Benchmade QC issues?

Tommy-Chi said:
I don't own that many Benchmades but have 4 or 5 on my short list. As soon as I free up the cash, they're mine.

I ordered a Benchmade Barrage from the Custom Shop in M4 and there are no problems with the knife.
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How is the up and down play? My experience with Benchmades A/O knives has been a little play due to tolerances around the pivot area.

Sweet knife layout you have though. Congrats!
 
halflife78 said:
He won’t post any pics, he just goes into the BM threads and forum consistently whining about something.
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That's too bad. Especially since the op is asking for pictures of the very evidence he is constantly complaining about.

Pictures of your actual knives. Not other people's videos. Your knives.
 
Benchmade Vector 495 AO no play EDC.
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craytab said:
That's too bad. Especially since the op is asking for pictures of the very evidence he is constantly complaining about.

Pictures of your actual knives. Not other people's videos. Your knives.
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I wouldn't blame him for not having them. Most people don't photo-document the issues they have with knives. They either keep them and deal with them, send them in for repair, try to fix it themselves, or return the knife. Plus, things like vertical/horizontal play aren't easily captured by photo or even video. I've had more issues with Benchmade than I'm happy with, and aside from later detailing it on forums I never thought to take pictures or videos of them in the moment.

In spite of that, there's still ample supply of both forms of media, plus text posts galore, to describe issues people have had.
 
Referencing myself, I have close to 50 Benchmades and I have had 2 with issues:
That new jade handle g10 Spyderco looking thing that’s offcenter
755 that has the same issue. BM fixed this one and I gave it to my dad.

I am traveling for work, when I get home I will get a pick of the jade one.

My other 40ish BM have been fine. Saw one offcentered BM in a store once. That’s it for me issue wise.
 
My benchmades have all come up to par as far as what I got for the price. I love the action and feel of the axis lock. IMO, no other lock feels quite as easy and satisfying to use. Further, all of them have had great fit and finish across the many materials used in the few I have. All steels have taken well to sharpening and maintaining an edge as they should.

Blade centering has been off in some, but not in any way that inhibits function or scrapes anything. Also sometimes my benchmades have the slightest bit of play as I like to keep them moving completely freely when I toggle the lock.
 
I got into modern folders earlier this year and bought 2 Benchmade knives. Both are of superb quality. Would buy again in a heartbeat. Great CS as well.
 
The only problem I have ever had with Benchmade has been the centering. I bought around 10 Benchmades this year and 1 had the blade touching the liner and two have heavily favored a side but did not touch the liner; The rest were fine.

In my buying experience they have equal amount of problems compared to the other high end companies.
 
Jordan@DLT said:
I look at a ton of Benchmade's daily, for the most part the fit and finish is on par with other brands at their price point. Being slightly off center and slightly uneven grinds are the most typical issues, but they are not significantly more common than in other brands in my experience.
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I don’t look at tons of knives everyday lol Jordan, but my experience with a number of brands echoes the same sentiment. I’ve gotten lemons from BM, SpyCo and others.

I had a 710-xxxx KW exclusive that was horrible. A ton of vertical and horizontal play, terrible action, bad blade and edge grinds. I’m not usually too picky about grinds as long as they’re not terrible, but this was bad. Sent it back and received s second one that wasn’t much better. Sold it at a big loss and gave up on that one.

The blade on my 940-1 was so overground it had a big recurve in it. I sent it back to Benchmade and they returned it with a very nice, new blade. The action is incredible.

My first experience with the Golden, Colorado bunch was horrible. My brother and I along with two friends ordered two PM2s and two Militaries at my suggestion. One Millie blade was rubbing the liner. The other Millie and one of the PM2s were nearly rubbing and the second PM2 was sort of close to center. The actions were bad. They were returned except for the one decent PM2. It was a number of years before I ever considered buying a Spydie again.

I had to send back two GB2s before I got one without huge recurve in the blade. The third one was simply awesome.

I don’t usually take pics of bad knives, I just wipe them down and send them back so I can’t help you there.

I’ve never returned a Cold Steel.
Life is funny.
 
I have two Benchmade knives; both with centered blade but minor side-to-side blade play. The first was a Mini Crooked River that was otherwise nearly perfect, except that one of the Omega springs broke within the first week (pictured below). I replaced the springs with slightly thicker springs I got from Kevin Wilkins and it's been working beautifully since. The other is a 940-1 that is definitely not perfect, but more than acceptable for me. Blade edge is roughly ground with varying burr. Springs are holding up so far though. From my small sampling I'd say they could use better QC, but not as bad as I originally expected after reading so many posts of issues.

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I’ll try my best. The knife has some pocket patina, but what I tried to capture was there new, out of box, not previously returned, from a brick & mortar. Note that I looked over three samples. The sum total of QC between the samples was about the same, with any given knife better in some areas and worse in others.

Show side G10 blemish/dent just behind the axis lock.

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Inconsistent/shallow G10 texture through the mid portion of show scale. Note the comparison clip side is even and well done. It’s not a lighting effect.

B4A2D1CD-2236-4771-86A4-6853163865D6.jpeg 40FC1568-E2D6-4241-A0C2-2040AEE6AA89.jpeg

Centering: acceptable now after a visit to oregon and some home tinkering, maybe 60/40? Was 70/30 (at best) when new.
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The grind was a bit uneven when new and got a little too wide at the belly (since reground by me so can’t photograph). It was sharp but looked like it was sharpened on a 120 grit belt without finishing. Most Benchmades I’ve handled look this way.

Action & bladeplay can’t be photographed. I had to choose between the two when new; no amount of “micro adjustment” got the bladeplay out. Now with LOTS of tinkering and brake in, it’s got an ok (not great) action with just a bit of side to side, acceptable by my standards but definately not exemplary.

Oh, and the trip back to Oregon was for a broken omega spring about a month after purchase.

I carry it and use it, perhaps even more so because of it’s flaws. I bought it with eyes wide open because I wanted a user, and I wanted to sample the Benchmade experience. I can’t deny that for a street price of $170 the QC was lacking...maybe even WTF? lacking at that price, depending on one’s perspective. Is it an outlier? If so, the other two I checked out in store were as well. Just a bad run? Perhaps. I have no way of knowing. Maybe that is the BM experience I needed to have.

I haven’t bought a second Benchmade. I like the Valet, but the action on the one I handled in store sucked. I like the mini Crooked River a lot, but the wood scales weren’t fit well enough for the price. Both had grinds unbefitting of a premium knife. The Anthem I tried dropped like a guillotine but somehow also felt gritty and the blade was off center.

Benchmade has GREAT GREAT GREAT designs. Pitty they can’t consistently turn it into a product that’s worth asking price (MAP). I’ve said this on other threads; if we as a community are accepting of uneven grinds, inconsistent G10, and blade play, that is exactly what the manufacturers will give us.
 
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marrenmiller said:
I wouldn't blame him for not having them. Most people don't photo-document the issues they have with knives. They either keep them and deal with them, send them in for repair, try to fix it themselves, or return the knife. Plus, things like vertical/horizontal play aren't easily captured by photo or even video. I've had more issues with Benchmade than I'm happy with, and aside from later detailing it on forums I never thought to take pictures or videos of them in the moment.

In spite of that, there's still ample supply of both forms of media, plus text posts galore, to describe issues people have had.
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I would blame him. Just about every thread about benchmade, including in the benchmade forum, he complains about BM qc and what not.

Let's see it. This is a thread asking for pictures. Post them up!
 
Benchmade does get hit a lot on youtube and bladeforums for QC issues. Any production knife can have QC issues. The two that I've experienced are "left beef" as Cypress Cypress calls it where the blade has been sharpened unevenly and blades being off center. There is a sticky in the Benchmade forum about fixing that and it does work.

Here's a couple of threads that have popped up recently with photos:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/benchmade-crooked-river-blade-question.1601139/

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/benchmade-940-1-scales-not-milled.1603897/
 
No problems here but I only own 3 and bought my first one about a month ago. My first was the 551-1 20cv griptilian and I liked it so much I bought a regular grip and a serrated version. Good knives for sure and there quality service seems like it would be real good, like ZT
 
bluemetalchurch said:
Benchmade does get hit a lot on youtube and bladeforums for QC issues. Any production knife can have QC issues. The two that I've experienced are "left beef" as Cypress Cypress calls it where the blade has been sharpened unevenly and blades being off center. There is a sticky in the Benchmade forum about fixing that and it does work.
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IMO it’s impossible for a company to pump out 10’s of thousands of knives and have them all be 100% equal. I’ve noticed this many times with Kershaw and even ZT once. I got a 0562blk that is twice as pointy as the regular and the orange/black version....I’ll take it lol

Ps Idk how the axis lock holds up over time but that’s the only weak link I can think of speaking of QC...I swear even the 154cm griptilians I own are the sharpest knives out of the box. I went to shave with one and cut myself....and I’ve been handling knives for years. I love those Grips
 
One thread you should check out is the "Dear Benchmade" thread: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/dear-benchmade.1489709/

The Benchmade forum is somewhat split right now, as a lot of folk think Benchmade is falling behind on not only QC, but materials and pricing as well. There are a LOT of fanboys that think BM can do no wrong, nobody should ever need more than S30V blade steel, and $200 is acceptable for wonky QC and 15 year old materials.

Of the last three Benchmades I've purchased, all three had issues. One Infidel, one Adamas, and one custom Mini Barrage. I sent the Infidel packing, as there's no way to fix that blade without seriously shortening the whole thing. I fixed the other two by spending hours on my Edge Pro reprofiling the edges (and taking a legitimate amount of material off in the process). These pictures were taken of the knives straight out of the box...this is nearly $900 in knives that either had to go back or get modified in some way.

Infidel, horribly off-center blade grind:
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Adamas, left beef blade grind and off-center blade:

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Custom Mini Barrage, left beef blade grind:

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tony281sc2 said:
IMO it’s impossible for a company to pump out 10’s of thousands of knives and have them all be 100% equal. I’ve noticed this many times with Kershaw and even ZT once. I got a 0562blk that is twice as pointy as the regular and the orange/black version....I’ll take it lol
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Right, that's why I said "any production knife can have issues."
 
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