Benchmade OOB sharpness?

[Planterz]

I got 2 new Benchmades this week, a 43A and the new 42-400. Both came with really strange edges on them. Not strange as in uneven or anything like that, just strange.

I have 4 Benchmades balisongs now (actually 5, but I'm not counting the trainer). The 42MC came rather dull. It wouldn't shave armhair. It'd cut skin, but it had a very steep bevel. It wouldn't cut paper very easily. I had to reprofile the crap out of it to get it to slice right.

My 31S came absurdly sharp. Almost dangerously so for an unexperienced flipper.

The 43A and the 42-400 have similar edges. I can run my fingers along (yes, along, not across or against) the edge without fear of getting cut. Neither slice paper very well. Yet both will easily shave hair off my arm. Very strange. Has anyone else noticed this with their Benchmades? I wonder about QC and timeline, since the 42-400 is brand new, but the 43A is at least a few years old (new in box, but produced a while ago). I've never owned a non-balisong Benchmade, so I can't comment there. The 31S, 42MC and 43 are all 440C, while the 42-400 is D2. The 31S had a smooth, polished edge, while the other 3 are quite rough--almost microserrated.

This doesn't really bother me, since I use, sharpen, and reprofile all my knives (none are safe queens). I'm just curious if other people have noticed the same things.

 

[logo]

Hi, Planterz,

I have no experience with BM balisongs, but if You ask about "Benchmade OOB sharpness?", I can describe my other knives.

I have 550, 10300, 10400 and 10510.

Only 10510 would not shave armhair, although paper slicing was no problem.

550 was the sharpest, 10300 and 10400 had shaved armhair too, but not so easy, as 550.

550 - has veery smooth edge, maybe polished, I'm not sure.

The rest - not so smooth as 550, but I wouldn't say "rough".

 

[Will P.]

BM puts a good "working" edge on a lot of their knives - sharp enough to cut well, but a much steeper angle than it needs to be. The edges I have seen aren't usually polished that well. I reprofile and polish all my knives.

Not sure abut them balisongs...

 

[Dr sharp]

I used to be a big benchmade fan till they started makeing some knives overseas. I thought it was cool how they used to all be made in america, but after i got my benchmite with chewed up screws and a lesss then perfect blade heel im just not into benchmade anymore. But thats just my opinion. So i sold all my bm and bought a chris reeve sebenza and fell in love,,,the rest is history.

 

[James Y]

I never owned a balisong, but almost all of my own Benchmades made since around 2000 or so have been very sharp. I did have to really reprofile an older ATS-34 version of the Stryker in plainedge, and one 730.

The ones I can list as VERY sharp include my:
550
551
556
556S
550S
555
710S
710BT
710SBT
805 (two of them)
800 SBT
812S
735SBT
That's all I can think of at this point. I do think they've improved their edges a lot since the axis lock became established, though I'm certain that like all companies a few duds will slip through the cracks. The knives I listed above had out-of-box edges that rivaled my sharpest from other companies, such as Kershaw, Spyderco, SOG, etc. But individual knives may vary. Believe it or not, I've even had about 4 of my Spyderco knives that I had to reprofile (plain edge versions) because they were dull out of box for my tastes.
Jim
Jim