Hey guys just wanted to let everyone know I recently sent Benchmade a broken and abused 9050 back for service. The spring was broken and the lock was sticking. I asked them to fix those issues and replace the partially serrated blade with a plain edge at my cost. I just got my knife back today and let me tell you Im blown away. Obviously they fixed the spring issue the invoice said they replaced the lock bar as well, they sent me a new pocket clip with screws along with the original, but the best part is they replaced the blade for free and it came INCREDIBLY sharp. I have 3 AFOs including this one, a full size barrage and a sequel and this was sharper than any of them by far. Id say its edge pro sharp. If they were nice enough to do all that for free I thought Id sing their praises on the forum.
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- Thread starter rdrkt
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2011
- Messages
- 24
I agree with Richard J. I got my first Benchmade last month. EXCELLENT knife, but the edge looks like they sharpened it by scraping it on the sidewalk ten times on one side of the blade, and three times on the other side. It was sharp and it would cut paper easily. But blade edges sharpened on a course sanding belt don't last long. The sharpening book I just finished reading, "Sharpening Made Easy", by Steve Bottorff, has a paragraph about this type of edge...
"...there are times when a less than perfect edge is desirable. Blades with a rougher edge can be aggressive cutters because the rough edge acts like a microscopic saw. A rough edge is well suited for slicing fibrous material, such as rope. This edge is easy to produce because you just leave out the final polishing steps. The resulting edge consists of thousands of microscopic sharp peaks that act like microscopic serrations. Blades sharpened this way dull faster as the points wear or bend, so more frequent touch-ups are needed."
...and frequent touch-ups with course abrasives remove a lot of metal.
I took a digital microscope video of the edge and sent it to Benchmade. I asked them is my Barrage supposed to be sharpened very roughly and extremely off-center. Here's the reply they sent me...
From: "Nolan Kidwell" <NKidwell@benchmade.com>
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 5:56 PM
Subject: RE: Uneven Sharpening (Sent From Benchmade.com)
You can certainly sharpen your own knife, but please keep in mind that you do have a lifetime warranty and that we do stand behind out product, you can send that into us any time and we can sharpen or address any issues with the knife. Though it is not typical of our product to have that much variance; please be aware that al of our knives are hand sharpened and ground which could account for what you see there. Here is the form for sending that in.
http://www.benchmade.com/about_knive...ice_Letter.pdf
Feel free to call me if you have any questions.
<end of letter>
After seeing how they sharpened my knife, they'll never sharpen a knife for me. I put my own edge on it and made a movie of the process. In the beginning of this video you can see how roughly and unevenly Benchmade sharpened my Barrage Tanto. My Aven digital microscope takes crystal clear videos in .AVI format, but they lose a little clarity when YouTube converts them to Flash Video format...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb6pLo5ieFs
View the video in full screen mode, so you can read the microscope measurements.
"...there are times when a less than perfect edge is desirable. Blades with a rougher edge can be aggressive cutters because the rough edge acts like a microscopic saw. A rough edge is well suited for slicing fibrous material, such as rope. This edge is easy to produce because you just leave out the final polishing steps. The resulting edge consists of thousands of microscopic sharp peaks that act like microscopic serrations. Blades sharpened this way dull faster as the points wear or bend, so more frequent touch-ups are needed."
...and frequent touch-ups with course abrasives remove a lot of metal.
I took a digital microscope video of the edge and sent it to Benchmade. I asked them is my Barrage supposed to be sharpened very roughly and extremely off-center. Here's the reply they sent me...
From: "Nolan Kidwell" <NKidwell@benchmade.com>
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 5:56 PM
Subject: RE: Uneven Sharpening (Sent From Benchmade.com)
You can certainly sharpen your own knife, but please keep in mind that you do have a lifetime warranty and that we do stand behind out product, you can send that into us any time and we can sharpen or address any issues with the knife. Though it is not typical of our product to have that much variance; please be aware that al of our knives are hand sharpened and ground which could account for what you see there. Here is the form for sending that in.
http://www.benchmade.com/about_knive...ice_Letter.pdf
Feel free to call me if you have any questions.
<end of letter>
After seeing how they sharpened my knife, they'll never sharpen a knife for me. I put my own edge on it and made a movie of the process. In the beginning of this video you can see how roughly and unevenly Benchmade sharpened my Barrage Tanto. My Aven digital microscope takes crystal clear videos in .AVI format, but they lose a little clarity when YouTube converts them to Flash Video format...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb6pLo5ieFs
View the video in full screen mode, so you can read the microscope measurements.
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- Joined
- Aug 12, 2011
- Messages
- 24
I don't see telling the truth as bursting anyone's bubble. I'm VERY happy with my Benchmade, and will buy from them again. But I think it's only fair to let people know exactly how Benchmade sharpens their knives. How can that be a bad thing? People come here to learn stuff.
I just wanted to share a good customer service story. I know the common complaint is that Benchmade doesnt ship sharp knives. Ive had a mixture of both. But this replacement one came very sharp IMO and I wanted to share my positive experience.
I would have said abit or a little instead of using the word "extremely", it Its not a perfect edge I'll agree, but its not "extremely" bad either.
