533-3 blade question

L

lambertiana

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I recently acquired a 533-3 on the secondary market, and the seller said that they had purchased it at an authorized dealer. Since there are some clever counterfeits out there, I compared it closely to two other 533-3s that I had access to. All of the hardware matched perfectly, the carbon fiber weave matched, the box and paperwork/card that is put between the clip and the handle, and the pouch all match. The only thing that has me scratching my head is the blade itself. It is 2mm shorter and 1mm narrower, with the same overall proportions; just smaller. And the surface finish is not quite the same, left at a slightly coarser, lower grit.

Is this a known variant? I'm not looking at the possibility of returning it for warranty reasons, I just want to know if such an occurrence has been noted before.
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That looks odd. The blade looks like it’s been machined but not finished. Ask a moderator to move your post to the Benchmade Fakes thread.
 
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Update. I sent it to Benchmade for them to look at. They sent back with no comment, only saying it was cleaned and oiled. So it is legit. They did not answer my question about the noticeably smaller blade. You would think they would have better control of their grinding process and not have so much variation in dimensions.
 
lambertiana said:
Update. I sent it to Benchmade for them to look at. They sent back with no comment, only saying it was cleaned and oiled. So it is legit. They did not answer my question about the noticeably smaller blade. You would think they would have better control of their grinding process and not have so much variation in dimensions.
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L lambertiana - I note that the blade is labeled "First Production" . Perhaps between the "First Production" run and subsequent runs, slight changes were made to various parts of the knife.
 
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