People were asking a couple days after he said it would be mailed, maybe not actually after being sent back. That and knowing how SHOT Show is a mad scramble for all manufacturers to get their best and brightest products to show off has an impact on time for just about company. As far as "judgement" is concerned, maybe "experience" would be a different/better word to describe. Not everyone uses their knvies the same way. Jason here has his own methods for testing an edge and they work for him others do have others that work for them. No one way is really "better" than another, just different is all. It is entirely possible that Benchmade changed up their heat treat or maybe they did have a bad batch, who knows, (we will surely never know, that much I can assure you). I am glad that the few M390 Benchmades I have do work well. I'm interested too in seeing how this pans out.