I'll start off by saying my 806-901 was laser sharp right out of the box. I mean it was awesome.

However, it seems like some forumites received knives with less than desirable edges. I know Benchmades are hand sharpened at the factory, but I wondered if anybody knows just what the sharpening process at the factory is or how it's accomplished?

I believed they actually were shipping us blade blanks...

My (6) were all shaving hair sharp. Swapped 2 for 2 so all (8) were like this.
Just not hair popping sharp like the last few from another Co. I have purchased.
I think the short edge has a lot to do with it.
A degree change might have helped.
Its a pretty short angle.......
Many that uses theirs will no doubt re-profile the edge.
Not much fun with M4.

To me its still the best BM to date.

Maybe they had a reason for this short edge geometry?
I wished they posted here more often and answered questions like this. There might be an easy explanation.

A simple test for me is take a roll of TP and see how well the 806 bites into the thing. Before I ran it on the Sharpmaker I not only couldn't cut regular typing bond, but it sort of dented the TP roll. After prolly three 20 minute passes, first with the medium grit, then with the fine it now easily sinks through.

What's so is my 710, 760, and this 806SBK all had to be touched up - came out of the box fairly dull.

While it's nice to practice technique and all why do these get sent out randomly sharp as hell or dull as in many of ours seem to be??

Of the 6 I have, one is sharp but not very sharp, all the others are dull. Both my 710-801s had the same short edge problem and are dull, so did my 950-901 except that that knife has a FFG so it is not as bad. I do not see the point of using M4 to have such wide-angle edges, the whole point of M4 is that it can take a very shallow angle without rolling...

I could be wrong, but I believe they use belt sanders to sharpen the blade by hand. I just sent an Ares to them for a blade swap, and it came back a butter knife But my new 950's were all hair shaving sharp.

One thing I did notice is that their non-coated blades are sharper than the coated ones, maybe because on those they want to expose as little metal as possible...

Just as a comparison look at the factory edge on my Buck 112, just back from servicing. I wish the edges on our BM's were as nice as this is, lowly 440c and all it really cuts:

quote:

Originally posted by LorenzoL:
One thing I did notice is that their non-coated blades are sharper than the coated ones, maybe because on those they want to expose as little metal as possible...

Good point.

quote:

Originally posted by LorenzoL:
One thing I did notice is that their non-coated blades are sharper than the coated ones, maybe because on those they want to expose as little metal as possible...

It could be hit and miss... I have a 950BK that's much sharper than my regular 950. I guess it's up to the hand behind it...