Benchmade Axis lock

Matthewd

Matthewd

Chief Gadget Officer
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Messages
389
I love my 581, and it is often my EDC.
It has the spring assist open. I have not played with a manual open Axis lock, but now I think I might prefer it because of ease of closing.

SO what do you guys think:

Assisted or unassisted Axis?
Why?

Is it easy to remove the assist mechanism to convert this into a manual?



Thanks

Matt
 
I've handled automatic and assisted AXIS lock knives. I've also owned many automatic knives. I prefer a manual AXIS knife to all of them except a D/A OTF auto (which I no longer own any of). Flick it open, flick it closed. Easiest folding knife in the world to do this with. One handed, and you don't have to touch the blade or put your fingers in the path of it, which makes it very safe. The only thing close to the speed of both opening and closing is the aforementioned D/A OTF, but these can be extremely difficult to the untrained thumb.

I don't know about removing the assist mechanism. I'd have to have one to make a guess, and I don't.
 
I agree with Planterz. Assisted knives are harder to flip closed, and the manual is really easy to flip open without needing an assist.
 
I see no need for assisted opening with the already high speed of opening that the Axis-lock provides. If you do a search, I think I remember reading a thread where a member removed the spring from a BM 580 to make it a manual knife.
 
I have the BM 580 Barrage. After a short while the AO spring broke and the blade had to be opened and shut with 2 hands. No force required, but it just wouldn't work any other way. I stripped it and removed the spring, making it a manual opener. It's a better knife now.

I believe that BM use different AO mechanisms on the different models. You might find that your model has a design which may not allow you to disengage the AO mechanism.
As my experience showed, AO is just something else which can cause a knife to fail. It compliicates a simple tool unnecessarily, and adds very little value IMO.
 
All good thoughts....
Is there anyone who prefers the Assisted that wants to chime in?
 
How fast do you need your knife? Will 50 milliseconds make that much difference?

If you can't get a normal Axis lock deployed in time you probably won't get an assisted deployed in time.
 
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