Benchmade sharpness vs Spyderco sharpness

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waterford

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May 19, 2012
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Last fall, I purchased my first folding knife, the Benchmade Mini Griptilian. Out of the box sharpness was not very impressive at all. Than, a few days ago I purchased my first Spyderco...the Dragonfly 2 FRN G10. The Dragonfly came scarey sharp, right out of the box. As a amateur to knives, is this the norm with Benchmade vs Syderco and their out of the box sharpness??

I mean the difference is night and day! Are Spydercos generally known to be dramatically sharper than Benchmade, right out of the box?
 
That's not the typical norm for Benchmade. Most BM knives I have had were sharp straight out of the box. Spydercos, however, are on a whole different level. They are all usually absolutely razor sharp from the factory.
 
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I would say Spyderco has the slight edge (pardon the pun) in initial sharpness. Of course, in my experience, Benchmade tends to have slightly cleaner grinds which matters a bit more to me in the long run. Now I'll admit, I am somewhat annoyed with knives that aren't sharp out of the box, but in the long run I'm going to have to sharpen them so I don't let it bother me too much.
 
Not a norm. Both BM and Spyderco have equal chances of having a dull edge from factory. :-)
 
My mini-grip was stupid sharp out of the box. My dragonfly2 was too, and sharper than my native5 OOTB, but mainly because the native edge was ground with a coarser abrasive. Also, the dragonfly has a very acute edge angle, making it more aggressive than most.
 
The few benchmades I've owned weren't as sharp as spydies I've purchased, but I've also had a couple spyderco blades that weren't as sharp as others. It doesn't bother me, as they are production knives sharpened by hand. After all, they will need to be sharpened eventually.
 
Sharp is a perception and what any one person considers sharp will vary widely.

Spyderco typically strives for thinner blade grinds and sharpening angles which contribute highly to perceived sharpness.

To me they all need a good sharpening from the start but that's just my $0.02
 
i know this is kinda unrelated but what ever. the sharpest knifes I've ever had/felt out of the box have always been buck knifes. all three of the ones i own all came sharp enough to EASILY shave facial hair. (trust me i tried)
 
Lots of knives now come very sharp, even cheaper ones. Still you can get one that's less than as sharp as it will get. I've sharpened all brands right out of the box and those I deemed needed it have become very sharp in short order. It's the end results that count!
 
Spydercos come sharper out of box but they grind to 30 degrees so the edge doesn't last as long as benchmades does in my experience.
 
My BM 755 MPR is very sharp. Other BM's that I've owned were not, even AFTER I sent them in to be sharpened at the factory.
My Spydercos have all been acceptably sharp.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Sharp is a perception and what any one person considers sharp will vary widely.

Spyderco typically strives for thinner blade grinds and sharpening angles which contribute highly to perceived sharpness.

To me they all need a good sharpening from the start but that's just my $0.02
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Well said.
 
All new knives need to be sharpened by me before they are truely sharp. Out of the box my experience is that Spydercos are better cutters. I recently got a BM rift and I'd be surprised if it would spread butter.
 
My experience is both are capable of hair whittling edges out of the box. Benchmade used to be known for dull obtuse bevels, but that has changed over the past few years. All the Benchmades I've bought were able to shave hair above my skin with one exception, a PIKA II. Now, the bevels were fairly obtuse and required rebeveling, but they were sharp. My Spydercos were just as sharp, again with one exception, the plain edge Salt 1. I will say when I've tested them head to head, cutting cardboard on a scale, the Benchmades were always ahead of the Spydercos, making the cuts with less force. However, these were not with factory edges. The edges on each, on 3 separate occasions, were rebeveled to 17 degrees per side (dps) with a 20 dps Sharpmaker microbevel.
 
Its something that happens sometimes but ill say this, Spyderco knives to me always seen to be sharpest out of the box. The sharpest factory edge ive ever gotten was on a Spyderco Gayle Bradley
 
Spyderco is much sharper out of box, and Benchmade knives are usually thicker behind the edge.Had to reprofile few , and after that there isn't much of difference.Theyre both good companies.My next buy is Benchmade 710; or AFCK;)
 
I've been hit and miss with Benchmade factory edges. Most come in very sharp, but I've also gotten a few that wouldn't make clean slices (much less push cut) through copy paper. The Spydercos factory edges I've gotten have all been very sharp.

I don't worry too much about factory edge sharpness though, as any knife that gets used will invariably need to be re-sharpened. So, if the factory edge does arrive not as sharp as I'd like, I'll just sharpen it.
 
I agree with some of the other posters. The Spyderco and Benchmade knives I own were sharp from the factory. However, they were not nearly as sharp as my first sharpening on the Wicked Edge.
 
i don't think there's any mystery to it. spiders have a painful bite while butterflies have none. [ducks his head and runs.]
 
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