1st Benchmade DISASTER

A

Antonio K.

Joined
Aug 13, 2016
Messages
73
Where do I begin? Might wana get comfortable it's gonna be a long one.
I had ordered my first benchmade. It was a 940. Heard nothing but good things about it so I pulled the trigger on it. $180 which is more than ever though I would pay for a knife. When I first got it nothing seemed off, centering was good. Free dropping, no blade play. When I got to looking at it real close I noticed the grind near the tanto style blade was crooked. And as I started using it the knife became uncentered favoring the left. So I decided to send it in to benchmade. About 2 1/2 weeks later I got it back, brand new blade and the centering was fixed but the blade was god awful tight so I loosened to how it was before and what do you know......? The blade became uncentered just like it was before. I call benchmade and same story, "We are sorry, please fill out the warranty form and we'll get it fixed." So I send it in and wait a few weeks, blade was centered, everything seemed great...... until one of the springs broke:/

At this point I'm pretty disappointed, I call them up and was told that they are very sorry, they gave me a shipping label and I sent the knife in. Waited 3 weeks and got it back. Warranty paper said "built replacement knife" Again everything seemed good. Had it fr about 4 months which is the longest I have ever had it . Then one day as I was flicking the knife open the omega spring broke again! WTF??? At this point I am extremely frustrated! I called them AGAIN and told them that I was extremely disappointed. They offered me to get me a new knife Instead of fixing it. I send it in and about 4 weeks later (they where going through a new system update and were pretty behind) got the knife and IMMEDIATELY noticed the huge amount of blade play. Even when I tightened the screw hard enough to where The knife wouldn't drop freely it would still have blade play (I could shake the knife and feel the blade moving). And the biggest issue was the defect on the blade tang! I'll provide a picture.

Now it's almost present time. I call benchmade and they offered me a reimbursement of $225 because they say they have done everything they can and that I wasn't happy with the knife. I told them no that's OK I really like this knife but I just wanted it squared away and ended the call. I called again the next day and spoke to a gentleman who was real nice, he said the blade tang defect was not normal and to send it in right away so we can put a new blade on it. When it got there I was told that the engineering team and every other team said the defect was impossible and that there's no way their machines could have possibly done that. He asked me if I took the knife apart and I kindly said " no sir all I simply did was adjust the pivot screw." They did however claim that the blade play is fixed and knife is centered and that the defect on the tang should not affect the action of the knife. They also gave me a 30% promo code to use on their website for a knife.

Though I am very grateful for the promo code, your telling me that they could not make a simple knife function properly? The centering would be such a big deal to me but the fact that my $80 spyderco endurance has NO blade play and perfect centering and is going on a year and a half and my $180 benchmade went through 2 springs, 2 defective blades is just outright ridiculous! And I forgot to mention, while the knife was i for service I bought a spyderco paramilitary 2 and the fit and finish was perfect. The blade was centered there was no blade play in the Knife dropped freely.

After this promo code is used I will NEVER own a benchmade until they step up their quality control.
 
That's a real shame, and I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with a 180$ knife.
Why can Victorinox produce a damn near perfect 20$ knife almost everytime but benchmade who is supposed to be somewhat of a premium brand can't do this ?
I have no personal experience with benchmade because their designs don't appeal to me, but it just goes to show that you're better off handling just about any folder before you buy it.
 
Hickory n steel said:
That's a real shame, and I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with a 180$ knife.
Why can Victorinox produce a damn near perfect 20$ knife almost everytime but benchmade who is supposed to be somewhat of a premium brand can't do this ?
I have no personal experience with benchmade because their designs don't appeal to me, but it just goes to show that you're better off handling just about any folder before you buy it.
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This is a lesson well learned. I will never buy a knife without first handling it. It's a shame I love the way the 940 looks. But when they tell me blade play is acceptable on a blade that free drops as I'm holding my free dropping pm2 with zero blade play is just foolish.
 
Antonio K. said:
This is a lesson well learned. I will never buy a knife without first handling it. It's a shame I love the way the 940 looks. But when they tell me blade play is acceptable on a blade that free drops as I'm holding my free dropping pm2 with zero blade play is just foolish.
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In my experience you should break in the knife before you adjust the pivot. If you gave it a few days it'd have more than likely free fallen just like before.
 
Owned multiple benchmades without any issues. It is extremely unlikely and unlucky if this is a truly complete "lemon" as you described it as. But often in these situations it can be possible the user played a role in these issues and are unaware of it.
 
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I'm sorry for the experience you've had with Benchmade. From my standpoint, I've owned about 30 different Benchmades and never had an issue that wasn't addressed to my satisfaction. It's not inconceivable to encounter a knife that's just a "lemon". I went through it with a PM2 that couldn't NOT have blade play. At this point perhaps you should consider returning the knife and asking for a credit for a new one. I have a 940 and a 943 and have never had a problem with either. They're two of my favorite EDCs.

On a side note, I hope that's pocket lint on the right-side washer? If not, you might have a serious issue with overtightening a pivot and shredding a Phosphor Bronze washer...

Regardless, I can assure you Benchmade is one of the best knifemakers in the US. I hope you can find satisfaction and consider them for a knife purchase in the future.
 
It's definitely frustrating to go through something like this, but it sounds like BM did as much as they could reasonably do to help you out, including a $225 reimbursement on a $180 knife, which seems above and beyond to me, unless I'm missing something. :thumbsup:
 
My 940 was perfect, solid, centered, smooth as air and my favorite edc....Its not about handling this blade first. Its popular for a reason. I bought my knife 4 years ago, but has since been stolen by a bar bouncer. I miss it.....It seems like something is going on with the company since. There is no way you can have that much bad luck with 2 knives and repairs/replacement parts in between. I had bad luck with griptilians about 8 years ago. I bought 2 at the same time. Both were training knife dull. Both knives rubbed against the scales toward the left. I sharpend/reprofiled them and gave them away to non knife people as gifts
 
My experience wasn't quite as bad as yours, but I sent a Stryker in twice for repair and still ended up with issues. The first time around, my knife came back in worse shape than it was before sending it in. The second time, they sent me a new knife and it had up and down blade play which is one of the reasons I sent it in the first time around. I ended up taking my knife to a Benchmade dealer and got rid of it. My experience may not be typical, but it happened.
 
This is so close to home.
First (a month ago) i decided that more than $200 was too much to spend for the knife I really want which is a Spyderco Para 2 with the natural G10 and M4 blade.
Then . . . get this . . . I'm not saying I'm smart . . . OK :
I "decide" that paying $270 for a Benchmade 940-1 with carbon scales and S90V would be preferable to buying a "second hand"/"used" one for ~$180 even if it is new in the box because I just might get a lemon and chances are that a fresh from the vendor might be better (after all I can ask them to look it over before they ship it to me). That's worth $90 to $100 right ?
Sounds idiotic.
Yes. It does.

Am I back to spending """"Too Much"""" on the Para at $225 ?
Time will tell. It will be interesting to see what my poor little addled brain does next.

PS: I was kind of looking forward to the carbon fiber and the cool blue posts. I do like the slim handle of the 940. Usually I'm not a fan of carbon fiber for other things but for this particular knife I think I would really like it.

:confused: :poop: sigh . . . . . . . . .
 
basmca said:
One the one hand this is awefull, but it does show great custumer support.
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Haha . . . being a mechanic and a crafts person . . . as opposed to a sales person . . . and being decidedly on the grumpy and no BS side . . . I have to recount what I always say :

Look
If you were going on vacation. Pulling your big O' camper trailer. Who would you rather have doing the work on your brakes :
a. The guy behind the counter who talks a good line but really doesn't understand the mechanical systems and fills in as best he can in the shop when some one is sick but is really nice and bends over backwards to fix things he screws up.
or
b. The old grump that is always in the back that doesn't say much and tells you to stay the hell out of the shop and he will call you when it is time to pick up your truck/trailer but knows brakes and vehicles in general inside and out and pretty much lives and dies for brake work as long as people just leaves him THE HELL ALONE and lets him do his job. And does the job right the first time.​

Yah . . . maybe Spyderco needs to look at buying Benchmade !?!?
 
Wowbagger said:
Haha . . . being a mechanic and a crafts person . . . as opposed to a sales person . . . and being decidedly on the grumpy and no BS side . . . I have to recount what I always say :

Look
If you were going on vacation. Pulling your big O' camper trailer. Who would you rather have doing the work on your brakes :
a. The guy behind the counter who talks a good line but really doesn't understand the mechanical systems and fills in as best he can in the shop when some one is sick but is really nice and bends over backwards to fix things he screws up.
or
b. The old grump that is always in the back that doesn't say much and tells you to stay the hell out of the shop and he will call you when it is time to pick up your truck/trailer but knows brakes and vehicles in general inside and out and pretty much lives and dies for brake work as long as people just leaves him THE HELL ALONE and lets him do his job. And does the job right the first time.​

Yah . . . maybe Spyderco needs to look at buying Benchmade !?!?
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Making a good product doesn't justify bad service, just like good service doesn't justify a bad product.

But it's good to know when a company has good service.
 
I'm another with many many BMs with no issues.
Sounds like lots of really bad luck.
 
I don't know... I will not mess with benchmade and I wish could, buuut I've seen many models that I like, however, Last time I was at my local knife store I held 5 and 2 had blade play, I was at a different knife store in Tennessee and the first one I asked to hold had play. I actually hate it cause there are so many benchmades that look great and I'd buy but I can't shake the fact that they had play when still pretty new. Maybe it's from being handled by so many shoppers, but if that causes a knife to develop issues I'm definitely not carrying it everyday or wasting the cash.

Not trying to say anything bad about anyone. I know there are some big time BM fans out there and I get it. They're probably nice knives for the most part, but their blade play issues on multiple models $200 + that I encountered at the doggone store turned me all the way off
 
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I've owned so many Benchmades and had pretty much zero issues. Every once a while these epic disaster threads come up with every defect possible on a specific model. If these a true claims then im afraid you just struck the bad luck lottery jackpot. See us Aussies have it even worse than you guys cos we can't even inspect the knife before we purchase, just blind luck purhases. Plus for us sending back overseas for warranty is an absolute pain in the ass. Purchased about 20 Benchmades over the years and never had a major issue or mechanical failure of any kind. Sorry to hear about your bad luck.
 
Like my pal Joe above I have many Benchmades and no real issues with any. A couple were somewhat off center and I got those all squared away but one--a 940-1 which I improved but didn't get 100% and sold with full disclosure. All my grinds have been fine with a couple uneven or not-so-good edges which I took care of myself. He'll, I'm gonna sharpen 'em anyway and often re-profile sharp edges.

I would certainly advocate spending some time breaking in a knife before worrying too much about action or play as many knives, especially those on washers need that before tuning in that final sweet spot.

It certainly sounds like the OP had a lemon followed by some awful bad luck. BMK's CS is legendary and the folks on the phone and at the other end of emails are great, though I've never had any interactions other than many free clips, screws, thumstuds, etc. Never sent a knife in for service or warranty work.

I have heard more than a few tales of disconnect between the "front desk" of BMK's CS and the people actually doing the work, so Wowbagger Wowbagger 's point above is well taken. I'd rather have good QC than good CS if I had to choose, but have had little complaint with either on my end with the almost 30 BMKs I've owned.
 
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