Took a tour of Benchmade last night

[Magoo541]

I'm a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and our local chapter took a tour of their facility followed by some networking time at Izzy's.   
We started out in their showroom, I couldn't get over to the Gold section but there were plenty of other knives to drool over.  We moved to a conference room upstairs where DJ, our Chapter Chair, did the intro and overview of Benchmade before introducing Les, the owner and founder.  Les is a great guy and spent about an hour answering our questions on a wide variety of topics.  After presenting Les with a certificate of appreciation we split into 3 groups of 5 and headed off to the various areas of the plant.  My group started out in the automation and assembly area, then circled back to the blank cutting area and ended our tour with the CNC Machining area.  I won't go into detail about what I saw but let's just say Shot Show is coming up soon.  We all met up at Izzy's for food, beverage and social networking, the kind we used to do before Facebook. This was my first SME event and I had a great time, met some great people and learned some too.

[tombogan03884]

You probably just joined the" Billt, KPR we all hate you club". 
Sounds like a very interesting evening.

[fightingquaker13]

How many knives did you wind up buying?
FQ13

[Big Frank]

I have two Benchmade Bali-Songs. Excellent craftsmanship.

[alfsauve]

<extremely jealous - button>

Very neat.  Too bad you couldn't take pictures. 

[Sponsor]

[Timothy]

Cool stuff...

While I understand the need to make some of their products in Asia to remain competitive I really appreciate the amount of their knives that are made right here which is nearly all of them.

Nice neighbor to have Magoo...

[Magoo541]

Cool stuff...

While I understand the need to make some of their products in Asia to remain competitive I really appreciate the amount of their knives that are made right here which is nearly all of them.

Nice neighbor to have Magoo...

Acutally all Benchmade knives are made in the USA, in fact most parts are made in house-they buy their screws.  To offer lower price point knives they have the Harley Davidson and HK brands.

Didn't buy any new knives, almost left my EDC there to get the free sharpening but didn't.  JD and I talked at Izzy's and I will be buying some new knives here soon, I would say Christmas presents but I won't be giving them to anyone  

Funniest question of the night was to Les- "Can your customers tell the difference between a Benchmade and say a Gerber?"  I had to chime in and let the young man know that yes we can and sent some mental daggers...

The area for their Gold Knives, production customs if you will, was pretty cool.  It had the same work stations as the other work lines but none of the production  stuff. And it had a differnt feeling to it, almost shrine like, maybe because I knew the craftsmanship that normally occupied the chairs.  Cool stuff, good group of guys and no women 

[Timothy]

I stand corrected, I thought their Red class of knives was imported but it appears from the site that they've discontinued that line and all their knives are domestic.

Even cooler!

 

[alfsauve]

They didn't stop making the Red line.   They just re-branded them  to the HK and HD names.  That way they can say, all Benchmade "branded" knives are US made.  A pity, as I really like the Pikka design.  But at the blade show they offered me a great deal to upgrade from their older Red line.  I took them up on it and have been very happy with my McHenry-Williams designed folder.

[kmitch200]

You probably just joined the" Billt, KPR we all hate you club". 
Sounds like a very interesting evening.

I'll second that motion. 

After carrying nothing but Benchmade's for many, many years, I am really jealous. 
Sounds like a neat tour.