u/heekma

The summer before my freshman year in high school my parents signed me up for a typing class in the summer, which at the time I loathed. Looking back I'm grateful.

Now after 20 years of emails, Teams messages, briefs, presentations, spreadsheets, etc. I'm surprised at how awful and stilted my writing has become.

I learned cursive in grade school, everything in high school was hand written and I had really elegant, legible handwriting. Now it looks like chicken scratch made by a 3rd grader.

Has anyone else experienced the same thing?

To be clear we have very different personalities, she's an extrovert, loves travel and new experiences, while I'm the exact opposite. I understand our differences there.

We're both Gen X, but honestly it feels like we were born in different generations. There's some overlap in our experiences, but more differences than similarities as adults.

What happened in that 10-year gap to make us so different? Has anyone else had a similar experience with their siblings?

This isn't about the axis lock, Omega springs, wandering quality control, all the typical stuff.

I bought my first Benchmade in 1996, a CQC7 when I was a senior in high school, so I've been with the brand a long time.

By 2005 I'd graduated college, worked a few years, was making a little money and continued to be a huge fan for another 10 years.

They had great designs, great collaborators, Ernest Emerson, McHenry Williams, Todd Snody, Bob Lum, Allen Elishewitz, Shane Siebert, Warren Osborne, Mel Pardue and probably more I'm missing.

The designs were unique, interesting, well made, and while expensive for the time not unreasonably so, and man did I enjoy opening the box and taking my new Benchmade out of that little sock, like a little present.

I felt like I was buying something special, because I was. That's what it felt like buying a Benchmade.

Looking at Benchmade over the last several years (and especially Blade Show this year) I don't know what the brand is doing. I have no idea who they're marketing to or why.

All the best sellers are discontinued. No new collaborations. Everything in their lineup seems geared to some hiking, camping, hunting, fantasy lifestye that in reality...isn't hugely popular, and almost everything is some slightly different version of a bugout.

What prompted this whole sad rant was their new for 2026 "Flagship" bugout, with super-light aluminum scales, super-thin Magnecut blade, weighing in at 1.72 ounces and...$375. Not only is that insane it looks about as attractive as a waffle iron.

This was once a cool, pioneering company and now it's...whatever this is.

I'm much more interested in Buck than Benchmade. 10 years ago that would've been laughable.

For years many complained about the "Axis" lock. Supposedly the springs broke all the time, the pivot was impossible to get just right, there was always blade play, etc.

Now the "Crossbar" lock is being used by everyone, Civivi, CRKT, Kershaw, Buck just introduced the revered 110 and 112 with a "Crossbar" lock and everyone goes crazy for them.

So why did the "Axis" lock, pioneered by Benchmade, who unarguably has more experience manufacturing than anyone else suck, but the exact same design now used by nearly every knife manufacturer is awesome?