- Joined
- May 1, 2014
- Messages
- 890
Hi there,
just a little report on how customer minded people are at Benchmade.
During a trade among myself and another fellow member of a German knife forum I've got his BM551BK-101 Gold Class Grip. He got this knife during another trade with somebody else and as he wasn't very much into Benchmade knifes, he just left it inside the box and did not pay further attention to detail. After I've got it into my hands I immediately recognized that there are some issues with this knife, which obviously slipped through final inspektion at Benchmade. There were 2 "deep impacts" at the blade and as the black coating over these 2 spots was not damaged, they must have occured during production process, before the hardening of the blade was done. This was my major issue with this knife. Besides that the grind wasn't really good and the Nickel coating of the clip wasn't in good condition.
I contacted Benchmade, sent some pictures via mail and asked them for support. Honestly speaking I wasn't expecting that they are able to solve this, as this gold class Grip carries a CPM-M4 Blade and it is discontinued for quite a while. Besides that the blade is individually numbered. But I got a very kind answer, stating that they are willing to ship a new blade as well as a new nickel plated clip to Germany. Only thing they were asking is whether I am able to change the nickel plated thumb studs from the old blade to the new blade, as they do not have any of them left for spare deliveries. Well. Knowing a knife dealer here in Germany who is doing all kind of great metal works to knives I wasn't worried about that point. So Benchmade shipped everything out. It took a while to get the shipment into my hands as it was "missing in transition" for about 2 months and it took another month until the German knife dealer did have time to do the blade exchange.
Receiving and opening the parcel from Benchmade I was positively surprised about the fact that they even reproduced the individual number at the new blade, which is great. The blade came with the basic grind but the final sharpening wasn't done at purpose. So send the knife and the new blade to my dealer, asked him to put the old thumb studs into the new blade, exchange the blade and to do a nice sharpening job to the new blade. This is how it went. The disassembled blade is the old, damaged one.
Interesting to see, that the individual number and alle the other writings on the new blade, including the Benchmade name at the opposite side, is much better, clearer, sharper lasered, as at the old blade. Within a direct comparision the difference and the improvement is very obvious.
The 2 damages at the old blade:
The new blade:
The difference of the lasering:
New:
Old grind:
New Grind:
Now I am happy that the Gold Class Grip looks like it is suppose to look and I am very pleased about the kind support of Benchmade.
At the end some more pics.
Cheers,
just a little report on how customer minded people are at Benchmade.
During a trade among myself and another fellow member of a German knife forum I've got his BM551BK-101 Gold Class Grip. He got this knife during another trade with somebody else and as he wasn't very much into Benchmade knifes, he just left it inside the box and did not pay further attention to detail. After I've got it into my hands I immediately recognized that there are some issues with this knife, which obviously slipped through final inspektion at Benchmade. There were 2 "deep impacts" at the blade and as the black coating over these 2 spots was not damaged, they must have occured during production process, before the hardening of the blade was done. This was my major issue with this knife. Besides that the grind wasn't really good and the Nickel coating of the clip wasn't in good condition.
I contacted Benchmade, sent some pictures via mail and asked them for support. Honestly speaking I wasn't expecting that they are able to solve this, as this gold class Grip carries a CPM-M4 Blade and it is discontinued for quite a while. Besides that the blade is individually numbered. But I got a very kind answer, stating that they are willing to ship a new blade as well as a new nickel plated clip to Germany. Only thing they were asking is whether I am able to change the nickel plated thumb studs from the old blade to the new blade, as they do not have any of them left for spare deliveries. Well. Knowing a knife dealer here in Germany who is doing all kind of great metal works to knives I wasn't worried about that point. So Benchmade shipped everything out. It took a while to get the shipment into my hands as it was "missing in transition" for about 2 months and it took another month until the German knife dealer did have time to do the blade exchange.
Receiving and opening the parcel from Benchmade I was positively surprised about the fact that they even reproduced the individual number at the new blade, which is great. The blade came with the basic grind but the final sharpening wasn't done at purpose. So send the knife and the new blade to my dealer, asked him to put the old thumb studs into the new blade, exchange the blade and to do a nice sharpening job to the new blade. This is how it went. The disassembled blade is the old, damaged one.
Interesting to see, that the individual number and alle the other writings on the new blade, including the Benchmade name at the opposite side, is much better, clearer, sharper lasered, as at the old blade. Within a direct comparision the difference and the improvement is very obvious.
The 2 damages at the old blade:
The new blade:
The difference of the lasering:
New:
Old grind:
New Grind:
Now I am happy that the Gold Class Grip looks like it is suppose to look and I am very pleased about the kind support of Benchmade.
At the end some more pics.
Cheers,
