Best Knife Warranty?

The problem is, no matter how good the warranty is, if the product is not made correctly in the first place (Benchmade) now matter how friendly their CS department is, you may or may not receive a correct repair or or a replacement that's any better.

Until recently, Benchmade was the only company I had to use the warranty service (on multiple knives).

In the last few weeks, I've sent one in to Spyderco and am working with LionSteel on another.

A good company needs to have not only a great warranty but a quality control consistency greater than 80% IMO.
 
^^ESEE has probably the best of all. So, you broke your 5 during a meth and alcohol infused rage that resulted in attacking a tank? Ok, well here's a brand new knife for you.
 
I've had great experience w/ spyderco and benchmade, Strider is lacking imho, from what I've read and experienced.
 
TravisH said:
Buck is good. And sending your Buck in for the 'spa treatment' is absolutely fantastic.

All the manufacturers that maintain a subforum here have great warranty programs. Buck, Benchmade, Kabar, Spypderco, Cold Steel, to name a few. None require you to buy from them or 'register' it.
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I'll go you one further and say forget about warranties all together and go off the consensus on this site. Any decent company will warrant manufacturing defects. Come here to find out if the knife is right for what you need. ;)
 
The only warranty service I've had to use , is zero tolerance. I was lifting a heavy box and caught it on my clip . Bent it up almost 90° . Called them , promptly answered , very polite . Must have sent it right out ,because 2 days later it was in my mailbox ... I agree , warranty is important to me also . Especially with a high dollar knife . That was a factor in deciding to bite the bullet and get a chris reeve , sebenza. Because I use my knives , and I wouldn't feel intimidated using such an expensive knife . Because I knew they had my back .. that's one of the things that is keeping me from buying a Strider . Even though they seem so bad ass . Is that I've heard a lot of negative things about warranty service . But to be fair I've also heard great things about it also . I've never heard anything negative about Chris Reeves or zero tolerances warranty ...
 
I absolutely love ZT knives. But the one time I attempted a warranty issue, it came back with nothing done to it. It could have been fixed by an experienced smith in minutes. I eventually did a bubba smith job on it, which fortunately worked perfectly. Although it took me much more time with no experience doing such. But left a bad taste for the top customer service that I've heard so much about.

Unfortunately I think a lot of companies will send out a quick screw or clip, but pick and choose warranty issues based on any real work required. If it were a less expensive Kershaw I would understand. But this was an obvious issue on a $300+ model.

But I still keep buying them because one issue out of more than a dozen perfect knives I guess is my threshold. :)
 
ZT is the only one I've used for any warranty work. I had a gen 1 0550 with a super strong detent and a bit of lock rock. Sent it in describing my concerns, and 2 weeks later it arrived on my doorstep with a brand new gen 2 lockside...perfect centering (was a tad off before), rock solid lockup, and perfect detent.
I was extremely happy with my experience.
 
In my experience Kershaw, strider and zt.
WORST IS MICROTECH

A relative had a Kershaw with a broken blade he was going to throw away. I mailed it in for him and they sent him a brand new replacement.
Strider has fixed a couple knives for me including replacing a boken blade, engraving and pocket clip replacement.
Zt has sent multiple parts for a troubled zt 770cf I gave a relative as a gift. He eventually had to send it in for scale replacement. (that assisted Flipper needs liners, I believe)

Microtech...I jumped through all of their hoops to mail in a like new socom for a simple pocket clip replacement, they claimed the box that they accepted from FedEx was empty. No help given. Automatic $50 insurance from FedEx on a $200 knife. Lesson learned. Always insure, never dealing with microtech again.
 
I had to use the Spyderco warranty... Even thought I had voided it and they still replaced the screws I messed up over time.
I also sent a strider sng for lock reset. I'm from Canada and less than a month after I shipped it it was in my mailbox. They did a super job! But if you use your warranty on a strider, you probably won't hear from them xD, and receive your knife soon. You just need to trust and wait because they aren't the type to email you at every corner.
For the zt warranty, I would say it's probably about the same quality as Spyderco, but disassembling your knife doesn't void zt's warranty.

I heard that emerson knives had a great warranty too, but the fact that sharpening your blade with a v grind is voiding it... I just never pulled the trigger.
 
Nephron44 said:
I figured as such from Gerber. I have a few of their knives that I like, but it would cost me more to send them in if I needed to than I paid for the knives, so I didn't really worry about the warranty at the time of purchase.

Why do you think Buck is the best? I've been looking at some of their tactical USA made knives...
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I think Buck has the best warranty, because regardless of country of origin, current model or discontinued, they will repair it or replace it, if something goes wrong. Even if you are not the original purchaser of the knife. "It's too old" is not in their vocabulary.
 
Years ago my son managed to break one of the scales on his Victorinox SAK. Victorinox gave him a new knife for free.
 
I've only had to deal with Benchmade, Buck, and Bark River for warranty issues and all have been great. Benchmade had repaired a tip of a knife for an active duty marine who was back in town. We had sent it in for him because it was an auto and was easier for us to do it. About 7-10 days later he had it back in his hands. Buck has been great to anyone we've sent their way and they take care of anything we might have in house. Bark River takes care of us and our customers for many things. Some are QC issues but other things like broken tips, cracked handles, etc they will regrind blades and replace handles for no charge.

I'm sure there are other great companies too, but those three stick out to me.
 
I am not one to use warranty services in general. The only knife I have ever requested and got warranty service was a Case Barlow that I broke the blade cutting a pine limb and that was a l-o-n-g time ago when I was a kid and $20-$25 was A LOT of money to me. (That was the cost then at the local hardware store. :D) They replaced the knife and I was thankful. I pretty much EXPECT good service if I ever send a knife back as I wouldn't do it unless it was significantly defective.
 
Warranty only seems to be a small part of the full equation and many of the Bomb Proof warranties of old have had stipulations put on them within the last couple of years. ESEE and Bark River are the only ones who seem to honor their warranties as originally written, the rest have added things to disqualify/underqualify you when you need to use it. I don't trust any of them anymore..
 
Eric@DLT said:
I've only had to deal with Benchmade, Buck, and Bark River for warranty issues and all have been great. Benchmade had repaired a tip of a knife for an active duty marine who was back in town. We had sent it in for him because it was an auto and was easier for us to do it. About 7-10 days later he had it back in his hands. Buck has been great to anyone we've sent their way and they take care of anything we might have in house. Bark River takes care of us and our customers for many things. Some are QC issues but other things like broken tips, cracked handles, etc they will regrind blades and replace handles for no charge.

I'm sure there are other great companies too, but those three stick out to me.
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Thanks Eric. I not sure how everyone else feels but I like to hear from the dealers when questions like this are asked.
 
The only two companies I've had to deal with warranty wise have been Gerber and *gasp* (:D) Quartermaster. The Gerber was an Air Ranger folder that I bought secondhand off ebay a number of years ago. The knife was overall in outstanding shape, but 3 of the frame screws had stripped heads from the previous owner messing with it. Needless to say, I was peeved, but since the rest of the knife was like new (and the knives had been discon'd at the time), I figured I'd go ahead and contact Gerber to see what size screws I needed to buy to replace them (didn't have my handy dandy screw gauges at the time). I told the lady the story, including the fact that it was a secondhand knife, and she said they'd go ahead and send me a few screws free of charge. Within a week I had a package from them containing 5 screws for my knife. The Quartermaster was one of the liner lock Baracas models that I stripped one of the pivot screw heads out on by accidentally grabbing a T9 driver instead of a T10. Again, I told them exactly what had happened and said I wanted to buy a new pivot screw. They asked me which color it was (stone wash, in my case) and said they'd ship one out free of charge. I got it in about 4 days and had my knife up and running again.
 
I've only dealt with a few warranty issues and companies. Had to send a Sheath back to SOG because it didn't work out of box. Got a new working one right away. Had to ask Kershaw for some longer screws to fit through G-10 side of my Thermite. Also had them send me clips and other parts, never with a problem getting them. Benchmade has sent me clips without issue.

On paper I would say Busse kin has the best warranty. Next would be Esee, though as insipid mentioned they don't warrant the handle scales.

Worst main brand warranty has got to be Fallkniven. Extremely limited. Recently increased from 2 years to 10. Three Chefs in the kitchen: Swedish company, knives made in Japan, and sold by Dealers here in the US. There are horror stories about knives needing to go from the US, to Sweden, to Japan, only to be deemed non-warranted, reground, and sent back to the customer. Not a poor reflection on the factory where they are made in Japan but rather a poor reflection on weird EU warranty standards.
 
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