first benchmade first impressions?

L

lobodelanoche

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Feb 7, 2012
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The title is a little miss leading, this is REALLY my second Benchmade but i kept the first one, a mini onslaught, for literally 1 day. SO this is my first "real" Benchmade. I just received a HG 555 (mini Grip). I bought this to replace the Delica I traded a while back and while i still miss the old girl, i love my new mistress ;) haha. The quality is what I've come to expect from Benchmade, both from experience and reputation. The grips are pleasant to hold, but Im a cheap date and like frn. The blade centering is perfect and the pocket clip is large for the knife but well placed and a good balance of strong and easy to take in and out of my pocket. The lock up is great and it was razor sharp out of pouch. The blade, handle ratio is better that the delica and it fits almost perfectly in my hand, thought the delica was EVER so slightly better, or i have rose colored glasses on, either way the BM is still great. They're 2 thing id like to change right off the bat. 1. Id make the handle and blade jimping sharper and 2. I'd raise the deployment hole hight from the handle and make it larger, like the delica/ endura hole. I do love my spydies but I'm falling fast for that butterfly. Oh, and one QC thing, the grind angles are very noticeably off at the tip, but still sharp.

Now that im done talking to much, How was your first flight with the butterfly? and if you own both Spyderco and Benchmade, which do you prefer and why?
 
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Spyderco never turned my crank. odd blade humps to accomodate the hole and the hole opener doesn't work right for me, I can never get them to open properly...

But Benchamde has generally been a source of good quality knives for me. In fact my first "good" folder was a benchmade. ... That said they have hits and flops in my book, kershaw is usually more consistenly in line with my taste.

All three make a good quality product, at prices that vary from reasonble to a bit on the high side.
 
I was lucky in that my first Benchmade about 12 years ago was the 940, which to me is a near-perfect design. Thin, light, portable, and very capable, it was my EDC for about 6 years and the knife I've used more than any of my other knives. Since then I've amassed a pretty good collection of Benchmades and Spydercos, and despite the fact that Benchmade was my first love I don't really have a preference. I think both brands complement each other wonderfully; they simply tend towards different styles. I love the Axis lock but then I also really like the Spyderhole and the variety of locks Spyderco uses. Room for all, I say. :)
 
Jesse B. said:
I was lucky in that my first Benchmade about 12 years ago was the 940, which to me is a near-perfect design. Thin, light, portable, and very capable, :)
Click to expand...

LUCKY DOG! I've been drooling about the 940 for 2 years now. And i see what your saying, and if I'm honest, I like more Spyderco designs than Benchmade.
 
I have 5 BM's and 3 Spydies. I dont know why but BM has my vote! I love their designs and their F&F are great but not perfect. Spyderco has the best F&F in my opinion but their designs are all redundant. I do like them a lot though but I prefer BM or Spyderco just for the variety. Ive only had one problem with a Benchmade and that was my 943 with its extreme play but I called BM and they said to send it in to get fixed and were really nice about it! Great company!
 
I've owned several Benchmade's and several Spyderco's. While Benchmade does make a nice knife with good materials and fit and finish, Spyderco has my vote.
My very first Benchmade was a 943(back when I didn't want to mess up my knives by carrying). I was kinda new to knives(really good knives) and was absolutely hooked on getting a Benchmade(I truly have no idea why). I was super impressed and loved the knife. But it just didn't wow me like other knives do(Spyderco's for instance) Ended up trading it.

Spyderco can be different and out there but they make it work. They take awesome materials and make a knife that just simply works. They're good looking and function perfectly. The fit and finish on their products(even the cheaper ones) is amazing.

For some reason Spyderco just appeals to me, feels like a knife should, and have really great prices for everything you get.
Not every Spyderco is for me of course but that can be the same for anyone with any knife company you love. But I find that there are many more Spyderco's out there for me than any other company(though I'm kinda hooked on CRK right now).
 
My EDC is a Benchmade 580 Barrage. It has really been a great knife.

BM-580-Benchmade-Barrage.jpg


I like every aspect of the Spyderco knives except for the styling. They are great, just not my cup of tea.
 
I think an Endura was my first real quality production knife... and my second was a 710. I've been going back and forth ever since. :D

I'm on kind of a BM kick right now, but that's because they've got so many LEs in awesome steels at the moment. I'm waiting on the CTS-204P Para2 right now... and the more pics I see of the Gayle Bradley Air the more I like it.

Two awesome companies with some really cool designs and materials... what's not to like?
 
My first Benchmade was a 556 mini grip. I have a few Benchmades and Spydercos and they are all great knives. My favorite is the 556 mini. I have an old single blade slipjoint that may be 70 or so years old. I look at the mini grip as the incarnation of that tool with modern refinements. The grip opens and closes smoothly with one hand. The axis lock allows the blade to close without the need for fingers to cross the path of the blade. I have the pivot screw set so when I release the lock, the blade can gently close from gravity. The handle material is tougher than the bone handles on the old slipjoint, but it's basically the same tool. It's the knife I carry most often.
 
I bought a Tenacious as my starter Spyderco.. I loved it! Even though it was one of their cheaper knives it was still a great knife. I have since given my Tenacious to my nephew as his starter knife, hes just getting into the outdoor lifestyle so I sent him my like new Tenacious with a bright yellow lanyard and a few other survival gadgets. After my Tenacious I bought an Endura 4 (CE in VG-10) and traded for a Zulu in S30V. I loved all my Spydies, but have recently traded my Zulu for a bigger knife. The Endura 4 is still a go-to for hunting/camping/fishing trips.

My first Benchmade was purchased very recently, a Benchmade Mini Bone Collector. I bought this knife to fill in the void of a small work knife that was previously filled by my Zulu. I absolutely love my Mini Bone Collector! I especially love the Axis lock, its very addictive. Now I wish I had the full size Bone Collector! In fact I ordered a Griptilian 550HG over the weekend, it should arrive in a few days. Benchmade is definitely one of my favorite brands, along with Kershaw/ZT and Spyderco.

Now for the hard part.. I have only owned three Spydies and two Butterflies (as soon as my Grip comes in) so remember that when reading this. Since I dont have my grip yet I will only compare my Zulu to my Mini BC. I loved the scales on the Zulu, if I really wanted to I could get some customized for my Benchmades, they felt a little more secure. BUT the Mini BC grip feels much more comfortable. I liked the look of the blade on both knives, maybe the Zulu a tiny tiny bit more, but I would like to change a bit of the blade to make it look better. To clearify, I like the recurve of the Zulu.. the deep belly in particular.. but because of the style of the spine, the blade didnt have the width it could have which would have looked better and been stronger. The Mini BC blade looks amazing as is, and I wouldnt change anything... I mean we would all like to design our own folders but the knife is perfect for style and function as is. Im just a sucker for wide blades, so both knives would look better to me if they were wider. BUT the way the function and feel is what counts. I always love that Spyderco feels good in the hand and feels like a strong knife. Benchmade also feels very comfortable in the hand and feels like a strong knife. All in all I love both brands... but I love the Axis Lock from benchmade more than the liner or lock back from Spyderco (I have no experience with the Spyderco Compression lock or Axis lock rip off). I also love the better variety of Benchmades style of knives over Spyderco. Most Spydercos look similar, but they do have a few knives that look different from the pack, some of them are nice and some are ugly IMO. Benchmade knives have much more variety in style, and Overall, have more sexy knives than Spyderco IMHO. Dont get me wrong, I love them both, and Spyderco has some bad ass, sexy, sick looking knives.. Benchmade just has more of them. There is only one knife I would take from Spyderco over ALL Benchmades... and that is the Lionspy.

Overall, I have a very short list of THREE favorite brands... And BOTH Spyderco and Benchmade are on that list. And this is the list and this list is in order from first favorite to third favorite:

ZT/Kershaw (Mostly the ZT line)
Benchmade
Spyderco

MY Dream Knife is a ZT 30X with a SpyderHole and Benchmade Axis Lock!
 
I have Several Spydercos and a couple of Benchmades. They all get carried and used for various things. My "herd" is 80% Spyderco witha couple of BMs and 4 Sebenzas thrown in. My first BM was a green 940 in 154CM. Nice knife, great intro tothe AXIS lock, just not a good fit for what I like in a folder. I'm fine with BM's QC, they just don't have a lot of models right now that fit my tastes. The ones I like, however, I really like. I'm currently carrying a Rift and I have a B/U for it on the way since it's now disco'd. I also like their small BC, although I don't currently have one. And I think the mini-Barrage is one of the best AOs out there, I just don't like AOs.

I'm also having some of the same issues with Spyderco right now in that they aren't doing a lot of new things that I like. But they have some older models that work well for me so my collection is heavily weighted toward that brand. I've got several Paras and Millies, half a dozen Delicas in different flavors, a Gayle Bradley (the only Spyderco collab that I've ever really liked), and a Sage 1.

I don't really have a preference for one brand over the other. I look at the individual knives and decide whether I'm interested. I'm fine with the quality that both companies turn out.
 
I say room for both, here is my first benchmade (581 Barrage) next to some of my spidies. I did have a mini onslaught too, but sold it. I will never sell my barrage. I plan to also add a Ritter mini grip and a 755 Siebert MPR down the road. my only complaint with the 581 Barrage is that it could use some jimping for your thumb.

3bf984a3.jpg
 
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I love benchmade and spyderco equally.

Both tickle me fancy in their own ways. My most carried EDC is a sage 2 and a 930 kulgera.

Both brands execute what the do extremely well, spyderco has the edge with pricing IMO. Benchmade needs to do more sprints instead of their overpriced gold class.
 
On the subject of Benchmade v. Spyderco...I own several of both, but had Benchmades before I ever got a Spyderco. When I finally got into Spydercos, the absolute first thing I noticed was how scary sharp they come from the factory. I literally have never had a Benchmade come out of the box being what I consider sharp. Still like them, the axis lock is great. I just wish they could take a page from Spydercos book on sharpening.
 
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