I believe that Benchmade's plan is to offer a service to change blades. So, if you get tired of that old Weehawk and decide you want the new Tanto (or whatever they eventually offer), you can send it in and for less than the cost of a whole new knife, they can replace it. They'll also be offering services to re-finish the handles. So, when you get tired of bright red, you can have them refinished deep blue.
The real reason for the new design, I suspect, is to allow them to service orders faster. You want pink handles with a utility blade? No problem. We've got pink handles right here. We've got a bin of utility blades right there. A quick assembly step and there's your knife.
While I am not Benchmade, my guess is that if you asked nicely, they would, for a small fee, swap one over to a Manila-style latch.
Personally, I'm very excited about these knives because I hope to have Benchmade disassemble a couple and return them to me in parts. Then, I'll have some "special work" done on the parts by certain "specialists." Finally, I'll return them to Benchmade for reassembly. Thanks to the new latch design, this can be done easily and without to much special attention.
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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com
