Spyderco Forums

holeshot wrote: Sal, I wish the agreement included use of the axis lock by your company. I'm sure you will agree that it is well engineered. Let me preface this by saying I own many more Spyderco folders than Benchmades mainly because your designs are superior. The only Benchmade knives I own more of than Spyderco are their autos they just offer a wider selection. I do love my Embassy and Autonomy :), more please :)
PS, is it ok that I use my Sharpmaker to sharpen my Benchmades?

Sorry no, two words. Omega springs.

holeshot wrote: PS, is it ok that I use my Sharpmaker to sharpen my Benchmades?

It is OK to use Sharpmaker to sharpen any brand, but some knives you will have to reprofile first due to edge angle to be too obtuse.

Hi Holeshot,

The Axis is an excellent design with good engineering, but was not part of the deal. I might dd that the patent is up on the Axis this year, but we decided that we have many locks and will leave the Axis for Benchmade.

sal

Thanks Sal, I've been using my Sharpmaker for 25+ years and it has worked wonders on all of my knives, almost time for a new set of stones. Oh yeah, thanks for making quality products!

sal wrote:Hi Holeshot,

The Axis is an excellent design with good engineering, but was not part of the deal. I might dd that the patent is up on the Axis this year, but we decided that we have many locks and will leave the Axis for Benchmade.

sal

That's a shame, would love a Axis lock Sage 6.
I suppose there is more than meets the eye involved in "Roundholegate"
Would be a cracker to present it as "since you guys aren't strangers to nicking design features we thought we'd return the favor" :)

the CBBL trumps the axis lock all day long imho

They can use the round hole, that's their prerogative....just shows where their morals are....we tell them how we feel with our knife purchases.......Spyderco, 260 something -_______BM, 0

sal wrote:Hi Carl,

The short story is that Spyderco and Benchmade reached an agreement.

sal

And that should be the end of that. I like both companies, both make excellent knives. Glad it was resolved and everyone can move on.

npad69 wrote:the CBBL trumps the axis lock all day long imho

This. Axis lock just feels like extra complication for no benefit. And I keep reading about more and more people having issues with BM's QC and getting blade play and such from their Axis locks that I just have even less reason to stray from Spyderco.

I actually prefer the Axis over the CBBL. In 99 cases of 100 it ends there though as the rest of the (BM) knife is utterly uninspiring :)

Larry_Mott wrote:I actually prefer the Axis over the CBBL. In 99 cases of 100 it ends there though as the rest of the (BM) knife is utterly uninspiring :)

I totally agree that the Axis lock is very good. My Benchmade 710 is the only non Spyderco that I carry on a regular basis it's an awesome knife, just look online for reviews.

npad69 wrote:the CBBL trumps the axis lock all day long imho

Agreed.

Spyderco's implementation of the hole is much better than brand B. I owned a brand B many years ago with a blade hole and it barely worked, while my Spyderco models work very well. First, the edge of the Spyderco hole is fairly sharp and provides good traction for the tip of my thumb. The brand B hole has rounded edges and my thumb would slip out frequently so I would have to try several times. The other difference is that knives such as the PM2 and Military have larger holes that my thumb fits in better, the brand B hole was smaller. I know some Spyderco models have smaller holes and my thumb doesn't fit in them as well.

I actually prefer the Spyderco CBBL to the Benchmade Axis lock.

sal wrote:Hi Carl,

The short story is that Spyderco and Benchmade reached an agreement.

sal

Might the possibly longer story involve something called Functionality Doctrine (look it up)? You know, the concept that (in the USA) prevents manufacturers from protecting utility or features of a product by trademark that should be protected by patent instead.

Oddly, in spite of "Functionality Doctrine", the USPTO did allow Spyderco to register "a circular through hole formed in the body of a knife blade" as a trademark (serial# 74624039).

I'm guessing that Spyderco realizes that it would be very difficult to attempt to use trademark protections to prohibit another determined manufacturer from making a folding knife with a round hole that was placed in the in the blade for the unique utility the round hole offers to the user in opening the knife.

The raindrop hole on Byrd models, yes, probably defensible as a trademark because of the ornamental design of the hole -- and the fact that a plain round hole in the same location is more functional. Indeed, a round hole in the body of a blade could be protected by patent, but would probably be really expensive to defend as a trademark. The best course for Spyderco is to not actually let this battle go to court.

I have an ATS-34 AFCK from around '94-'95, and it looks more like a Spyderco than any other non-Spyderco knife I've ever seen, from the hole to the blade shape to the overall handle ergonomics. Pretty sure Benchmade had a license from Spyderco for those things though - I think I remember the BM catalog saying so.