A little disappointed in my second Benchmade HK14210, comments please >>>

B

beady

Joined
Mar 8, 2006
Messages
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So I’d had my Benchmade HK14210 for 3 1/2 years or so, and loved it. First “real” knife I’ve ever owned, and my favorite knife I’ve ever owned. Unfortunately on a trip last week I forgot I had it clipped to my pocket at I had to forfeit it at the airport security checkpoint :-( (we would have missed our flight if I had tried to get back to our car or find our checked bag). I was seriously bummed.

I looked at all the other Benchmades I might want to replace it with, but in the end decided to get another 14210 since I liked it so much.

I got my new 14210 on Friday, but the quality just doesn’t seem to be the same as the first one I had. The first one had no serial number, where this one does, if it makes a difference.

Most noticeably is the amount of friction in the blade pivot. My old 14210 was pretty much smooth and perfect out of the box. 2 days later and at least a hundred or two openings and this new 14210 is still stiff. You can’t just pull the AXIS lock back and have the blade fall back into the handle like the old knife. Sometimes the blade will swing down if I shake the knife hard while holding the AXIS lock bar back, other times it won’t swing closed at all and I have to use 2 hands to close it.

Another thing that’s not as smooth as the old 14210 is the tightness of the AXIS bar against the blade. It takes a pretty good amount of force to pull the AXIS bar back from the blade (from friction, not the spring). On the old knife it wasn’t like that, and was smooth from day one.

Also, as seen in the pics, if you pull the AXIS lock back and hold the knife, there is too much friction for the blade to even open on its own. Conversely, once open the blade will not fall down if you pull back the AXIS lock. (in both pics the AXIS locking bar is fully pulled back)

Then there are a couple little things that I might not have noticed if the knife operated like the old one. At the butt end of the knife, the scales aren’t dead flush with the liners. The old knife was. Granted, it not much of a difference, but there was zero difference on the old knife. Then there is some sort of burr/mar on one of the pivot bolt heads that you can see and feel. Again, no imperfections on the previous knife. Lastly, the screw closest to the AXIS lock sticks out above the scales, where the other ones don’t. Maybe this is how it is supposed to be? Don’t remember on my old knife.

Finally, this knife isn’t as sharp as the old one, out of the box. The first one was shaving sharp with just a light touch; this one isn’t.

Am I just being picky, or was my first knife just a superb example?

How would I go about getting things fixed to my liking; through the vendor I bought the knife from, or directly to Benchmade?

Thanks, and sorry for the long post,

Mike

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Did you try loosening the pivot? Sounds like the source of almost all your problems.
 
I've had half a dozen of those knives. They are one of BM's nicer offerings in that price range. I also noticed that the earlier runs seemed to have a bit higher F&F than the later models I've gotten. I even got one with the old flat BM clip instead of the arrow clip.

You're probably just noticing the difference in different runs of that knife. Try the suggestion other have made about adjusting the pivot screw and lubing the pivot & AXIS bar areas, then give the knife some exercise to break it in. A few swipes on the Sharpmaker rods should take care of your edge problems. 154CM is not difficult to sharpen, assuming it's from a batch of steel with a good HT.
 
Imo benchmades fit a,d finish aint 'all that' considering what you are paying for. I was severly disappointed in my Osborne considering the high price tag and compared to lower costing knives I have b ought that had much nicer f-n-f.
The above ideas are good. It sounds like you ordered it and didn't buy it locally so you just can't take it back and trade it for another knife of the same model.
Sadlý that is the risk we all take when buying a knife online.
 
I've been hearing reports that Benchmade's quality control has gone down hill. From blunt knives to cursory made Benchmade 42's.
 
looks like benchmade is just trying to get by on their brand name nowadays, the quality of BMs seems to have suffered.
 
I've noticed a significant decline, as well. I had a 710 that was near perfect for a production knife. I recommended my friend get one a few years later, and it was a mess. Blade play, gritty feeling action, off center blade in the handle. He later bought three different Kulgeras trying to get a nice one because he liked the design so much, but all of them had bad blade play and off center blades.
 
Looks to me that there is an issue in liner fabrication.

Are these farmed out by BM? In the discussions of the new M4 806, it appears BM farms out the production of the liners on occassion.

Most of my BM knives have been pretty good as far as fit and finish goes. No major complaints overall, but I do have a tendency to buy the rarer and obscure.

I do think that other knife firms have become better at fit and finish in the last few years, though, and as a result we consumers have come to expect more for the dollar.

But, then, the dollar ain't what it was, yet the street prices are pretty close to what they were in years bygone.

Perhaps we are dealing with a failure to upgrade production equipment to keep up with the competition.
 
My 710HS from 2005 came with a huge burr, and was virtually blunt NIB. The 140HS on the other hand was hair popping out of the box.
I don't think Benchmade has really changed anything concerning their sharpening practices.
 
SharpOne said:
Beady, where did you purchase the 14210 from?
Click to expand...

I bought the knife from knifeworks.com. I don't think it's a reflection on knifeworks.com; I'm sure they don't open every box and inspect every knife they have before each sale.

Thanks for all the other comments everyone.

Should I just suck it up, or if it was you would you try to contact knifeworks and/or Benchmade and send them pics and see if they will do anything? I can take larger/higher quality pics, those were just quick snapshots on low-res.

Thanks,

Mike
 
beady said:
I bought the knife from knifeworks.com. I don't think it's a reflection on knifeworks.com; I'm sure they don't open every box and inspect every knife they have before each sale.

Thanks for all the other comments everyone.

Should I just suck it up, or if it was you would you try to contact knifeworks and/or Benchmade and send them pics and see if they will do anything? I can take larger/higher quality pics, those were just quick snapshots on low-res.

Thanks,

Mike
Click to expand...

I don't think dealers should be held accountable at all. It shouldn't be their job to check the knives, the knives should be useable from benchmade or any other knife company out there for that matter. Yes they sell them, but they should be ready to go out of the box. Benchmade is one of my favorite companies, but they do have some issues of their own.
 
beady said:
I bought the knife from knifeworks.com. I don't think it's a reflection on knifeworks.com; I'm sure they don't open every box and inspect every knife they have before each sale.

Thanks for all the other comments everyone.

Should I just suck it up, or if it was you would you try to contact knifeworks and/or Benchmade and send them pics and see if they will do anything? I can take larger/higher quality pics, those were just quick snapshots on low-res.

Thanks,

Mike
Click to expand...

You shouldn't have to "suck it up". You just spent about $100 on a pocket knife, it should be near flawless.

Sharpness is discussed ad nausea, and is easily solved yourself, but a new $100 knife should be real sharp.

The pivot is made to be adjusted, and you can find excellent detailed advice on "tuning" your Benchmade on their own forum (if not here), but it should come set from the factory as it was intended to be set. Regardless of the "correct" tension, it should be smooth and consistent.

IMO the scales absolutely should be flush with the liners. I doubt that Benchmade designed them as they appear in your photo.

If it were mine, especially if I had bought brand new from a dealer, I would do one of two things.
1. Contact the dealer and ask him if he would be willing to swap you for another one. The dealer you bought it from has always been very helpful to me and might be willing to inspect a replacement for you.
2. Contact Benchmade customer service by phone and speak to someone about it. Tell them exactly what you put here in your post, that you owned one previously and loved it, and that you bought another and it doesn't measure up. Tell them you would like them to inspect the knife, and please correct anything they agree is not up to standard, including a trip through the Lifesharp service for the "dull" blade.
I have had an occasion or two to use Benchmade's customer service, and they were very customer friendly. They replaced a knife for me that had an issue with the Axis lock, and the knives I have sent in for Lifesharp have been returned VERY sharp.


Good luck, and as they say, your mileage may vary.
 
I looked into getting a 14210 as an upgrade to my mini-grip and tried one out in the local shop and it was gritty and not smooth at all compared to the Kulgera I also tried and my personal 555. I didn't really inspect the F&F since the action alone was a deal breaker.

I currently own 3 Benchmades, 555, 942, and a Morpho and my samples are all top notch.

I'm not brand loyal and have been going through a Spyderco phase and have some QC problems there as well. I have a Delica ZDP that is near impossible to close because the lock can't be pushed far enough to release, a Salt 1 with Odd serration grinds, and a Urban that has the worst F&F of any knife I've seen over $50. So its not just BM. In my very limited small sample experience BM is much better F&F than Spyderco except for out of box sharpness.
 
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