Barrage 581

500lbman

500lbman

Joined
May 5, 2013
Messages
364
The Barrage 581, to me, would be the perfect knife if it wasn't spring assisted. It's got a blade made from M390, the blade shape is perfection, and Benchmades already deploy so fast that spring assist is not needed. And, with the spring assist it is much harder to close the blade one-handed. Is it easy to "de-assist" the 581? What other Benchmade model compares to the 581 that is unassisted?
 
There are videos on the tube about removing the assist mech. And threads on here showing you.
 
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This is what you'll pull, it's EZ.
 
I ended up de-assisting mine about 6 months ago, I like it much more since (it was my only assisted opener previously) removing the assist, luckily it's pretty easy to do.
 
Watched some vids on YouTube - it looks straightforward, I just hope when it goes back together the blade is still centered. My OCD would drive me crazy if it was off.
 
I like the assist on mine. It is different from other assisted knives because the spring assists the blade for most of its travel instead of a small amount of the travel like with other knives. If something interferes with the blade opening on most knives, the blade stops there. With the 581 once the obstacle is out of the way, the blade will continue opening.

I have no problem closing mine one-handed, but it does take a little bit of practice.
 
500lbman said:
Watched some vids on YouTube - it looks straightforward, I just hope when it goes back together the blade is still centered. My OCD would drive me crazy if it was off.
Click to expand...

I've de-assisted my 581 and 586. Both are perfectly centered. The 586 doesn't fly open as quickly as the 581 as I had to tighten the pivot a bit more than I would have liked to to get it straight but I live with it comfortably. Fiddling with all the screws and loosening the scales and spacers may fix this but I'm happy with it not being a super fast opener. Never managed to get the centering on my Torrent right after de-assisting that though.
 
to make it a perfect knife, I would also add that it could use some jimping on the back of the blade for your thumb. I have one, its one of those knives I really like and probably never get rid of, but not real practical to me for every day, mine mostly sits in the collection and doesn't see much pocket time.
 
A word to the wise; should you ever try to "re assist" your barrage, it can be an unforgiving female dog. After several hours of tinkering I finally got the spring assist back in my 581 after seeing how I liked it as a manual (I didn't.) I got all the little inner workings in their place with perfect blade centering and zero blade play. Every time I had got it back together previously something wasn't right so I did it again. It is now rehabilitated but still a little off, it doesn't open with quite as much authority. Long story short, if you know for sure you'd love this knife for a manual, go for it, if you're on the fence leave it alone, since I suspect getting it back to 100% AO would be more hassle than its worth. My $.02
 
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