Recent Benchmade Quality?

Brooks2 said:
How loose does everyone keep the pivot on their axis lock? Do you keep them drop shut loose, or just loose enough to flick them open? I am wondering if the reason for all my horizontal blade play is that I have my pivot loose enough that my knife can fall shut by the force of gravity.
Click to expand...
If you read up on benchmade pivot adjustment, you will find that very small adjustments of the screw are required to find the desired sweet spot of balance between blade play and action. Once you find your desired sweet spot, loctite should be used (properly).

For myself, I don't require this new silly internet fad of "drop shutty" action. I keep the pivot so the blade can easily be flicked open and closed with as little blade play as possible. All of the benchmades I own and have owned have been able to achieve my desired sweet spot of action.
 
Brooks2 said:
How loose does everyone keep the pivot on their axis lock? Do you keep them drop shut loose, or just loose enough to flick them open? I am wondering if the reason for all my horizontal blade play is that I have my pivot loose enough that my knife can fall shut by the force of gravity.
Click to expand...

Yeah if you loosen the pivot you will get horizontal play. it's a trade off but you should be able to adjust the pivot to a sweet spot where you can get a good action and no or little play.
 
Purchased a Benchmade 818 Python, as far as lock up and centering I would call it perfect.

Quality of finished edges, leaves something to be desired. Thumb hole is to sharp around edges, axis release is not recessed/milled perfectly. I would buy it again, but I won’t say the quality is as high as other brands for $. Can’t speak for the steel quality as I don’t carry and use this knife at work.
 
craytab said:
If you read up on benchmade pivot adjustment, you will find that very small adjustments of the screw are required to find the desired sweet spot of balance between blade play and action. Once you find your desired sweet spot, loctite should be used (properly).

For myself, I don't require this new silly internet fad of "drop shutty" action. I keep the pivot so the blade can easily be flicked open and closed with as little blade play as possible. All of the benchmades I own and have owned have been able to achieve my desired sweet spot of action.
Click to expand...
I did try adjusting the pivot in small increments when I first got it. I do see a correlation between pivot tightness and how freely the blade swings. My issue is that the knife blade is so off center on my knife that the little bit of blade play meant my blade was now scraping the liners. I will be sending in to Benchmade when it dulls so they can fix it.
 
New image: https://imgur.com/UHg9DvA

Old image: https://imgur.com/a/c2kDQWa
Hope this works, I know its very very poor quality but I will do a shot during the day time when I get the chance. Where the arrow is pointing is where the blade is nearly touching the liner, it is very hard to see the light passing between the blade and the liner. In person if you couldn't hold the knife up to a light source you would think the blade is touching the liners.
 
Last edited:
Brooks2 said:
I did try adjusting the pivot in small increments when I first got it. I do see a correlation between pivot tightness and how freely the blade swings. My issue is that the knife blade is so off center on my knife that the little bit of blade play meant my blade was now scraping the liners. I will be sending in to Benchmade when it dulls so they can fix it.
Click to expand...

Brooks2 said:
https://imgur.com/a/c2kDQWa
Hope this works, I know its very very poor quality but I will do a shot during the day time when I get the chance. Where the arrow is pointing is where the blade is nearly touching the liner, it is very hard to see the light passing between the blade and the liner. In person if you couldn't hold the knife up to a light source you would think the blade is touching the liners.
Click to expand...
That truly is a terrible picture.

Seems to me you might be better off sending it in to benchmade rather than trying to adjust it yourself.
 
Brooks2 said:
Here is a better photo as promised
https://imgur.com/UHg9DvA
Click to expand...
That's only a better photo in the sense that the knife can be seen. A straight up and down photo would be best.

But like I said above, I think you would be best served sending it in. Sometimes you can do more harm than good if you don't know what you are doing when tinkering with stuff.
 
craytab said:
I don't see how you can tell exactly how off center it is because of the angle of the photo.
Click to expand...

By looking at the standoff, I can see that the knife is tilted away from the camera, but the blade is still horribly off center in the handle. With the way it's angled, a centered blade should appear to be off center in the opposite direction that it is. It's also nearly touching the liner where I've circled it (if it isn't just resting on it, it's darn close).

InkedUHg9DvA_LI.jpg

Here is my PM2 at the same angle. It's perfectly centered (because it's a Spyderco), but I included a pic for proof.

unnamed.jpg unnamed (1).jpg
 
Cypress said:
By looking at the standoff, I can see that the knife is tilted away from the camera, but the blade is still horribly off center in the handle. With the way it's angled, a centered blade should appear to be off center in the opposite direction that it is. It's also nearly touching the liner where I've circled it (if it isn't just resting on it, it's darn close).

View attachment 1267031

Here is my PM2 at the same angle. It's perfectly centered (because it's a Spyderco), but I included a pic for proof.

View attachment 1267035 View attachment 1267034
Click to expand...
Right, I get all that. Still no way to tell exactly how off center a blade is without taking a picture like your last one. That is how I represent centering in a picture at least. It would do our new friend here good to take note. Btw, I have a pm2 that is off center more than any benchmade I've bought new.
 
craytab said:
Right, I get all that. Still no way to tell exactly how off center a blade is without taking a picture like your last one. That is how I represent centering in a picture at least. It would do our new friend here good to take note. Btw, I have a pm2 that is off center more than any benchmade I've bought new.
Click to expand...

The very first PM2 I ever bought had a gnarly copper inclusion on one of the washers that made the action absolute trash. I was able to polish it out and it was perfect after that. That wass the only Spyderco I ever bough that had even the slightest issue. I guess it's an example of YMMV.
 
Brooks2 said:
How loose does everyone keep the pivot on their axis lock? Do you keep them drop shut loose, or just loose enough to flick them open? I am wondering if the reason for all my horizontal blade play is that I have my pivot loose enough that my knife can fall shut by the force of gravity.
Click to expand...

I haven't even touched the pivot on my contego, and it's as smooth and free spinning as my spydercos. Pull the axis lock and the blade swings. No blade play at all. Didn't start that way, but it broke in just fine.

If benchmade pivots are anything like spyderco pivots, it takes very small turns of the screws to go from free swinging and no play to too tight or too loose. Personally, I adjust the pivots slightly on the tight side and it usually works itself to free swinging on its own. If you adjust them loose it generally gets blade play after a little bit of use.

Ymmv.
 
I purchased several last year (940, 162, 3 mini-grips, 3 Propers), only one of the mini-grips had a very minor F&F issue, the rest were flawless.
 
Out of my four BM's only my Bugout was bad. Right out of the box I had to send it to back because the axis lock was grinding horribly when deploying the blade. Should be back on Wednesday. Hopefully it will be fixed.

Edit for spelling
 
Just purchased a ranger green Bugout, and it’s perfect. Grinds even, axis lock smooth, blade centered.
 
Steve Mizic said:
Out of my four BM's only my Bugout was bad. Right out of the box I had to send it to back because the axis lock was grinding horribly when deploying the blade. Should be back on Wednesday. Hopefully it will be fixed.
Click to expand...

I've only bought one Benchmade in the last year, a Bugout. Pivot needed a minor adjustment to get the action I prefer and I did experience a grindy/sticky axis lock when closing the knife. I used a couple drops of Blue Lube on the lock bar (it was cleaned off after) and opened and closed the knife a bunch of times which seemed to get things worked in well. The blade is slightly off center but not enough to really bother me. I'm sure I'll fix it one day but for now the knife is fine - smooth action and solid lock up.
 
It's funny that this thread got bumped as there are two active threads on the first page discussing how someone's new Benchmade was disappointing and messed up.
 
Cypress said:
It's funny that this thread got bumped as there are two active threads on the first page discussing how someone's new Benchmade was disappointing and messed up.
Click to expand...

I recently placed an order for a CS Grip. It was made very well. My last CS experience was not the same and mirrored what the latest complaints have been.

It's a crap shoot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top