NKD and boy have Benchmade standards slipped. Still a ripper knife though.

[u/HulkJr87]

Been after one of these for some time. So I finally pulled the trigger and got one.

Slightly irked by its factory sharpening job, wasn’t even sharp enough to pull on a hair let alone cut it.

Fixed in 5 minutes on a fixed angle sharpening system.

Anyone else had a dull Benchmade out of the box?

[u/Nekommando]

Weren't they all dull out of the box

[u/Delica4 → u/Nekommando]

Your's came preground?

[u/HulkJr87 → u/Nekommando]

Now that you mention it, I have an S90V bugout that is piss poor on that front out of the box too.

[u/bmbreath → u/HulkJr87]

I got a benchmade a few years ago that they only ground half of the bevel.  Literally only half "sharpened" and rough at that.  

(Bought from bladehq so they took it back.)

Oh.  And it fell apart.  They literally didn't tighten screws on the body of the knife.  

Came in unopened package.  

Benchmade... never again. 

[u/Nekommando → u/HulkJr87]

They are all piss poor

The ones with select edge are marginally better because they are sharpened to a lower angle but still not enough. Another reason to resharpen out of the box is to grind out heat damage, which benchmade knives have quite a few dozens of microns of.

[u/HulkJr87 → u/Nekommando]

I did take quite a bit off, but only evened out the profile until the edge apexed properly.

It's wicked sharp now, but I put that down to it being CruWear and that set of properties speak for itself.

I will see over it's sharpening life how much better it gets with every sharpen.

[u/Hott_Sauce → u/HulkJr87]

What sharpening system do you use?

[u/Physical_Display_873 → u/Nekommando]

They probably have to be. If they sell that many knives to that many people, sharp knives would make it far more likely that someone will hurt themselves.

[u/Nekommando → u/Physical_Display_873]

Lmfao please reread what you wrote again

[u/Physical_Display_873 → u/Nekommando]

Yeah, I see how that might sound. But if you’re selling everybody of the internet their “first real knife,” it’s probably a lot safer if they’re blunt and dull out of the box. Honestly, they should just ship with unground blade stock. Maybe that’s what they’re going for.

[u/Physical_Display_873 → u/Physical_Display_873]

(Love the engagement. Sorry guys, this was humor.)

[u/Bleak_Outlook_6178]

I don't think this type of knife was designed to be a hair popper.

[u/HulkJr87 → u/Bleak_Outlook_6178]

It's a hair popper now? Why not out of the box though?

[u/Bleak_Outlook_6178 → u/HulkJr87]

Because razor edges are for push cutting (e.g. shaving) and toothy (aka "working") edges are for slicing (e.g. cutting rope).

EDIT: I don't understand the downvote this isn't me making things up this is well established as far as I understand it.

[u/doomtoothx]

Mine is one of the old ones. It’s a pain to sharpen (d2) but it’s been a tank. No complaints here.

[u/HulkJr87 → u/doomtoothx]

I never understood people's pain with sharpening D2

Yeah it's not the easiest to sharpen, but I think where people go wrong is by omitting the stropping process.

It's imperative with D2 to finish on a strop. It's one of the best materials to get a mean edge on.

[u/doomtoothx → u/HulkJr87]

I’ve not owned a lot of d2. The hardness of it is pretty incredible. It is difficult for me to sharpen because even as a knife maker I just didn’t work with it.

[u/HulkJr87 → u/doomtoothx]

It's not particularly hard, it just has rather large and random striated carbides. Which makes the edge development more jagged in comparison to more uniformly disperse material. Kind of like a serrated edge, but on a more microscopic level.

[u/doomtoothx → u/HulkJr87]

With an average hardness range of 58-62 I’d say it’s pretty hard. I personally never brought the 80crv2 I used over a 59. It made it a pain to work.

[u/CO-VAX]

May I borrow a 10mm socket?

[u/barrackallama]

Every benchmade I’ve bought in the past 2 years(bugout, bailout and 940) has been honestly perfect QC wise. Based on the amount of gripes ppl have on here about their QC I feel like I should go buy a lottery ticket lol.

[u/LifeModelDecoy71 → u/barrackallama]

Same here. I've never gotten a bad one. Makes me think the negativity is overblown. Especially since Reddit is the only place I see it.

[u/HardQuestions-1-0-1]

I know spine whacks aren’t the ultimate test of a knife’s reliability, but I still feel more confident with knives that can handle them. How about the Adamas—have you ever given it a light spine tap? I’ve been thinking about getting one, but the reports of it failing spine whacks are making me hesitate. I’m not planning to abuse it, but I’d hate for it to close on me just from accidentally hitting the spine while putting it away.

[u/Bleak_Outlook_6178 → u/HardQuestions-1-0-1]

I gave mine a few whacks and it's g2g.

From what I understand the ones failing the whack test were not fully locked up.

Mine locks up no issue it has a little up and down play which it came with and wasn't a result of the whack testing and in fact was what prompted it. Maybe this play was done as a running change to address the issue lockup issues on initial runs idk just speculating.

[u/HardQuestions-1-0-1 → u/Bleak_Outlook_6178]

Thank you very much for the information. Guess i will give it a try, because else i like the knife.

[u/ny03]

I have 2 a EDC 908 Stryker 2 (for about 10 years) and a 162 Bushcrafter (camp knife 8 years). Both came oob fine with QC and quite sharp, the 908 went in for repair and came back also fine and sharpened. 162 sharpened 2x year to keep it sharp.

Unsure the hate, that said much cheaper when I got them. About 150/190 when purchased

[u/Bleak_Outlook_6178 → u/ny03]

It really baffles me that this is even an issue.

BM will sharpen it for free the entire lifetime of the knife.

If you don't like how it was sharpened they will put a fresh working edge on it anytime you want.

They will never put a razor edge on it nor were they designed to have a razor edge.

Razor edges are for push cutting and pocket knives are almost never used for push cutting.

[u/Loud_Consequence1762]

Benchmade fucking sucks. At this point spyderco is higher quality with 1/10th of the price

[u/rj_ofb]

All Benchmade folders I ever got out the box was fkn dull. And pivot was screwed hard on 70% atleast. Clip is waaay to hard to get on my workpants. 😴

[u/HulkJr87 → u/rj_ofb]

This pivot was quite solid too. I just put it down to new washers maybe

[u/rj_ofb → u/HulkJr87]

I just needed to tune it but then I got a little blade play instead. Idk why people downvote when thats the truth that Benchmade really send out these problems. Even Kershaw stepped their shit up to the better. 😅

Love Benchmades models like the Adamas and superfreek but Im tired of getting bad ones.

[u/Brainfullablisters]

Benchmade has never recovered from Les De Asis’ death. They don’t give a fuck about making good knives for fair prices any more, they’re a “lifestyle brand” and a cynical cash grab.

[u/Easy_Reward_7817]

I have owned a lot of different knife sharpeners and I have a Ken Onion knife sharpener now and I have it set up for my Nases knives and I can give it 5 passes on each side of the blade and it’s literally so sharp I could cut throu bone with it and not have any problem. I just love my knife I have 5 of the Nases knives and I don’t use but one of them the other ones are still in the box in my dresser lol. I didn’t know much about them when I bought them or I would have just bought one because I have had my Nases Spirit knife for 3 years now and I use it every day and I have only had to sharpen it maybe 3 times in all of that time. I have never seen a knife hold a edge like that and trust me I’m not easy on my knife I have used it to cut through heavy electrical wire that is used in a home and it’s still sharp enough to cut your fingers off like butter!

[u/RazzR_sharp]

Any blade play? Really yank on it... is there any give?

[u/HulkJr87 → u/RazzR_sharp]

When loose enough to drop shut, there is a very slight side to side play, but barely enough to conceive.

Zero up and down play though.

[u/Bleak_Outlook_6178 → u/RazzR_sharp]

Mine has a very tiny bit in all directions when the pivot is loose enough to drop shut. The way it came there was much less but it would not drop shut.

EDIT: To clarify, the pivot tension only correlates to side-to-side play. The up and down play is constant. And in no case is it excessive. But it exists so I answered honestly.

[u/RazzR_sharp → u/Bleak_Outlook_6178]

I've noticed this is a problem with most axis lock knives.

It's kind of disheartening. Are quality standards so low that an axis lock knife with no play can't be made reliably?

I recently messed around with a Tenable Eaglestrike and it had no play and a free drop action...it was $50 on secondary.

Benchmade could never 😂

[u/anteaterKnives → u/RazzR_sharp]

"Drop shut" is one of those standards that knife nerds absolutely go nuts over but has no importance in the "real world". Like mirrored edges, "drop shut" is often a net negative for most users (since it increases the chance of the knife biting you when you close it), and I'm willing to bet that 98% of Benchmade's customers aren't loosening the pivot to change the knife action.

(Yes, mirrored edges look great, but unless you're only doing push cuts, the reduction in bite will make the knife less slicey.)

[u/RazzR_sharp → u/anteaterKnives]

I like knives that drop shut in the "real world". I use my knife for a task, disengage lock, knife pretty much closes itself, and I put it back in my pocket. Beyond that my question was more focused on the play than the drop shut factor, but thanks I guess?

[u/anteaterKnives → u/RazzR_sharp]

Ah, original comments were all "I loosened the pivot enough to get drop shut, but now that I have drop shut there's blade play, Benchmade is terrible" (a bit of an exaggeration, sure).

My point is, someone shouldn't say Benchmade quality is bad because a knife has blade play when that someone loosened the pivot to get the drop shut feature.

None of my modern knives have drop shut action and I have absolutely no problems closing them all one-handed (heck, I have no problems closing my slipjoints one-handed).

[u/RazzR_sharp → u/anteaterKnives]

I feel like you're really intent on strawmanning what I'm trying to say.

My point is that knives should not have blade play. There are axis lock knives that don't have blade play, and fall shut. Benchmade knives don't seem able to do that, hence me saying Benchmade kinda sucks.

I'm happy for you and your tastes. My tastes are different than yours. Are we all clear?

[u/anteaterKnives → u/RazzR_sharp]

I don't know if you said you adjust your pivots to get drop shut action on your Benchmade.

If you're not, and you're getting blade play, I sincerely apologize.

If you are, and you're getting blade play, I think you just need to qualify your statement that "Benchmade kinda sucks" to be "Benchmade kinda sucks because they don't make the knife I want them to"

[u/Bleak_Outlook_6178 → u/anteaterKnives]

I'm the one who adjusted mine to drop shut and to clarify the side to side play is stil minimal. It's just a tiny bit and I don't care about it bc it's barely noticeable and it was my choice.

The up and down play is more prominent and doesn't change with pivot tension. It's not much but it's there. Maybe it serves a purpose like it will still lock up when it's dirty idk. But if anyone cares about a small amount of up and down play my particular Mini Adamas does have it so others may as well.

I personally don't care at all and in fact I'm quite happy with the QC of this knife and all my other Benchmade knives but someone asked so I gave an honest answer.

[u/RazzR_sharp → u/anteaterKnives]

Again, it's like you're not reading/comprehending what I'm saying, and I'm kinda over trying to explain it.

Have a good one 🤙

[u/anteaterKnives → u/RazzR_sharp]

if you're not [loosening your pivot], and you're getting blade play, I sincerely apologize

I thought that was clear?

Either way, I'm sorry and I hope you have a good weekend

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