Benchmade Barrage 581

[Gary W. Graley]

The package finally arrived, well, that's not exactly true, it was slated to arrive on Thursday,
but got hung up in Harrisburg so it didn't get to me Thursday. Trouble was, I was leaving on
Friday morning early for the Ashokan seminar, so I called the Post Office and they said if I got
there early Friday morning and knocked on the back door, they "might" be able to look in the bags
and see if my package was there. Of course I did just that and they were nice enough to empty
the bags out and found it for me, yeah!

Corpus also has a nice review of this knife with a lot of VERY cool photos, Check his thread out here

And as a point of fact, this knife,
as well as several that Benchmade has chosen to collaborate on,
was designed by the well known knife maker Warren Osborne

Several years ago I had the opportunity to be in the Waxahatchie, Texas area and called Mr Osborne up,
he was gracious enough to allow me to visit him, as he was just preparing to head out on a big game hunt.
Got to see his shop and chat for just a few minutes, as I didn't want to impose, but he was a very kind
fellow to allow me to stop by on such short notice. I've always admired his work and one of my favourite
knives was the Benchmade 941, a very graceful knife, also designed by Mr Osborne.

SO, I wasn't able to do any thing with the edge, while it is sharp, it isn't AS sharp as I tend to
make my knives, so the weekend I was anxious to get home and sharpen it up, as I didn't bring
along my EdgePro, just a few small touch up stones and a strop, which made it slightly better
but not near to what it should be.


On with the review...

It rocks, get that out of the way first...

The size is nice, not overly big, but not small either.

As mentioned in the other review, the handle is nice and thick, so it fills your hand and the
G10 is smooth, a grippier type would be nice to have I think.

Bolsters are aluminum, and the grooves are sharp edged, purposely so as to catch your grip from sliding forward onto the blade.

The assisted opening works like a charm, the slide lock on the back is a great feature to be
able to lock either while closed, or to make a more secure open bladed use.

Clip works well and seems to retain the knife reasonably secure.

The blade is flat ground and fairly thin edged, should make an excellent slicer, as noted the edge while it will cut
stuff, you are hard pressed to push cut through any material. Which I intend to remedy tomorrow.

Blade alignment, mine shows it favours the right side of the handle when looking from the butt end upwards,
doesn't seem to rub so I'm not concerned on that point.

Lockup is good, I did feel a slight wobble but it was very small, mainly side to side.
(note: I fixed this by tightening the pivot screw, which was loose)

The treatment on the blade works well, as they made the transistion from tang to edge a sloping area
so if material falls into that spot, it will ride up and onto the edge, handier than just a straight drop down
from the edge which seems to catch on stuff all the time.

The Axis lock works great, on the spine of the handle they have a sliding lock system that
works to both keep the blade from accidentally opening in your pocket as well as keeping the
lock from disengaging while in use, you have to slide it into place yourself, so it's an option
for you if you want to use it.

Near the middle of the photo you can see the black ribbed looking slide that locks the axis lock in place,
basically it acts as a block to prevent the axis mech to move

The scales, while smooth, the carved dimples create a nice grip surface, as mentioned above
if it were grittier/textured G10 that would have been nicer, but probably hard to do if they
still put in the dimples.

Very nice knife, showed her off to several folks at Ashokan, all with the same feeling as me!
G2

 

[knarfeng]

Ahhh! OOOOHH!

Excellent, Gary. As always, your photography is top notch.
Now we need some glamor shots of the entire knife.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks, I'll add some more photos later on, have to shoot some other knives yet for a friend.

An update, I removed the left side scale and bolster, you need to loosen the scale in order
to lift the bolster out as it has a lip that goes under the scale, nice idea.

Well the pivot screw was loose, so I hand snugged that up just a bit and now there isn't any
blade play at all and the blade is closer to being centered when closed.

AND, lemme tell ya, she be sharp now took her to the edge pro, keeping about the same
production angle to start out with and up to the 1000 grit stone and VERY nice edge now
so much better than what arrived. Wasn't too bad to do on the system either.

G2

 

[philwar]

Very nice, both the review and the pics.
I like the model and love the steel. I think the knife is too expensive for what it is, I´d buy it for $120 but that´s just me.
Love the macro pics. :thumbup:

 

[Noctis3880]

Very nice, both the review and the pics.
I like the model and love the steel. I think the knife is too expensive for what it is, I´d buy it for $120 but that´s just me.
Love the macro pics. :thumbup:

Considering that M390 is fairly expensive, I think at most $120 would get you a manual with FRN handles like the Endura.

 

[xtestifyx]

Gary, I've always liked your reviews. This being one of those top notch ones, again!

Thanks for your time and I can't wait until you do a review for every knife out there

Cheers

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks guys, I'll leave the price point discussions out of the review and focus more on
the knife as a useful tool.

and xtestifyx, appreciate that and I have another one coming up soon, BUT it's for a custom
knife made by Tim Zowada, so sleek it is just too cool, have to get some photos of it and
also need to break out some leather to make a sheath for it, a small fixed blade knife.
Tim would include a sheath, but he said he'd have to take it home with him to do so,
hehe, I wasn't about to part with it on such short notice of just getting it, and since
I can, when pressed to do so, make a fixed blade sheath, I figured to make my own.

A hint, it's a blade about 3 1/8" long of L6 and O1 Damascus, a trim bolster of mokume, and a hidden
tang handle of Ebony, so very nice and very sharp! spine thickness is about 2mm so you can imagine!
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Here are a few more images of the Barrage;

and compared in size to the following;
1st Spyderco Stretch
2nd Kershaw Junkyard Dog II
3rd Benchmade Barrage
4th Spyderco Chapparal
5th Benchmade Shoki

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Lately here is my main pocket carry, not counting the Swiss Army Knives, those I think of more as tools;

The Barrage, Chapparral, Shoki

These two are similar in size, with the Shoki being slimmer profile

Spyderco has a more pronounced weave in their carbon fiber but the Shoki has a little bit of texture but not the ripples

 

[dfkdfk]

Beautiful pictures and awesome review. Man I love that Shoki too!

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks Dan, I really like that Shoki 480-1 as a compliment knife to the Barrage, similar blade shape and also made with M390 steel
The detent when closed seems almost non-existent and when open there is some blade play, after tightening the pivot the lateral
play went away but of course it didn't change the vertical, so there is still some slight vertical play, not much but I've never cared
for any blade play, especially on a new knife.

Here are some images of the Shoki;

the Nak lok rises up above the scale only slightly, so I don't think you could accidentally press and release the blade in use,
lets say "normal use" as others have noted this is more a Gent's folder and not a combat blade.

The Nak Lok has, basically, a thumstud attached to the liner that swings across to prevent
the blade from closing. I imagine that it is fairly hard to get the geometry just right to keep
all things lined up and prevent the vertical play, lots of variables going on there.

SO, my recommendation is to always carry the Shoki in some type of slip sheath, the one that
is provided, I've worked it in so that it's tip up now and holds the knife pretty secure, the
braided lanyard aids in removal from the sheath, pulling the lanyard while pressing down on
one lip of the sheath's opening. I placed the knife in my left front pocket free once and when
I drew the knife out, the thumbstud caught on something and as it came clear of the pocket
the blade was almost fully open, not a good thing when you don't expect it to be!

G2

 

[J D Wijbenga]

Hi Gary!

Thank you for your in dept review and clear picture! Nice edc rotation too. The only one of those I handled was the Chaparral. Great little knife!

Do you perhaps have a picture of the Shoki sheath?

Thanks!
JD

 

[Raj]

Hi Gary,how does the M390 steel compare to the Elmax?.Ease of sharpening and taking a keen edge.Thanks.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks JD, just took a few images of the small clip sheath, without a lanyard, you would
be hard pressed to remove the knife when it was inserted pivot down;

and a looksee into the opening, the leather is braided snuggly around the metal end
the skulls were from a friend at Ashokan, helped him learn a little about sharpening
William 'Bill' Barrett and they may look scary but they do the job for this small folder
where larger beads would be too much.

G2

Edited to reply to Raj's question on steel, both seem to be pretty tough, I've not cut
that much to give a good opinion, there is another on the board that has done a lot of research, Jim Ankerson
shown in this Thread here
Take a peek at that thread, he's documented quite a few different steels...

 

[J D Wijbenga]

Thanks Gary!

Looks like a nice set up for gentlemen's folder. On this size of knife tip up is the way to go and the pics show very clearly the need for a fob. This fob looks like a nice conversation starter

JD

 

[Gary W. Graley]

You're welcome JD, the Chapparal and Shoki are close in size, almost tempted to sell the Chapparal but just got it and
it is a very well made knife and will be keeping both on hand.
G2

 

[DallasSTB]

You're welcome JD, the Chapparal and Shoki are close in size, almost tempted to sell the Chapparal but just got it and
it is a very well made knife and will be keeping both on hand.
G2

Gary, you've almost sold me on the 581 but my real question is on the Shoki/Chapparal comparison. Feel free to PM me if the description is too long, but what are your feelings comparing them both as "dress carry"? I've been looking at both hard for my days in office attire.

Thanks.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

"Dress" carry, the nod goes to the Shoki, slimmer handle and narrower blade will make for a more dressy carry, with or without a lanyard.

Reasoning:
The Chapparal's wider blade can attract more unwanted attention, even as small as it is,
The Chapparal is about 27mm at it's widest, of shiny metal
The Shoki is about 20mm wide and to my eyes not as reflective as the Chapparal's blade.

A narrower blade has some benefits in it's versatility in cutting, if you try to turn the blade
in things like cardboard. Also letter opening may be a bit easier, although both will open an envelope

The Chapparal does have a very handy and discreet wire clip, which helps two ways;
the obvious, carry method, I've clipped mine to my shirt pocket or one side of my shirt opening
while working, so I can get to it quickly while I was working on packaging and such.
Secondly, the clip provides a placement for your fingers while opening the blade,
you can of course grip the edge of the handle, but my fingers naturally fall onto the clips side
to hold the knife while I thumb the blade open.

The Shoki, you don't have this and right now, my blade is pretty snug and doesn't open as smooth
as it should, so you have to 'work' to get your finger tips along the edge of the handle in order
to thumb the blade out.

I've contacted Benchmade and they assured me that my folder shouldn't be this way and as soon
as my hands/mind/heart can be convinced to part with her for a few weeks, I'll send her out to
the west coast for a looksee.

So, for me, easy answer, Shoki for the office, for every day joe/jane either one will work fine,
flip a coin, there are no loser's for that flip

Hope that helps?
G2

 

[DallasSTB]

Thank you for a very well-reasoned and thoughtful response, Gary. I passed on Spyderco's Carbon Fiber Caly 3 and Sage 1 for the same reasons - a little too wide to comfortably carry around the office. For me anyway. From pictures, I thought the Chaparral might be better, but the little Shoki still looks like it comes out ahead in the "discreet-carry" category.

I hope BM takes care of your issue. Let us know how that works out.

Thanks.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

You're welcome and you certainly should grab a 581, I've been tempted to get one with the black blade too
just for the balance, black blade, light bolster, black scales, I'm all about balance
G2