Knife Deep Dive: Benchmade Bugout
Knife Deep Dive: Benchmade Bugout
The Benchmade Bugout is an impressive knife. It is lightweight, compact, but very capable in cutting performance.
The handle features very small internal liners, which support the pivot and locking mechanism. This way Benchmade was able to minimize the liners to reduce weight, without sacrificing stability. The Bugout has an AXIS lock mechanism. This is a lock that is reliable and easy to use, even for left-handers. It's also one of the more fun locks to use, due to the smoothness of the opening and closing action, giving it "the fidget factor". We handed them over to people who have never seen a premium pocket knife, but could operate them instinctively.
The Bugout has been out for a few years now and there are several options available. Different colors, but also dealing with materials and sheet steel.
On the original Bugout, the handle shells are made of Grivory, a highly durable, yet lightweight injection molded thermoplastic. Grivory is more than suitable for pocket knife handle scales. The blade steel is S30V, a premium powder metallurgy steel, known for its good edge retention and corrosion resistance. S30V is a favorite of many knife makers and users. The pocket clip is deep-carry out of the box. It can be reversed for left-handed people, but it can be flipped up either way. The blade has a nice and thin drop point shape, making it a more general purpose tool than a tactical knife. Logical, because it was originally designed for walkers. That also explains all the weight reduction that has been put into this knife. It weighs barely 52 grams and is therefore an incredibly light knife.
Now there is a lot of variety. Such as models with carbon fiber, CF Elite or aluminum shells. There are versions with coated blades (cerakote), smooth or partially serrated blades and even the Mini Bugout; a smaller version. Currently it is even possible to customize the Bugout exactly to your taste, with different colors and materials available on the Benchmade website.
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