Benchmade? Done? Late to the Party

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Hale Storm

Hale Storm

Kydex Whisperer
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Mods, I think this is in the wrong spot. Please move if it is.

I'm late to this party. I missed most of the Benchmade issue (fiasco) back earlier in the year and wasn't up to speed until recently when I offered for sale a user Barrage at a ridiculous price and no one jumped. I was then lead to the Benchmade issue.

After reading many posts and opinions here and elsewhere, I'm now here. I copied this post since it summed up my own opinion of the matter but revised it some to state my actual feelings.

"I think this is the concerning part. The campaign contributions information is far more damning, and telling of an organizations priorities. The fact that they cut up a couple guns at the request of LE, honestly doesn’t really concern me. That happens sometimes, and the LE agency in Oregon City, Oregon is bound by state law or litigation from selling/auctioning them. However, the sticking point, if you will, against Benchmade, is their several years of 100% campaign contributions to anti gun democrats. It’s not like they even tried to make it even, or even selected moderate dems. Those campaign contributions are absolutely unforgivable, and frankly downright disgusting. The modern far left swing of the democrat party should concern far more than just gun owners. Why? Because if they think the democrats won’t come for knives one day, they’re wrong".

I have 3 sons. One is a Maritime Enforcement Officer in the Coast Guard, one is a Seattle P.D. officer, and one is a firefighter. To say I'm supportive of law and order, military, and first responders, is an understatement. I'm also a fervent 2A supporter and believer.

Having said all that, I have some Benchmades that were gifted to me by these sons of mine that I just can't seem to part with. I buy, sell, and trade knivesall the time, but never those that were gifted to me by my family and friends. Just my own rule. Buying more Benchmades? I'm not sure yet, not likely, but right now, I'm not too happy with the "head in the sand" approach that Benchmade has taken so far and see no new BM's in my future. Eveidently, BM has no plans to address the issue since it hasn't happened yet and this was months ago.

I realize we're just one forum (albeit very diverse, informed, and huge by shear numbers of members). So here are my questions for the members here.

Is Benchmade done? Are they done for us, meaning most on our forum have decided that Benchmade is no longer a viable option based on their political leanings to anti-gun candidates? Are we boycotting them?
Is it that BM could care less about what we think and it won't affect their business enough for them to worry about it? Will this blow over and BM be right back where they were as a knife company? Has it already blown over?
Up until now I was a huge BM fan and own several BM knives. I've even had great experiences with their customer service and used to recommend their products to anyone and everyone.

I'm just curious where everyone's thoughts are since it's been over half a year since all this happened.
 
I know nothing about this. Anyone have a somewhat facts-based article they can point me to?
 
No - Benchmade is not done for me. The 10 or so Benchmade folders I have/had are/were all great, rivaling ZT and Spyderco in the same price range. I pay less attention to the political stand of the owner.

And yes - this topic has been beaten to death. Why the heck am I posting here?
 
940 is one of the greatest EDC of all time and I have multiples. That is good enough for me to purchase more of.....940's of course ;).
 
They are with me. There are other knife companies I'd rather support, some very local to me.
 
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I am not a USA citizen so I am not concerned by 2A or pro-guns political concerns.
For me there is no point for any boycott of Benchmade
Actually I sold most of my previous benchmades
I still have 2 which are quick new releases : Bugout and Proper
New very much into other designs from them
 
Shmackey said:
I know nothing about this. Anyone have a somewhat facts-based article they can point me to?
Click to expand...
The search function is your friend.

As for this supposed benchmade issue....

I say take it to the political arena. This should be about the knives. Like I said above, if you want to read up on the controversy, the search function is your friend. No need for another one of these threads.

I have no intention of buying a new benchmade at this point. Nothing to do with the controversy or qc/map issues, just nothing appeals to me at the moment.
 
I still want a 943. The reason that I don't have one is unrelated to the gun or political issues. I simply don't need any more knives. (Yes, I just bought an orange Ritter G2; but I immediately patted my black one for sale... and subsequently sold 4 other knives.) The news about them running m390 and other steels soft is relatively recent; but I see that as an issue that would turn me away.
 
I stopped buying BM, way before this fiasco, mainly because of axis locks with up/down play. To me, this was a quality issue that never got resolved. Plus all of their newer stuff was only meh...and still same ol up/down axis lock play. My experience from owning BMs since the early 90s.
 
There's so many real problems with Benchmade's products that you could concern yourself with that I have no idea why anyone would fixate on such a non-story like this.
 
I’m done with Benchmade, but I have an idea.

How about they melt down all the steel from the guns they destroyed, and forge new blades. It could be a real hit. What class would it be called?
 
Benchmades for sale here seem to go extremely quickly, so I don't think it's a site-wide boycott by any means.

They're a local company for me, I can see Oregon City across the river from my house, and they still make the same knives they did before this story came out.
 
No more for me. I have a Barrage and Volli and they are of good quality. The gun cutting merely draped attention to Benchmade because it was odd that a knife company was touted for using special machinery (angle grinder) to aid the PD, as if the city maintenance or motor pool dept didn’t have angle grinders. And it appeared right off that BM committed a felony chopping the barrel of a long gun before the receiver. A mere citizen might have been run into the piney for same. That drew people’s attention and started some research to see if this was a fluke it indicative of some agenda.

Being an Oregonian it is more relevant to me they are financially supporting some of the liberal problem in this state. They could have been balanced, neutral, or even support candidates with a platform to support “bearing arms” and self defense, etc. But they went out of their way to support liberal politicians who historically are the first to vote for restrictions on knives and guns.

There are so many other quality brands out there in knives I see no need to give BM a single dollar more. Since then I have rediscovered Spyderco and having a great time appreciating their variety of designs and materials. Also digging back into more Buck folders.

If a company wants to NOT be labeled with political baggage, then they should keep their wallets out of the arena. Once they make a point of putting their money toward a political end, or have spokesmen tout a policy, then I am definitely going to respect their actions and act accordingly. Sometimes that is to favor that brand and sometimes to avoid it. Benchmade is on my consumer ignore list.
 
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