Benchmade 15080BK-2205. Deep thoughts.
I was famously a hold out on the Crooked River. It seemed like an updated Buck 110, and my Buck 110 days are long in the past. I also have an unnatural hated of wood handles. Like what? Is it 1875? So I passed on the CR for years. It felt like a cheesy bro country song.
A couple things changed. A few years back a few people talked me into giving it a try, and the -1 (gray G-10 handles) was in production. So I gave it a shot.
I liked it. It was like a Benchmade 806 and 710 spent a wild weekend in Vegas and this was the result 9 months later. And there was no wood on the handle to spoil the party.
Stupidly I sold the knife off thinking I could get another. Then the -1 was discontinued… I was kicking myself. Sure I could go the custom shop route or I could just lament my loss.
Then I get an email this LE is available. Now I have always been an M4 fan (and M2 before that). And I love jade G-10. I know natural G-10 is a really love or really hate kinda thing. No in between. I love it, reminds me of glow in the dark toys I had as a kid.
Mine arrived today. I said I loved jade G-10, however I have to clarify. Sometimes it works, and sometimes the translucent quality falls flat. I am happy to say it works for me on this knife. The matching backspacer is a nice touch, orange would have really looked weird. Overall pleased to have a CR back in the collection, and I am more pleased I did not have to deal with any wood…
Promise I will hold on to this one.
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I bought a Crooked River M4 (black blade) and three custom Mini CRs (2 satin blades and one black blade), all with wood scales because I love wood scales. I did replace the orange backspacer and pivot ring on the CR with black ones, though. The M4 blade was the sharpest of all the knives I've gotten from Benchmade (including non-CRs/MiniCRs)
To each his own.
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Curious, Are the knives numbered?
What is the limited quantity?
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Looks like i have 2 CR's on my list
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[@mention:589599268366326498] posted:
Curious, Are the knives numbered?
What is the limited quantity?
No they are not numbered.
Word on the streets is these are made up of custom shop parts they have discontinued, so no idea how many have been made.
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[@mention:589599268365931705] posted:
No they are not numbered.
Word on the streets is these are made up of custom shop parts they have discontinued, so no idea how many have been made.
Thanks,
I am starting to dislike "limited quantity" but not numbered or quantity is not disclosed.
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[@mention:589599268366326498] posted:Thanks,
I am starting to dislike "limited quantity" but not numbered or quantity is not disclosed.
Me too. It seems like they're really trying to manufacture scarcity and FOMO and bite into the scalper market. I get biting into the scalper market, but the FOMO approach is getting old. Everyone's doing it with flashlights, knives, watches, pens...you name it.
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Yeah, it is like stocks insider trading. If you have special access then you can resell them with an instant profit. I bought 15080-220x at full price + tax and you can get them around 315 now. Limited? FU.
This is not a fair playing field.
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...but then again, I scooped up the Barrage from Knife Center the night it came out, so I guess the joke's on me too lol
I'm wondering if they looked at the CSTM orders and identified the most popular candidates, then decided "Hey - we're gonna make the following X number of models out of our surplus and sell them as true limited editions and never offer them in CSTM again..." If they're planning on never offering the Barrage family again, then I suppose it makes sense. In the case of the CR, maybe they've decided to permanently limit the blade steels to s30v and s90v. Or maybe they don't have the staffing necessary to support so many different CSTM options because of the pandemic/supply chain/labor market/etc...
It sure does seem like the world is getting squeezed from every angle more and more every day, whether it be food, gas, politics, war, religion...AND EVEN KNIVES! C'mon now...
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[@mention:673489563795465984] posted:
Me too. It seems like they're really trying to manufacture scarcity and FOMO and bite into the scalper market. I get biting into the scalper market, but the FOMO approach is getting old. Everyone's doing it with flashlights, knives, watches, pens...you name it.
I still wonder how many of those Spaced Out Northern Knives Bugouts were made...not necessarily the knife for me, but it's definitely unique! I was hoping to see more off-the-wall designs like that (and the Supreme Bugout doesn't count
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I agree, unnumbered limiteds suck. Even if the production numbers are capped, I still want to know that the number on my blade confirms that.
I spoke to BKC customer service about the 535-2204 numbers, and they wouldn’t confirm the number produced, but did say it was capped and no more will be made. Same story on that knife - being made of parts that were previously available in the custom shop (plus anodizing). I asked that question, and from their response it seems that they wanted to keep “these premium grade steels and materials” reserved for limited editions.
Agree with the others and have stated before that I think some of the LE’s we’re seeing are leftover custom shop pieces. Guessing we’ll probably see another LE or two this year that feel that way. As a business tactic, it also gives them a couple really easy LE’s to kick out that don’t require development or prototyping. I think we’d all agree that we haven’t seen as many LE’s or Gold Class knives released since supply chains and labor became challenging in 2020.
Also based on what I was told, most of those steels/materials probably won’t be coming back to the custom shop.
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Guilty as charged for FOMO buys.. many many times.
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That makes sense. I bought the 580 for that reason - I didn’t see it before in the custom shop and I’m not too optimistic that it’ll ever come back.
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[@mention:589599268365929094] posted:
Guilty as charged for FOMO buys.. many many times.
Lol…I think we all know that feeling. Many times over!
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*except for mini freek 😆
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