Has BKC ever used bearings? If not...

O

Omega Leather Works

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Jun 13, 2007
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If not, what is the smoothest knife you know of?

Do you think blade weight has anything to do with it?

Anything you've done to make your knife smoother?

With companies like CRKT that do bearings cheaply it would be cool if BKC did too. Then again CRKT makes most of their knives overseas. Just remembered that...
 
Benchmade hasn't used bearings to my knowledge.

I find my 805 TSEK, 760 Lum and 610 Rukus to be butter smooth.
The 760 is known to have a weak detent but blade weight most likely helps in these three examples.
 
My 710DLC-1 and a 732 that I gave to my father are probably the smoothest two I've ever handled. The KW M390 730, 730BK and 806BK are really close runners-up, though.

Never had as much luck with aluminum handled models - 520, 525, 943. Never seem quite as smooth, and the 525's particularly rough. Funny, though, the 525 is the only alu-handled BM I've still got.
 
My 300SN ball flipper is *the* smoothest knife I've ever handled, regardless of manufacturer. I don't have any experience with ZT knives, though, and I hear they are very nice.
 
Yeah I'm surprised they didn't use bearings in the 300sn. It just seems like the perfect platform. Bali's too for sure.

The reason this even occurred to me is that I've noticed a few differences between Benchmades that I've handled. This "seam", for lack of a better word, is almost completely imperceptible when rotating the blade...

IMAG0560_zpse2780440.jpg


You can see it on the blade steel tang. This seam is not on the other Benchmades I've seen, only my Rift.

It's very very shallow, but when it runs across the axis bar there is the slightest bump. Now I'm counting on you guys being completely nuts like me btw... I would never expect a non knife nut to understand... but I'm wondering if I could take a bit of high grit sandpaper to the area in an attempt to smooth it out. Bad idea?

Also, ive noticed that I can screw my pivot down all the way then back it off a tad and my blade will swing freely with zero play, but then it will start to drag a bit after a few flips. It's not a lube issue because the process is repeatable and I keep it clean and lightly lubed. I think they could have put one more standoff near the lock to keep the scales from compressing with pressure from your hand.

In any case, when I go back to my (brand x) knives they are (being totally honest) far faaaar more rough around the edges in terms of smoothness. That probably has more to do with the models and not the brand, but any of the BM knives I've dealt with seem to be on a higher level of f&f and the high standard for production knives. I dunno, maybe I've just seen excellent examples. ;)
 
At this time the 53 Bali is the only knife that has used bearings to my knowledge. Otherwise its all about machining the perfect parts. All of our full metal liners knives should be smooth as silk. The 300 is a great example of this. If not feel free to send your knife in for our Lifesharp service and we will clean it up and replace the washers to help it snap open like new.
http://www.benchmade.com/services/lifesharp_service.aspx
 
Like you "Strigamort", I live in CA and we have that law about being able to flick open a knive - gravity knife etc.. As a result, I keep my pivot screws pretty tight - it's impossible to flick open one of my knives. Therefore; bearings would be of no advantage to me. However, my knives are very smooth as I go by the old saying they use over in the Traditional Forum -- "Oil the joints".
 
Hands down the 943 is the smoothest knife that I handled from Benchmade.
 
im surprised no one has mentioned the 940 yet, so i will. The 940 although the only benchmade ive owned so far (have 2 bm's shipping to me) is probably the smoothest out their. But i can only assume that most benchmades are about the same in "smoothness" factor
 
Benchmade said:
At this time the 53 Bali is the only knife that has used bearings to my knowledge. Otherwise its all about machining the perfect parts. All of our full metal liners knives should be smooth as silk. The 300 is a great example of this. If not feel free to send your knife in for our Lifesharp service and we will clean it up and replace the washers to help it snap open like new.
http://www.benchmade.com/services/lifesharp_service.aspx
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer Ryan but I am exceedingly pleased with my knife. It's amazing to me how smooth yet tight (tolerances) one can expect for such a low price.

The thoughts I posted were more for conversation than anything else.

I'm really hoping that my offer over on the BKC forums is taken as I'm looking forward to buying a 300sn and a Contego. :thumbup:
 
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