BM 940 owners...

I have had mine for less than a month and have carried it everyday for a couple of weeks. I have the G10 20cv version. I like the look and feel. It is comfortable to use. My biggest complaint is the thumb posts are very close to the scales and it is more difficult to flick open. My Griptilians and Rift have more room on the thumb studs and are easier for me to open. It is a very slim model knife that disappears in your pocket and has a lot of blade length packed into that smaller handle. Not my favorite blade but it gets the job done when needed. It will still raise eyebrows at the office due to total blade length, but looks a lot less threatening than some other models I carry.
 
I wouldnt think twice about using one hard, I used a case trapper (slipjoint!) pretty dang hard for years and it Is just now getting a little worn out. Never had it close on my fingers, still no side to side play and it still snaps open decently. Only problem is that is so dirty and the springs are getting softer so it wont snap close. That 940 will be much tougher than a $35 case slipoint!
 
If you're worried about quality, I think someone recently said in another thread that it seems Benchmade lets lemons through the QC process because they will replace them at no cost. Take that as you will.
 
lieferung said:
If you're worried about quality, I think someone recently said in another thread that it seems Benchmade lets lemons through the QC process because they will replace them at no cost. Take that as you will.
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I'll take that with a shaker full of grains of salt.

I've had my Benchmade 940D2CF for about 10 years, and has been my most commonly carried knife. It's holding up just fine, although I'd like to reblade it. I'd personally only want to carry a carbon fiber or G10 version. I own a Ti-01, but have never carried it (awesome knife, too pretty to bang up). The aluminum handled ones should hold up just fine except for dings and scratches (merely cosmetic), which is why I've never bothered with one.
 
Great knife and will handle most anything you throw at it. Rides lite in the pocket which is nice while wearing shorts or dress pants. You’ll get a lot of the QC crap from a few years ago but as of the last couple years I believe their QC has improved 10 folds. And just to be clear I said I believe. So others may have their own first hand or band wagon opinions. To me it’s a great knife that will last you a long time.
 
These 940s are awesome knives. If it wasn’t for the fact that mine has no sweet spot I would love this knife to death. (It is either too tight, or there is a little bladeplay) Luckily a little bladeplay is not an issue on axis lock knives.

It is awesome because you get a fairly long blade in a light package that is a pleasure to carry. I figure pocket knives spend most their time in a pocket. (most their life in a shoe box in my closet actually) Now I pay alot more attention to how a knife carries than I did first getting into the hobby.
 
I couldn't be happier with my 940-1. I bought that and a ZT0450CF to see which I liked better. I leaned slightly towards the ZT. When the clip on my BM snagged on the strike plate of my front door and snapped, a message to BM had another on my front step in 3 days. When my ZT came with a poorly ground blade, ZT gave me the runaround and said for an additional $30 they'd replace the blade. BM 1, ZT 0. That's my only experience with them though, YMMV.
 
Two comments:
First, the aluminum handled 940/943 will show a little wear in time. The coating can scratch and rub thin so if that equates to "not holding up to hard use" for you, consider a G10 model. I actually kinda like the way my worn 943 looks; a little post-apocalyptic :p. Otherwise these knives are great and I recommend them for almost and EDC.

Second, ignore the incessant critique of Benchmade quality. There's a very vocal group who propagate internet buzz about horrible Benchmade failures. These failures are greatly overstated. Often when pressed for direct experience with these failures they cite a second cousin's co-worker's brother in-law who had a Grip explode in their hand.

Unfortunately, it comes up whenever there's a discussion of any Benchmade knife, whether the relevant topic was quality or not. It's wearisome but buy with confidence. Benchmade is one of the best production knife companies in America.
 
I've been carrying a 940-1 for a few years now. I don't have a huge number of knives, usually only hang onto several that fill specific roles for me. The 940-1 has made almost everything else obsolete for me. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of other knives I think are cooler or even more durable.

I'm a sales guy in the environmental/industrial services industry and my knives get exposed to all kinds of tasks and materials when I'm on-site. I have never felt at a disadvantage having a 940-1 in my pocket and it has never let me down. I can carry it in jeans or slacks and it just disappears in my pocket. When I first got it I was concerned about how a knife with carbon fiber scales, that seems to weigh nothing, could possibly take the abuse I was about to give it. I figured two weeks and it would be "slacks only" duty for this knife. Well, a few years later and it's still pretty much all that I reach for each morning.

Oh yeah, and if you develop any blade play just clean the pivot and use some blue loctite. Adjust so that it just starts to drop free then let it setup overnight. Mine has been absolutely perfect for about 5 months now after my last cleaning and loctite. Zero blade play and blade drops free. Watch some YouTube video for care and maintenance and you'll be all set.
 
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Lapedog said:
These 940s are awesome knives. If it wasn’t for the fact that mine has no sweet spot I would love this knife to death. (It is either too tight, or there is a little bladeplay) Luckily a little bladeplay is not an issue on axis lock knives.

It is awesome because you get a fairly long blade in a light package that is a pleasure to carry. I figure pocket knives spend most their time in a pocket. (most their life in a shoe box in my closet actually) Now I pay alot more attention to how a knife carries than I did first getting into the hobby.
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I had an Aluminum 940 with no sweet spot. It turned out that the Aluminum corroded in the hole under the head of the pivot screw. The deposit was spongy. A clean up solved the problem.
Another way to improve sweetness is to file the blade side of the bronze washers with a Spyderco XF Sharpmaker triangular prism. You only need to polish the high spots to a mirror finish. When the washer is about 50% shiny, it is ready.
 
tiguy7 said:
I had an Aluminum 940 with no sweet spot. It turned out that the Aluminum corroded in the hole under the head of the pivot screw. The deposit was spongy. A clean up solved the problem.
Another way to improve sweetness is to file the blade side of the bronze washers with a Spyderco XF Sharpmaker triangular prism. You only need to polish the high spots to a mirror finish. When the washer is about 50% shiny, it is ready.
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I will certainly give it a try. I hadn’t seen any corrosion under the male pivot screw but haven’t checked under the female screw. I guess in could try polishing. (So it will swing more freely when tight)

Fortunately the axis lock isn’t at all compromised by a little bit of side to side bladeplay. So that is how I’ve had it set. It has a little bp and decently free swinging action.

Thank you for your suggestion.
 
I have 940 aluminum scales with backspacer. I think this knife would be capable of most anything that could be asked of a folder. My complaint would be something of the opposite - that it's not a great slicer out of the box. When I sharpen mine I'll at least lower the edge angle and I might fully regrind the primary bevel.
I normally dislike aluminum scales because they can be slick. These scales have a fine texture and offer plenty of grip.
 
I bought a 940-1 when they first came out, fell in love with it and it's still one of my most used knives. For about a year and a half a 943 has been my EDC at work knife. I didn't think I would take to the aluminum handle, but it's been just fine. I have heavier and lighter knives, but my 940s have seen a lot of use and have held up real well.
 
I bought my plain ol' aluminum handled 940 in the spring of 2017 (iirc) and speaking from personal experience, it can stand up to its share of normal use (and depending on who you listen to, even some milder/medium abuse) just fine. The only issue that I've had with my 940 is that in the fall of 2017, one of the Omega springs broke (I tend to play with my Axis Lock BM knives, flicking them open and closed A LOT which probably doesn't do anything to help prolong the spring life) and I just got around to sending it back to BM for repair now. As with all things though, ymmv. Outside of broken omega springs, I can't forsee anything going detrimentally wrong with your 940, however, even if something does go wrong, Benchmade's excellent customer service should be able to take good care of you given the many stories of overwhelmingly positive experiences with their customer service found on just on this site alone!
 
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Mine is a 943 about a year old. The aluminum handles are a perfect for my needs. The knife is thin enough to fit in my jeans pocket and still allow me to carry my Samsung S7 phone in the same pocket without damage. Love that knife.
 
Nottynuffknives said:
I have a question for you...

So I'm almost 100% positive that I'll be purchasing the Benchmade Osborne 940. I love everything About it. It looks great, felt great in hand at Cabelas. But I'm looking for more of an opinion from experienced 940 owners regarding the durability of this knife because using it is one thing I haven't done with it yet.

For a while there I had no doubt in my mind that it was a tough, hard use knife based on some YouTube reviews from a few guys. But then I would read every now and then in some forums that some people considered it a gentleman's folder, which to me can be interpreted as a knife that can't take or shouldn't take much abuse and that is more so for when wearing a suit, or maybe at a wedding ect.. Not saying that's the definition lol, it's just how I think of a gentleman's folder.

And I also read one person describe it as "flimsy". So my question to you 940 owners is: do you consider this knife to be a durable, and if needed to be, a hard use knife? Has it ever failed you in any way? Or has it made it through any task you've thrown it's way?
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I used to own the 940, it was a cool knife but it felt far from durable. It is a light weight edc knife, if it is used simply for cutting tasks and not abused, you shouldn’t experience any durability issues. Personally, I didn’t care for the position of the thumb studs, they are too close to the handle for my liking. I know that I don’t use the thumb studs properly, I prefer lifting the blade open using the bottom of the stud.
 
I have a 940-2 and a 943. IMO, unless you are trying to pry open a door, the weakest link in the 940 (or really most knives) is the users hand... not as much of an issue if you are wearing work gloves.

The 940 has relatively thick stock and a shallow grind. This adds to the strength, but might cause some friction cutting through material that wedges the blade. Personally, I found the handle fine for skinning bark off of a fallen tree limb, but the handle was too thin to do heavy push cuts through thick styrofoam or thick cardboard without irritating my hand after a short period of time. This is not an issue of the knife, but with my hand taking all that pressure on a relatively thin handle (the down side to being so pocketable).

It's for that reason that I switched to the 943... it slices easier and penetrates easier for light to medium duty tasks that my hand can handle for long periods of time. Swap in a G10 scale (custom or from the -2), and you have one heck of an able, easily carried 3.5" knife. Conversely, I feel the 940 with the aluminum handles has more rigidity that the G10 version, which gives me more confidence for heavier duty tasks... especially once you see how tiny the scale screws are.

However, I found that I needed a thicker handle for my occasional knife needs, and therefore rarely carry them any more. I would probably carry them more if I had to wear dress pants for work... I've become a big fan of the 908 for a smallish, back-pocketable knife, but unfortunately that's discontinued.
 
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