Did I get lucky or did Benchmade majorly improve their factory edge as compared years ago?

S

SBaker34

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Jun 16, 2010
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Circa 2009 I owned a griptilian in 154CM, I gotta admit the steel itself held up through more than I imagined. But the orginal factory edge and the bevel itself actually was bad enough to steer me way from the brand. It would tug at some arm hair. so It wasn't dull. but certainly no competition to the skyline or any spyderco I ever owned Additionally it took around 8 hours with the diamond stones to reprofile it to 20DPS. It had been ground extremely obtuse.

But today I walked into a store and saw it, griptilian, g10 scales, 20cv steel.. and I had to have it. I couldn't help myself. But not only does it look pretty the edge is easily compatible to any other brand of knife I have ever owned, maybe sharper. It passed all the standard tests like slicing paper, then PB paper, then the ultimate test, lathered up part of my face.And sure it pulled, but it actually shaved that part of my face clean. Only an edge I had put on a knife myself has ever been able to do that.

So fluke or company improvement?

Edit: Apologize for the typos in the original post, had some good scotch beforehand.
 
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I just picked up another Griptilian (154CM) and a Bugout (S30V) recently and both were laser sharp. I have a NIB griptilian I was issued in the Army about 10 years ago and the new stuff is waaaaay sharper from the factory.

Used to, I felt that Spyderco always had the sharpest factory edge.

I think benchmade has really upped their game.
 
Likewise I switched entirely to spyderco for years due to feeling they had the best grind and factory edge, saving me hours on the wicked edge, but this grip probably edges out most spyderco I've owned.
Jocephus1 said:
I just picked up another Griptilian (154CM) and a Bugout (S30V) recently and both were laser sharp. I have a NIB griptilian I was issued in the Army about 10 years ago and the new stuff is waaaaay sharper from the factory.

Used to, I felt that Spyderco always had the sharpest factory edge.

I think benchmade has really upped their game.
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Because I was using a sharpmaker and the factory edge was something like 30DPS per side. I realized I forgot to specify that attempting to re profile the griptilian lead to be purchasing a wicked edge.
 
9 of the 10 benchmades i have owned have been hair shaving sharp right out of the box. The 10th one was second hand and had seen a small amount of use, and thus was a bit below hair shaving.

So yes, i would guess they have improved the edge, or you had a fluke all those years ago.
 
I just got a sweet new Rukus II Automatic and it is absolute perfection.
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SBaker34 said:
Circa 2009 I owned a griptilian in 154CM, I gotta admit the steel itself held up through more than I imagined. But the orginal factory edge and the bevel itself actually was bad enough to steer me way from the brand. It would tug at some arm hairs. so It wasn't dull. but certainly no noncompetitive to the skyline or an spyderco I ever owned Additionally it took around 8 hours with the diamond stones to reprofile it to 20DPS. I had been ground extremely obtuse.

But today I walked into a store and saw it, griptilian, g10 scales, 20cv scales.. and I had to have it. I couldn't help myself. But not only does it look pretty the edge is easily compatible to any other brand of knife I have ever owned, maybe sharper. It passed all the standard tests like slicing paper, then PB paper, then the ultimate test, lathered up part of my face.And sure it pulled, but it actually shaved that part of my face clean. Only an edge I had put on a knife myself has ever bee able to do that.

So fluke or company improvement?
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Based on my experience there has definitely been some improvement in the sharpness catergory. Benchmade edges were pretty crappy when I first got into knives but they've improved though. I think Jimmie mentioned something about them focusing on improving factory sharpness in a thread a while back .They still need to work on grinding edges evenly but the sharpness has been pretty good on most I've handled in the last couple of years.
 
I've been buying new Benchmades since 2005. As far as I can tell, there has been a noticeable improvement in their blade grinding & sharpening over those 13 years. My first 940 (green aluminium & 154CM) was a beautiful, folding butter knife. Since then, I've bought everything from basic mini-Grips to titanium frame locks from them. There's been an improvement in their edges & grinds that I'm happy to see.

The last dozen or so that I've bought over the past 2 years have had pretty even grinds and the bevels are easy to work with when sharpening or refining the edge. I've even gotten a couple (my 551-1 and mini-Presidio auto) that touch right up on a Sharpmaker at the 15 dps setting. Outstanding!
 
The last couple Benchmade knives I've purchased have had great edges, definitely better than the first one I got 10 years ago
 
Benchmade said:
We have worked hard on improving our factory edge over the last few years. Our edges should be razor hair shaving sharp.
Click to expand...

I have to say the effort shows. This will certainly not be my last benchmade. The blade centering seems to have improved as well although that may have just been a fluke.
 
I would say that all but two of my Benchmades have been lasers. I got a 940-2 about a year ago new and it was pretty dull. Just his weekend I picked up a foray and it wasn’t shaving sharp.
 
Like others have said...their edges have greatly improved. 10 years ago I would occasionally get one that wouldn't shave out of the box. In the last 3 years I've not had any that haven't been scary sharp out of the box. I've probably owned about 90 BM's give or take in my lifetime, but most of them were bought between 2005 and 2015. I have bought maybe 3 or 4 in the last couple years.
 
I have a drawer full of Benchmades acquired over the last 5 years or so. All have had very useable edges with the exception of a 4300 I just purchased last week from a local dealer. Really bad job, there is a pronounced burr along one side of about half the length of the blade. It was the only one in stock, but I fell so hard for the knife I grabbed it anyway. Not a big deal to throw it on my Wicked Edge and clean it up.
 
My recent mini crooked river had a huge burr. A few passes on a Spyderco fine stone, though, and it was great. The full size crooked river I got a year ago was impeccable.
 
A couple of years ago I bought one online and sent another to the factory for a new blade. Both had uneven grinds and were sharp but not as sharp as previously.

This year I've bought three and they've all been perfect. Seems like they've definitely focused on improving to me.
 
Benchmades's sharpening has greatly improved over the last couple years. Along with that improvement, it strikes me that BMK has worked pretty hard to bring their F&F and QC back up to snuff after a few years of delivering inconsistent product. I've owned over thirty Benchmades over the years and have not run into any significant disappointments, but the new knives I've bought in the last year or two have all been of exceptional quality.
 
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