What's the deal with BLEMS? Why buy one?

average gimp said:
I bought one blem, which was a Rainbow Leek that had a broken safety, but was otherwise perfect, for roughly half retail. I requested a new safety piece from Kershaw--they sent two complete assemblies, screws and all, and one of their Torx driver keychains. In less than 5 minutes' work no one could have told the difference between my knife and the full-priced one.
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:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
Great customer service, and warranty work too. How much time did you spend talking to them and fixing the knife?
 
A buddy of mine sold me this Kershaw Ram. It's a blem. I've looked this knife over and the only reason I can guess it was marked as a blem is the little scratch on the blade close to the pivot. I think you can see it in this pic.

As far as functionality? Well the blade is centered, grinds are even and lock up is solid.

This knife has been discontinued for a while, so I'm just thankful to have one, blemish or not.

 
GatorFlash1 said:
Great customer service, and warranty work too. How much time did you spend talking to them and fixing the knife?
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Not sure if you're asking me, but I'll answer. I think this was done with one e-mail; if I called, I wasn't on the phone very long. The repair took maybe 3 minutes if I had to guess.
 
I bought several "Seconds" from Cold Steel back in the day when Cold Steel meant made in America. They are all Carbon V and have served well, the only thing "different" with these is a small unobtrusive "2" numeral on the inside of the guard. Sold off my number 1 Cold Steels and kept the 2's, which have worked fine for years... Cold Steel Carbon 5 was a good steel and CS made great knives from it.
 
DunRanull said:
I bought several "Seconds" from Cold Steel back in the day when Cold Steel meant made in America. They are all Carbon V and have served well, the only thing "different" with these is a small unobtrusive "2" numeral on the inside of the guard. Sold off my number 1 Cold Steels and kept the 2's, which have worked fine for years... Cold Steel Carbon 5 was a good steel and CS made great knives from it.
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How much did you save over a model that was perfect?
 
I found a Spyderco Native 5 S110V / Carbon Fiber blem for less than half of retail.

Had I bought a non-blem I probably wouldn't have used it much.

As stated before, a blem really has little collector value so there's no harm in using it.

Plus, I have a S110V Carbon Fiber version for less than a G-10 version.
 
aquaman67 said:
I found a Spyderco Native 5 S110V / Carbon Fiber blem for less than half of retail.

Had I bought a non-blem I probably wouldn't have used it much.

As stated before, a blem really has little collector value so there's no harm in using it.

Plus, I have a S110V Carbon Fiber version for less than a G-10 version.
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50% off sounds like a fair deal. How's it working for you?
 
I have owned a few blems and usually I can't find why QC would let it pass, all Kerhaw. Kershaw has a great warranty but in my opinion the price reduction is the what the warranty costs. That has been okay with me to save a few bucks. I recently gave my neighbor a s30v Blur blem. He showed it to me a couple days ago and he has managed to crack the blade just above the thumb stud. Normally this would be covered by the warranty but not in the case of this blem. They won't even let me pay to have the blade replaced. Something to consider.
 
I have not bought blems. Traditionally the street price is often about 30% of retail on new knives and I would rather have a new product (passed inspection) than one that I might have doubts about later at 50% of retail price since I can't handle the knife before purchase. But a blem is purchased to use.
 
I'm always a little skeptical of seconds/blems- especially when nothing is wrong "visually"...

bad heat treating/bad steel batches come to mind.
 
Well a proper blem is just a cosmetic issue. The nicer the knife, I should think that a blem would be less attractive purchase. It's hard to imagine settling for a blem Sebenza!!! Frankly, I doubt there is such a thing. I doubt CRK allows them out. Used of course is a different matter.

Blems come into their own with stuff like Himalayan Imports. Relatively rough even in a finished state but tough and serviceable.

Me, I don't buy them.
 
george65 said:
I'm always a little skeptical of seconds/blems- especially when nothing is wrong "visually"...

bad heat treating/bad steel batches come to mind.
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If that were the case, how would the manufacturer know to sell it as a blem?

I suspect that at least some of the "blems" I've purchased at the KAI factory sale aren't, in fact, blems but just discontinued models and pre-production samples they decided to liquidate without warranty.
 
Yalius said:
If that were the case, how would the manufacturer know to sell it as a blem?
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they generally know when they screw up. :D

might not find out about a bad batch until after it is made :confused:


why would they sell a top quality knife as a second?
 
george65 said:
I'm always a little skeptical of seconds/blems- especially when nothing is wrong "visually"...

bad heat treating/bad steel batches come to mind.
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I would think if that were the case , they would get scrapped long before assembly and QC. I have dealt with Kershaw Blems for many years now and have never been disappointed with the value they bring to the end user, Very rarely I will sideline one that I don't feel is worthy for retail. The fact that it is hard most of the time to see why they were rejected, is a testament to Kershaws QC, they want only the best going out the door. I have had thousands of customers purchase factory seconds, with an extremely high satisfaction rate. They are a fantastic value and a great product.
 
george65 said:
they generally know when they screw up. :D

might not find out about a bad batch until after it is made :confused:


why would they sell a top quality knife as a second?
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If it wasn't selling out at the retail price after being discontinued. I'm sure they want to close out old inventory and free up warehouse space, and if there's a case or two of remainders that have been sitting there for a couple years... laser them up with a quick XXXX, mark them down to $30 each, and send them out the door at a loss without warranty. Better to take some revenue on low-velocity stock than let it sit there depreciating for years.

I also acquired a few oddballs at the warehouse that don't seem to be items that ever made it to production, either crazy production errors (blackwashing on blades that aren't sold as blackwashes, wrong pocket clip, serrations on a blade only sold as plain edge) or perhaps a test run to gauge demand. Also the occasional logo-branded knife that doesn't seem to have ever been sold by that company. Those come out about as perfect as I can tell but still marked as no-warranty blems. Makes sense to me.

I've also bought about 20 knives from Dave right above me, 5 of them blems, and the worst issue I could find with any of them was centering. I suspect it's just that KAI has stricter quality expectations than I do.
 
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kershawguy said:
I would think if that were the case , they would get scrapped long before assembly and QC. I have dealt with Kershaw Blems for many years now and have never been disappointed with the value they bring to the end user, Very rarely I will sideline one that I don't feel is worthy for retail. The fact that it is hard most of the time to see why they were rejected, is a testament to Kershaws QC, they want only the best going out the door. I have had thousands of customers purchase factory seconds, with an extremely high satisfaction rate. They are a fantastic value and a great product.
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Well stated Dave, have had zero issue with the knives that I have bought from you. thanks for what you do for your customers, sir!!
 
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