Not too sure how it happened, I certainly haven’t done any sort of abuse to this knife, but the very top of my 940-1 seemed to have chipped off.

So, I took it into work and put the tip of my blade under a 350x microscope, and sure enough it looks like a tiny chip out of the point of the knife.

Now, I don’t really care, the chip is so small that It will eventually sharpen out from my regular sharpening, but what has me more concerned is the possibility of a more extreme one happening under normal use.

Attached File


Sorry for the shitty picture quality, it was a bitch to get the microscope focused, and to get my iPhone to focus on that image.

ETA: this blade is made with S90V steel.

There's a lot of debate over this.  I think there are many factors, but thin edges with CPM steels along with being hardened too hard (I think) can lead to chipping.  I can't say it's simply because their CPM steels as I have both an S30V and S35VN bushcraft blades that I've chopped and battened with, and no issues of chipping.  I did convex the edge of my S30V blade (both are from Ed Martin), so it's got a very robust edge while still getting razor sharp.

Chipping sucks though and I've had it happen on various blades over the years...both factory and custom.  The worst was a custom D2 from Charles May.  I really like that knife but it chipped horribly with even light use.

You may just need to increase the edge angle a little when you re-sharpen it.  I also advise contacting Benchmade and letting them know when and where you bought it as they may have just had a bad batch or issue with heat-treatment.  I know it sucks for the customer to be part of the QA/QC process, but quality manufacturers do appreciate feedback and hear about issues.

ROCK6

Ok, thanks, I’ll give them a call/email tomorrow. Kinda sucks because I just got this knife two weeks ago.