- Joined
- Apr 27, 2021
- Messages
- 3
So I've had a thing for knives since I was about six but haven't done anything serious about it in the forty odd years since then, and probably never will. But in the last month I finally got around to getting a decent EDC blade or two and thought I'd share my experience with the counterfeit BM 940-1 from a certain auction site. Details of what looked fake about the knife are a few paragraphs down. First I'm gonna tell my story. Feel free to skip the next five paragraphs like I do the long nonsense in front of every recipe I find online.
I guess luckily I bought the BM 945 mini-Osborne at my local Murdochs. I was looking at the Benchmade case and seriously, $205 is too much for a pocket knife but boy was that thing pretty. I tried looking at a few of the other knives but couldn't squash the urge so I bought it. I will never regret it. And it gave me a frame of reference for the next one.
A couple days later I thought: I should have the full size version for woods days. Mini for the city. And so I started looking at used 940-1 blades on that auction site because $270 is definitely too much for a pocket knife. But I'm an impatient soul, so after losing two auctions for used knives I impulsively hit buy it now on a new one: $250. Good deal, but not a stupid good deal, right? Four days later it was in my sticky paws.
And it was....well, I wanted to love it. It was light. It was pretty. It had a tight, rough action. So I fiddled with the pivot screw: I could choose tight and rough or loose with blade play. I started opening and closing whenever I could to break it in. It'll all be cool, right? Wrong. After a couple days I took the blade and washers out and polished the washers. It helped a little. I started thinking, you know, if those washers were a little larger, this blade might lose the play and still have a smooth action. I found the washer specs and started shopping for a phosphor bronze washer with the same ID and thickness but a larger OD. No such luck. I was reading all I could find about the 940-1 action. I took the knife apart a second time a couple days later and got the calipers out to think about how big of an OD washer I could fit in there...and found that my washers were considerably smaller than the specs I'd found online. I also saw that my washers were shiny, shiny SHINY! Seemed like with that much shiny-ness, my break-in should be complete.
I started paying more attention to the posts and videos about counterfeits. That was last night. This morning I called Benchmade to ask their opinion. Their CS said they were not allowed to verify product via email, but she'd be willing to look at pictures and give a preliminary opinion. She got back to me within an hour to say she agreed, my suspicion that this was not the real deal seemed pretty plausible. From somebody who isn't allowed to verify product via email I took that to mean "definite fake." I put in a return request at the auction site, quoted BM's comment, and added the photos below. It took just 15 minutes before the seller authorized the return.
Who knows, if I'd not bought the 945 I probably would have thought: yep, way too much for an underwhelming pocket knife. And if the maker had included properly sized washers, I might never have figured it out.
You'll see the pictures I sent to BM customer service, but here are some other clues I got that this thing was fake:
1) Poorly packed. It shipped fast in a padded envelope. I thought, it's weird that somebody would ship something like a high end knife in an envelope that won't adequately protect the box. I know the gun nuts prize good-condition packaging. I assume the knife nerds do, too.
2) No seal on the box. The 945 had a large sticker closing the box.
5) Stench when I opened the box. It came from Florida, so I thought maybe it had been sitting in somebody's musty store-room. But the knife also had a very strong machining lubricant odor that hadn't been there on the 945. I thought that weird. The first time I had the blade out I rubbed the knife off with rubbing alcohol, which helped.
And the photos (some with the authentic BM 945 for comparison):
940-1 box (right) does not have a date stamp
Slightly different colors on the 940-1 box (bottom)
Different liner foam on the 940-1 box (left)
Unlike the 945, the 940-1 cloth sack does not have (R) symbol next to the logo & the knife came in a plastic bag (only pictured the 940-1)
Duller blue on the 940-1 standoffs (left)
Location of the logo is lower on this knife than on the 945 and other pictures of the 940-1 I've seen online, and the blade lacks vertical striping that some say should be there due to the way Benchmade machines the blades.
I hope this was interesting, helps someone, gives a bored person something to flame me about, or whatever. For me, I will get a real 940-1 from a reputable dealer.
I guess luckily I bought the BM 945 mini-Osborne at my local Murdochs. I was looking at the Benchmade case and seriously, $205 is too much for a pocket knife but boy was that thing pretty. I tried looking at a few of the other knives but couldn't squash the urge so I bought it. I will never regret it. And it gave me a frame of reference for the next one.
A couple days later I thought: I should have the full size version for woods days. Mini for the city. And so I started looking at used 940-1 blades on that auction site because $270 is definitely too much for a pocket knife. But I'm an impatient soul, so after losing two auctions for used knives I impulsively hit buy it now on a new one: $250. Good deal, but not a stupid good deal, right? Four days later it was in my sticky paws.
And it was....well, I wanted to love it. It was light. It was pretty. It had a tight, rough action. So I fiddled with the pivot screw: I could choose tight and rough or loose with blade play. I started opening and closing whenever I could to break it in. It'll all be cool, right? Wrong. After a couple days I took the blade and washers out and polished the washers. It helped a little. I started thinking, you know, if those washers were a little larger, this blade might lose the play and still have a smooth action. I found the washer specs and started shopping for a phosphor bronze washer with the same ID and thickness but a larger OD. No such luck. I was reading all I could find about the 940-1 action. I took the knife apart a second time a couple days later and got the calipers out to think about how big of an OD washer I could fit in there...and found that my washers were considerably smaller than the specs I'd found online. I also saw that my washers were shiny, shiny SHINY! Seemed like with that much shiny-ness, my break-in should be complete.
I started paying more attention to the posts and videos about counterfeits. That was last night. This morning I called Benchmade to ask their opinion. Their CS said they were not allowed to verify product via email, but she'd be willing to look at pictures and give a preliminary opinion. She got back to me within an hour to say she agreed, my suspicion that this was not the real deal seemed pretty plausible. From somebody who isn't allowed to verify product via email I took that to mean "definite fake." I put in a return request at the auction site, quoted BM's comment, and added the photos below. It took just 15 minutes before the seller authorized the return.
Who knows, if I'd not bought the 945 I probably would have thought: yep, way too much for an underwhelming pocket knife. And if the maker had included properly sized washers, I might never have figured it out.
You'll see the pictures I sent to BM customer service, but here are some other clues I got that this thing was fake:
1) Poorly packed. It shipped fast in a padded envelope. I thought, it's weird that somebody would ship something like a high end knife in an envelope that won't adequately protect the box. I know the gun nuts prize good-condition packaging. I assume the knife nerds do, too.
2) No seal on the box. The 945 had a large sticker closing the box.
5) Stench when I opened the box. It came from Florida, so I thought maybe it had been sitting in somebody's musty store-room. But the knife also had a very strong machining lubricant odor that hadn't been there on the 945. I thought that weird. The first time I had the blade out I rubbed the knife off with rubbing alcohol, which helped.
And the photos (some with the authentic BM 945 for comparison):
940-1 box (right) does not have a date stamp
Slightly different colors on the 940-1 box (bottom)
Different liner foam on the 940-1 box (left)
Unlike the 945, the 940-1 cloth sack does not have (R) symbol next to the logo & the knife came in a plastic bag (only pictured the 940-1)
Duller blue on the 940-1 standoffs (left)
Location of the logo is lower on this knife than on the 945 and other pictures of the 940-1 I've seen online, and the blade lacks vertical striping that some say should be there due to the way Benchmade machines the blades.
I hope this was interesting, helps someone, gives a bored person something to flame me about, or whatever. For me, I will get a real 940-1 from a reputable dealer.
