- Joined
- Mar 21, 2010
- Messages
- 549
I love my 496. What's that beauty next to it though?
Benchmade's 3 best qualities are their designs, their materials, and their customer service. Their worst qualities, based on what others are saying, are their QC and their prices. As far as I'm concerned their prices are just fine as long as the QC is done right. I've owned 3 and had zero problems except when I did stupid stuff, which they fixed for me. As far as the price, I used to think they were expensive before really delving into the knife world. I think their prices are justified though, especially because so many other popular makers (Hinderer, Chris Reeve, ZT, etc.) leave me cold, stylistically speaking anyway, and cost more with no quantifiable justification. If Benchmade was 100% rigorous about QC then I think there's nothing bad anyone could say about them, unless they participate in some unethical business practice that I don't know of.