M4 Mini Grip Quality question

This is a little concerning. Why is BM sending out knives with burnt blade tips ? Is it isolated to the M4 blades ?
I checked with the dealer, too see if a particular number was available, and was going to order one before I go to bed.... Perhaps I will send a note asking if they can sort through the remaining knives, and find one without a burnt tip.
I seem to recall the first people that got them, posted pictures, and didn't mention this issue. Maybe it is only a segment of the production.

This is not the kind of QC that Benchmade has delivered over the years... Any company can have issues, but these should have never left the building imho...
 
I have the same type of holes on my m4 ritter mini as well as my m390 ares. My best guess is they are used to identify blade steel before the blades are finished and marked.
 
Forgive me for being ignorant here, but what exactly do you mean by a burnt tip? I'm assuming that you are referring to excessive friction during grinding and thus burning the tip, but I am having a hard time believing that something like that wouldn't stand out so much that it could possibly get by QC before being shipped out.

Could somebody please post a picture or two for reference? I have one of these M4's and as far as I can tell, mine looks good.
 
Where are you guys getting Wilkins Grips from? direct from Europe? Nice grips but at $150 im not sure if I dislike my handles that much :o
 
ar11 said:
Where are you guys getting Wilkins Grips from? direct from Europe? Nice grips but at $150 im not sure if I dislike my handles that much :o
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Yup, aside from finding a pair on the second hand market, ordering directly from wilkins is the only way to get them. They're not cheap, but custom scales really transform the griptilians, and paired with a limited edition m4 blade, makes for a fantastic knife, easily worth the cost.

Cuscadi scales are a bit cheaper, are of similar high quality, and can be made in a nearly infinite combination of materials, milling, and finishes, but there is a longer wait time in comparison to wilkins.
 
mkjellgren said:
Yup, aside from finding a pair on the second hand market, ordering directly from wilkins is the only way to get them. They're not cheap, but custom scales really transform the griptilians, and paired with a limited edition m4 blade, makes for a fantastic knife, easily worth the cost.

Cuscadi scales are a bit cheaper, are of similar high quality, and can be made in a nearly infinite combination of materials, milling, and finishes, but there is a longer wait time in comparison to wilkins.
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I dunno if it was because I just got plain textured black g10 but my Cuscadi grips shipped about a week after I ordered them and arrived in about just a week more. The whole experience from order to arrival definitely took right about 10 business days.

Further side note, order custom scales! I've found both pair I've had to be extremely worth it.
 
Accelerator said:
Forgive me for being ignorant here, but what exactly do you mean by a burnt tip? I'm assuming that you are referring to excessive friction during grinding and thus burning the tip, but I am having a hard time believing that something like that wouldn't stand out so much that it could possibly get by QC before being shipped out.

Could somebody please post a picture or two for reference? I have one of these M4's and as far as I can tell, mine looks good.
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I inspected my M4 Mini Grip and I don't see any evidence of a burnt blade tip. But then I've never seen a knife with a burnt tip before so I'm not sure I'd even know how to recognize it. I'd also like to see pictures of a burnt tip if someone (Luis G.??? CWIN???) would be willing to post them. If not, could someone tell me what a burnt blade tip looks like? :confused:

EDIT: I did a little looking around and came up with this thread from 2009:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...t-from-factory-sharpening?highlight=burnt+tip

Here's a pic that accompanied the thread:

L1010865.JPG]


It looks like the coating on the blade tip of this Mini Rukus is slightly darker than the rest of the coating. Is that what you guys are talking about?
 
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Here's a picture.



I did some light cutting, I see no difference between the tip and belly as far as edge retention. Still sending it in to benchmade.
 
Luis G. said:
Here's a picture.



I did some light cutting, I see no difference between the tip and belly as far as edge retention. Still sending it in to benchmade.
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Mine is the same but I'm too lazy to put the original grips back on and send it in.
 
Mine dosen't have a burnt tip but last week I was in a store with the family and on my very first day of carrying the M4 mini grip clipped inside my jeans pocket I reached inside my pocket and the blade was just barely open enough to cut the crap out of the outside of my finger. I had to walk around holding a paper towel on the cut. I've never had that happen before.
 
I decided to inspect my M4MG under magnification and it has the same kind of discoloration Luis's has. There's just a tiny bit of it on the spine right at the tip of the blade and without magnification, it's difficult to see on mine. I can't detect any discoloration on the bevel itself, so I can't tell whether whatever caused it affected the steel or just the coating. But if the blade wasn't coated, it might not be visible at all.

One way or the other, I imagine it will disappear completely after a sharpening or two. So I think I'll just let it be.
 
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I believe the burnt marks on the tip, are just discoloration of the grey coating and nothing to do with blade integrity. I have no plans of sending mine back but am curious as to what BM says?
 
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After looking at the pictures and knowing how to identify the burnt tip, I inspected mine and sure enough, I has the same discoloration. I'm not too worried about it however, it is only on the tip and I am so happy that this one is centered that I'm not going to let the tip be of much concern. The last 2 Grips that I've purchased have been so off-centered that I had to send them in for repair.
 
Interestingly, this phenomenon only seems to affect coated blades and then only those with light blade coatings. I can't find any evidence of it on uncoated blades or blades with dark (i.e., black) coatings.

I too will be interested to hear what Benchmade has to say . . .
 
just ordered my M4 Mini-grip from GP today, I will let you know as my next move is to order some Wilkins grips for it
 
No burnt tip though. Correction: burnt tip/coating just as far as the grind goes. Had to look at it with a loupe...
Also had to tighten the thumb studs. They were completely loose out of the box.

I got two 556-1303s (#2 and #16). Exact same deal with both knives.

I'm happy with the knife. Didn't notice before I read this thread.

image_zps827a294c.jpg
 
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mkjellgren said:
I have the same type of holes on my m4 ritter mini as well as my m390 ares. My best guess is they are used to identify blade steel before the blades are finished and marked.
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Don't think it's to identify blade steel. Compare the different "hole" pattern on the OP's knife and on one of mine...
I don't know. Should I disassemble some other M4 BMs and mini grips just because of my curiosity? I've never seen such holes on a BM blade and I got more than I can count right now.
 
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