Benchmade: Overall impressions please

I've been happy wit the 5 that I have, some had some uneven bevels, but I usually reprofile my knives out of the box, so that didn't really matter, centered blades, except for one that isn't off enough to matter, no blade play in any of them, haven't had the need for BM CS, and I'd agree good bang for the buck/on par with Spyderco if you buy from a place that sells below MAAP, not so much for the other places.
 
Love the designs and Axis lock. Haven't really had any lemons. Mine have always been sharp out of the box, but the edge bevels are more obtuse than what I like. I generally use them until they are dull, then sharpen the way I want. I love my Griptillain, and the old TSEK I had was great. I've has several others but got rid of them for various reasons. Which reminds me, I need to finish sharpening my Grip.
 
I was about 10 knives from this company. They were a good tailor. But I have noticed that over the past couple of years, their quality has dropped considerably. A couple of months ago I bought Griptilian 551. He was shockingly made, the blade has played in every direction, the screws that bolted clip badly painted. I wrote about this in customer service, they asked me to send them back to the knife. Unfortunately I do not profitable postal costs will be approximately $ 30. It is a pity that such a large firm became ill monitor quality.
 
Benchmade is a solid company, and rightfully deserve to be called one of the "big three" mainstream production companies along with Kershaw and Spyderco. They're unlikely to be accused of offering the most consistently sharp blades out of the box, bulletproof quality control, or the best prices (the cost of not currently outsourcing to Asia) -- but they make up for this in what they have to offer, which is an array of really well-designed knives, and the awesome AXIS lock. I started off on Benchmades but more recently have purchased a number of Spydercos. Those two companies complement each other really well.
 
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