Benchmade Custom Crooked River Unboxing

My thoughts and initial impressions on the Benchmade Crooked River that I built on the Customizer on the BM site. It initially came off center, but I was able to tune it up and fix the problem. But with this type of QC, Benchmade may have messed up.
Crooked River Customizer: www.benchmade.c...
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[@patricksmatrick6193]

That came out really nice. I wish Benchmade would sale parts for customization for us folks that own the basic version.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

I wish they would too!

[@1donnatien]

You killed that design! I never really got excited over that knife until you had those colors put on it.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Donn hehe that's my goal

[@phillipboisselle293]

I made a video about my custom crooked river and in that video I stated "I haven't seen any one else build one that's worth seeing." I didn't see your video when I said that. Awesome knife sir!

[@paulhelm5384]

I have a Crooked River as Well, all be it, standard configuration and couldn't be happier. It's my first Benchmade for a list of reasons.

[@nickkazarian3334]

Hello Doc., that’s the best looking Crooked River I have ever seen!

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Cost me a bunch, but I agree with you!

[@nickkazarian3334]

Benchmade definitely needs to lower their prices. I am happy that your centering is not an issue. That’s a pet peeve for me. Thanks for a great video Doc. You always nail it!

[@Aztkw0lf]

Man, you sure built a sick knife!! I also customized my blade but i went with the Barrage with a tanto blade. And quite honestly this Crooked River came out beautiful.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Thank you very much! This has to be one of the best looking Benchmades I've seen. You should see it with the new CF scales on it!

[@boz823]

Holy wow... I'm heading to Benchmade customs now. I know they did them but this sick blade build gets me pumped

[@MetalRush666]

I blacked out mine. With 20cv also. Added a red pivot collar. Still waiting for it to arrive!

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Chris Howard that's going to look awesome! I think the all black was the classiest option.

[@MetalRush666]

Doctor Frunkey it changes the knife completely. You have a great build there I really like it assures me that mine will be awesome too!

[@chrisbritish]

Any chance you could share some pictures of your custom? Thinking about getting a blacked out one myself.

[@slidetek]

That's one bad-ass looking clip, it's pretty funny to see the Arius look dwarfed. Maybe you can get the thumb-studs cerakoted? I'm sure you'll solve that secondary bevel soon enough! Congrats!

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Thanks my friend! I have plans for this one!

[@blackpaw254]

Wow...I was on the fence about the standard wood or g10 scales look but your customized frunkey version is just stellar.

[@HikikomoriZone]

Given that I don't live in the US, I'm not going to be buying Benchmade any time soon. I don't want to have to send them a knife because there are issues out of the box, and hope that they're able to fix it. I've heard stories of people sending their benchmades in for warranty work and getting them back seemingly untouched and still riddled with issues. That and Benchmade seems to be really high priced for the quality, even if you don't pay MSRP.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

All of this. All of it.

[@SOUTHAFRICANKNIFEGUY]

Oh my god! It’s beautiful!!!!! Enough said!!!

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Thanks!

[@jayingle151]

I love the wood but I hate the orange on the normal one, I don’t know if it’s worth it to just change the g10 and steel

[@slidetek]

A couple of years ago somebody somewhere on YT did a rit dye on the orange backspacer, and made it match the deep orange pivot. Big improvement.

[@PkwyDrive13]

Jay Ingle you can change the blade finish, bolster color, liner color, screw color, pivot collar color and clip colors..not just g10 and steel.

[@AdamasOldblade]

Just ordered my custom Crooked River. This will be my third custom Benchmade.

[@ssunfish]

I got a custom Griptillian in 2016. I really like it and there's more blades and options now with more models. Damasteel too! I'm thinking another Griptillian, large Crooked River and mini Barrage. Can you share pics of yours?

[@MrGeerbear]

Doc- Really nice upgrades. We now have Frunkey black. Thumbstuds would be great in black or brass. Those CF scales will be killer. A very tactidoc look. $291 wasn't bad when you consider the butterfly tax. I cannot believe they sent it out uncentered, but glad you could fix it. I love your customizations. What you did to that ZT 0393 was phenomenal. Really finished off the looks of the knife.

[@BParker55]

That came out Awesome!

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Agreed, thanks man!

[@frankbutta9344]

NICE! I never heard of the Benchmade Customizer, so I’ll take a look. Thanks for sharing, and enjoy!

[@danieldan759]

Nice and classic...it will always stay on your collection.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

daniel Dan maybe

[@boz823]

I commented before your off centered comments. Great notes on how to fix that. Even though it should never be needed in the first place

[@mforrest1508]

I bet you can get black griptillian thumb studs for it. Good choice on the black and brass

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Matthew Forrest might try to figure that out

[@49giants3]

Benchmade should make the crooked river just like this. Very nice my friend

[@Sambarini]

That looks awesome. Wish that was in my budget.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Sam Frerking the regular CR is around $190.

[@TheThinkMatt]

Awesome knife. I would give my kingdom for a 940 option on the customizer.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Matthew White I think the server would explode

[@michaelrast4263]

Do you think the Crooked River is too big for an EDC blade. I carry the Ontario Rat 1 now, and the Regular Crooked River is almost 3/4 of an inch longer; and the Mini Crooked River is almost 1in smaller than the Rat 1. I'm happy with the size of my Rat 1, however my Leatherman Wave only has a 4in handle, so I wouldn't say that I'm opposed to a smaller knife, I just like a bigger one where I can get it. I wouldn't whip it out in a store, because I use a slip joint that my grandad gave me, since its not so big. I was going to visit a knife store in Tennessee on my last vacation but didn't get to, so I'm not sure about the sizes.

[@kerryrwac]

It looks good , but , on a custom build , you should be able to get a show scale without pocket clip holes . Specify left or right hand carry , get a smooth show side , how hard is that ? The custom scale makers do it all the time . The CF should look good !

[@DoctorFrunkey]

kerryrwac yeah but that would be alot more difficult in mass production. That's 4 pieces instead of 2.

[@kerryrwac]

Doctor Frunkey not really , lefties are a minority

[@stronglikemonkey]

That thing is so awesome! They should make a production run of it and pay you a designer commission on each one sold. Nice work!

[@stronglikemonkey]

Doctor Frunkey - Ya never know, maybe they're listening? Maybe call it the Twisted River? I would buy one. I think if they ever do the mini on the custimizer, I will be on that like a fat kid on a cupcake.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

The mini with this spec would be lovely.

[@ajamesg77]

I just received my custom mini crooked river and it was also terribly off center and the action was really tight and rough. I followed your suggestions and loosened then adjusted and all is perfect now. Easy to do but yeah, really unacceptable that they shipped an expensive custom knife with such a poor assembly. That said, love the knife!

[@SteveKluver]

Thanks Doc. That is, simply gorgeous. I had no idea, that the custom page was up yet. You are a very bad influence! I'm off now, to sell my first production run, Crooked River . . .

[@DoctorFrunkey]

LOL enjoy my friend, hopefully yours comes in good shape!

[@wtinnen]

2 weeks?! Mine took a month! And I didn't even get any etching! However, I did request they check for solid lock up and good blade centering before shipping and it came perfect; that may have accounted for the long wait, and if that's the case, I'd take the wait time any day.

[@itsme5279]

Like the changes you made.👌🏽🗡

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Kj thanks my friend

[@jandlp14]

After sending my Contego in for a new blade and tune-up, I decided I'm done with Benchmade. It came back with a horrible action, side to side blade play, asymmetrical grind and the blade touching one of the liners. All that from the warranty department. It was so much better before, I should have just stayed with the ugly DLC black blade.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

jandlp14 Unreal. That's crazy.

[@jandlp14]

Doctor Frunkey I thought so too. I politely asked them if they could swap in an M390 blade like on the Knifeworks Contego, and I'd gladly pay whatever the difference was. They said it wasn't available. I really hate coated blades because they look so bad after some use. I was able to tune it up with some careful washer polishing and reassembly. Still a great hard use folder, I just don't trust their QC anymore.

[@dannyboyspace]

Curious why you didn't go with the black blade? (I'm building a customized version myself, and leaning toward the black blade... but now curious if you know something I don't as to why NOT to go black blade...?). Thanks. Cool looking knife!

[@future_phonk]

Very nice build!

[@DoctorFrunkey]

bbnguyen92 thank you

[@DSNugent91]

I'll be watching this and you surgery of this knife over and over like I did with the ZT until it ships out 🤣🤣

[@troywheatley744]

Looks great Doc

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Thanks man!

[@troywheatley744]

Doctor Frunkey gonna show us the knife with your alternate scales right Where'd ya find those? Id like a set for my CR

[@UncleStoney]

After seeing the review of The Anthem that could not be fixed this is a nicer knife at least for me. It's still a shame that you had to readjust it yourself after paying almost $300 for it but I guess that's just part of owning a Benchmade these days I definitely would have one of these.

[@user-qy4cf9ir5k]

General question to anyone that can help: I own a mcusta katana model that has been off centre for a while now and no matter what I do to try and fix it, it doesn't help. Does anyone know any potential fixes for this? It's a liner lock, running on washers, pivot has one flat-head screw side, spacer pins screw in from both sides of the scales and the liner is over at about 70-80% I'd say when it's opened

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Tim sometimes they can't be fixed. If you have disassembled and rebuilt the knife without improvement it may be busted.

[@bryanmchugh1307]

you are going to have to used the correct hex sizes for all the screws holding the knife together. I would start with going over all the body screws first then see how the pivot looks on center or off. If still off then I would adjust the pivot.

[@efcruzado]

I might do a mini with the green handle.

[@nooneknows5390]

That is really really nice Doc!

[@treebossmike8818]

That is sooooooo sweet!

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Thanks dude!

[@mannyz5307]

Love the logo.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Thanks!

[@Keith_the_knife_freak]

Nice looking blade!!! Nice job.. 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@geraldocesar2009]

Chris Reeve realmente é uma faca diferenciada?

[@Rivy_ID]

Unfortunately about being off center, but it sure is a good looking knife.

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Ryan I thank you!

[@diogallardo6505]

love the skull 💀

[@SOUTHAFRICANKNIFEGUY]

Yeah I do the mini crooked river

[@DoctorFrunkey]

I might...but I'll have to see how this plays out.

[@t5styles333]

Dang, that's nice.

[@joe_a_photo]

I wish you could customize the mini

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Joseph A they actually had that up for a couple of days, and then it went away. They may do that at some point in the future again.

[@don0giorgio]

didnt know benchmade did customizations. Thanks. And since when btw?

[@DoctorFrunkey]

don0giorgio they have offered it on the Griptilian and Barrage models for a few years. Crooked River just recently.

[@don0giorgio]

And how long you have to wait after you make an order to get it?

[@DoctorFrunkey]

don0giorgio about 2-3 weeks. I mention the exact dates in the video.

[@gambitgaming4573]

I wish they had carbon fiber as a scale option

[@DoctorFrunkey]

You didn't watch to the end.... ;)

[@gambitgaming4573]

Doctor Frunkey I almost did lol. I changed it with like 30 seconds left lol

[@adampolselli597]

That's frustrating: spend upwards of $290 and have the production errors that it did... As much as I drool over this knife, I stop myself from buying it because your video is one of many videos that mentions imperfections.

[@oromoto]

Like this one.

[@xmk-zc9eb]

Where is the green frunk?

[@hyssean12]

Looks awesome

[@OnTheEdge5950]

That’s nice 😍👆

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Frank F thanks, I think so too!

[@davidbonner409]

Lol, I find it wholly unacceptable that you call a 290 dollar custom Benchmade a beater!! Awesome taste! I really am holding out for a custom mini crooked rvr, that would be just tits!🤣

[@DoctorFrunkey]

David Bonner lol I wanted a big blade I wouldnt be afraid to use

[@puretoronto]

Crooked River without the wood? Bah 🙁

[@jamesoncross7494]

No question, that is a bad as knife!

[@DoctorFrunkey]

Thank you! It's pretty wicked!