Greetings to all from Snowhio!
Let me start by stating that I am a new member! I have been collecting knives for about 11 years now but never got around to joining a community. I used to write a few firearm reviews on XDTalk and I have been lurking about BF for a long time. Pocket knives are my true passion (and much more affordable than guns..) and I figured it was time to get involved! I look forward to participating with more reviews in the future. Oh, one last thing...I try to be as honest and open minded as possible in my reviews. I am not out to bash anything or anyone and only report what I see with my eyes. As a disabled Army veteran I do not have money to throw around flippantly and therefore I firmly believe in quality for money spent.
The 485 Valet:
Initially, I was very intrigued by this knife. I like smaller gentleman knives. Not exclusively, but they have their rightful place in the EDC rotation and collection. It's a beautiful knife with its grey G10 handle, G10 back spacer...I had to have one. So I ordered one from my favorite knife source: BladeHQ. I was also very interested to try M390 for the first time. I have experience using most standard steels such as 154CM, S30V, D2, ZDP-189 and the crucible variants of 154CM and S30V.
Despite initial reviews and claims of it being tiny, I did not find it so for my medium, spindly sausages. Certainly it was small, but not tiny. The G10 felt nice and not too slick or too grippy, but just right. The proportions were just right for the size, IMHO. The action was a little on the stiff side, but smooth as butter. No trouble using the thumb stud to deploy the blade. Despite the lack of spine jimping, I found it very comfortable in the role as a gentleman's edc blade.
Unfortunately that is where the lust stopped. After unboxing and checking it out, I started to inspect the grind and sharpness. Sad is the only word that comes to mind. I have long loved Benchmades such as my 710 or 741 (Mchenry Williams/Large Onslaught) or 530 Pardue and I was super impressed with my first production Volli. So I am by no means trying to write a butthurt review about Benchmade. But the quality of the blade in my humble opinion was...well...poo.
Why? Well, for starters the grind was slightly canted off to one side. Enough so that the tip was deformed and had a fatter relief cut on one side. It was then no surprise that when I tried to cut some misc. printer paper and magazines that I was disappointed in how dull it was. I am by no means a super sharpening wizz bang go-getter, but I consider myself adequately capable with Arkansas stones and DMT sharpeners. I prefer to sharpen free-hand and I have sharpened enough knives in my time to know that I would not be able to fix it. I really mean that it was DULL.
In my humble opinion there is no excuse for such a poor grind and out of box sharpness for $170. I realize that there are lemons, believe me. My dad worked in a factory for many years machining parts for Honda 4-wheelers. For a short time after the Army I worked at Honda as a parts inspector. There are acceptable tolerances that vary from company to company and industry to industry. I wrote scores of papers about tolerances and quality control for my college business classes. Lemons happen.
But my immense disappointment stemmed from the fact that the last three benchmades I have purchased also had bad grind and sharpness issues. A Bushcraft fixed blade, an Adamas and a Ball flipper. All had very poor grinds and came pretty dull. I was hoping that with the higher end steel I might get lucky...but alas...
Remember, I am not trying to bash Benchmade. I love em. But I returned the Valet to BladeHQ for a refund. Their customer service was 10/10 excellent. I explained the issues and had a return number within 20 minutes. It took about 3 days, but they refunded my money so I could nab another one on the list.
I really liked the knife, don't get me wrong. Everything else about it was super well made. But I firmly believe in out of box performance for my money. I should not have to grind and sharpen beyond some light strops on a super fine stone. I can even accept having to step down to a fine stone. Not every production blade is going to be lightsaber sharp and I get that. But I do expect some degree of sharp, especially from one of the best names in the industry.
Maybe my expectations for Benchmade are too high? I watched a first impression video on YouTube about the Valet and that user also commented that the blade was not very sharp. He did not make a super-big deal about it, but opinions differ. YMMV.
I am very interested to hear from anyone who also bought a Valet and whether or not theirs was sharp or dull.
Let me start by stating that I am a new member! I have been collecting knives for about 11 years now but never got around to joining a community. I used to write a few firearm reviews on XDTalk and I have been lurking about BF for a long time. Pocket knives are my true passion (and much more affordable than guns..) and I figured it was time to get involved! I look forward to participating with more reviews in the future. Oh, one last thing...I try to be as honest and open minded as possible in my reviews. I am not out to bash anything or anyone and only report what I see with my eyes. As a disabled Army veteran I do not have money to throw around flippantly and therefore I firmly believe in quality for money spent.
The 485 Valet:
Initially, I was very intrigued by this knife. I like smaller gentleman knives. Not exclusively, but they have their rightful place in the EDC rotation and collection. It's a beautiful knife with its grey G10 handle, G10 back spacer...I had to have one. So I ordered one from my favorite knife source: BladeHQ. I was also very interested to try M390 for the first time. I have experience using most standard steels such as 154CM, S30V, D2, ZDP-189 and the crucible variants of 154CM and S30V.
Despite initial reviews and claims of it being tiny, I did not find it so for my medium, spindly sausages. Certainly it was small, but not tiny. The G10 felt nice and not too slick or too grippy, but just right. The proportions were just right for the size, IMHO. The action was a little on the stiff side, but smooth as butter. No trouble using the thumb stud to deploy the blade. Despite the lack of spine jimping, I found it very comfortable in the role as a gentleman's edc blade.
Unfortunately that is where the lust stopped. After unboxing and checking it out, I started to inspect the grind and sharpness. Sad is the only word that comes to mind. I have long loved Benchmades such as my 710 or 741 (Mchenry Williams/Large Onslaught) or 530 Pardue and I was super impressed with my first production Volli. So I am by no means trying to write a butthurt review about Benchmade. But the quality of the blade in my humble opinion was...well...poo.
Why? Well, for starters the grind was slightly canted off to one side. Enough so that the tip was deformed and had a fatter relief cut on one side. It was then no surprise that when I tried to cut some misc. printer paper and magazines that I was disappointed in how dull it was. I am by no means a super sharpening wizz bang go-getter, but I consider myself adequately capable with Arkansas stones and DMT sharpeners. I prefer to sharpen free-hand and I have sharpened enough knives in my time to know that I would not be able to fix it. I really mean that it was DULL.
In my humble opinion there is no excuse for such a poor grind and out of box sharpness for $170. I realize that there are lemons, believe me. My dad worked in a factory for many years machining parts for Honda 4-wheelers. For a short time after the Army I worked at Honda as a parts inspector. There are acceptable tolerances that vary from company to company and industry to industry. I wrote scores of papers about tolerances and quality control for my college business classes. Lemons happen.
But my immense disappointment stemmed from the fact that the last three benchmades I have purchased also had bad grind and sharpness issues. A Bushcraft fixed blade, an Adamas and a Ball flipper. All had very poor grinds and came pretty dull. I was hoping that with the higher end steel I might get lucky...but alas...
Remember, I am not trying to bash Benchmade. I love em. But I returned the Valet to BladeHQ for a refund. Their customer service was 10/10 excellent. I explained the issues and had a return number within 20 minutes. It took about 3 days, but they refunded my money so I could nab another one on the list.
I really liked the knife, don't get me wrong. Everything else about it was super well made. But I firmly believe in out of box performance for my money. I should not have to grind and sharpen beyond some light strops on a super fine stone. I can even accept having to step down to a fine stone. Not every production blade is going to be lightsaber sharp and I get that. But I do expect some degree of sharp, especially from one of the best names in the industry.
Maybe my expectations for Benchmade are too high? I watched a first impression video on YouTube about the Valet and that user also commented that the blade was not very sharp. He did not make a super-big deal about it, but opinions differ. YMMV.
I am very interested to hear from anyone who also bought a Valet and whether or not theirs was sharp or dull.
!
