Noooo way. No freaking frickah frakin effin way man. Broken backspacer??????

Whoa, crazy. Never seen that. I'm sure Benchmade will set you right but that is still sucky.
 
Same thing happened to me. I just sent it in and they replaced it. They definitely seem pretty fragile.
 
Well, that isn't a knife suitable for hard use. Thanks for posting this, maybe it will steer people away from this model or persuade Benchmade to make some updates.
 
The Contego absolutely is a knife designed for and capable of hard use. It is actually a fantastic hard use knife.

The back spacer can break. Any knife can break when dropped on a material that is harder than it is. Linoleum is extremely hard. Dropping a knife on linoleum is harder than hard use.

It sucks that your backspacer broke, but it isn't like Contegos just break for no reason. It is an extremely robust knife; capable of out-performing most "hard use" knives in real world tests, as proven by many videos and reviews.

Benchmade generally uses slightly softer materials for back spacers, such as G10, plastic, or softer stainless steels. But the Contego has a glass-breaker, so it needs to be very hard. Hard materials are brittle and can shatter when encountering harder materials. The glass breaker is not a linoleum breaker. Even still, I would venture to guess that most Contegos wouldn't suffer the same fate in the same circumstance. Sometimes there is a flaw or weak point in the material.

Still one of the best hard use knives on the market today. Broken Contego back spacers are documented, but hardly epidemic. If anything, you were unlucky. Don't get me wrong; it was not your fault. I've had $500 Striders get chipped edges during VERY light duty. Wasn't my fault, either. Striders are still great hard-use knives, though. S*** happens.

Don't get me wrong, if I were in your situation I would be pissed, too. Just keep it in perspective. Hopefully you get a new back spacer quickly and it never happens again, even if the knife is dropped (as knives sometimes are).
 
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asdf12345 said:
Well, that isn't a knife suitable for hard use. Thanks for posting this, maybe it will steer people away from this model or persuade Benchmade to make some updates.
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I really hope this is a joke......


"Dropping on linoleum" is never in the job description of a knife, no matter how "hard use" it is.

Not saying that the Contego isn't flawed and the backspacer should be expected to break, just that it's perfectly capable of being used hard. I've seen that for myself.

OP, I would suggest maybe getting some Ti. barrel spacers made instead of a new backspacer.
 
Sorry, but it's hard for me to buy that. Dropping a knife & accidental impacts are things that happen, especially when the knife is in use, things are chaotic and people are rushing around. I knocked about a Benchmade 530 quite a bit last summer when I was doing some testing and it never suffered any ill effects apart from a few scratches & dents on the handle material.

If you want to bring the argument that hard use knives shouldn't be expected to withstand some buffeting about to every forum on here, please do so, but all I can say is if a major component of a knife like that fails, then that knife isn't suitable for hard use.
 
If they are going to use a cheap plastic back spacer on the 710 they can at least make it in spec so the blade doesn't make contact with it. I heard this and checked mine, sure enough slices. It's garbage that they even use plastic on a knife that price. If I didn't get it off here for $95 I'd really be upset.
 
The backspacer on the Contego has been like this since it was released. I wonder why it has not been fixed. There was another thread about a year or more ago where the same thing happened. It makes the glass breaker sort of only for aesthetic purposes and not for actual use. It might be the steel used was over hardened causing brittleness.
 
If I recall that thread about the broken back spacers, going from memory so don't quote the exact numbers here but maybe 5 or 6 people in that thread reported broken back spacers in the last 2 years or so? I don't consider that epidemic. Also there were plenty of reports of the glass breaker being used to break glass successfully without breakage.

I suspect either way that the glass breaker on the Contego was designed for emergency use and not a dedicated glass breaking tool. However, since they elected to put it on there it should be able to do the job and not break. Hope they updated the materials / design so even a very few don't fail during intended use. Interesting that the M390 version doesn't even have this feature.

If a major component of the knife fails because it's dropped does that include the blade? I've read plenty of reports of knife blades chipping or breaking when dropped, does that mean that knife is not suitable for hard use?

To the OP, sorry to hear of your problem, despite that dropping a knife probably isn't "officially" covered under warranty, it shouldn't have broken butt did, I'm confident if you send it in BM will take good care of you and fix it for free.

All the best!
 
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pbcg said:
If a major component of the knife fails because it's dropped does that include the blade? I've read plenty of reports of knife blades chipping or breaking when dropped, does that mean that knife is not suitable for hard use?
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I thought this would be common sense, but a backspacer breaking from an impact is not equivalent to a blade edge chipping or a blade breaking from an impact. In fact, those two things aren't even equivalent to each other.

A blade edge needs to be thin enough to cut. That edge is fragile because of this thinness. Therefore the blade edge is likely to get dented or chipped if it impacts a surface significantly harder than it.

A blade that completely breaks or shatters is different from a blade edge being dented or chipped. The blade needs to be able to take the stress & shock of use without shattering. If it shatters from a short drop onto a surface, then yes, it's not suitable for hard use.

You're never going to see me criticize a hard use knife for its blade edge being damaged when the knife is dropped. But if components like locks, backspacers, scales, and blades break from just a short fall onto linoleum or concrete, then that is deserving of criticism.
 
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asdf12345 said:
a backspacer breaking from an impact is not equivalent to a blade edge chipping or a blade breaking from an impact. In fact, those two things aren't even equivalent to each other.
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Only in that they are major components of a knife.
 
pbcg said:
If I recall that thread about the broken back spacers, going from memory so don't quote the exact numbers here but maybe 5 or 6 people in that thread reported broken back spacers in the last 2 years or so? I don't consider that epidemic. Also there were plenty of reports of the glass breaker being used to break glass successfully without breakage.
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This.

When metal parts are made on a production line and heat treated in large batches, they are never all exactly the same. The metal is not homogenous. Some parts will have weak points. The event of a Contego back spacer breaking is documented, but very very rare. It is still a fantastic hard use knife. You can drop it, use it hard, abuse it, and it asks for more. If you are going to use a VERY rare case of breakage due to dropping on a VERY hard surface to say a knife isn't "hard use" then there has never been and never will be a "hard use" knife. Perspective, people.
 
asdf12345 said:
Sorry, but it's hard for me to buy that. Dropping a knife & accidental impacts are things that happen, especially when the knife is in use, things are chaotic and people are rushing around. I knocked about a Benchmade 530 quite a bit last summer when I was doing some testing and it never suffered any ill effects apart from a few scratches & dents on the handle material.

If you want to bring the argument that hard use knives shouldn't be expected to withstand some buffeting about to every forum on here, please do so, but all I can say is if a major component of a knife like that fails, then that knife isn't suitable for hard use.
Click to expand...

Cool, go ahead and write off the Contego if you like. I'll keep using mine hard:thumbup:
 
I agree no part of a knife should break, especially benchmade black class, when dropped to any type of surface.
 
jpm2 said:
I agree no part of a knife should break, especially benchmade black class, when dropped to any type of surface.
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I can't believe anyone would say otherwise. A knife over $150 with a reputation for durability. But, it's kryptonite is being dropped from 4ft onto linoleum? BS..
 
jpm2 said:
I agree no part of a knife should break, especially benchmade black class, when dropped to any type of surface.
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Any hardened steel can break, chip, or shatter when it hits something much harder than it is. This is true of any knife.

The Contego is a very strong knife, but it cannot defy physics.

Again: It is *NOT* the case that every Contego will suffer a broken back spacer if dropped on linoleum. This failure is *NOT* typical; in fact it is very rare. I agree it shouldn't happen, but it doesn't disqualify the Contego from being a hard-use knife.

If an example of a knife's steel part(s) breaking when it hits a harder-than-steel surface disqualifies every example of that model from being a hard use knife, then there are no hard use knives in existence. None.

adamg01 said:
I can't believe anyone would say otherwise. A knife over $150 with a reputation for durability. But, it's kryptonite is being dropped from 4ft onto linoleum? BS..
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It has a reputation for durability because thousands of Contegos have proven to be extremely durable. Failures like the one in this thread do happen (and to *ALL* knives, not back spaces necessarily, but blades often break when dropped on linoleum), but they are extremely rare with Contegos. Of course it "shouldn't" happen, but since it is so rare, it doesn't reflect on all Contegos. The fact that a Contego breaking in any situation is so rare is the reason why they have their reputation for toughness. Make sense?

I don't understand the mentality that if one example of a mass-production knife has been shown to break, that all of them must be bad even when the other 99% of them survive the same event and have proven durability with real world hard use.

I have heard this so many times: "I dropped my knife (on an extremely hard surface), and the hardened steel blade/handle/lock broke when it hit something much harder than it is: therefore the knife is not durable."

It is simply not a valid conclusion. No knife can defy physics.

The Contego does, however, have a very tough blade. M4 is amazing and less likely to break when dropped on linoleum than many other hard use steels. The back spacer also has a glass breaker, so it was made intentionally very hard. When you heat treat steel to a high hardness in large batches, sometimes some pieces can be over-hardened and will be extra brittle or will have a weak spot. In the case of the Contego it is hardly epidemic. Benchmade will fix the back spacer for free, and it will probably not happen, even in the same situation, next time. That's all that really needs to be said.
 
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adamg01 said:
I can't believe anyone would say otherwise. A knife over $150 with a reputation for durability. But, it's kryptonite is being dropped from 4ft onto linoleum? BS..
Click to expand...

Who is arguing that? Certainly not I.

I only took issue with someone saying that the Contego was worthless as a hard use knife because of this design flaw. You should never plan on dropping your knife, regardless of whether it's built to take it. Using it hard does not equal dropping it. Using it hard includes only the use of the blade for hard cutting tasks. So it's a perfectly capable hard use knife as long as you don't drop it on a hard surface (which should be avoided anyway regardless of the knife). Whether or not it breaks when dropped is irrelevant when talking about the knife's hard use capabilities.

If one of the more relevant parts of the knife such as the blade, lock, handle, stop pin, pivot, etc were breaking when you were trying to cut something, then there might be a case for calling the Contego a poor excuse for a hard use knife.
 
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