Hey guys, I recently got myself my very own 615! But upon inspecting the knife, I had a few wonderings for those who are familiar with the knife.

I noticed the "S30V" stamp on mine is in front of the thumbstud, rather than behind the stud (between the stud and the handle when the knife is opened)... this placement of the stamp in front of the stud is different from every picture I've ever seen. Is this usual?

Also do you guys consider a Rukus with the Blackwood logo more valuable?

Onto functionality, everything seems very nice, but I was alarmed when I noticed how little the Axis lock bar is engaging my blade. At the point when I lock (click!) the blade open, the bar only shifts like 3 mm over to lock the blade in. The lockup seems solid, but it really seems like the lock bar should be sliding in over the blade much deeper than that. Do you notice your 615's lock being similar?

Thanks for any thoughts!

As to the axis-lock, it is the position on the blade tang that matters. Movement of the bar is an indicator, but as long as the bar engages the blade enough to lock the knife, things are good.

Not sure about the blade markings. Benchmade has been been known to change things a bit.

quote:

Originally posted by orthogonal1:
As to the axis-lock, it is the position on the blade tang that matters. Movement of the bar is an indicator, but as long as the bar engages the blade enough to lock the knife, things are good.

+1.

I know what you mean though. It seems like the axis bar doesn't move very far compared to some other BMs. But yeah, it's where the axis bar hits that is important. I've used my 615 hard and never had any problems. Don't worry.

As to the logo placement: I'm sure somebody with more experience will chime in here, but I believe you've got a newer model. Older models have the Blackwood logo as well as the blade steel etched behind the thumb stud. I don't think either is more valuable, but idk.

rx, your help is needed here !
as for the bar engagement, 3mm seems to be pretty much; some of my axis don't engage a lot more than 1 mm
my 615 has hard works, and never felt!

I noticed the same issue with the lock engagement on my Mini Ruckus. My concern was that the lock could be easily accidentally disengaged during use. I actually removed the blade and ground the tang where the bar rests with a diamond hone and then polished it to its original condition. By removing a very small amount of metal (I estimate about 0.002")the bar now moves more completely onto the tang. This is risky business, grind too much, or alter the angle of the tang and I would have ruined the knife.

quote:

Originally posted by Reitwagen:
...I actually removed the blade and ground the tang where the bar rests with a diamond hone and then polished it to its original condition...

Yikes!

The issue is whether the lock is reliable. With the blade in the open position, tape the handle to a stick and punish it to your own satisfaction by stabbing it into boards, banging on the spine, whatever you think is reasonable and expected. If the lock holds, you will soon forget about meaningless details like how far the lock bar moves.

If the lock doesn't hold, send it to Benchmade customer service.

Cheers.

My Rukus also minimal engagement on the blade tang. After a year of usage I've never experienced a problem. I don't consider it an issue, it's just how these knives were designed.

As for blade markings, I prefer to have the designer's logo. But it's not going to stop me from buying a knife I really like if it's not there.

My 615 has the Blackwood logo and says S30V to the left of the thumbstud..

I have the same thing going on with my axis lock, it barely engages... To me, its not so much a big deal that it barely engages, but its a bigger deal that it takes such little "force" on my part to unlock the knife... I would say the axis bars go about 1-2 mm over the blade.. I know its going to hold, because of where its positioned.. But it doesn't take much to disengage the lock.. At all..

I'd like to see this fixed, even though I know it has yet to cause many problems.. But if its caught this many customers' attention, then something should be done IMO.

There was a run of bad ones a year or so ago that of course Benchmade made good.

But if it's solid and not slipping, I wouldn't worry about it. It has more leverage and thus strength being closer to the corner. So ideal is just far enough past the corner for reliable solid engagement. That sounds like what you have.

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Reitwagen:
...I actually removed the blade and ground the tang where the bar rests with a diamond hone and then polished it to its original condition...


Yikes!

This process is really not as difficult as it sounds. I have modified several axis lock knives without any problems. I use a vise and a magnifying glass as well as ample care. I typically reassmble the knife several times before I'm satified with the result. Bear in mind that the changes that I make are very small, but significant in the operation of the knife. I don't carry a single Benchmade that I haven't modified in some way.