Are those original 154CM Mini Grips?

Alex.Y.

Alex.Y.

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Hi, folks! Recently I've discovered a few old 154CM Mini Grips. Looks legit overall, but patent number looks misplaced to me, especially on pink one.

Could anyone please enlighten me is/was that normal for Benchmade?

IMG_20240116_111443.jpg
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Patent number on another yellow one looks fine.
IMG_20240116_111844.jpg

I never paid much attention to Benchmade until lately, so hoping for a knowledgeable people's keen eye.
 
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I looked at my old sales pics, and it seems like they stamped all over. Here's one (le bought direct from the dealer) where it's even lower. Not sure the release date, but I sold it in 2014.
pk8uZbM.jpg
 
kreole said:
I looked at my old sales pics, and it seems like they stamped all over. Here's one (le bought direct from the dealer) where it's even lower. Not sure the release date, but I sold it in 2014.
pk8uZbM.jpg
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Thank you! Makes me wonder why such an inconsistent etch placement... On the other hand, all fakes I could find pictures of have pat. number high above the bevels.
 
Alex.Y. said:
Thank you! Makes me wonder why such an inconsistent etch placement... On the other hand, all fakes I could find pictures of have pat. number high above the bevels.
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Years ago we didn't have as strict control over our laser mark placement. We have since implemented processes to make them very consistently placed.
 
Benchmade said:
Years ago we didn't have as strict control over our laser mark placement. We have since implemented processes to make them very consistently placed.
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Thank you for your response, I appreciate it when manufacturer talks to people!

According to the thread's subject, could you please tell if knives in question look authentic to you, at least hypothetically?

Edit: I understand that you cannot confirm that by those pics, hence only asking for a hypothesis.
 
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Alex.Y. said:
Thank you for your response, I appreciate it when manufacturer talks to people!

According to the thread's subject, could you please tell if knives in question look authentic to you, at least hypothetically?

Edit: I understand that you cannot confirm that by those pics, hence only asking for a hypothesis.
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Yeah those look legit. They are also the older hollow ground versions which we stopped making around 2015 ish if I remember correctly.
 
.577NE said:
Personally, I prefer a hollow ground Grip over the others.

Alex.Y. Alex.Y. , I hope you bought them, they are mighty fine Grips.
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Same here!

I even prefer the 154cm steel as well.

I would love to see a return of the Griptillian again... especially in the 100 bucks range.

Great work knife, and for that price a tool that many can justify actually using without as many reservations.
 
MolokaiRider said:
Same here!

I even prefer the 154cm steel as well.

I would love to see a return of the Griptillian again... especially in the 100 bucks range.

Great work knife, and for that price a tool that many can justify actually using without as many reservations.
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MolokaiRider MolokaiRider , you are reading my mind, with everything you stated 🎯
 
That's interesting. My yellow mini grip doesn't have a patent number at all, but my pink one does.

I dyed the scales a while back. Green was yellow and brown was pink. The pink one has a hollow grind. Pretty cool.

Gotta love those sheeps foot mini grips! Couple of my favorites.

IMG-6545-1.jpg
 
20yard said:
That's interesting. My yellow mini grip doesn't have a patent number at all, but my pink one does.

I dyed the scales a while back. Green was yellow and brown was pink. The pink one has a hollow grind. Pretty cool.

Gotta love those sheeps foot mini grips! Couple of my favorites.

IMG-6545-1.jpg
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Maybe they dropped the patent number the same time they transitioned to non-hollow ground, but both before changing to s30v.
 
There were different markings for the backside of the blade, and as BM chimed in and said, etching locations on the blade were somewhat inconsistent back in the day. The 555 like what you've got here are my favorites, particularly with the hollow grind. I lucked out and bought some new in box for the safe to back up my user back when they were around $85 on the aftermarket. Times have changed, and as budget-friendly as these were/perhaps still are, there are counterfeits - ask me how I know!

All that said, I agree with MolokaiRider on the 154CM. It's very stainless, sharpenable (if that's a word), and have the original Axis recipe that both locks up tight as a tick, reliably, and leaves room for indefinite wear on the locking surfaces. The slicing and fine edge geometry of the hollow-ground models is icing on the cake. Good finds!
 
MolokaiRider said:
Yep, I like it more than S30V in this model.

Tough and likes a toothy edge.
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I have a 9050 in 154CM and 2 full sized HG Grips in 154CM. It's a great steel AFAIC. It's well balanced in the 4 main categories we seem to care about in a folder, it's a tough steel, it's easy to maintain, and it keeps the price of a knife down in the "reasonable" range.
 
Professor said:
and have the original Axis recipe that both locks up tight as a tick, reliably, and leaves room for indefinite wear on the locking surfaces
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Did they change Axis lock's properties/construction since then?
 
I certainly think so. If you compare stop pin, blade pivot pin, and blade tang ramp geometries of some of the newer knives to those of ten and fifteen years ago, I think you'll see what I mean. The construction's the same, but the geometry of placement of these items differ on some of the newer knives, like the Adamas family for instance - notice how the stop pin has been moved back and more over top the pivot.
 
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