Definitive answer on the Bedlam and if any of its variants have been discontinued?

[Rsgort]

I have seen it mentioned around but have not seen a discussion that focuses solely on whether or not the Benchmade Bedlam or any of its variants including the Auto-Axis models have been discontinued. Things have been sort of hectic in the Benchmade world lately and this seems to have gone overlooked.

I have heard that either all the Bedlams and auto Bedlams have been discontinued or that (and I am just mentioning it, not promoting this theory) that only certain variant combination such as the Auto-Axis or manual Axis with plain or serrated blade in black or satin finishes have been discontinued, some combinations of those but not all the variants.

As of now the official Benchmade page for the 860 doesn't mention any discontinuation and shows two models available, a satin finished plain edged and a black finished serrated edge. The official Benchmade page for the 8600 doesn't mention any discontinuation and show two models available, both black finish one serrated one plain edge. Neither page references any discontinued variants that were available in the past but not now.

http://www.benchmade.com/products/860
http://www.benchmade.com/products/8600

Now Benchmade also maintains a long list of all their discontinued knives, 205 models apparently. A long list indeed to sort through but if you search you will come across the 860 Bedlam sitting there with its picture (black finish serrated model and description) with a red "Discontinued" label above the picture under the title. However clicking on this image brings you to the official product page for the 860 and just like above this page does not mention any discontinuations. Perhaps this is due to a lot of them still being in stock in a lot of places and it will be updated to reflect its discontinued status in the future?

This link should bring you to Benchmade's list of discontinued knives:

http://www.benchmade.com/products/product_list.aspx?category=50

...and in case you can't find what i am referring to here is a screen grab of what I see after a few pages of scrolling, there is the Benchmade 860 sitting there:

http://i.imgur.com/FM3wuNY.png

I don't know what to think, anyone have any idea what's going on? As someone who has been considering buying a Bedlam variant for a while now I would appreciate any info so I know whether or not I should be acting now to ensure the model I want is still available when I go to look for it.

Thanks.

 

[9blades]

I asked BM a couple months ago;

Some versions of the Bedlam were discontinued last year.
The auto are only coming in the black blade and the manual version only in plain edge silver blade or serrated

Kirby

 

[Modnar24]

The 860 and 8600 are on page 56 (page 58 of electronic PDF version) of the 2014 catalog that was released yesterday. I feel that it'd be a safe assumption (you know what they say about those) that it'll be around for at least a little while.

 

[Rsgort]

Thanks guys, great informative answers as usual from this forum!

So, if what 9blades learned from Benchmade is correct then that would tell us that Benchmade does not (always) list discontinued variants of knives on their product pages as if that was the case we would have seen the discontinued models listed on the 860 product page.