Stryker dull out of the box. Will Benchmade reprofile?

[Gaston444]

Placing high expectations on any factory sharpening where your blade is ran across a high speed grinder then quickly buffed to kinda remove the burr is setting yourself up for disappointment.

I am not a old man but even in my up bringing it was almost standard that a knife needed sharpening right out of the box. I would have never though to send it back to the place where it was not done to my expectations the first time.

I have to say I agree that doesn't make sense... You send it back to people who don't care how this reflected on their reputation and workmanship on a finished item the first time around?

I just tried sending the Boker Apparo to a professional sharpener, Razor Edge Knives. I'll see how this turns out, because as delivered I think the knife is sharper sideways... Basically the "sharpening" will involve making a new knife out of the blank shape I think... What the heck is this?!

As far as knives needing sharpening in the "old" days, I don't buy it. Those you would expect to sharpen yourself -when new- were cheap knives with thin blades, not the hyper expensive "works of art" often peddled today. There is no reason a thick strong blade would expect you to completely re-grind the entire bevel thinner, and yet, besides my CR one-piece and my BK-9 (and some Cold Steel like the San Mai SRK) that's the way fixed blades often come, regardless of price...

Not that many fixed blades knives today are sharp from the box, even customs going out at stratospheric prices, and sometimes the edge thickness is beyond anything that is not a belt grinder. Even a well known custom knife I got was butter dull at $600. I just don't get it. The sharpest fixed blade I've ever owned was the cheap sandblasted version of the EK Warrior Bowie, with crude unshaped wood handles (what a concept!)... It had a guard that shook, and I ruined the point tring to bend the guard to steady it... Then I got the expensive EK bowie version, twice the price, and that was butter dull again... I just don't get it...

Folders are usually much sharper than fixed blades out of the box, because of the thinner stock, so I find the notion of an expensive name brand folder coming out dull even more offensive and inexcusable.

Gaston

 

[StuntDouble]

i got the serrated one.

It seems like I always see more obtuse edges on the combo edge blades, compared to plain edged ones. I've seen it on other brands as well. I wonder why that is..I'm thinking I'm going to have mine switched out for a plain edge. I'm finding I avoid the serrations for most of the stuff I actually use a knife for. Plus, I'm not really a fan of the Benchmade serrations and how they sit on the edge.

Gaston444,

I've seen a few instances where folks sent a knife back to Benchmade that had an edge that wasn't up to snuff, and it came back scary sharp. That's the main reason I considered going that route. It would be a lot cheaper than getting it done by a resharpener.


I'd love to come up with a grinder jig design, that would allow someone to just slip the blade in and guide them during the whole sharpening process. It would help eliminate the human error factor, and I think it would improve the consistency of the edges. With hand ground edges, it seems like there's a lot of things that could affect the outcome of the final sharpening, ranging from the experience of the sharpener, to how tired they are by the time they get that last knife. Of course, I'm not an engineer, so I don't know if that sort of thing is even possible.

 

[cchu518]

I would do it yourself! Or have one of the guys on the forum do it. You will get a better edge!

 

[chanrobi]

I bought a mini-grip last year, again combo edge, tanto/serration and it was dull as crap out of the box. Barely could use it to cut butter. Was kind of disappointed as it was my first pocket knive that i've bought :/