I'm done with Benchmade

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sorry, but I think some of you guys ALWAYS returning stuff and complaining of issues are nuts and expecting way to much out of these knives and the companies. I've been through about 1000-2000? knives trying to find what I like best since I joined this site, and went fanatical. I've had problems with just about every single folder from every single company there is, some, lil, nit picking, problem, always. Pivots, locks, screws bål blah blah. But with a Lil tweaking once and awhile, good as gold. They cut and function well. Can rarely actually say something was complete junk, defect, bad manufacturing or design.

These threads are just laughable to me. If it was something serious, Benchmade would have fixed it. I've bought around 50 brand spanking new benchmades and never not once had one felt needed to return or complain about. Never. Loose pivot, sure, edge not so great, sure, Lil bit of lock stick, sure. But I've had those same problems FROM AT LEAST ONE KNIFE FROM EVERY SINGLE OTHER COMPANY THERE IS. All those things always fixable, easily, by my own hands.

Maybe it's just me not being overly anal and finicky about things, or maybe cause I always tweak my knives to my liking no matter what anyways out of box. I don't know. I do think there are way to many people expecting way to much out of knives.

Benchmade has bent over backwards for me as far as their customer service and warranties. Never been disappointed. Only complaint really have is prices are getting crazy, but that's the same with every other company.

Yes. I was buying cheaply made knives for years because i didnt know better. I cleaned them out, adjusted the pivots, broke 'em in. By the time I had bought my first benchmade, i had a ritual, for any knife i got, of immediately eliminating play while maintaining smooth operation, checking(and often sharpening) the edge etc. Nowadays people are like "but the centering is off!" What if that was the issue?
 
Way too much Benchmade haters it seems, too many keyboard experts. Too many who don't know squat except how to post junk post running their count up. A lot who need to lean how to sharpen a knife, what blade geometry is best for the job at hand. I could go on but what good would it do. I have been buying, trading Benchmade knives ever since the BM 800 came out. Good knives. They all have their minor problems but usually easy to correct. Production is not perfect and folks who assemble them are not perfect either.
If you are referring to the blade on my old 720 as far as sharpening skills my friend could give a crap less about blade loss, he just wants a keen edge. (No telling what he uses, drag through sharpener? Bastard file?) I will pass on the insult to him though.
I am glad that you are pleased with your benchmade knives
 
Last edited:
I have had inconsistent luck with Benchmade for several years. Some were absolutely fantastic and some had less Q/C than a $15 knife. The model does not seem to matter its the broad inconsistency in QC between the whole line up. I have never had this issue with any other maker of the same cost. With all this being said I still like BM and really like the Bugout model. But I fully understand that BM buys must be in person to inspect the knife. If I have to order online (and thats 95% of the time) it will be a Spyderco, GEC or SAK. In the era of online sales constancy and quality QC is key at the BM price point.
 
Funny my experience w benchmade has been great;i sent my crooked river in to get a blue pivot collar and blue backspacer left contact info for payment,about a week or so later the knife came back w the parts I asked for and sent back to me no charge. I thought that was great.Never had an omega spring break since 1998,only a large rukus i had was slightly offcenter otherwise im happy w all mine...
 
For folks mentioning only buying in person (be it Benchmade or otherwise), any major online retailer will be happy to inspect a knife as part of your order. I do this with every order I place and I've had great results.
 
I've had a Sebenza that would roll its edge far to easily -- but the one I have now is absolutely awesome in every detail. I've had a Randall that was junk in terms of fit and finish and performance. Randall's CS would not even talk to me. Will not buy another. I've had a mid-tech knife from a highly respected maker that had a bad heat treat. The company owner owned up to the flaw and fixed the issue immediately. I've had a Spyderco with a design so bad it had to be re-engineered. All my other Spydercos are truly excellent. All my ZTs are excellent.

But my favorite knife is a Benchmade 610. I have used it hard for more than a decade, and it's still rock solid. I had a AFCK blade rehardened from 59 Rc to 64 Rc and the blade shattered. Benchmade replaced the blade for a small price. I bought a used AFCK in M2 that had a bad liner lock. Benchmade repaired it for free -- they even asked if I wanted new screws and a new clip. Microtech's CS would never respond to an issue I had.

I've never had a bad Benchmade, and I've had a lot. So these accounts of people buying many Benchmades that were all bad -- I don't get it.

A lot of people are using this troll thread as an excuse to trash a great American knife maker. I don't really know why.

Certainly a lot of gun nuts (I'm a gun owner) went gun-nut crazy over the trivial issue of Benchmade chopping up a few guns at the request of the local sheriff. I read through most of those complaints, but there was nothing there. But the grudges seem to last.

The truth is that Benchmade makes a gazillion knives. Some will be bad. But it's a great company that stands behind its knives. And it does make excellent knives.
 
I sold all my Benchmade and will never buy another for a totally different reason,

their politics and practices.

I have issue with a different very popular edc folding knife brand over something that I found deeply offensive, but I’ve never heard anything bad about Benchmade. I’ve owned two knives from them and they were both phenomenally good knives in my opinion. Those knives took a truckload of use and abuse and kept going strong. Only reason I sold them was that the plastic handles felt a bit cheap to me personally.
 
I had problems with Benchmade QC from early on and it got worse with the newer ones. I sold or traded off all I had and ended up with Spyderco and Protech as my go to brands now. But most of my folders are traditionals anyway. Once Benchmade's prices went up they priced me out of them anyway, and with their politics, it wasn't so hard to forget about them.

Funny thing, a co-worker recently bought a Chinese knife for a fraction of the cost of the Benchmade it copied. The AXIS style lock, fit and finish and overall QC were worlds better than the last few Benchmades I've seen. Not sure about edge holding since it isn't my knife. But my last 710 was M390 and it was butter soft, so the cheap Chinese steel can't be much worse than that.

Just my two cents, worth exactly what you paid for it!
 
... I cleaned them out, adjusted the pivots, broke 'em in. By the time I had bought my first benchmade, i had a ritual, for any knife i got, of immediately eliminating play while maintaining smooth operation, checking(and often sharpening) the edge etc. Nowadays people are like "but the centering is off!" What if that was the issue?

This is a good practice. I do it with every knife I get, including those I get people as gifts. I mostly rock budget knives but even nicer ones can have a little gunk or who knows what in there. Alcohol and cloth swabs will give you a clean start. Then you can use your favorite oil, grease, wax, etc. where applicable. At least with knives under a hundred bucks, this often improves the action a little. You also get to know your knife more intimately and it opens a window on factory practices.

BTW, I have gotten several knives that were not quite perfect over the years. The centering may have been off out of the box. The action might have been gritty or subpar. Some people will say "give it time to break in". Well, the above steps can often resolve those sorts of issues right away. Much like edge maintenance, this is something not every knife owners knows about.

I won't make any assumptions about the OP. Either he can come back and discuss these issues or we can all continue to share our own experiences with Benchmade QC, CS, etc.
 
I’m done with BM too but for different reasons. Hoping my grammar is more gooder.
8iea.jpg
This is a legitimate reason to be done with BM, disappointing/unfunctional. I've had a few springs break over the years. I've managed to stock up on factory BM omega springs, and have bought some after market ones too, so if they break not a big deal for me and don't even have to send in. But totally understand that ain't good.

I've had to fix problems with every single lock I can think of at one point or the other tho. Frame locks I've probably had problems with most often. Wouldn't hesitate to get another tho.

But people that can't fix blade play or blade centering? I mean, come on. EVERY single folder I use has developed blade centering issues and play within a year, if not months, if using alot. Incredibly easy to fix, yourself. Loctite, change or just tighten screws, oil, bend this or that til everything is nice and tight and centered and smooth. I don't understand how people are even upset about getting a new knife and having blade off centered or have some blade play. Its happened to me more times than i can count, from all companies. I just fix it. Getting a new dull knife annoys me, but not enoigh i would return. Been very few knives that I couldn't get to be functional myself.

Don't get me wrong there definitely cases where knives should have never have left the factory in that unfunctional or cosmetically flawed condition, but I think TONS of people have way to high of expectations from knives, and companies. So unless myself personally receives a complete pos unfunctional knife, I'll just fix the problems myself and live with it.

I'll shut up now. Would be nice to actually know what happened to cause this thread.
 
But people that can't fix blade play or blade centering? I mean, come on. EVERY single folder I use has developed blade centering issues and play within a year, if not months, if using alot. Incredibly easy to fix, yourself. Loctite, change or just tighten screws, oil, bend this or that til everything is nice and tight and centered and smooth. .

This is the second time you mention it so in my case i have adjusted pivots on about 12 knives, Basically all of my 30-50$ budget ones are able to achieve tight lockup and smooth action.
this 160$ 940 can either be adjusted to be smooth and blade floppy or no blade play and no action at all.
It seems like it would need to have the washers milled down or something similar to bring it up to par with the action of my 30$ folders :confused:
 
Last edited:
I think I missed what was wrong with the knife? did the op ever say or was it a drop and run?
 
Benchmade was the first quality knife company I discovered. The Griptilian was my edc/ work knife most days for about a year. The Grip remained in my edc rotation for five years or longer. I still use it occasionally for work. Never a problem with this knife.
I ve had about a dozen different Benchmade knives over the years. I ve never cared about perfect centering, but I really like a tight lockup on a modern folder. I can adjust side to side lockup problems pretty well. But back and forth lock rock is hard for me to correct. I don t take my knives apart too often (probably read too many warnings from Spyderco). In all the knives I ve had from Benchmade, I had to send 3 back for unacceptable lock rock, two twice for this same problem. Benchmade s customer service couldn t have been nicer to me. The lock rock remains on one of the three, after 2 returns. I just put his knife up.
But I think the price is now too high for anything less than consistently good quality control with BM.
Their competition demands it.
I bought two Ritter Grips a couple of years ago. These are the only Benchmades I ve bought since map was started. With all the knives I have, and with my appreciation of a bargain, there s no point in supporting policies I disagree with.
At this time, I have no interest in buying another Benchmade. Too many good alternatives out there for less money.
 
I’ve had about the same experience with Spydies and BMs. Have seen great examples from each and also, “how did that leave the factory?” examples from each.
My love for the 940-1 will never end. I’m going to get it right now.:D
 
This is the second time you mention it so in my case i have adjusted pivots on about 12 knives, Basically all of my 30-50$ budget ones are able to achieve tight lockup and smooth action.
this 160$ 940 can either be adjusted to be smooth and blade floppy or no blade play and no action at all.
It seems like it would need to have the washers milled down or something similar to bring it up to par with the action of my 30$ folders :confused:

Trust me, I know what you speak of with having to find the "sweet spot" for smooth solid deployment and lockup, have to do it on all my folders to get to my liking. Loctite and oil is the solution to finding the sweet spot, for me. Try different things. But if haven't tried Loctite or something similar on pivot I would. But ya maybe new washers too, benchmade will install new ones for cost of shipping to them, or maybe find some at a hardware store. Maybe take the whole knife apart and make sure every screw is tightened solid, washers/blade oiled good. Tinker. Guarantee your 940 is not a defective knife. You just have to get it as smooth and solid as you prefer. Ive had same problem, same knife, after loctite and oiled, it was perfect. Good luck.

I own $30 knives too, I have to f!#/ around with ALL of them to get them to my liking also and keep them functional. ALL OF THEM. There is no such thing as a perfect folder and one you will not have to maintain, eventually. I enjoy maintaining my knives. Maybe just keep buying your $30 knives and dispose of them when they develop issues, cause if you use them, they will. All of them
 
Trust me, I know what you speak of with having to find the "sweet spot" for smooth solid deployment and lockup, have to do it on all my folders to get to my liking. Loctite and oil is the solution to finding the sweet spot, for me. Try different things. But if haven't tried Loctite or something similar on pivot I would. But ya maybe new washers too, benchmade will install new ones for cost of shipping to them, or maybe find some at a hardware store. Maybe take the whole knife apart and make sure every screw is tightened solid, washers/blade oiled good. Tinker. Guarantee your 940 is not a defective knife. You just have to get it as smooth and solid as you prefer. Ive had same problem, same knife, after loctite and oiled, it was perfect. Good luck.

I own $30 knives too, I have to f!#/ around with ALL of them to get them to my liking also and keep them functional. ALL OF THEM. There is no such thing as a perfect folder and one you will not have to maintain, eventually. I enjoy maintaining my knives. Maybe just keep buying your $30 knives and dispose of them when they develop issues, cause if you use them, they will. All of them

Probably true, though most of us think more in terms of “repair” rather than “maintenance”.
As I have a little more free time these days than in the past, I may start to disassemble a knife occasionally to tune it up.
 
When you read forums and watch reviews about Benchmade, you hear about QC issues. I guess I’ve been lucky in that regard. I’ve yet to find that perfect Benchmade, but the ones I’ve had have all been clean and centered. I haven’t had any experience with their customer service, but I’m about to test it by sending back that hunter folder with the recurve blade for sharpening and service.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top