benchmade quality control?

joejooee

joejooee

Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
170
not sure what the deal is with benchmade lately but every griptilian I've handled recently has been duller than a butter knife. I ordered one hoping to remedy this issue but nope still super dull. I don't have any problems sharpening it but I don't feel that I should have to sharpen a NIB knife especially from benchmade. thoughts, experiences?
 
Can't comment on Grips, as I didn't buy any for a while, but last few BM I bought came reasonably to laser sharp. I'm partial to the brand and over half of my collection consists of Benchmades (385 and counting...), but not once I received a knife that woud not make a clean slice on copy paper, some wouldn't shave, but that's about as bad as it would get.
 
Got my girlfriend a mini grip.
I really like the design, seems better balanced overall than the larger model but doesn't fit my hands.
She picked it out of a B&M mall store display. I was so proud of her.
it was a sharp little sucker too. But in a very short time she had taken a chip out of the blade, she says very gentle use, like opening plastic bags!
I told her that was an unusual event and they would take care of it for her, or I could sharpen it out for her, but she said, "No thanks, I like my Kershaw better anyway."

My how times change.
 
Can you define dull for us, because I have litterally never handled nor purchased a BM that was dull, let alone duller than a butter knife. I have gotten knives that were not as shart as I would like out of the box, but they all sliced paper neatly. I would be willing to bet that some examples handled out of the case at a B&M store would have seen some use and abuse by customers handling them, but who knows.
 
My Nitrous Striker came DULL also. And I means, so dull, it couldn't even cut paper. Also, I've had a mini Rukus that came relatively dull.
I guess it happens with BM sometimes.
 
I bought a 551 Grip in 440C 8/03 local store and a 201 Activator+ in D2 from a mail order store 12/07. Neither would cut copy paper without roughly tearing it. I generally refer to this, in error, of course, as 'so dull it takes external heat to cut butter'. I had a Sharpmaker - and that 201 - then the 551 - became sharp users. Skip ahead...

Earlier this year, I started buying Benchmades... and they were all delivered sharp. Varying bevels from knife-knife - but copy paper slicers all - some were hair 'razors'. They include Skirmish, Rukus, and some Snody folders - all decent. The metal ranged from D2, 154CPM, S30V, to even M4. Hand sharpened, you can still get a less-than-perfect edge - just return it. With their 'LifeSharp' service, return a used one with $5 and it'll come back very sharp, at least according to my friends on the BM forum. From my experience, current production is pretty good! I've never had a functional fault with a BM, either.

Stainz

PS Oddly, I've never found a new Buck, Kershaw, or Spyderco that didn't come as a razor!
 
Some problem with BM QC for sure. Nutnfancy managed to chip a 1095 BM CSK cutting small branches in cold weather!
 
I recently got a Griptillian HG and it was very sharp out of the box. But my latest purchase is a Barrage, that even after considerable time on the Sharpmaker is not near as sharp as I would like for it to be. So i'm 1 for 2 on sharp Benchmade's.

However, everything else about the knives has completely sold me on Benchmade. These were my first two, but now I've got a whole list of ones that I want.
 
MC Chan said:
Got my girlfriend a mini grip.
I really like the design, seems better balanced overall than the larger model but doesn't fit my hands.
She picked it out of a B&M mall store display. I was so proud of her.
it was a sharp little sucker too. But in a very short time she had taken a chip out of the blade, she says very gentle use, like opening plastic bags!
I told her that was an unusual event and they would take care of it for her, or I could sharpen it out for her, but she said, "No thanks, I like my Kershaw better anyway."

My how times change.
Click to expand...

She's a keeper..... :)
 
Nutnfancy probably got a dud, I got the same knife and been using it on wood and stuff and no chips on mine. Must be a faulty heat treat.
 
Hi there,

I just received a griptilian 550 - plain edge blade.

If you look closely at how the blade is done, you see that the 2 sides are not
the same.

On the right side, the cutting part is less visible than on the left.

When you look the tip, it is possible to see that the process to make the cutting-part was shorter, so there is less surface.

My question in order to respect the surface of the cutting edge difference :

Using a spyderco sharpener, do you think it is better to pass 5 on left and then 1 on right, 5 on left, 1 on right, etc ?
 
Last edited:
I've had slightly dissimilar grinds on my BMs, like my first - a 440C 551 Grip. I did use a bias during Sharpmaker 'passes' - but it was more likely to take a lot more passes due to their upgrade steels.

BTW, when I speak of poor QC, I know I only mean in that final step of hand-sharpening. In fit and materials selection, my BMs have all been top drawer - just perfect construction - the reason I went back to them. Well thought out designs perfectly assembled. I just had the bad luck of getting a myopic sharpener past due for his coffee break!

My latest are fine.

Stainz
 
I think B/M is still pretty good, but I have seen a few knives from them not real sharp and with a minor flaw or two, on their latest knives I've bought.
 
Greetings Boolz: The uneven (Asymmetrical) grind lines on your Griptilian usually indicates that one side of the blade is ground at a more or less acute angle than the other. Which is not at all uncommon. The only way to sharpen it and still maintain the same grind width (side to side) as it came from the factory is to duplicate the same angles that the factory used. One side may be 40 degrees the other may be 50 or more. The Sharpmaker rods, unless used as a bench stone, are set at either 30 or 40 degrees. There appears to be no specific formula of stroke counting that will work to address your problem. If you are going to use the Sharpmaker rods in the vertical position you may have to CREATE your own back bevel of 30 degrees and then sharpen the very cutting edge at 40 degrees. This is what the two Sharpmaker angle setting are for. This is a SLOW process and will take MANY strokes on the medium stone. Once this is done, future resharpening and touch up are exceptionally fast and easy. Use the Sharpie Marker trick to check your progress. ~Your question would probably be more fully answered in the Maintenance Tinkering and Embellishment forum. OldDude1
 
I was going to post a similar thread about this. I just received 2 mini grips and a 943. The 943 is ground decently but the mini grips are horrible. The grinds are uneven, dull and required rebevelling to make them usable. When I say dull, I mean it won't push cut a sheet of notebook paper or shave hair.
 
it seems as if the grip line is recieveing the least attention, they may be having issues keeping up with the demand and are slacking a bit to keep up.
I work in a sporting goods store and have noticed the chance of getting a properly sharpened grip went from 85% to about 40% with most being so dull that they won't cut paper and the edge angles all over the place from 25*-50*+, not accepatabe in my book; however their higher end models have been issue less, and so have their off-shore products.

I say its time to add some production capacity and hire some people that can run a belt sander!
 
Thank you Olddude !

I don t think its asymetrical. It s a V with a V-branch shorter.
Sincerly I wont use 30 degre to make a massacre on this blade...

My 550 and mini-556 were received laser-sharp. Really very good cutting

556 : black coating - the nice touching feeling goes after 5 months of use - dent on a serration after cut copper cable...
550 : satin - little laser defaut on the vertical mesh making a small grey line

Blue box in plastic bag and pouch.

But I used Sharpmaker on 556 after 4 months of use : impossible to get the first finished (work well on poor blades)

So i am afraid for the 550 when its time will come :rolleyes:

If somebody got Griptilians and Sharpmaker, I am open ;)
 
Last edited:
My latest BM is a 555 MiniGrip, purchased over the summer. Grinds are even, and it came and is still very sharp. Hope I didn't just get lucky. BM should strive to keep the reputation of quality I think they've earned.
 
Razorsharp1986 said:
My Nitrous Striker came DULL also. And I means, so dull, it couldn't even cut paper. Also, I've had a mini Rukus that came relatively dull.
I guess it happens with BM sometimes.
Click to expand...

my nitrous stryker came dull. and it had a lot of blade play, nothing was loctited, and the blade is so offcentered you have to tighten the pivot to the point that it really hurts your thumb to open it. i dont carry it anymore. but for around the house stuff it is good because i dont care for it at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top