What's the story with the 757 Vicar?

pbcg

pbcg

Joined
Oct 20, 2009
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@ Benchmade

What's the story with the 757 Vicar? The blade design seems to have changed recently?

The model shown at blade and currently being shown on many knife sites for pre-order is a "Tanto blade with modified recurve" This is also the current description of the blade on Benchmades website. However, the picture of the blade seems to have changed and is a VERY different design now?

The pre-order available at KW shows a drop point design of sorts and KW's website makes reference to “The new 757 blade".

Is there an announcement somewhere that explains this? Can you fill us in?

Thanks.
 
I have noticed the same thing as well. Every video I have seen shows the wild looking tanto style blade, but some of the still pictures, including on Bencmade's site, appears to be a more conventional looking blade. It almost looks like the knife is slightly tilted toward the spine in the picture. This might account for it not looking like a tanto blade. Not sure.
 
16103685832_74c218184f_z.jpg


I like the blade shape change. I was 100% going to skip it with the proto blade style. Now it's on the wish list. Good call skipping the tanto recurve, imo.
 
But i don't understand why it's still mentioned as Tanto blade with modified curve on the picture above.
It looks like a drop point, which is preferable to tanto, imo.
 
I wonder if the green G10 piece is bonded to the black piece underneath.
Basically what I'm getting at is that the handle scales are not my cup of tea. However, if it was just a single piece of black G10 I would be very interested in the knife now that the blade has been changed.
 
They might have missed the memo too, As far as anyone can tell it "just changed", no rhyme or reason. I do like the tanto blade shape on this one, or did. This thing looks like an after thought "Plan B" of sorts, and it just might have been.
 
I pre-ordered the 757 a few days ago thinking I was buying the Tanto blade design which I liked very much and is very close to the Sibert custom. Didn't realize until yesterday that they had changed the blade design and was surprised to say the least...

Guess I'll see how I like this "new" version when it arrives but changing it after announcing and producing one version at Blade and displaying it on their site and then changing it just before release without word is very odd. In fact I don't think I've ever seen that before.

No announcement that I know of? Like I said really odd....
 
I may be in the minority here, but I prefer the new blade shape and would be more likely to buy one than the tanto version. It's definitely not as original looking though.

I am curious why this one gets a tip up configuration (not lefty though :(), but the 761 does not. Kinda lends more credence to the clip acting as an over travel theory on the 761.
 
A better image from the net:

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This change makes a huge difference. I am really looking forward to this one now. :thumbup:
 
I don't like the blade change. That recurve tanto thing was wild and unique.

The drop point isn't bad, but there's plenty already in BM's lineup.

Either way though, I wasn't going to get one. Too big for my taste. Now if they were to come out with a Mini Vicar with the tanto recurve sign me up!
 
I guess their website and Ad/Media QC is run by the same dept. as their knife QC. Somebody is really falling down on the job here. I'm a huge Benchmade fan, but this company seems to slowly move further and further away from the company I once knew and loved.
 
Accelerator said:
I guess their website and Ad/Media QC is run by the same dept. as their knife QC. Somebody is really falling down on the job here. I'm a huge Benchmade fan, but this company seems to slowly move further and further away from the company I once knew and loved.
Click to expand...

I hate to say that I agree with you but there it is.
Whether or not people like the new blade is completely irrelevant when someone lays down cash for a pre order based on expectations and then the design gets changed with no reason or warning??

I wonder if PBCG will even get a response from Benchmade, and if so will it be the typical canned response we have been seeing over the past year?

I still say Benchmade makes a fine quality product but where they a seriously lacking is in there relationship with the fans of the brand, and no moderation of this forum in general has caused me to rethink my loyalty to them.
 
Accelerator said:
I guess their website and Ad/Media QC is run by the same dept. as their knife QC. Somebody is really falling down on the job here. I'm a huge Benchmade fan, but this company seems to slowly move further and further away from the company I once knew and loved.
Click to expand...
Cannot disagree with you in any way. Things have been getting really different for the last 2-3 years.

cncpro11 said:
I hate to say that I agree with you but there it is.
Whether or not people like the new blade is completely irrelevant when someone lays down cash for a pre order based on expectations and then the design gets changed with no reason or warning??

I wonder if PBCG will even get a response from Benchmade, and if so will it be the typical canned response we have been seeing over the past year?

I still say Benchmade makes a fine quality product but where they a seriously lacking is in there relationship with the fans of the brand, and no moderation of this forum in general has caused me to rethink my loyalty to them.
Click to expand...
Might not get a response. I sent a PM to "Benchmade" about this knife about a week ago, and not a peep. They had asked in a previous thread that folks should check out their new announcements and other stuff on their forum. Seemed like a strange request since the "official" forum has less manufacturer participation than this version from what I've seen over the last year. The original mod that started with this subforum was cool, he participated, answered questions, and responded to PMs. Personality goes a long way.
 
That is unfortunate. It would seem that they should have a marketing department of some kind (I am sure that they do), and that someone within that department should be assigned to actively participate in various forums, Facebook, Twiter, and so on and so forth. Hell, I would wager they could easily moderate or answer the questions that come up in this forum in just a few minutes a day. Even if they checked in once a week, it probably wouldn't take them that long to take care of their customers. I will say that I am glad to see that they don't come on here and become critical of people with complaints like some other areas (maybe that is because they are just not paying attention).
 
So much to discuss and so little information shared. There appears to have been a reorganization over this last couple of years. And then there was the changing of their prices a couple of years ago. Buyers started bailing. At this point there are so many unspoken reasons for their behavior. Many, maybe a few, moved over here from the factory forum in hopes of a better community to participate in. I agree with the post above, all it would take is a few minutes daily to settle and smooth jangled nerves and maybe fill us in on factual vs. not.

I have a close friend and we try our best to work around the latest rumors about the latest knife that no one knows anything about. We used to talk about what we were buying next, and it's now been more than a year. The last item I purchased was in need of warranty repair like the half dozen that came before. We both agreed to pull the plug, so to speak and while I work strange hours and come here, it's a concern to see the same lack of anyone responding to our questions. The Vicar and 761 are really good examples of what I'm talking about.

Do I still hope? Yes, I seek out the older models and not the new ones...I have better luck with them and no trips to the factory for their 'free' repairs. And yes, I hope they read some of these comments, someone needs to know if they don't already that there's a problem.
 
I was really pretty shocked that no one from Benchmade has gotten on this forum, or their own, to discuss the design features of the 761 (unless I missed it somewhere). I mean people are posting some pretty bad stuff, and really picking apart the design, but still no rebuttal or explanation. I am sure their engineers have a good explanation of why the knife was designed the way it was, and could calm people down, or allay fears, but nothing has been said thus far. I hope I dont sound too negative, as I really am a fan of their knives, I just wish they would participate a bit more.

Sorry to derail the Vicar thread, but I think the lack of communication is the idea being discussed here, at least in part.
 
I also apologize for drifting off this Vicar/757 to make my points above. Once made, I'll let it drift. Cheers!
 
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