Is it just me, or Benchmade knives come from factory almost dull ?

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chipdouglas

Joined
Nov 26, 2009
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I have two Benchmade knives, lots of Spyderco's and EKI.
Spyderco knives clearly come almost razor sharp out of the box, and Emerson's no doubt are razor sharp from the factory.

Now Benchmade sucks at this. My Mc Henry & William was almost dull out of the box and even worse for my BM nitrous stryker.

Overall, I'm not very impressed with BM knives for the price point.

Any of you feel the same or I'm just being whiny ?
 
I currently have around 55 Benchmades, and have owned/traded more than that over the years. I've only run into 3 if I recall correctly that weren't as sharp as I'd have liked. An older 800HSS that wasn't quite right, and more recently a couple 806BT-901's that weren't sharp enough either. So, not too bad in my experience I guess. In fairness though, I've run into less-sharp pieces from Spyderco, Cold Steel, Kershaw, etc. Likely just depends on who's doing the sharpening and final QC that day...
 
I would definitely agree that my 710 was rather dull out of the box. However, my BM 943 came shaving sharp but not hair whittling sharp. I recently picked up a Nimravus as well as a Grip and both were passably sharp. Actually, my first Nagara was the sharpest folding knife out of box I've experienced yet. Compared to my G-10 Endura and Delica 4, the 943 and Nagara were both sharper.

Honestly I think it just depends on how interested the guy/girl who sharpens the edge before it leaves the factory is into their job. Everyone's "sharp" is subjective. Also, it probably depends on when during their shift your knife was sharpened. I'd imagine that their last few knives on their shift aren't as sharp as some they did earlier.

The sharpest knife I've gotten ever gotten would probably be a tie between three Shuns.
 
RoadMaster78 said:
I currently have around 55 Benchmades, and have owned/traded more than that over the years. I've only run into 3 if I recall correctly that weren't as sharp as I'd have liked. An older 800HSS that wasn't quite right, and more recently a couple 806BT-901's that weren't sharp enough either. So, not too bad in my experience I guess. In fairness though, I've run into less-sharp pieces from Spyderco, Cold Steel, Kershaw, etc. Likely just depends on who's doing the sharpening and final QC that day...
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Ok. Good to know. So far as I'm concerned, all of my Spyderco knives came out of the box almost razor sharp. Maybe things have changed over time, or the one guy doing the QC that day was lazier.
 
chipdouglas said:
Overall, I'm not very impressed with BM knives for the price point.
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I'm not a huge fan of Benchmade, apart from the 710 that I carried for years. Their designs don't really speak to me very much and honestly, I think some of their designs are boring and some are bordering on mall ninja.

That said, they make an excellent quality product at their price point.

My 710 did come about as dull as a piece of chewing gum, but the grinds were even so sharpening it wasn't an issue at all.

chipdouglas said:
Any of you feel the same or I'm just being whiny ?
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I wouldn't say you're being whiny, but a dull knife out of the box isn't anything to complain about. You're going to have to sharpen it eventually anyway, and if you have to do it on day one, you can go ahead and set the edge the way you want it from the very beginning and not have to take the time to do it later.

If you don't want to have to sharpen a new knife, I'd suggest staying away from Queen as they use D2 and don't typically come anywhere close to sharp.
 
I don't but many Benchmades but the few that I have bought were reasonably sharp. Of the big three, Benchmade is my least favorite. It is mostly a styling thing.
 
udtjim said:
I don't but many Benchmades but the few that I have bought were reasonably sharp. Of the big three, Benchmade is my least favorite. It is mostly a styling thing.
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By the big three, you likely mean Spyderco, Benchmade and ZT/EKI ?

Likewise, I'm not a real fan of BM knives. Quality is fine really, but their design just doesn't appeal to me that much.
 
The big 3 is Kershaw, Spyderco and Benchmade. I would agree that I wish benchmade would put a lot more acute edges on their blades. I've bought quite a few lately and ALL of them came with an edge of about 50 degrees. This included mini rukus, 2 griptilians, aphid, 960, and 2 mini barages. I can see having a more obtuse edge on say the mini rukus and maybe the barages but I think it's kind of ridiculous to see this kind of edge on all models. Don't get me wrong I love benchmade and will continue to buy them and reprofile them but its just quite frustrating when I get a $30 knife from kershaw or spyderco and it has a much finer more refined edge than my $200 rukus. It almost sickens me.
 
chipdouglas said:
I have two Benchmade knives, lots of Spyderco's and EKI.
Spyderco knives clearly come almost razor sharp out of the box, and Emerson's no doubt are razor sharp from the factory.

Now Benchmade sucks at this. My Mc Henry & William was almost dull out of the box and even worse for my BM nitrous stryker.

Overall, I'm not very impressed with BM knives for the price point.

Any of you feel the same or I'm just being whiny ?
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I've got some issues with BM. My experience has been that their QC has been severely lacking the last half year or so.
And their current pricing nonsense annoys me.

However,
in general all my Benchmades have been decently sharp...at least to my standards. A gold class I got was probably the least sharp (kind of surprising considering how much they tout the gold) but it was "accesptable".

One member on here pointed out that he really doesn't like to get knives razor sharp from the factory because he prefers to put the final edge on himself.
 
nevermind35 said:
The big 3 is Kershaw, Spyderco and Benchmade. I would agree that I wish benchmade would put a lot more acute edges on their blades. I've bought quite a few lately and ALL of them came with an edge of about 50 degrees. This included mini rukus, 2 griptilians, aphid, 960, and 2 mini barages. I can see having a more obtuse edge on say the mini rukus and maybe the barages but I think it's kind of ridiculous to see this kind of edge on all models. Don't get me wrong I love benchmade and will continue to buy them and reprofile them but its just quite frustrating when I get a $30 knife from kershaw or spyderco and it has a much finer more refined edge than my $200 rukus. It almost sickens me.
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Sickened is exactly how I felt. I'll keep buying Spyderco's, Emerson's and Kershaw.
 
I have owned dozens of Benchmades. A small number of them came with poor edges, but most have come with great edges.
I have also received brand new knives that were not sharp at all from other highly-regarded knife companies.
 
I posted about this very subject when I got my new Mini-grip. It was one of the dullest knives out of the box I have ever bought. It sharpened up nicely, but I never thought I would have to do that to a brand new edge. Previous BM blades I got I had no issues with.
 
Sharpness out of box doesn't mean much to me, just a few more minutes on the stones.
 
I'm also comparing price point. For the same money in say ZT, you get a heck of a knife as opposed to most BM, but then they're different types of knives so I'm not sure this analogy is relevant.

For those who have ZT knives, how sharp do they come out of the box ?
 
Sithus1966 said:
I posted about this very subject when I got my new Mini-grip. It was one of the dullest knives out of the box I have ever bought. It sharpened up nicely, but I never thought I would have to do that to a brand new edge. Previous BM blades I got I had no issues with.
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A poster alluded at the fact that for about a year and a half, QC has been poor over at BM. This might be why some find their knives to be duller than others bought previously, but then I can't believe no one at BM has spotted this.
 
"Dull" is very subjective. In relative terms, BM's have been less sharp than Spyderco's and Kershaws out of the box for me. In the last year I've gotten a 940, 440, 556, Mini-Rukus, and 707 and all have had OK edges, but not impressive. AFTER about an hour of working them on various sharpening devices, they're razors and have held their edges well. I tend to favor the brand for its overall quality and designs, but the factory edges seem to have been steep and poor in recent months.
 
I don't have a whole lot of BM knives, but I do know that the dullest knife out of the box I ever bought was a BM 9050. I could litterally run my thumb up and down the edge with impunity. It took a lot of work with a SharpMaker to put a decent edge on that knife.
 
I have been disappointed with several BM's being dull out of the box, including the Ritter Survival Knife Griptillian. A dull survival knife!! There must be a low cost way of testing for a sharp edge before it leaves the factory. Maybe a cutting machine or a laser? IDK, but I'm not a knifemaker either. I still like BM overall; blade dullness is my only design/quality complaint.
 
My Kulgera was dull out of the box and what is worse is the grinds on either side of the blade were grossly uneven. The sv30 steel sharpened up nicely, though.
 
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