Benchmade Warranty - Sent in 3 times & still no solution!!!!

Radden95

Radden95

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Dec 21, 2016
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109
Hey All - Hoping someone can help shed some light on this situation...

The Issue:
I ordered a BladeHQ exclusive 940BK-2004 (M4 Jade G10 exclusive) and have carried it with light use. After some short time, I noticed that there was a significant amount of up/down bladeplay developing for some reason. As a knife guy like everyone else here, I am well versed in taking knives apart, cleaning them, and reassembling correctly (especially Benchmade axis locks). I never had any blade play issues on the standard green aluminum 940, but for some reason the G10 models with the barrel spacers seem to have slightly more blade play come with them. The blade play continued to develop more and more to the point where the axis bar will move up and down when testing the lockup with my bare hands. This isn't just a minor amount of bladeplay... its a significant and audible amount that is absolutely unsafe to use.

Long story short - here's what I did:
After realizing that this issue wasn't going to be corrected myself, I sent the knife in 3 times to Benchmade for warranty service explaining the issue I was having. The first two times Benchmade did the typical hardware replacement and replaced the axis bar. In both of those warranty instances, I received the knife back with the same blade play issue. I sent it in a third time, this time through BHQ, hoping that they would maybe replace the blade or the knife entirely. I couldn't replace the knife through BHQ since it was past the return period. So I sent the knife to BHQ with a detailed written letter to provide to Benchmade so someone could actually read the issue I cannot get resolved after the first 2 times. Once the knife was sent back to me, I opened the box and saw that nothing was done whatsoever to address the issue.

What can I do at this point?
Im really at a loss here... I'm stuck with this lemon of a knife, out almost 200$, and constantly keep spending money to ship the knife just so Benchmade can ignore my issue and ship the knife back to me. Anyone else experience something similar to this? I spoke to BHQ and the really can't do anything on their end apparently. I would rather just get a voucher or something from Benchmade to purchase something directly from them at this point.

If you made it this far I appreciate it!

Thanks,
Ryan
 
Do you have some pictures or even better a video showing the blade play? Maybe the lock interface on the blade or the cross bar notch on the handle is out of spec? In either case, replacing the hardware won't solve the issue.
 
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Hey Radden! I am so sorry to hear about this issue. Will you please email your order number to info@bladehq.com and put ATTEN Tiffany in the subject line so I can take a look into the warranty issue and come up with a solution for you? I look forward to hearing from you soon! ~Tiffany
 
BladeHQ said:
Hey Radden! I am so sorry to hear about this issue. Will you please email your order number to info@bladehq.com and put ATTEN Tiffany in the subject line so I can take a look into the warranty issue and come up with a solution for you? I look forward to hearing from you soon! ~Tiffany
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Thanks for reaching out Tiffany! I just sent over an email regarding this.
 
Is the axis bar bottomed out in the channel there? Looked like it but couldn't tell 100%. That's the only time I've gotten up/down play on a BM. If the hardware replacement didn't fix that, it would seem to be an issue with the tang shape/size
 
kreole said:
Is the axis bar bottomed out in the channel there? Looked like it but couldn't tell 100%. That's the only time I've gotten up/down play on a BM. If the hardware replacement didn't fix that, it would seem to be an issue with the tang shape/size
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yea just about reached its end in terms of space to adjust. its basically 100% towards the tang
 
I wonder if there are any axis lock bars with a slightly wider diameter? That could fix the problem, but would need to find a black one and if might affect seating depth when closed.
 
fishface5 said:
I wonder if there are any axis lock bars with a slightly wider diameter? That could fix the problem, but would need to find a black one and if might affect seating depth when closed.
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interesting idea, but any wider probably wouldn't fit through the liners?
 
sharp_edge said:
OK - if it is a defective knife, why Benchmade chose not to replace it?
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This will be a controversial reply, but I don't think that the moderation here has been very good in the Benchmade section of late. Same in the Buck forum.

Not sure if they are just to busy or overwhelmed but problems are not being solved like they should.
 
Yo Mama said:
This will be a controversial reply, but I don't think that the moderation here has been very good in the Benchmade section of late. Same in the Buck forum.

Not sure if they are just to busy or overwhelmed but problems are not being solved like they should.
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actually i don’t think jimmy has much to do with the warranty dept, from what i remember he’s a knife designer. saying that, he has been able to put in a word and help resolve issues in the past.
 
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it appears the top of tang has had the bk coating completely removed up to spine and that's absolutely not normal. bm's standard practice along their entire line of knives is to remove coating only just past the axis bar contact surface - going all the way back to early 710s where they figured out it was a primary cause of lock stick.

question is whether knife came that way or was a result of warranty work (which would be even more concerning). regardless, hope bm does right by you and replaces knife outright, which is only proper resolution and frankly should have been handled first go around.
 
BladeHQ reached out to figure out a solution here which I am very pleased about - and the reason why I continue to purchase from them as my primary source. Don’t have much to say about benchmade in general these days.
 
Looking back at your video and thinking about this more...It is possible that you have a fake blade swapped out into your knife that was returned to BladeHQ. Not saying this is for sure the situation without looking closer at the blade but it would make sense why you have such a bad lockup. Also, I agree with nosuchagency nosuchagency the blade ramp does look suspect on this knife.

M mrfields Correct, I am a knife Design Engineer not in customer service.
 
Benchmade said:
Looking back at your video and thinking about this more...It is possible that you have a fake blade swapped out into your knife that was returned to BladeHQ. Not saying this is for sure the situation without looking closer at the blade but it would make sense why you have such a bad lockup. Also, I agree with nosuchagency nosuchagency the blade ramp does look suspect on this knife.

M mrfields Correct, I am a knife Design Engineer not in customer service.
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No one at Benchmade caught this when it was sent in two times?
 
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