American Knife of the Year - Benchmade Narrows

Smart companies do extensive amounts of R&D before releasing a product, including what pricing a given market will support. $500+ isn't an arbitrary number assigned to the Narrows. Knives from CRK, Winkler, Medford, RMJ, etc. sell extremely well and are fairly pricey. I think plenty of buyers will invest in the Narrows and love it for what it offers. I'm not one of them, and I'm not poor or broke.

YMMV
 
I handled one at the store. I was more impressed before I handled it. Of center (like touching the scale) ergos definitely weren’t fitting my hand well. Very Meh experience. Bummer, I was excited to try a benchmade for the first time In awhile. Not afraid of the price tag either, just didn’t do it for me at any price level.

I think it’s usually a sign it’s not received well when they are listed for sale LNIB for $100 less than retail

If benchmade is going to put a new product out with a bunch new R&D, then they might want to listen to their customers who are asking for basic levels of fit and finish (like a centered blade)
 
Malty Falcon said:
I handled one, and it's a finer, ultra-sleek knife. If any of you members are poor, you should chime in and say "the Narrows is way over-priced". That way we all know you are poor and broke. If you cannot afford a tank of gas for your car, please declare loudly that gas is "SO EXPENSIVE".

Good knives cost more that Mora's.

And so many people pointing out that The Narrows isn't a hard-use folder, that it won't stand up to heavy tasks- REALLY? Like I'd take a 2 ounce knife to baton a mountain of pine? It's a lightweight gentleman's folder, of course it won't pry nails out of a railroad tie! That's what Mora's are for!
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The Narrows is way overpriced and gas is EXPENSIVE.

I gotta go get in line at the soup kitchen now, with all the other folks carrying Sebenzas because Benchmade pricing is a joke.


ETA: Here’s a link that shows how on-target Benchmade is with their pricing:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/benchmade-narrows-748-400-price-reduced.1935139/
 
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Malty Falcon said:
I handled one, and it's a finer, ultra-sleek knife. If any of you members are poor, you should chime in and say "the Narrows is way over-priced". That way we all know you are poor and broke. If you cannot afford a tank of gas for your car, please declare loudly that gas is "SO EXPENSIVE".

Good knives cost more that Mora's.

And so many people pointing out that The Narrows isn't a hard-use folder, that it won't stand up to heavy tasks- REALLY? Like I'd take a 2 ounce knife to baton a mountain of pine? It's a lightweight gentleman's folder, of course it won't pry nails out of a railroad tie! That's what Mora's are for!
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Ok rich guy
 
Floatingby said:
Some relish the search and wait time, others, like me, don't care for it for 1 minute so if the item isn't in stock at major retailers, then it doesn't exist.
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I am exactly the same way. All the false scarcity, hype marketing sprint run idiocy just makes me go find something else. There is way too much good stuff out there available 24/7 for me to sit at my keyboard waiting for the clock to strike noon so I can add a knife to my cart.

There are entire knife companies that I pretty much ignore now because I don't even want to bother with filtering the "limited" models from stock in their new product reveals.
 
Malty Falcon said:
I handled one, and it's a finer, ultra-sleek knife. If any of you members are poor, you should chime in and say "the Narrows is way over-priced". That way we all know you are poor and broke. If you cannot afford a tank of gas for your car, please declare loudly that gas is "SO EXPENSIVE".

Good knives cost more that Mora's.

And so many people pointing out that The Narrows isn't a hard-use folder, that it won't stand up to heavy tasks- REALLY? Like I'd take a 2 ounce knife to baton a mountain of pine? It's a lightweight gentleman's folder, of course it won't pry nails out of a railroad tie! That's what Mora's are for!
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When folks are saying it's too expensive they are really saying it's a poor value.
 
Nebuchadnezzar said:
When folks are saying it's too expensive they are really saying it's a poor value.
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DMG said:
That describes most of my hobbies.
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True on both accounts.

My wife recently pointed out to me that hobbies, vacations, &etc are about the “experience” more than the “value.”

The Narrows is far from a bad knife. If someone loves it, great! As I said somewhere above, it has some unique and well executed characteristics.

But when NIB samples cant sell on the Exchange for 25% below MAP, it tells you how many people “value the experience” as much as Benchmade thinks they should.
 
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Nebuchadnezzar said:
When folks are saying it's too expensive they are really saying it's a poor value.
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This!
People can have no trouble affording it, and still consider it massively overpriced (and frankly insulting that BM thinks their product is worth anywhere near that much).

There are a ton of obvious BM shills crawling around this thread. How much are you guys getting in kickbacks? What are your u-tube channels? 😂
 
I would choose to buy a new one even though I am aware of sales on the secondary (used like new etc..) market for ~150.00 less than a new one.
 
One thing that confuses me on the design of these ultra thin knives is that they put a deep carry pocket clip that’s twice the thickness of the knife. It’s not only on the narrows but I’ve also noticed it on the trm models. Doesn’t seem to make sense considering the the goal of an ultra thin knife. Would make more sense to me to put a thin clip and not worry about deep pocket carry. Example pictured below.

My personal opinion is that as long as a knife is .5” or less in the handle then it’s fine in the pocket. Anything thicker is a little to fat.
 
I've handled one in a knife dealer shop, he received 2, sold one(at a considerable rebate), so still had one in stock. I'm usually a sucker for thin, slicey blades and light, easy to carry folders, and this is certainly that, jawdroppingly that, to the power of ten.

But, well, I've apparently reached my limit, I've found this knife to be too thin, to the point that it wasn't comfortable in my hands, and awkward to deploy. Granted, I could probably get used to the handling and develop a method for efficient deployement( and also adjust the pivot which was a bit stiff) but the comfort would never be there. Quality and ingenuity was certainly there thought, no doubt. In the end, obviously not a knife for me, regardless of price.

But speaking of price, I told the dealer that, to my eyes, this was more a 300 to 350 price range knife, and he agreed, stating that even with his current rebate(about 100 less than msrp), they're not moving BUT he said sometime the market take strange roads, it would only take 1 influencers doing something cool with the knife, in one video, and sale would take off even at the current price.

So there you go, certainly cool, but not for everybody, a bit overpriced, but unique in its own kind of way and a candidate for hype/influencers marketing saga.
 
Malty Falcon said:
I handled one, and it's a finer, ultra-sleek knife. If any of you members are poor, you should chime in and say "the Narrows is way over-priced". That way we all know you are poor and broke. If you cannot afford a tank of gas for your car, please declare loudly that gas is "SO EXPENSIVE".

Good knives cost more that Mora's.

And so many people pointing out that The Narrows isn't a hard-use folder, that it won't stand up to heavy tasks- REALLY? Like I'd take a 2 ounce knife to baton a mountain of pine? It's a lightweight gentleman's folder, of course it won't pry nails out of a railroad tie! That's what Mora's are for!
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Gas IS expensive.

I think it's more of people commenting on how this knife does not offer value at the price set for what you receive.

It would likely make more sense in the 250-300 dollar price range, especially since Benchmade QC can be hit or miss on occasion.

I think BM missed an opportunity to add inserts in the milled slabs, a milled pocket clip with flush screws, and a thumb stud that does not interfere with the cutting path.

I find the knife attractive as is, but not at a price north of 500 bucks.
 
King of the Cheese said:
I saw the price on the narrows and went “yikes..”. Then went and saw the Spyderco Subvert sprint run in cf and 20cv for much less and thought “ahhhh that’s refreshing. Hope isn’t lost.”
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Much less? The msrp on that one is 20 buck higher than the narrow...(I'll probably have my throat cut for saying this, but it's gigantically worst value imo, I mean, a regular, made in Taiwan linerlock for 600 buck? Talk about a spider tax).
 
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