Benchmade

Benchmade Knife Company, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	1979; 38 years ago (1979)
Headquarters	Oregon City, Oregon
Key people	Les De Asis, Founder & CEO
Products	Knives, Pens, Rescue Tools
Number of employees	~150
Website	benchmade.com

The Benchmade Knife Company is a knife manufacturer run by Roberta and Les de Asis in Oregon City, Oregon, United States. Its products are geared toward many niche markets, such as outdoor sporting cutlery, rescue, law-enforcement, martial-arts, and military. The company has collaborated with a number of custom knife makers since its inception.

Benchmade started in California in 1979 as Bali-Song, changing its name in 1988 to the Pacific Cutlery Corporation. In 1990 the company moved to Clackamas, Oregon. In 1996, the company moved to a 144,000 square foot facility in Oregon City, Oregon. Benchmade became known primarily as a manufacturer of butterfly, or balisong-style knives, which it continues to manufacture. These knives have been so identified with the company that Benchmade has registered "Bali-Song" as a trademark and logo. Benchmade's original Bali-Song design by Jody Samson was awarded Blade Magazine's Knife of the Year Award in 1979.

As of February 2009, the company was employing approximately 150 people. Benchmade has had several years of growth and has expanded both the variety of knives it produces and the facility itself.

In 1996, Benchmade moved to Oregon City. Apart from some Red Class products, which were produced in their "off shore facilities", Benchmade has produced more than 90% of its knives in Oregon City, and has succeeded in bringing others back to home production. Since 2010, all Red Class production knives have been discontinued, and as such, every Benchmade labeled knife is made in the United States.

One of the reasons Benchmade is located in Oregon, as are many other knife makers, is because Oregon has very relaxed laws toward knives in general and switchblades or butterfly knives in particular. There are no restrictions against selling a switchblade-style knife to an Oregon resident.

Blade steels such as 154CM, D2, CPM S30V steel, CPMS90V, CPM20CV, N680 and M390 are used on many models. Benchmade is one of the few manufacturers to have offered high speed M2 and CPM M4 tool steels in a production knife.