KW 710-1401 review and discussion

[Wowbagger]

Thanks Kniferbro.

Yes this winter when I am snowed in and nothing to do I need to take 'er apart and see what I can do about it.
I have one or two knife projects ahead of this one though that I am excited about.

Well it's only been three years guess I'll fix 'er up a little.
Don't want to be in a big rush.

OK, OK I read this in another thread today . . .

and both of my 710-1401
from Knifeworks were epic. Others buying the same model did not fare as well.

. . . and I got so pissed and jealous that I decided to do something there and then ! ! !

I'm exaggerating, wasn't so emotional, but I had a minute so I pounced.
FINALLY
I didn't do it right; call this a mach-up or prototype of what I need to do.

BENCHMADE IF YOU WOULD JUST SELL ME AN F-ING BLUE SPACER I WOULDN'T HAVE TO MAKE ONE ! ! !

Hey for the work surface for working on your knife (in that thread about that) the cloth Knife Works sent me a long time ago pretty much works as well as the Chris Reeve cloth I displayed a little while ago !
Who knew ? !

So I got out the demolition equipment and took 'er apart.
Hey Benchmade I'm DESTROYING my warranty nah, nah . . . nahnah . . . nah, nah.
They told me that if I put a spacer right here that my warranty would be forfeit and . . . basically . . . that the world as we know it would suddenly come to an end.
Keep looking out your windows guys and let me know if you see the Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding out of the clouds toward us.

I measured the length of the post I need to put between the liners and it comes to about 4.1mm.
I started looking around for something I could quickly shove in there to make up the gap.
Turns out eight of these washers adds up to about that give or take a hundredth of a millimeter so I'm going with those.



I needed a spindle I could put between the scales to hold the washers in place. There are rectangular holes in the liners that are left over from when the knife had a solid back spacer back in the day (or so I'm told).

I grabbed some 1/8 inch 304 stainless rod, cut some flats on the ends to fit into the rectangular holes in the liners and cut it short enough to easily fit between the scales without bowing the knife open (the washers alone are to fill the gap).



BadaboomBadabing and we are back together.

 

[Wowbagger]

How's the action you say ?
Perfect !
It has never worked like this since I got the knife. At best it would drop about every four tries and the rest of the time it would begin to drop and stall out.

. . . now . . . it flies shut like a Big O' Dog every single time I release the lock.
I can point the blade at the floor and slowly pivot my wrist and the knife closes ! ! !
Just the way I envisioned that it could !

Benchmade next time you have problems getting a knife design to work right give me a call dudes.
And look at that. The world didn't end after all.

 

[GB940Rookie]

That’s cool Bagger. Great job!
When I first saw the 1401 I thought it could be one of the best Benchmades ever, but the whacky blade grinds and the bad actions from the design flaw turned me away. Tried two of them and both were poorly machined. It’s a shame really. Could have been one of their all time greats.
I am glad that you fixed yours.