I purchased one over the holiday and I feel it is a real winner - very affordable, axis lock, made in USA, flipper, quality steel. Some people are turned off by the thickness and shorter blade but I love the thickness and 3" blade. Also, I don't find it heavy at all. In addition, I sampled over 5 different examples of this knife at several knife stores and all of them had solid lockup, centered blades, even grinds, and overall great fit and finish. That is not what I typically find with Benchmades. Typically, it takes 3 or 4 different examples for me to find one with no vertical blade play and a centered blade.
Excellent work Benchmade! Nice design Mr. Ball!