Disappointed in Benchmade...

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Wolverine666 said:
I couldn't agree more. I stopped buying BM's and do not miss them. For the same price (and even for considerably less money) other brands have them beat in every way. This is my opinion from my experience which is extensive.
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If other manufacturers made an ambidextrous lock as good as the Axis with blade steel as good, I would easily entertain buying something else (tried the caged ball bearing lock and hated it. SOG's arc lock is nice but not that ambidextrous and not worth the price for AUS-8 steel). The latest Benchmade's I've bought have been very good. My 810-1401 is excellent (only new one I've bought), and the used 51 , used Rift, and used 32 were excellent. This is what I expect from them. Seeing shoddy QC is simply inexcusable when other companies can do better on less expensive knives. The fact that I have examples of excellent QC means Benchmade is perfectly capable of it, so why not take pride in that and make sure all knives meet that level of QC?
 
I have 12 Benchmades So far so good. No issues.
#13 on it's way (710-1401) Yummy.
Not really worried about it's condition upon arrival, as they haven't let me down yet.
Just my $0.02
Cheers
 
Whenever there is a complaint about a knife, whether its BM, ZT, or Emerson I always ask the age old question of if the knife is in fact authentic and not a knock off knife. Like others have stated, get in contact with BM and find out what they can do for you, give the company a chance to work out the issue at hand. I have knives from a variety of different companies and if I ever run into an issue with quality I contact them immediately. As knife makers grow larger they are more prone to having QC issues. And is the reason I always fill out registration for any warranty that is offered. Not all of them will be perfect.
 
I have a way off-center Grip H2O. It does rub some when I deploy the blade. It is aggravating. :grumpy:
I have heard they won't fix "value knives" if they are in "good working condition".
From reading BF posts it seems that off-center Grips are common, and Benchmade is ok with that.
The Grip is one of my all-time favorites, and I was going to add at least a couple more and one of those little 531 Pardue knives to my collection, but the "new" company imposed prices put a stop to that quick. Theses models went up about $25-$35 each. Now they are competing with knives that have Elmax, S30v, G-10, peel-ply carbon fiber.
Good luck with the new business model.
I will patiently wait for prices to go back to the way they were, before someone at Benchmade lost their mind.:eek:
 
mwhich50 said:
I have a way off-center Grip H2O. It does rub some when I deploy the blade. It is aggravating. :grumpy:
I have heard they won't fix "value knives" if they are in "good working condition".
From reading BF posts it seems that off-center Grips are common, and Benchmade is ok with that.
The Grip is one of my all-time favorites, and I was going to add at least a couple more and one of those little 531 Pardue knives to my collection, but the "new" company imposed prices put a stop to that quick. Theses models went up about $25-$35 each. Now they are competing with knives that have Elmax, S30v, G-10, peel-ply carbon fiber.
Good luck with the new business model.
I will patiently wait for prices to go back to the way they were, before someone at Benchmade lost their mind.:eek:
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So you haven't sent it to benchmade just read some posts online and took it as truth?

Send them in. I've sent in 2 valox handled Grips for centering, each came back perfectly centered.
 
Luis G. said:
So you haven't sent it to benchmade just read some posts online and took it as truth?

Send them in. I've sent in 2 valox handled Grips for centering, each came back perfectly centered.
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Like I said, I was planning on purchasing 2-3 more knives before the price increase. I was waiting to see if I would have problems with the others so I could send them in together. Since I am finished with BM for now, I guess it is time to send it in. I will let you know how it goes.
 
mwhich50 said:
Like I said, I was planning on purchasing 2-3 more knives before the price increase. I was waiting to see if I would have problems with the others so I could send them in together. Since I am finished with BM for now, I guess it is time to send it in. I will let you know how it goes.
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Gotcha. re-read it and it clicked finally.

Keep us posted.

I think one of the reasons they did the price hike ups was to stop competition between big and small dealers (I know I said this plenty). Benchmade's Minimum order quantities are quite high compared to other companies so that may be a factor too.

Also they know they can get away with it. While prices have gone up you gotta understand is Benchmade knives are hot sellers for knife retailers, and not all knife nuts go online or care about steels. In my opinion we're probably a minority of knife nuts.
 
JNewell said:
Not just in number, either, but in preferences - something we often lose sight of. :)
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I agree.

We worry about things like;
* Blade centering issue, yet it is not rubbing against liner.
* not sharp enough edge
* Uneven grind.

As all of you, knife nuts knows that BKC does hand grind. It is not 100% repeatable bevel profiling from the video of edge sharpening at BKC factory. I have few dozen and only 1 or two has cosmetic issue.

My recent blade swap between 810 & 810-1401 has isolated off center issue and isolated to grinding down phosphor bronze washer. Yes, grinding / touch up one of washer with 1000 grit paper few times has cured to off center issue.

Since AXIS lock has so tight tolerance, would you expect AXIS lock to have multiple thickness washer to compensate?

As Loonybin has stated, I have not found replacement of AXIS lock. I really love Ambidextrous One Handed Open Close ability of AXIS. No, Ball Barring Lock is too tight to open without losing lock strength, not Arc lock of Cold steel.

Their steel choice is definetly above average.
 
I've never had a problem with any of my Benchmades, or any that I've handled. Very strange, but then again, the majority of the ones I've handled were at their factory store.
 
I've only had three of what I'd actually call problems in all the Benchmades I have bought over the years (I'd say I'm up to about 40 now over a 16 year period). An early-model 940 that had some kind of odd step in the primary grind, an early limited edition Presidio (model 500?) that actually has a somewhat iffy lockup of the axis-lock, and a 580 Barrage that just recently jammed in a half-open/half-closed position, when the coil spring that deploys the blade slipped its bounds. That might have been a wear issue, as I almost obsessively flipped that knife. I have notice no difference in the quality control between the knives I bought as far back as 1998 and the Adamas I took delivery on two weeks ago. If anything, the fit and finish is better now than it was in 1998. I have more Benchmades than any other knife brand. There are other knife brands that I think are just as good, QC-wise, but for the most part, they have very limited knives that are of interest to me. But I have the most experience with Benchmade, and I have no problems with their QC. Are their knives perfect? No, i wouodnt think so. But I would not agree that they have a QC "problem." But I suppose I could have just been lucky about 40 times over...
 
Just received the knife back. UPS delivered it an hour ago.
I made a video of the unboxing, and was kind of upset and went off on a rant.
Decided that wasn't good for my youtube channel so I made a few videos and gathered a cool head.

So original complaints:
Off centered blade. Possible crooked blade.

What I received:
A knife that appears centered but if you take a closer look you will notice one side is very close to the liner while the other has insane amount of spacing. If you see the tip, it's well centered. If you look at near the tang of the blade it looks dead centered. But one you get out the tip, it looks crooked.
I think it's official I am going to take a very very long break from Benchmade. I think I will stick with other companies for now. This 940-1 has been my 47th benchmade, and potentially my last.
I can't even sell it and buy something else that will satisfy me because of the major flaw, it simply wouldn't feel right to sell it for close to cost. It also certainly does NOT feel right to sell it an insane loss.

Video is being uploaded. A little long, sorry guys but at least it isn't as long as the unboxing one.
 
Luis G. said:
Just received the knife back. UPS delivered it an hour ago.
I made a video of the unboxing, and was kind of upset and went off on a rant.
Decided that wasn't good for my youtube channel so I made a few videos and gathered a cool head.

So original complaints:
Off centered blade. Possible crooked blade.

What I received:
A knife that appears centered but if you take a closer look you will notice one side is very close to the liner while the other has insane amount of spacing. If you see the tip, it's well centered. If you look at near the tang of the blade it looks dead centered. But one you get out the tip, it looks crooked.
I think it's official I am going to take a very very long break from Benchmade. I think I will stick with other companies for now. This 940-1 has been my 47th benchmade, and potentially my last.
I can't even sell it and buy something else that will satisfy me because of the major flaw, it simply wouldn't feel right to sell it for close to cost. It also certainly does NOT feel right to sell it an insane loss.

Video is being uploaded. A little long, sorry guys but at least it isn't as long as the unboxing one.
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Do you have a link to your video?
 
MobileFireLord said:
I agree.

We worry about things like;
* Blade centering issue, yet it is not rubbing against liner.
* not sharp enough edge
* Uneven grind.

As all of you, knife nuts knows that BKC does hand grind. It is not 100% repeatable bevel profiling from the video of edge sharpening at BKC factory. I have few dozen and only 1 or two has cosmetic issue.

My recent blade swap between 810 & 810-1401 has isolated off center issue and isolated to grinding down phosphor bronze washer. Yes, grinding / touch up one of washer with 1000 grit paper few times has cured to off center issue.

Since AXIS lock has so tight tolerance, would you expect AXIS lock to have multiple thickness washer to compensate?

As Loonybin has stated, I have not found replacement of AXIS lock. I really love Ambidextrous One Handed Open Close ability of AXIS. No, Ball Barring Lock is too tight to open without losing lock strength, not Arc lock of Cold steel.

Their steel choice is definetly above average.
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So Benchmade knives are hand ground? Hw do you know?
How do we explain the lock rock found in several models as well as the machining marks?
I'm confused.
 
RevDevil said:
So Benchmade knives are hand ground? Hw do you know?
How do we explain the lock rock found in several models as well as the machining marks?
I'm confused.
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They are most definitely not hand ground. There's a video series of a Benchmade factory tour, they have a specific CNC grinder for the primary flats, and a 2nd machine precisely for hollow ground blades. The rest of the blade features are put on the CNC mill after the blades are laser cut, and the profiles are further refined/features are added.

They are hand sharpened on belts, but that's about it.
 
That is right about what I was thinking. When I read the post by MFL I figured possibly something had changed.
 
I think the blade centering also has something to do with the liners and scales not just the blade. Knives like the Griptilian and 940-1 which have partial liners and handles made of plastic or carbon fiber which flex seem to have the worst centering issues. I remember when I dropped my mini grip on the hardwood floor at work and the blade went from centered to rubbing the liner. The only solution was to loosen all the screws and reset everything to line it back up. I've dropped my 525 on the same floor more than once and it's still centered. I think this is because of the full steel liners and aluminum scales, it's extremely rigid with no flex so the handles don't get warped out of alignment.
 
Redmasta said:
I think the blade centering also has something to do with the liners and scales not just the blade. Knives like the Griptilian and 940-1 which have partial liners and handles made of plastic or carbon fiber which flex seem to have the worst centering issues. I remember when I dropped my mini grip on the hardwood floor at work and the blade went from centered to rubbing the liner. The only solution was to loosen all the screws and reset everything to line it back up. I've dropped my 525 on the same floor more than once and it's still centered. I think this is because of the full steel liners and aluminum scales, it's extremely rigid with no flex so the handles don't get warped out of alignment.
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You hit it right on the head. They actually replaced the handles. That centered the blade even with my own washers. (seems I did grind the correct size).

In any case: Video w/ the 940-1. ALSO a 0801CF review. DOUBLE WHAMMY.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-Tolerance-0801CF-AND?p=13907163#post13907163
 
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