LifeSharp Disappointment

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Dec 9, 2019
Messages
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I sent my Benchmade Ascent that I have had for over 20 years to Benchmade for their lifesharp service. I wish I had taken a picture before I send it in.
I spoke with someone on the phone, and said that I needed the grind addressed, as I have sharpened it enough that the edge was getting pretty thick. I was assured they would look at it and do whatever needed to be done. When I got it back, they had carefully ground off all of the edge that I had put on it, but did not address the grind at all. Again, in my naivety, I did not take a picture. I wrote back to Benchmade, expressing my disappointment. I measured the edge behind the bevel as a whopping .050. They offered to make it right, so I sent it in again. Now I have received this abomination back from Benchmade. They ground out all of the last edge, but again, didn't address the grind. This time their grind work even blew past the original sharpening choil. The edge now measures .060 immediately behind the bevel. My best estimate is that there is over 1/8" of blade "depth?" gone, and it might even be as much as a 1/4".
Any Advice? Right now I'm thinking auction site with a .99 opening bid.
Internet image of an unmolested Ascent:

What I have now:

 
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You could find pictures on the Internet to show the original blade configuration ...just a thought.
 
I sent my Benchmade Ascent that I have had for over 20 years to Benchmade for their lifesharp service. I wish I had taken a picture before I send it in.
I spoke with someone on the phone, and said that I needed the grind addressed, as I have sharpened it enough that the edge was getting pretty thick. I was assured they would look at it and do whatever needed to be done. When I got it back, they had carefully ground off all of the edge that I had put on it, but did not address the grind at all. Again, in my naivety, I did not take a picture. I wrote back to Benchmade, expressing my disappointment. I measured the edge behind the bevel as a whopping .050. They offered to make it right, so I sent it in again. Now I have received this abomination back from Benchmade. They ground out all of the last edge, but again, didn't address the grind. This time their grind work even blew past the original sharpening choil. The edge now measures .060 immediately behind the bevel. My best estimate is that there is over 1/8" of blade "depth?" gone, and it might even be as much as a 1/4".
Any Advice? Right now I'm thinking auction site with a .99 opening bid.
Internet image of an unmolested Ascent:

What I have now:

Yes... hard to explain to BM without being there I gues. I see wear on the pocket cli . No excuse for BM but it's user right? Good luck hope BM helps out...
 
Posting a picture of somebody else's knife doesn't really work in this situation. By your own statement, you had sharpened it enough that the edge was becoming "pretty thick". That noted, I'm not sure LifeSharp covers anything other than sharpening...and, IF Benchmade was willing to address the grind, it likely wouldn't be a free service.
At this point, it might be worth looking into blade replacement (if they have them available).
 
Never heard of benchmade ever touching a grind only a sharpening service of the edge. That said someone should been able to speak to that point during a phone call instead of having you send it back in. They could have said I’m sorry we don’t regrind blades only sharpen the edge and saved this issue from occurring.
 
Ultimately, you sent it in for sharpening twice, and it got sharpened twice. While your pictures show a comparison between a new knife and how yours looks now; they don't show how your blade looked when you sent it in, or the in between condition before you sent it back.
You acknowledged that it had already been sharpened quite a bit... had you used the lifesharp service in the past?
Perhaps Benchmade Benchmade will weigh in regarding your expectations.
 
Lifesharp service will not/cannot re-grind the blade bevels. They will re-sharpen the edge and remove a little material each time. The thickness behind the edge will increase in this case. It sounds like this knife may have been sharpened several times previously before arriving at Benchmade.
 
Yea, if the grind was already getting thick they're not going to regrind it. This is when the blade replacement would come in but I imagine that knife has been discontinued for some time and I'm not sure that they'd have a new blade for it. With that being said someone could/should have called and stated that the knife could not be serviced.
 
Jesus Christ they power ground that blade into oblivion. That’s what happens when someone who isn’t familiar with the technical side is put into a (wrongly) process oriented position.

Lots of knife companies will easily grind 4-5x more material than is required to actually sharpen the knife. Because it’s easier for low-skill, low-wage employees to perform the process.

Sorry about your knife, you have my sympathies. I had a similar issue with another company about a decade ago that made me swear off factory resharpening forever.
 
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Can't make a judgement because there isn't a before it was sent off pic to compare, I assume in 20 years it's been sharpened a few times at home.
 
I would have been perfectly satisfied if Benchmade had said at the beginning they couldn't regrind the blade, and no issue.
My disappointment comes from being told that they could regrind the knife, and then instead of doing it, they made it worse. Twice.

The end of the story is that I got $40 for it at auction.
 
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