Dear Benchmade,

Just un boxed the 781.
Absolutely dead NUTS perfectly centered....dead NUTS!!
Absolutely gorgeous!!
Extremely light!
Feels amazing in hand, not a hot spot to be found!!
The action is super silky smooth and a free dropped out of the box!
Locks up stupid tight! No movement at all!
Love the rounded spine! The edge is one of the sharpest out of box I've seen! Push cuts phone book paper almost silently!
The only gripe is the pocket clip. It sits bout 1/8" off the scale. Weird.
It really is as good as I could have hoped! Beautiful knife and I'm thrilled with it!
Joe
 
palonej said:
Just un boxed the 781.
Absolutely dead NUTS perfectly centered....dead NUTS!!
Absolutely gorgeous!!
Extremely light!
Feels amazing in hand, not a hot spot to be found!!
The action is super silky smooth and a free dropped out of the box!
Locks up stupid tight! No movement at all!
Love the rounded spine! The edge is one of the sharpest out of box I've seen! Push cuts phone book paper almost silently!
The only gripe is the pocket clip. It sits bout 1/8" off the scale. Weird.
It really is as good as I could have hoped! Beautiful knife and I'm thrilled with it!
Joe
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Any way to fix the clip?
 
I'll honestly never understand why they put bearings in this knife. The AXIS lock is already at some times TOO smooth, like it will literally fall closed at free fall speed. And opening? heck, there is almost zero resistance, sometimes my Benchmades deploy too quickly when im even trying to deploy them slow to the point my thumb has to catch up with the stud, and there is zero play since i like the pivot fairly snug. It's just to jump on the bearing train with all the other manufacturers. There's this notion now days that all super slick super cool fast premium deploying knives are on bearings. Funny thing is, hardly any manufacturers have cared a hoot to even put a steel washer type interface between the super hard bearings and the titanium scales. After years of use and tightening of the pivot, those bearings will slowly cut tracks in the scales causing worse tolerances then factory. It'll be slow, but it will happen and has happened on bearing knives i've owned. Large sturdy polished PB washers would've been perfect in my opinion. It's funny that out of all the 15 Benchmades i own, the Adamas is still the smoothest, tightest and most well deloying knife of the bunch. For some reason it was just a freak the way it came from the factory.
 
Mick_1KRR said:
It's funny that out of all the 15 Benchmades i own, the Adamas is still the smoothest, tightest and most well deloying knife of the bunch. For some reason it was just a freak the way it came from the factory.
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I've got two Adamas examples, one LNIB and one very well used. Both have about the best combination of smooth action and tight lock up or any of my Axis locks (or folders period). My well worn 940 is also like this. I think the Adamas is just a really well engineered design.

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palonej said:
Just un boxed the 781.
Absolutely dead NUTS perfectly centered....dead NUTS!!
Absolutely gorgeous!!
Extremely light!
Feels amazing in hand, not a hot spot to be found!!
The action is super silky smooth and a free dropped out of the box!
Locks up stupid tight! No movement at all!
Love the rounded spine! The edge is one of the sharpest out of box I've seen! Push cuts phone book paper almost silently!
The only gripe is the pocket clip. It sits bout 1/8" off the scale. Weird.
It really is as good as I could have hoped! Beautiful knife and I'm thrilled with it!
Joe
Click to expand...
Good to hear! Maybe mine was just a lower serial number and that's why I experienced problems.

I too love the design, it's a very sleek/light weight knife. The only thing I wished they incorporated was gimping on the spine of the blade. With the blade being crowned/rounded it can be a little slippery.
 
I'm gonna tend to think you might be kinda screwed on that. The only thing you can adjust is the pivot. You can't even polish the washers because it doesn't have those either. If you really want it centered you will probably have to send it in to Benchmade and they will replace the handle or the blade most likely. One of the two is probably the issue. The blade would be my guess. In my experience it is more often than not the blade causing the issues. Must be ground just a tiny tiny bit off. I have swapped blades in knives and had the new blade center right up when I could never get the old one to center. On the flip side I have dropped the offcenter blade in another handle and it pulled to the same side as before. Sometimes its other factors that can be adjusted but often times its the blade and nothing can be done. Sorry man. You could always play with the pivot and see what happens. I wouldn't clamp down on it to hard because one of the Benchmade reps said it could damage the titanium when the bearings get smashed into the walls of the handle.
 
The wayfarer is a well built blade with a pretty unique aesthetic. The basic framelock/flipper pattern is considered common but the high hollow ground clip point and hidden stop pin set it apart. Their fit and finish is on par with CRK and their spa service is better.
 
I'm new to Benchmade and maybe I got lucky but the two I have bought are perfectly centered and have rock solid lockup, no play anywhere. I bought one in a store and the other online. I've been very impressed. My other experience is with Kershaw and Spyderco, which are also great knives.

I also can't understand why a dealer would ship a knife that they did not check out for these basics before shipping. They know what the customer expects. Of course they shouldn't ship from Benchmade to the dealer without inspection either.
 
I'm in the same boat as you brother, but with way more than 2 without flaws.
I have over 20 and haven't had any issues with them at all.
I guess we're both very lucky.
Bought a few off the Exchange with known issues, O springs broken or chipped blades, and sent them in for tune ups. They came back like new knives.
I have no complaints.
I can't put the burden on dealers to check for issues. Those should never leave the factory......period. Especially the higher end offerings.
Joe


fjblair said:
I'm new to Benchmade and maybe I got lucky but the two I have bought are perfectly centered and have rock solid lockup, no play anywhere. I bought one in a store and the other online. I've been very impressed. My other experience is with Kershaw and Spyderco, which are also great knives.

I also can't understand why a dealer would ship a knife that they did not check out for these basics before shipping. They know what the customer expects. Of course they shouldn't ship from Benchmade to the dealer without inspection either.
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OP, sorry to hear about this poor quality control. 2017 is the year I have sworn off Benchmade, my favorite knife brand since 1998. I gave up because of the exact issues you experienced. I have handled countless models over the years, and the QC is poor. You absolutely must buy in person. For $400 plus for the 781 and about $500 for the 87, they pushed me too far. And ironically, I'm a RIDICULOUS spender! For years I have expected the majority of others to quit Benchmade too, but the majority really do not care enough to never buy their models. I really wish I could own a business like that!
 
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I am on the opposite end of this QC experience.
Every knife I have ever bought, I have gotten on line......... sight unseen.
No really.
The closest BM dealer is far enough away that it eats up a large portion of my day just to visit it.
The prices there have always been considerably higher than what I can find by simply shopping on line.
Out of all the knives I have bought (somewhere between 50 & 70) all have come to me in pretty good shape.
Yes, there have been 4 maybe 5 uncentered blades I have had to remedy myself, true.
Also, there have been few that I would consider not quite sharp enough for fresh out of the box.
But, all in all no lemons.
I only hope I am not jinxing myself by speaking out.
However, it is true.
Oh, I forgot to mention......never had an omega spring break either!
I do have a second hand infidel in CS currently though.
The black blade had been getting scratched by the knifes opening mechanism.
BM has assured me they could fix the issue, even if it meant replacing all the innards and the blade too.
Either way, as you can see, the issues that I have had over the years have been few and the majority of them were very minor.
 
W_cole said:
?..Plus, I've seen other examples of the Anthem and mine wasn't the only one suffering from these problems. The problem is with the QC from benchmade.
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W_cole W_cole I had the pleasant but rare opportunity to visit a brick & mortar knife store today on my way back to town.

They had a 781 Anthem in the case. It was pretty much identical to yours. The blade was noticeably off center. It was easy drop-shut, but bizarrely, at the same time it wasn't smooth. It's hard to explain, but it was kind of like each little ballbearing rolling along, instead of the blade just "gliding." So yeah, I guess the word "gritty" might apply. The pocket clip tip was off the scales too.

palonej palonej , supper glad you got a great one. Some guys have all the luck! I must say, it's a freaking beautiful design. The weight, scales, milling, and blade shape are awesome.
 
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