Benchmade Quality Control...

G

glitch777

Joined
Mar 18, 2018
Messages
16
Wanted to check out a 940-2 but was scared after reading countless threads about how the quality control was god-awful. i've owned 2 griptillians in the past but sold them. not because of the QC, but because they're too fat and i didn't like the scale material. that being said, the QC was spot-on for both of those. also, they were both stiff at first but smoothed out after flipping a bunch of times....i've also read threads where people were saying they should come smooth right out of the box or you should send them back, but i knew better and sure enough they got buttery smooth. so everyone saying that was just dead wrong. ordered the 940-2 and was kind of expecting to get a bad one... threads had me paranoid. got it in and it's perfect in terms of blade centering, no blade play but it came SUPER stiff. so i went and typed in "benchmade 940 stiff detent" and found more threads of people saying they don't need a break in period, and it needs to be returned. again, just horrible misinformation. i knew better and sure enough it smoothed out and now flips really nicely. so what's the deal here?? am i just lucky? or are there just haters? i'm not even a benchmade guy (I own mostly spyderco's). has the QC changed? very curious because all 3 BM's i've got were perfect.
 
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Too many naysayers. I have had many Benchmade knives over the past 20 yrs. No quality problems with any. What minor problems there were we easily corrected with some adjustment. Remember there is no perfect knife and never will be and remember this is a type of social media and lot of BS at times.
 
I've got 8 different Benchmade knives and I've never had a problem with their QC.

I'm not super picky , but things like blade rub , bad grinds , play etc would drive me crazy and I've never had a BM knife with any issues.
As far as the detention, you can try loosening the pivot to adjust it. Sometimes they come tightened down from the factory and sometimes they don't.
 
Just a couple of thoughts....from a Benchmade fan and a realist.

1st off, all companies let lemons out the door from time to time. The more you produce and sell, the more lemons slip though and I would wager that Benchmade sells quite a few knives (<sarcasm, I know they do)

2nd, your gonna hear about the bad ones more often then the good ones. Most people don't belong to forums like this and out of those, most don't jump on and sing a good knifes praises. But...let that same person get a knife with a flaw and all hell breaks loose, often times before the company even gets a chance to make things right.

Congrats on the new Benchmade. I own 5 and am happy with each.
 
The "horrible QC" of Benchmade is largely an internet myth. I've seen all knife companies put out lemons. I think that Benchmade lags behind their peers in terms of out-the-door quality, but it's nowhere near what bloggers and YouTubers would have you believe. It's hype that gets said, repeated and repeated again.

Part of the problem is pricing. There definitely is a premium you pay for the Butterfly. I'm not condemning or defending it. Apparently Benchmade pricing is OK as they're still in business. Unfortunately people assume that premium price should mean premium QC and that's just a fallacy. The two aren't really related in a mass production knife.

I've had two new (to me) Benchmades come into my hands lately; a lightly used vintage AFCK and a NIB Bugout. Neither had any QC issues. Both were perfectly acceptable for a mass market production knife.

You can buy Benchmade with confidence.
 
I've had several Benchmades with what I consider minor problems like slightly uneven grinds and off center blades. I also purchase several axis lock knives (the 710 especially) that had vertical blade play. This is the kind of play that is impossible to fix at home. Overall, I really don't trust buying a Benchmade knife unless I have the vendor check it for defects first.
 
Everyone that I've got had qc issues. Don't buy sight unseen or have vendor inspect them. It's not like they don't make perfect ones... It's just that people have gotten many bad samples in comparison to there other brands.
 
have owned in the past probably 8 Benchmade knives. never had a QC issue with them. down to just a SOCP and with that one (its a FB) the sheath sucks ass. knife itself is good but overpriced . Always seen BM as quality products though a bit pricey at times
 
I’ve had to buy my knives online, no B&Ms close by. The few knives I have returned were almost all knives that had been returned previously. I could tell by the disheveled papers and fingerprints. Benchmades and Spydercos.

I sent back two GB2s that had obviously been returned before. Both had issues, one was actually dangerous to the user. I wrote them a note saying:
I know you’re sending me knives that have been returned. I paid for a new knife and I will keep sending these back until I get one.
The next knife was brand new with no issues at all.

I’m not saying it’s the only problem, but the business practice of passing the problem to next customer doesn’t help any.
 
I've bought several recent Benchmades. (940-2, Griptilian, and Bugout models).

All were spot on. I feel that Benchmade has really upped their game recently.

no, I'm not a BM fanboy...they're my 3rd favorite brand.
 
GB940Rookie said:
I’ve had to buy my knives online, no B&Ms close by. The few knives I have returned were almost all knives that had been returned previously. I could tell by the disheveled papers and fingerprints. Benchmades and Spydercos.

I sent back two GB2s that had obviously been returned before. Both had issues, one was actually dangerous to the user. I wrote them a note saying:
I know you’re sending me knives that have been returned. I paid for a new knife and I will keep sending these back until I get one.
The next knife was brand new with no issues at all.

I’m not saying it’s the only problem, but the business practice of passing the problem to next customer doesn’t help any.
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Same here. I returned 3 different PM2's, all with different issues (super stiff, blade rubbing scale, and an obviously used knife). Most of the time, stores just unbox the return and stick it right back on the shelf or in the storeroom. Some retailers, like DLT Trading, say they inspect every return. FWIW, DLT Trading, GP Knives, and Knifeworks have been nothing short of spectacular when it comes to ordering online.
 
I’d just buy one off the exchange from a reputable seller. If you’re concerned about Benchmades QC. Find a seller that has good pictures and says that it’s all good. Plus save a few bucks
 
I bought a regular 940 at a Cabela's back in February. When I was inspecting the one they were going to sell me I noticed the blade centering was off. When I asked the salesman for a different one, he said it was their last in stock. It was a hour long drive to the Cabela's so I wasn't leaving empty handed. I bought it and actually after it broke in a bit with a few hundred flicks, the blade ended up centering itself.

I dont know if this was a good or bad example of their QC as of 2018, but BNIB 940s are still leaving the factory un-centered
 
Well I am a BM fanboi. I've got 5 and working on a sixth, love 'em all and even sleep with them, luv-luv-luv. However I also love Spyderco, ZT etc. so my love may be rather fickle. Actually all have been stellar but I do buy them in a local (fairly local) cutlery store so I get to check them out before I buy. There are just some people who are pickier than me I guess.
 
I’m new to knife hobby but I bought 2 BM knives this year and they are perfect.
 
I am of the mindset that it is a side effect, albeit a known and unaddressed one, potentially intentional. See my explanation below, this was taken from a thread in the Benchmade subforum that posted this in.
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Now, I am going to pick this number out of thin air, but say 1 out of every 100 have a flaw significant enough that ZT, Spyderco, (insert brand here) does mark them as a factory second or QC failed, and prices them accordingly to cover manufacturing costs, and make their profit from the "correct" models, if they sell them at all. According to the Benchmade rep on here, "We do not make factory seconds.", this means they either make a perfect knife every time, or mark everything as QC passed.

The above translates into a few things being possible, regarding Benchmade, they include things like they;
A) are some form of mass production mega-machine that the likes of which has not been seen, within the confines of the knife industry. And they just don't have the employee volume to check the massive volume they produce.
B) have a smaller second production plant or at the very least, a productions shift worth of personnel thats entire job revolves around the disassembly and reassembly of QC rejected knives.
--The next one is (hopefully) less likely, though it does have the most circumstantial evidence backing it--
C) QC was directly told to be more lenient with what passes their standards.
D) Item "C" would be backed up by a higher warranty likelihood, and would result in the company being more lax when it comes to denials of warranty replacment/repair due to acknowledgement of "C" and their requirement to do so, otherwise risk reputation.
E) Item "D" would then make the company look better in the publics eye; since the general public would view this as the company having a "Good Warranty" when all it Could Be is (not definitive) the company hoping that knives with issues are bought by customers that;
F1) don't know better
F2) don't care
F3) care but don't want the hassle
F4) are willing to accept the knife as QC Passed, therefore it must be OK.
F5) won't purchase from the brand again.
G) this would result in more knives making it out of the plant that are sub-par by our standards, and (unfortunately) considered OK by company standards.
E) All of this second portion would result in us knife nuts saying that Benchmade has to make up ground for a lesser than expected (at this price point) F&F standard.
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I know that this is all conjecture, but it all seems to be a bit too convenient...
 
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I've purchased quite a few benchmade knives over the years and never had any issues at all. My last knife, a 940-2, had an outstanding fit and finish, and was perfect in every way.
 
NJBillK said:
I am of the mindset that it is a side effect, albeit a known and unaddressed one, potentially intentional. See my explanation below, this was taken from a thread in the Benchmade subforum that posted this in.
-------
Now, I am going to pick this number out of thin air, but say 1 out of every 100 have a flaw significant enough that ZT, Spyderco, (insert brand here) does mark them as a factory second or QC failed, and prices them accordingly to cover manufacturing costs, and make their profit from the "correct" models, if they sell them at all. According to the Benchmade rep on here, "We do not make factory seconds.", this means they either make a perfect knife every time, or mark everything as QC passed.

The above translates into a few things being possible, regarding Benchmade, they include things like they;
A) are some form of mass production mega-machine that the likes of which has not been seen, within the confines of the knife industry. And they just don't have the employee volume to check the massive volume they produce.
B) have a smaller second production plant or at the very least, a productions shift worth of personnel thats entire job revolves around the disassembly and reassembly of QC rejected knives.
--The next one is (hopefully) less likely, though it does have the most circumstantial evidence backing it--
C) QC was directly told to be more lenient with what passes their standards.
D) Item "C" would be backed up by a higher warranty likelihood, and would result in the company being more lax when it comes to denials of warranty replacment/repair due to acknowledgement of "C" and their requirement to do so, otherwise risk reputation.
E) Item "D" would then make the company look better in the publics eye; since the general public would view this as the company having a "Good Warranty" when all it Could Be is (not definitive) the company hoping that knives with issues are bought by customers that;
F1) don't know better
F2) don't care
F3) care but don't want the hassle
F4) are willing to accept the knife as QC Passed, therefore it must be OK.
F5) won't purchase from the brand again.
G) this would result in more knives making it out of the plant that are sub-par by our standards, and (unfortunately) considered OK by company standards.
E) All of this second portion would result in us knife nuts saying that Benchmade has to make up ground for a lesser than expected (at this price point) F&F standard.
------
I know that this is all conjecture, but it all seems to be a bit too convenient...
Click to expand...
loving the mark gonzales avatar. blind video days for life
 
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