benchmade quallity

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Danimal

Joined
Mar 29, 2000
Messages
34
I really want to get a BM McHenery + Williams 705 axis but I've read several posts in the forums about spotty QC. This really concerns me. So what should i expect when my knife comes in the mail--the possibility of getting a piece of sh!t??? I dont know what to do..please help!
thank you,
Danimal
 
You won't have too many problems with Benchmades. Some 710's had blades hitting the spacer but they seem to have rectified that now. When ordering through the mail/internet I always ask the deaker to pick me out a good one, regardless of the brand I want. The guys at Discount Knives and the Knifecenter have looked over my knives for the blade centering in the handle, evenly fit scales to liners, even grind lines and a good rock-solid lock-up. I would recommend that you use a well known reputable dealer and you shouldn't have any worries.

Peter
 
From my experiences with Benchmades, you should not be surprised if you get a knife that shouldn't have made it through QC. My most recent BM acquisition, a 720, had an uneven grind and was not sharp. As for my other BM purchases:

800 uneven grind,
812 suspected bad heat treat (I couldn't get it to hold an edge),
970 broken spacer out of the box,
705 perfect, as was my Leopard Cub.

Other members of the forum, however, have not had any QC problems with their Benchmades.
 
I haven't had any operational problems with my Axis equipped BM's, but Benchmade knives have the worst factory edges: uneven grinds, steep grinds, missing grinds, etc.

--dan
 
The issue with the 705 isn't quality control so much as it is a design issue. The 705 is downsized version of the 710 and they didn't downsize the lock so it looks and feels a little funny with the two big studs sticking out of the side of a relatively small knife. We had enough returns on the knife that we were motivated to discontinue it. Not quality problems, though. Take care.

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Fred
Knife Outlet
http://www.knifeoutlet.com
 
While it has been said that BM's quality control could be a little better, all mine have been perfect with one exception. My mini-Stryker is the one I use the most and has been broken down (oh noooo, there goes the warranty
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) several times for cleaning and always goes back together great. Well, you might have to crack it's back once in awhile to get things lined up. This model was guilty of the uneven grinds, poor sharpening, etc. as some people have reported. Very easy to correct IMO, a few minutes of my time with a Lansky coarse diamond stone. You might want to knock down the shoulders on the edge bevel anyway, as BM leaves their edges quite thick and with a relatively steep angle. The mini-Stryker has been a great knife. Very well constructed, perfectly centered blade, solid lock-up, zero blade play and with a little thumb flick it snaps open like an auto.

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It's only a mistake if you fail to learn from it!
 
I have six Benchmade knives and no one quality problem. Full sized AFCK is my daily carry knife during almost the year and it serves me really flawlessly.
As to thick edge - please do not confuse design particulars with quality fail. Thick edge is less prone to shave but is stronger to work. If you are not satisfied - it is really no problem to make your edge thinner.
Axis Lock is awesome, please visit my reviews on BM axis lock knives here: http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/001301.html
and http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/001605.html

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Sergiusz Mitin
gunwriter
Lodz, Poland
 
I've got around 45 Bm's in my collection spanning over 15 years, back into the Pacific Cutlery days. I've got three different variations of the 705 (serrated, plain, and serrated with BT coating), and it's the finest pocket folder I've ever owned or used (custom or production, bold but true). Sure, a very few disappointing Bm folders (QC-wise) have been ordered, but then sent right back to either Bm or the dealer with no problems on an exchange or repair at no cost besides shipping to them.

I would disagree with many of KnifeOutlet's customers who think it's awkwardly overbuilt. Oh, it's definitely overbuilt, but the studs and lock are actually very ergonomic, and the little knife fits the hand very well (IMHO of course). I'd advise you to get one if you like the design, and if it has QC problems, BM will square them away for you at just the cost of shipping it out to them.

As well, IMHO, I don't really think the incidences of BM's quality control being poor are any more frequent in occurence than many other manufacturers. I think that most people would agree that when you've got your hands around a well-made Bm, you've got one of the best production folders/fixed-blades on the market. And in the off-chance you get a dud, Bm stands behind their product to the degree that you're gonna end up with a well-made one in the long run?

Professor.
 
I have owned/currently own several Benchmades, and I think that for an American made knife they are a great value. A bad knife should never make it past the dealer, no matter which brand. I rarely get a knife that has an edge to suit me straight out of the box, most of the time the first thing I do is resharpen them.

JK
 
Well, so far I've bought (but not kept all of them) a few Benchmades.

910S (returned because I got annoyed by the serrated edge)
910 (got it not long ago, I plan on keeping this guy)
730 (Sold to someone on BFC)

The Strykers were perfect, one was returned because I was annoyed by the serrated edge. My second Stryker was extremely stiff when I got it, it was not as smooth as the first one I had and at first I was disappointed. Well, I found that what happened was that BM tightened the pivot a little too much. Loosened it an lubricated the parts and its just as smooth now.

The Ares was an excellent knife too. The axis lock is awesome, but I sold this guy because I wanted a tanto point (I love tantos). Also, there was a flaw in the design IMHO. They forgot that contoured handles made the pocket clip too tight. Not a QC error, but an design flaw that should be fixed. Some people like really tight clips though. I don't.

I bought my Benchmades from http://www.DiscountKnives.com and they came perfect everytime. Just make sure you include a comment in your order saying to inspect for QC errors. That way Brian knows you're a picky guy.
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-Chang, Asian Janitorial Apparatus
 
I've got five Benchmades and they have all been fine. They were all very smooth and well built. My only problem with them is that some aren't very sharp. My 720 and 910 are very sharp, but my 730, 875, and 885 were pretty dull.
 
In my opinion, I believe Benchmade to be ONE of the best "production" manufacturers on the market. I own 11 Benchmades and I have only had 2 problems. One was that the blade was not sharpened as sharp as I thought it should be, and the other was the sheath on my Nimravus scratched the blade. Other than that ALL my Benchmades have been absolutely perfect. I carry a 9100SBT everyday and it has never caused me problems or ever failed. I agree with Peter Ervin, that if you find a good dealer, you should have NO problems. GOOD LUCK

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Matt
If you are not living on the edge, then you are taking up to much room!
AKTI member# A000233
NKCA member# 33662
www.geocities.com/qballhk40
 
Several people have mentioned "uneven grinds" on Benchmades. One person said "no problem, few minutes with a sharpening stone and fixed".

With what follows, I'm not trying to be a smart@$$, just trying to understand what quality problems people have seen with Benchmade (I have 4, all fine).

When knifemakers refer to an uneven grind, this typically refers to the uneven-ness of the hollow grind or the flat grind, asymmetry of the grind line from one side of the blade to the other, where hollow meets full stock thickness. Or asymmetry of the clip or swedge grind. This is not easy to fix with stones at home, much less a belt grinder since the steel is hardened. That's grounds for sending back for sure.

Uneven grind does not typically refer to any unevenness of the final sharpening job put on by the factory. Not to say the factory didn't sharpen the final edge asymmetrically, just that this isn't the "grind" in knifemaking terms that I'm used to. It's the final edge, or edge profile.

Which of the above are the posters on this thread referring to in reference to Benchmade quality?

For me, blades hitting the liners, knife goes back.

Bad heat treat goes back to the factory for sure.

Not as sharp as you'd like? Well, I'd never personally send a knife back because I thought the factory sharpening job was worse than what I could do. I'd sharpen it. I end up reprofiling many of my knives anyway.



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rdangerer@home.com
 
Thank you all for your input! Especially you, Professor. I'm gunna go ahead and order, and I cant wait till it comes!
Thanks again!
Dan
 
Well, I only have three Benchmades, but all were as close to perfect as I could hope to expect from a production company. That basically means that if you don't sit and stare at them with some sort of lens to help you, you could not find any flaws (other than the factory edge, but I can sharpen my own knives, thankyouverymuch).

--JB

P.S., I love my 705 so much that I bought carbon fiber to re-scale it with.

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e_utopia@hotmail.com
 
Well, I'll go into more detail, by BM's I have:

Panther: perfect, and a love the GIN-1 (G2) steel.
Brend T2: Perfect
Tsunami: uneven blade grind lines
AFCK: perfect.
Mini-AFCK: perfect.
970: sticky lock (wrong angle on blade tang)
Strykers: three of them; bad locks, edges that were ground only on one side, secondary edge not sharpened, all three from different places, were messed-up or defective, etc. All were sent back.
Eclipse: pocket clip screw thread inserts fell out, lock spring came out of handle, bad edge angles.
710: bad edge, with very uneven bevels, wouldn't even cut paper. M-2 version was the same way.
Ares: bad edge angle, wouldn't cut anything.

Overall, I would buy another BM, though I boycotted the Stryker and Eclipse series.

--dan
 
Dan, you boycotted the Strykers!?!?
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You don't know what you're missing. Both my Strykers came perfect except the first one had its plain edge part slightly dull. The second one is a plain edge, and it came shaving sharp (because this one wasn't one of the new ones, this came in one of the older BM boxes, so we know this was made before BM QC dropped to an all time low).

As for the Ares having a bad edge angle, I had the same problem with mine. It took me 2 hours to reprofile the edge with a coarse and extra coarse Lansky.
eek.gif


I can't blame you for boycotting the Eclipse/Ascent though. Some of those things feel like cheap pieces of plastic. Handle felt cheaper than my Gerber EZ-Out, and that knife is pretty economy class (don't get me wrong, I carried them for two years daily carry and I loved them).

Overall, Benchmade quality control is actually not that bad. I am beginning to think that the good BM's are going to the silent majority. I haven't seen problems with any BM's except bad/dull edges (fixable).

Anyways, take care, Danimal. I'm pretty certain your McHenry and Williams mini Axis-Lock will arrive in perfect shape. You won't be disappointed by the axis locks.

-Chang the Asian Janitorial Apparatus
 
I currently own 8 BM knives and they all are excellent production knives. Also, I won't hesitate to buy more in the future because they have some very interesting collaborations coming out!
biggrin.gif
 
Sounds like most of you are BM fans and are happy with the quality. However, when I read other threads about low quality BMs or bad experiences with them I see post after post that has somebody complaining. Do you think that they just get on a roll with this low quality business, and the thread has turned into a "benchmades suck bandwagon?" Do you think that other high end companies such as Spyderco have the same percentage of "duds" but for some reason there is less hype about it??? I ordered my 705 today.
-Danimal
 
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