Ok, time for an update! The reason for the delay is that my Anthem has been out of my possession for the last week or so. It was hanging out with the warranty and service folks at Benchmade. Why you may ask? Did my Anthem suddenly develop bladeplay and lock rock, did the edge chip out and the axis lock fail? No.
The sole and complete reason that I took my knife in was because, like many who frequent these forums, I am an OCD nut job when it comes to my knives, especially the ones that are (for me) higher end, premium pieces. I brought my knife in to get re-bladed because, after inspecting it for some time and comparing it to other examples, I became convinced that my blade had been ground a bit too thin and too short at the factory. And this was driving me crazy. Because that's the kind of crazy I am. We're talking about maybe 1/16th of an inch in blade length here, if that. But it was eating at me and Benchmade is fifteen minutes from my house, so away I went.
Now, a few important points here. As you know if you've read my earlier posts in the thread, I myself had gone ahead and sharpened the knife as soon as I got it (which I tend to do with almost all of my knives). I knew that I hadn't ground off a bunch of steel (one of the advantages of the Wicked Edge system), but it had been sharpened out of the factory. They were totally within their rights to charge me the $30 fee for swapping in a new blade, and I was prepared to pay for it.
But no, Benchmade customer service FTW on this one. They replaced it free under warranty, even though they knew I had sharpened it. They don't know me from Joe Blow on the street. I totally could have ground the blade down myself as far as they knew, but nevertheless they took care of me and provided a new blade, which I picked up today. If you can tell the slight difference in broadness and length in the blade, you're probably as OCD as me:
And yes, they re-etched the first production markings onto the new blade. Lockup and action are still perfectly smooth and rock solid. In fact the action may have slightly improved. I will say full disclosure that the centering isn't quite perfect. I'm honestly not sure that it was when I got it before, and it's damn close. I have Sebenzas and Hinderers that are off to similarly small degrees.
I'll be carrying this one again now and seeing how the razor sharp factory edge performs. It is even and super sharp so I'll try to wait a while and put it through its paces before putting it back on the Wicked Edge for another mirror polished finish. And when I do I'll be sure to document that as well.
So that's the news for now. Big props to Benchmade's service team who went above and beyond to make sure my knife was the way I wanted it. I have now taken several knives in to them for service over the years, and used their custom-build program to make several knives as gifts. In every case they have been just fantastic to work with and have always made sure I walked away with the knife I wanted, even when I was nitpicking and asking for minor, OCD knifenut things. Benchmade, like any company has issues to improve in their product. But in terms of customer service and standing behind their product, they set the standard.