Benchmade 940 / 943 Osborne Handle Coating Durability

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dzlvs8

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Jun 13, 2013
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I just received my new 943 knife and it is beautiful! It's surprisingly tactical looking for a gentleman's folder. However, I am very concerned with the coating on the handle. I haven't owned any coated aluminum handled Benchmades for long enough to unfortunately test the durability of the handle. In most of the reviews of the knife I see at least one small chip in the coating, but from the way that the knife feels, it seems like the coating will wear off with the slightest nick or scrape to the knife handle. However, I have also seen a 940 that has zero black blade coating left, but he handle only has a few dings.

What have people experience with the handle durability of this knife been? If you have some pics, that would be great too. Me like pictures. I'm not sure if its just the roughness of the coating that makes me feel like it should scrape off easily or what, but I get the sense that it is fragile. I can only imagine that someones wedding ring would just tear this knife up (hey there's ANOTHER reason its good not to be married!). I would be more ok with a 940 if it was prone to showing wear very easily. The 943 is just too beautiful to have all dinged up. I may not want to keep it...even though it would put a gap in my "wedge" of size choices that I have been working on.

The Wedge of Size Choices (for your viewing pleasure):
9609111791_949b9192a5_b.jpg
 
I've had the same knife for several years - your concerns are well founded. The black wears off of the corners fairly easily. I love the knife - just wish it was G10 or something that didn't look so beat up.

 
Having removed the anodization, it's tough to remove. It
Will laugh at wedding rings unless inside the band has diamonds, at the most it will scratch your ring and leave the silver/gold particles on the anodization.
 
I have owned a 940 since Christmas and today I noticed for the first time a very small, 1/4 inch mark on the front of the handle near the pivot. Pretty disapointing, considering I have babied the knife like a lunatic and have only carried it to church, weddings, and outings to restaurants. I would kill to have a bead-blasted titanium 940...
 
I actually prefer the worn look of that Ascent over the 940 next to it. Unfortunately the smooth anno finish on the 94x models shows wear far too easily. If the scales had some texture or cross checking the obvious signs of carry would be less...Or ditch the danged scales in favor of G10. My much carried 710 has had three or four beatup clips replaced but the scales look mint, just saying.
 
Aw man, my 943 is too sexy to get dinged up. I love the aluminum scales, but because of the wear, I wish they were G10. I would assume that rounding the sharp edges would have helped with the wear. All of the wear seems to occur at any sharp corner. It's too bad that it's hard to find any good knife around 3" or so that has G10 scales. It also puzzles me that Benchmade decides to put the aluminum scales on so many of their fancier (gentlemanly) folders, like the 943, 707, Emissary. Those knives would look the worst with wear. I held a gold class emissary at the store and they wanted me to be very careful with it and not even close the blade. Because of the aluminum handles I was afraid of even holding! I guess that's why they make touch up paint. Although, I doubt flat black paint, let alone any other color, would adhere well to aluminum. Powder coating would have been a better choice, if they could have figured out how to deal with the diminished tolerances involved with the thick coating.
 
I too hate the worn look on this particular knife and my emissary. I like this knife looking crisp. I sent my handles to a guy at tango downs customs who does duracoat/cerakote coating on knives to give the fresh look and far more durability than Bm's anodizing since this still is a lot tougher to crack/chip than anodized aluminum.
 
dshunti28 said:
I too hate the worn look on this particular knife and my emissary. I like this knife looking crisp. I sent my handles to a guy at tango downs customs who does duracoat/cerakote coating on knives to give the fresh look and far more durability than Bm's anodizing since this still is a lot tougher to crack/chip than anodized aluminum.
Click to expand...

You've found duracoat to be more durable? I haven't had great experiences with it but have only had duracoated/cerakoted blades, not handles.
 
Blades might be a lil different then with the scales of a knife. Duracoat and cerakote are durable as h.... at least the ones that I've dealt with. With the stock anodizing on the 940, I couldn't use it to its full extent like that great little knife was meant to be, but with it coated it was no holds. Especially when getting it coated is less then $50
 
I purchased a 943 on June 11, 2012. Other than a few weeks before I learned to sharpen where I had it off to a professional sharpener, it's been in my front right pocket every single day since then, bouncing around with the keys and sometimes flashlight that also go in that pocket.

Here's what it looked like after about 6 months:
bm943-121205.jpg


Here's what it looks like today (roughly 18 months of 5-days-a-week carry):
bm943-left-140114.jpg

bm943-right-140114.jpg


Note that the clip I replaced in the first few weeks with one I requested from Benchmade with a parkerized finish, I didn't like how the paint was chipping off the original. They shipped the new clip at no cost and I like it MUCH better.

It's up to you whether this is or is not acceptable wear. I'm pretty impressed though, given the abuse it gets constantly banging around against my keys and the assortment of keychain flashlights I've carried. It's "good honest wear" and I think it adds character, but YMMV of course.
 
Great looking knife, tp1l. :thumbup:

I think worn annodized scales look sweet. The first scratch I got on my 940 kind of stung but after that, it's only looked better each day. Crisp or worn look great, imo.
 
I agree the worn scales can look cool, esp. for a working knife... but my 943 is sooo beautiful to me that to be honest, I use it/carry it less because I want it to stay gentlemanly and gorgeous. More power to you if you don't mind beating it up!

BUT THIS JUST IN, have y'all heard of the 940-1?!? A new release for 2014: a 940 with black carbon fiber scales!!! Oh, and it's in S90v, too!! Calming down a bit, it looks like the CF scales drop the already-light weight to just 2.44oz (vs. 2.9). Darn you Benchmade, my wallet will be lighter because of this.

I don't see a new 943 version, though. I'm thinking of getting a 940-1, and swapping out the blade with my 943 -- to have my ultimate (larger/more tactical) gentleman's folder, a 943 with carbon scales. (I might then sell the remaining "Franken 940," a black aluminum-handled knife with the S30v/940-shaped blade in it.) Thoughts/anyone else considering this? I think the swap could/should work... oh man I can't wait.
 
My only daily carry for 10 years.


Pictures were taken just after I bought a new blade for it. I think the handles held up pretty well. I'm not one to put other stuff in my pocket with my knife though.
 
I suppose you can always wrap the handle in a baggie to prevent wear. Or not use it. I'm in the "if you use it, it should look used camp.
 
Owning one of the best tools on the planet and being sad when it looks "used" seems silly to me.

Whatever tickles your pickle.
 
Man, a 940-1 carbon fiber sounds sweet to me. Reverse tanto or clip point would be awesome! Any set release date on that yet?
 
I have both 940 and the 943 and I usually don't care if a knife gets beat but for some reason I baby these . I just don't want to see a big one line scratch .
 
I was dead-set on walking out of Cabela's with a 940 yesterday, but that notion changed after handling it in the store. I didn't like the feel of the textured aluminum. My 1st impression was that it would scuff and mar very easily. My answer to this dilemma is that I'm going to hold-out until the 940-1 with carbon fiber scales is released later this year. That's awesome looking knife and I love CF, although I've never handled Benchmade's version of CF.
 
I'd love to see someone stone-wash some black 943 scales (I may try that with my coffee-can ghetto-stone-washing setup) to see if it looks somewhat like the ZT's "Blackwash".
 
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