Innovation.
“Humans have used knives for thousands of years—but how we make them doesn’t have to remain stuck in the past. This technology allows us to place high-performance materials exactly where they’re needed, unifying extreme sharpness and structural toughness within a single working system.”
According to Benchmade, this isn’t a simple lamination or cladding. Instead, a high-energy laser melts Rex 121 alloy powder directly onto the base edge, creating an atomic-level bond that forms a monolithic structure. There’s no risk of delamination or chipping—the blade performs as if forged from one piece.
Joe Prebich, Benchmade’s Vice President, added:
“User feedback consistently identifies edge retention, toughness, and corrosion resistance as the top three priorities. The Codex87 Horizon Edge™ lets us optimize all three—attributes that traditionally conflict with one another. This is Benchmade at its boldest: experimenting, innovating, and refusing to accept trade-offs.”
Currently, no other production knife on the global market uses this dual-material edge technology. It’s not about gimmicks—it’s advanced engineering solving real-world material science dilemmas.
For professional hunters, wilderness survivalists, and discerning tool users who demand peak performance, the Codex87 Horizon Edge™ isn’t just a product upgrade. It’s a quiet revolution in how we think about what a knife can be.
