Benchmade - Bugout 535 EDC Knife with Black Carbon Fiber Handle (535-3)

Overall it’s an incredible knife. You don’t realize how light it is until you get it in hand. I tuned the pivot easily and put loctite to keep it there. A little grease on the washers and it feels much smoother now. The jimping on the top of the handle is not sharp enough for my preference but that’s a minor gripe. I love the deep carry pocket clip as well and I typically replace them but this one is staying.I was really surprised (unpleasantly) at the blade grind. It was 16° on half of one side and 18° on the other half. Again, same side. Other side was completely different. Sure it was sharp enough but there was a definite burr from the factory. I spent about 25 minutes on the WPA leveling it all out to 16°. The bevel still isn’t perfect because part of the edge had been started at a lower angle, likely 14 or so, and so there’s a rough patch above my nice even bevel. It’s only cosmetic but still. I would have had to remove a lot of material to fix that and at this price it’s not worth doing. I was concerned it would take ages with the S90V but the diamond plates cut into the steel well. I only finished it out to 1K and hit it with the strop, and it’s easily popping hairs.The description on Benchmade’s website says that the blade is satin finished but mine is much more of a scratched satin finish, not quite a stonewash though. I actually prefer this over a pure satin for durability but I felt the difference was worth noting.I took one star off the lock feature because you can get some lock stick when flicking the blade out with force, but that’s just because of the interaction between the titanium lock bar and steel blade. Rub a little pencil lead on the blade tang that contacts the lock bar and that will help during the break in period

I own a lot of knives, about a half dozen of them Benchmade varieties, and this is my favorite in terms of flipping, which supprised me given its lack of any kind of assist mechanism. The caveat is that the blade comes nearly all the way to the end of the knife. Why is that a problem? Well, if you also like to flip your knives closed like I do, and if you have any amount of your palm protruding past the butt end when you flip it closed, you will be sporting a cut. I have done this numerous times. Ive tried to adjust me grip to avoid this, but it takes a pretty unnatural hold that I have to continuously think about to achieve, and typically when I go to close a knife I'm not focusing on how I'm holding it. Had the same issue with the mini Griptillian. No such issue with the mini Freek or grizzly ridge, or really any of my other knives for that matter.All that being said, this is still my 3rd favorite knife and nearly tied up with my second favorite. My top favorites in order are: Benchmade mini Freek, Spyderco Montra 3, Benchmade Bugout, Benchmade Grizzly Ridge. The full size Freek is to big for my hand to be comfortable. The mini Griptillian felt awkward in my hand. Mini Bugout is good if you want a smaller knife, but doesn't feel as well in the hand as the full size, and has the same issue with cutting your palm.If you don't have any meat on your hands, maybe the cutting wont be an issue? Maybe its me holding it weirdly/different than other people? Either way, still love the knife, but its an issue to be aware of.

the knife is really very beautiful and light. There are two comments: 1 out of the box it is sharpened to a C, I had to sharpen and polish the blade. 2 after opening the knife you need to apply force to move the mechanism on the spring, I lubricated it with oil it became better I don't know maybe because it is new and it takes time for everything to rub in.

At about 1.95 oz. this knife is half the weight of the one it replaced. With the narrow profile, it is more compact in the pocket than most other EDC (every day carry) knives in its class. This is one reason for this knife's popularity. The blade pivot has very little friction. The blade freely falls open or closed under its own weight when unlocked.The knife arrived paper-cut sharp with a course factory grind and "toothy" edge. Stropping with a 4000 diamond grit on a suede leather paddle strop brought the blade to printer paper push-cut (no sawing action) sharp. Though it is already scary sharp, stropping did not bring the course factory grind to a polished mirror finish. It will probably be as sharp or sharper than a new razor blade when I improve the edge grind further re-sharpening with a finer stone when the need arrives.

Carbon fiber s90 variant. Arrived when expected in a sticker sealed box. Suprisingly sharp edge out of the box.

Inferior to the 35 dollar huaoo clone in every way but blade steel. Is s30v worth 180 dollars more than 440c? I think not! Basically a 50 dollar knife for 215 bucks! No thank you to the Butterfly tax! Stop gouging people!

This carbon fiber edition with blue accents looks elegant. With its slim profile and light weight, I forget I’m carrying it. Blade design and length is good for general purpose tasks for which this knife will be used. The blade is large and thick enough to be used for self-defense if you worry about such.I would buy again.

I unfortunately had to return it do to a factory error but it's a good edc if you are concerned about weight.