Recent Benchmade Quality?

Purchased several Bugouts in 2019. All of them were excellent. Good blade centering on all. A couple of them needed pivot adjustment to get drop free. Grinds were fine on all. Bugout standard mini deep carry clip works great.



TXPO
You're lucky. I just got one from Knife Center. OFF CENTER. BOO. Everything else about the knife is fine, but off-center blades are rediculous. There's plenty of other brands that get it right at the same price point. Benchmade keeps letting me down.
 
You're lucky. I just got one from Knife Center. OFF CENTER. BOO. Everything else about the knife is fine, but off-center blades are rediculous. There's plenty of other brands that get it right at the same price point. Benchmade keeps letting me down.
So funny. Do you really think other brands don't have the same issues. ?
Pics or it didn't happen.
Just picked this up tonight at Cabelas. It's perfect. As expected.20200613_210309.jpg 20200613_210259.jpg 20200613_210254.jpg 20200613_210238.jpg 20200613_210228.jpg
 
I’ve had much better luck with other brands that I’ve purchased at about the same price-point. You got a good one. I got an off-center one. So have many other folks in posts on Bladeforums. Just shows that there’s inconsistency. I’m glad your knife is perfect and that you’re happy with it.
 
I have been reading about issues with Benchmade knives since the forums began all the way back to recdotknives!

I have owned a LOT of Benchmades going back to 1990. I have yet to buy one, not one, that had issues. Lucky? Maybe. I am sure that bad ones are out there. But, I don’t personally think that it is a common occurrence.
 
Just for the record, spydercos come uncentered just as much as benchmade in my experience. If the blade isn't rubbing and the knife works fine, what does it matter?

Hogue as well. I love my Ritter, but so many people were saying the quality was better than benchmade, they came centered, etc etc. Well, mine is off center and I can't get it centered no matter what I try. Action is fine, knife is solid, so no big deal.

I haven't really had any problems with my Benchmades, and a slightly off center blade isn't a big deal to me. They come a little tight usually, but nothing an adjustment can't fix. Maybe a blade not as sharp as it could be, or the edge is off a little, but I've had more zero tolerance knives I've had to completely reprofile out of the box. Spyderco is still king here... Every one I've bought has been razor sharp out of the box.

Maybe I'm just not as picky as some... Lol
 
I think the issue is that people follow what certain youtubers parrott on about the "butterfly tax". Benchmade charges a premium for what amounts to a premium quality knife. Yes, it's perfectly proper to complain about quality issues but the price point becomes less of a factor, now that other American knife manufacturers are starting to become less of a deal and their prices (and MAP) are going up.

We see that some have a different standard level of QC complaints and are quite happy with what they purchased, while some just can't be satisfied, believing that the "other" knife manufacturer has much better QC, when it actually doesn't.

Myself, I love-love-love my Benchmade knives.:p
 
The butterfly tax is real, but I feel it is justified because of the service and warranty you receive from Benchmade. 2nd to none. I've only used them a couple of times but they've always been great, very helpful, and did a great job on the crooked river I sent in (got cheap on ebay and it needed some work).

My Benchmades are my most carried knives...
 
In the past few months I've purchased 6, 2 Crooked Rivers (1 custom) 1 mini Crooked River, a 943, 417 Fact and a Valet. None have had any issues out of the box. The only one I now have issues with is the 943 after I put Flytanium titanium scales on it, slightly off center. All have been great and have decent drop shut action with the exception of the Valet, which has a tighter detent. I'm ambidextrous and have found the axis lock perfect, in fact it's pulling me away from Spyderco where I've spent a lot of money in the past. Benchmade's customer service smokes any other knife company in my experience. Can't stop messing around with these axis lock knives...

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Yeah, I've bought Benchmade's for years, along with other brands. Do Benchmades sometimes come off center or with other issues, yeah. So do Spydercos. So do ZTs. At basically the same rate.

And anyone who takes an honest look at recent Benchmade productions (and you can tell, they put the assembly date on the boxes now, for the last couple years), will be hard pressed to find flaws in fit and finish at a higher rate than comparable other brands.

People make a lot of noise, but it's just that.
 
Bought two custom shop griptilians... ridiculous amount of lockstick. Got rid of them. Also bought a Benchmade proper that felt a little weird opening and closing it... lo and behold, one side had an extra washer on the pivot. Bought a mini crooked river from custom shop that came perfect.

I’m about 1 good Benchmade for every 4 I buy.
 
In the past few months I've purchased 6, 2 Crooked Rivers (1 custom) 1 mini Crooked River, a 943, 417 Fact and a Valet. None have had any issues out of the box. The only one I now have issues with is the 943 after I put Flytanium titanium scales on it, slightly off center. All have been great and have decent drop shut action with the exception of the Valet, which has a tighter detent. I'm ambidextrous and have found the axis lock perfect, in fact it's pulling me away from Spyderco where I've spent a lot of money in the past. Benchmade's customer service smokes any other knife company in my experience. Can't stop messing around with these axis lock knives...
If you don't mind can I ask you a question? I see that you bought a custom Crooked River and I have been thinking about getting one as well. How long approximately did it take to get after you ordered it and did it turn out the way that you expected it? Thanks in advance for the reply. I appreciate the extra effort to respond if you can.
 
I have been buying knives from them since the early 1980's when they were Pacific Cutlery. During those early years I owned a lot of them from BaliSongs and folders like the Barry Wood model to fixed blades like the Weehawk Boot knife and the Timba & Fer De Lance. I think back then when there was not as much competition they were higher on my scale of companies than they are now. I had dozens of them in the 80's and 90's.
In general I think BM is about as good as any other midrange factory knife. I usually don't care for too many of their models but there are a few that I like. I have recently purchased a Model 496 Vector that I thought was pretty nice. Maybe a little over priced but I like it. Right now I think I have 3 or 4 Benchmades, a Sibert 7505-131 folder, a model 62 Bali and the 496 Vector and maybe something else that I have forgotten about. I am considering getting a Crooked River custom model, but other than that I am not real thrilled by to many of their offerings.

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If you don't mind can I ask you a question? I see that you bought a custom Crooked River and I have been thinking about getting one as well. How long approximately did it take to get after you ordered it and did it turn out the way that you expected it? Thanks in advance for the reply. I appreciate the extra effort to respond if you can.

I got mine within 2 weeks of ordering it, the knife is spot on from what it looked like on the builder. Came centered, with great action. I added a bit of pivot lube to the axis lock and the pivot itself, and it drops closed, great action. Way happy with it, it is one of my favorites now.
 
My wife ordered me a mini CR from the custom shop. 10 days later it was in my hands, and it is everything I hoped it would be.
 
Just ordered a custom Griptilian. M4 sheepsfoot, blue G10, all black hardware. One question for Benchmade Benchmade though, I thought there were handle texture options for the grip? It's just the normal G10 grip pattern now. Not really a big deal, and maybe I'm not remembering correctly... I enjoy my 20cv Griptilian, and I'll enjoy this one even more!
 
Just ordered a custom Griptilian. M4 sheepsfoot, blue G10, all black hardware. One question for Benchmade Benchmade though, I thought there were handle texture options for the grip? It's just the normal G10 grip pattern now. Not really a big deal, and maybe I'm not remembering correctly... I enjoy my 20cv Griptilian, and I'll enjoy this one even more!

Yeah, just the "classic" G10 patterns now.
 
Bought my first Benchmade Mini Bugout about two months ago. At first it didn’t need any pivot adjustment - blade was free falling with zero blade play. The centering was off just a tiny bit but it didn’t bother me.
After using it some (cutting some branches etc) it developed slight side to side blade play. Haven’t been able to get rid of it without sacrificing free falling blade action. On the other hand blade centering is now magically spot on. Also in locked position the axis bar is a tiny bit crooked as well. I can see from the marks on the blade tang which part of the axis bar is more in contact/rubbing against the tang.
Took it apart, cleaned, lubed - no improvement.
 
I’ve been buying Benchmade knives for about 20 years now and the only issue I’ve run into is a tight pivot. A 705, a 485 and most recently my 575GY-2001. The action On the 705 and 575 loosened up with use. The valet didn’t, but I realized that the knife was too small and sold it shortly after it arrived. I assume it would have broken in just fine after some use.

The other knives I have purchased over the years, a second 705, a 5500, a 707, a 5700, and a 537 GY-1, have all been perfect out of the box.

Here are the two I purchased this year, they’re both keepers:
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A couple other thing I’d like to point out about QC (I do not work for Benchmade, but I’m a quality engineer and I work in a manufacturing environment):
  • Some of the issues that are being reported as defects may very well be defined as acceptable conditions by Benchmade.
  • I can guarantee that they are doing visual inspection.
  • The downside of guided visual inspection is that it’ll only identify approximately 80% of the defects. Unguided visual inspection is even less effective.
 
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