Benchmade's humble beginnings

Humble indeed!

In the beginning, when Les and Jody were working in CA, much of the product for PCC was produced in Japan. Well, the yen was going through a major spike, and Les’s Japanese supplier increased the piece cost to PCC at such a rate that it drove PCC into negative figures….going bankrupt, almost overnight, in 1987.

Benchmade Knives was started back up a few months later…..focusing on the cutlery center of the Left Coast, Portland, OR….with the mission of making GREAT American knives….and something that a lot of people forget is that in the very late ‘80’s/early ‘90’s…..Benchmade Knives was the single best American knife company in existence…best defined as consistently cutting edge product with superior quality. The main telephone number has not changed in 18 years, and Les still answers e-mail...when he can get to it.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Hi Steven,

Do you know whereabouts PCC were in California? It's interesting that a few great cutlery manufacturers moved, eg. Buck to Utah, and Benchmade to Oregon.

Didn't Sal (Spyderco) start off in as an inventor in California? :confused:
 
I spent a few days with Les and his lovely wife Roberta at thier house in Az. Hearing the story of how Benchmade came to be is simply incredible. They could write a book about it. From customizing bali's out of the garage, to seeing what Benchmade is today its almost unbelievable, especially when you see the factory.

Les and Roberta are top notch people too. One of Les's employee's once told me. "It doesnt matter how bad a day you are having, or whats going wrong, if you go and talk to Les for 10 minutes you will feel better" That says alot about a person to me, and I already liked Les..;-)

Take care
Trace Rinaldi
www.THRblades.com
www.CustomKnivesandGuns.com
 
Yep, either North Hollywood or Glendale. I still have a custom bowie bladed balisong from them.
 
Hey Guys..

Kamkazmoto...

Cool..

I've still got a Pacific Cutlery Balisong with wormwood handles and a Weehawk blade that I bought some 25+ years ago...

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
Normark said:
Hey Guys..

Kamkazmoto...

Cool..

I've still got a Pacific Cutlery Balisong with wormwood handles and a Weehawk blade that I bought some 25+ years ago...

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
Click to expand...

I gave my wife a PCC Samson Weehawk 705 Boot Knife with black micarta when we first started dating....I purchased it my second active year of knife collecting in 1986. It got "blooded", slashing 4 tires on a VW that same year. I'm sure that the owner of the VW was not really happy with his walk home/calling the tow truck, but his manners were horrible!
Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Normark said:
Hey Guys..

Kamkazmoto...

Cool..

I've still got a Pacific Cutlery Balisong with wormwood handles and a Weehawk blade that I bought some 25+ years ago...

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
Click to expand...

I still have mine from 1985:

bali3.jpg
 
Yup,
I remember showing people my Pacific Cutlery knives. They were really different than the Buck/Case knives of the time. PC and Cold Steel were the newbies on the knife scene that decade. Good thing they tried some new stuff or we might still be stuck with the same old thing our fathers had.
 
I was also told today that SOG and Blackjack started in California too! What the hell happened? Why did everyone leave?
 
Ironicaly, CA's knife laws are actualy suprisingly lenient- there's no blade limit for folders and you can cary those sub-2" automatics.
 
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