Is this acceptable from $200 knife?

E

endotreated

Joined
Oct 24, 2015
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I own few Kershaw's and ZT's... and I own a few Spyderco's that I absolutely love.
Heard great things about Benchmade and decided to give it a try.

Got my first 551BK-1 Griptilian... great knife, but axis lock would stick so incredibly hard that it was not possible to close the knife with bare hands, and I would have to use some object to push the lock instead of my hands. After a couple of days, my fingers were red and sore... Knife returned and re-ordered...

no lock stick here!!! Except I was thrown off by how bad the grind was! Blade is off center but worse yet, the 2 edges are so different.

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If this was a $30 knife, I would've ignored it... but that's my most expensive knife! Should I really accept such sub-par grind from such a premium knife made by a premium knife maker?

I feel like I just bought a brand-new Lexus and it came with a couple of dents or scratches on it... that's how I view this... Absolutely unacceptable, isn't it?
 
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Manufacturing being what it is, I wouldn't accept it from a $30 knife either.
But, **** happens. If they make it right, chalk it up to a few bad moments at the factory.
 
Updated original post with images...

My options:
1. suck it up, use it as is. But I'm a perfectionist and this is my most expensive knife... It will drive me insane.
2. re-sharpen it and lose a bit of blade and make it more even.
3. send it back to Benchmade
4. return to Amazon and reorder to try my luck again.
 
benchmade is known for very poor quality control with fit and finish. send it back to benchmade to fix it. sometimes people have to send them back several times to fix all the issues.

benchmade just found out about this ongoing issue recently. we don't know if it will help or not. but crossing fingers. anything already on shelves tho... you need to make sure you don't buy sight unseen... basically goto the store and handle a few to pick the best one they have behind the counter.

this is a well known issue among bloggers, reviewers and many of the customers. a lot of fanboys don't know about it tho.

this is probably the only reason why I won't buy benchmade anymore.

I doubt they will fix grind issues. they could probably solve it with some sort of jig, but with so many different models maybe not. being mass produced its not something on most vendors lists to care about.
 
Personally I would return to Amazon and reorder it. You could send it to Benchmade but it would be a 3 week turnaround and you'd have to pay for shipping to them.
 
I am not sure if Benchmade hand grinds its knives but some degree of uneveness is quite standard for blades ground by human hands. That being said that does look like quite a big difference. It's entirely up to you if that is acceptable or not.
 
You should have let the first knife break in, because that tip looks pretty bad.
 
Unfortunately that's pretty standard for Benchmade in my experience. I have a 781 that's not much better. I have a couple 940-1's that are the same way also. I rarely see an even bevel on a Benchmade. It's pretty bad that you can get cheap piece of junk knives with much more even bevels.
 
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I think I'm gonna order another one from Amazon then return whichever one is worse... hopefully the next one is better.

I called so many stored around me and tried really hard, but I couldn't find this knife... I found it in silver blade but not the black blade I wanted.

Thankfully, Amazon is great with returns....
 
Your knife shouldn't have come out of the box that way. Call it too many shift hours, and then with quotas involved? That blade grind is really off the mark. Amazon is great, but if you want faster results shipping the knife up might be the way to go. Benchmade's Customer Service is: 800-800-7427 Cheers! Joe
 
jkarp_53 said:
Your knife shouldn't have come out of the box that way. Call it too many shift hours, and then with quotas involved? That blade grind is really off the mark. Amazon is great, but if you want faster results shipping the knife up might be the way to go. Benchmade's Customer Service is: 800-800-7427 Cheers! Joe
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Thanks... I ordered a second one from Amazon and should arrive within a couple of days... If the second one has issues still, I'll just send one of them back to Amazon and the other to Benchmade.
 
I got a Fallkniven S-1 like that. Told myself, it's a working knife. Only cosmetic. etc.

But every time I see it, I think "Geesh!, why didn't I send it back?"
 
Thomas Linton said:
I got a Fallkniven S-1 like that. Told myself, it's a working knife. Only cosmetic. etc.

But every time I see it, I think "Geesh!, why didn't I send it back?"
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I know myself... I am so anal and precise, it will drive me absolutely insane to the point that I will stop using it... or I'll keep fixing it and lose a good 1mm off the blade... neither of which is good scenario.
 
Wow that's bad!!! Unfortunately that happens too often lately. Maybe a Friday afternoon knife. Anyway maybe call benchmade and send them pics or a link to this thread. Maybe they will bump you to the front of the line and get it taken care of quick. Even though that's a poor excuse for a $200 knife Benchmade is a good company. Give them a shot to make it right.
 
goephoto said:
Wow that's bad!!! Unfortunately that happens too often lately. Maybe a Friday afternoon knife. Anyway maybe call benchmade and send them pics or a link to this thread. Maybe they will bump you to the front of the line and get it taken care of quick. Even though that's a poor excuse for a $200 knife Benchmade is a good company. Give them a shot to make it right.
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What would BM do? Re profile it and lose 1-2mm from the tip of the blade to even it out? Well I can do that myself at home.

Would they replace the knife or replace the blade? That's the only option that I would be interested in.
 
I've had this problem with MOST factory knives be it from Benchmade, Spyderco, Kershaw, CRKT or Cold Steel. It's actually very rare when a knife shows up with even grind on the secondary edge. I tried returns and reorders, many times you are left with new problems. Now a days I just pay $5 to $10 to my cutlery shop owner who does excellent edge reprofiling on a belt for a truly even and whacked edge.
 
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