I love Benchmade knives! Some are perfect some needs a little adjustments... no big deal for me. The three biggest complaints with BM knives seemes to be..
1. Not sharp enough
2. Blade not centered.
3. Pivot screw gets loose and creates bladeplay.
1. Sharpness is quite subjective. What´s sharp for me may not be sharp for you (if you want to slize toiletpaper).
2. As long as it don´t touch anything I don´t mind. If it´s horrible bent (like yours) just return it.
3. Maybe that´s the price for being able to adjust opening manually. Some of my BM has the loose pivot screw and I have to fix it with teflon tape and some has been perfect from the beginning. I´ll rather have it this way than not be able to adjust it myself.
I think much of this is because of online shopping. You´ll place an order and hope for the best. If you buy it at a regular store much of this wouldn´t happen. If you handle the knife before buying it you wouldn´t get lemons like this.
I'll number my responses to your points:
1. I agree. For instance, this Bone Collector came less sharp than the $16 Kershaw Chill I just bought, but I know from personal experience that it is a cinch to get a bleeding edge on Kershaw's lower end steels. Even a novice sharpener can put a respectable edge on them. Getting D2 even moderately sharp is a feat in itself, but you're rewarded with a tough as nails edge once you do get it. That said, this Benchmade was well above what I would consider acceptable... it was very sharp, just not ridiculously sharp.
2. I personally don't care if the blade is 100% perfectly centered. I do care if it has an effect on operation. The only place I am notoriously picky is in the bevel, and this knife had a superb bevel, very even and good angle on both sides.
3. I like an easy to adjust pivot. It's something that you must constantly work on any knife to account for wear. That said, a loose pivot is easily remedied with blue loctite.
Although Benchmade addressed this problem in a timely and satisfactory fashion, as they should have, the real issue needs to be addressed. They need to stop these defective knives from leaving the factory before their reputation gets more tarnished.
I completely agree.
To be fair, I feel that perhaps the advent of online sales may be at fault. A lot of people are buying a lot of knives that they have never seen in person, and once the knife gets there and is a hassle to return, they are more likely to just settle and keep it.
If one was purchasing in a store, they would be forced to see the knife first, and would be much less likely to accept a substandard knife. If knife sales were only allowed in person (much like guns, not that I would want that), then people would be forced to inspect the item upon purchase and would immediately have an oppurtunity to reject with little inconvenience.
I feel that there are a lot of knives being sold in all brands, that never would have cut the mustard if the sales were strictly brick and mortar. Because of this, I feel that the knife companies are getting a falsified view of just how acceptable their overall quality standard is.
If Benchmade was having piles of knives come back from every reseller, and losing their arses money-wise, trust me, they would have this QC problem fixed a LONG time ago. Instead, people are taking knives that they shouldn't, and Benchmade has a false view of its own quality.
For instance, if this knife that I bought (which is far beyond unacceptable), was purchased by a right hander, it might never have even made its way back to Benchmade.
This may be an unpopular statement, but the drop of quality in any given brand is as much the customer's fault as it is the company's. If the customer doesn't speak up, then the company will just assume that they are doing good enough, even if they aren't.
