Benchmade Knives

[Flattop5]

My email to a knife dealer, re: Benchmade knives


"Why do Benchmade Barrage 580 knives have black plastic spacers in the backs of the knives? Do the spacers serve any useful purpose?

Thanks"

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The Reply:

"Thank you for contacting XXX. The purpose of backspacers is to keep the liners/scales at an even distance from one another and to provide some support. Many knives use standard screws or fillers to achieve this, but Benchmade likes their barrel spacers and/or full backspacers. Hope this helps."


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My reply:

"Very kind of you to reply.

I have 2 Benchmade Barrage 580s. I think that using plastic backspacers is "the cheap way." I wish Benchmade would use aluminum. Much harder and sturdier. Won't melt in a hot car.

I have a Chinese-made knife, similar to the Barrage, that has no backspacer, just 4 hourglass-shaped single spacers front and back. All steel. If the Chinese can do that, so can Benchmade. I hate it when American knife companies take the cheap route. I don't want the cheap route. I would gladly pay 5 dollars more for an aluminum backspacer. Also, I have 3 Spydercos. None of them have plastic parts. Nobody wants plastic parts! Trust me. I have never, ever met anybody who said, "can I get this part in plastic?"


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[OLDSTER]

PHOTOS would help

 

[Flattop5]

PHOTOS would help

Sorry. Here:

 

[growr]

Maybe they can make spacers out of all the guns they cut up......

Randy

 

[fishwishin]

I just pulled my EDC Barrage out of my pocket to check. I never realized the back space was plastic. It has always just done whatever I have tasked it to do without any issues.

 

[ralph7]

I agree with the OP. They certainly charge enough to not use plastic.
Did they respond to your reply?

 

[Flattop5]

I agree with the OP. They certainly charge enough to not use plastic.
Did they respond to your reply?

I cc'd the email to Benchmade, but no reply yet.




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[Ruger 13]

Another reason not to buy a woefully overpriced Benchmade knife!

 

[mauser9]

Yeah usually use high end steels but ain't exactly giving them away. Never had one myself. Usually a Sog/Buck buys for me.

 

[OLDSTER]

My EDC auto knife inventory includes a couple Benchmades; Decent, overpriced, and over hyped. I have two other brands in the same price range that IMO are higher quality and better auto mechanism design.

 

[Hair Trigger]

Another reason not to buy a woefully overpriced Benchmade knife!

Yeah usually use high end steels but ain't exactly giving them away. Never had one myself. Usually a Sog/Buck buys for me.

I have two Benchmade knives, received both as gifts. Nice enough, but I'd just as soon have a SOG or a Gerber, depending on intended use. One of my Benchmade is all metal with a closed back, the other is an open spine with G10 grips.

 

[Walter Rego]

Are the spacers plastic or some type of higher grade material such as Delrin ?

I understand SOG knives are high quality and quite a bit less expensive as Benchmade.
But aren't only their $200 and up knives made in the USA ?

I'm considering purchasing a high quality knife and trying to learn.

 

[kozmic]

I don't worry about the plastic spacer so much. I'm sure it is heat and Uv stable. However, I have both mini and full-sized Grips and Barrages. For the money they should come with G10 or nice micarta scales. The Barrage scales are even worse than the Griptillians. Just my 2 cents. Nice knives, but they could use a revamp.
I have found I really like the US made Bear and Sons knives as much, if not more than the Benchmades and US Kershaws for EDC.

 

[kozmic]

Another reason not to buy a woefully overpriced Benchmade knife!

They are great knives and Benchmade as a ridiculously accommodating customer service department. They will replace worn parts and sharpen your knife for free, forever! For whatever reasons you may have for disliking them, they have some very strong selling points. It all depends on what you consider "Woefully overpriced".

 

[Oldsalt66]

They are great knives and Benchmade as a ridiculously accommodating customer service department. They will replace worn parts and sharpen your knife for free, forever! For whatever reasons you may have for disliking them, they have some very strong selling points. It all depends on what you consider "Woefully overpriced".

If you ship Benchmade an automatic knife from out of state for any sort of repair work , will Benchmade perform the repairs and ship the knife back to you?

 

[Marshwheeling]

My guess would be that the back spacer is made of fiber reinforced nylon (FRN) If it's good enough for the scales I don't know why it can't serve for the spacer.

I have the Mini Barrage, which for a while was my favorite pocket knife. I had another one, which got stolen. The junkie who took it told me later that Pawn America had given him 85 bucks for it, not bad for a $115.00 knife.

The assisted opening used to be a draw for me. Not so much now, but it doesn't bother me, and I'm not going to de-assist the knife, as some have done. For me, the feature that puts Benchmade above the competition is the Axis lock. It has its detractors, but I have never had an Omega spring fail.

 

[Absalom]

I have not found this anything to worry about. After ten-plus years of carrying a 580 on a regular basis, I just directed my attention for the first time to the spacers. I guess they could be made from aluminum or titanium for that matter, but so far I have failed to notice a functional relevance; after several trips to Death Valley they haven't melted yet either.

And as Kozmic says, Benchmade's customer service is fantastic. A while ago I had a mainspring failure on a pretty scratched-up 5000 auto after several years, and in about a week I had a repaired and completely refurbished as-new knife back.

And I still have a Benchmade-Emerson CQC-7 from the mid-1990s in use which Benchmade produced in significantly better quality than ol' Ernest Emerson after he took over serial production himself.

 

[Donn]

I've had a Griptilian for several years, like it fine. That said, are they worth the price? To quote Paul Harrell, "You be the judge."

 

[Flattop5]

Are the spacers plastic or some type of higher grade material such as Delrin ?

It seems similar to Delrin, but I don't know for sure...


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[BB57]

I have three Benchmade knives.

Two of them are their Hidden Canyon fixed blade knives - the original version and their newer version with a slightly longer and thinner blade. The Benchmade sheaths for these are low quality, using a pressed leather product and not all that practical. It I have Armatus Carry Kydex sheaths for them with UltiClips that work great for front pocket carry. They are my go to every day carry knives

I like the folder as well, although Benchmade has discontinued it. I like their stabilized wood scales, but they currently only have two models of folders that use them.

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I also have a CRKT Squid that's legal in states where a longer blade isn't, and a Kershaw Leek that is probably one of the best bang for the buck folding knives available.