Benchmade 535 Bugout: The Official Knife of Captain Obvious
Benchmade 535 Bugout: The Official Knife of Captain Obvious
It is not possible to type the letters E, D, and C in close proximity to each other on the internet without that one guy reflexively parroting, "Just get a Bugout!" Or often, an entire chorus of them. It seems this is one of those laws of nature. Sun comes up in the east, spring follows winter, punters on the internet all have the same opinion.
(Watch out -- Rugged in-the-rain photo!)
So, Benchmade's model 535 Bugout has been what "everyone knows" is the best EDC knife. The default choice. The starting point. It's svelte, lightweight, easy to use and carry, and has that trusted Benchmade quality. So everyone says, at least, sounding suspiciously like the brochure for the damn thing.
It is time, therefore, for the slaying of a sacred cow. The Bugout is just an alright knife. I actually don't like it very much.
The Bugout is part of Benchmade's "500" family and certainly the most ubiquitous of the bunch. Its siblings include the 532 Mini Bugout and the 537 Bailout, which we'll get to in due time. All three of these knives share very similar construction methodologies. So does the current incarnation of the Griptilian series, sort of. The major difference between all of them is size.
The Bugout is the medium sized one: 7-3/8" long open, 4-1/4" closed, with a 3-1/8" blade made of fancy S30V steel. The blade is flat ground with a drop point profile, and is actually rather thin at 0.089" at the spine.
The entire knife is very thin, which is really its entire deal. All in, not including the clip, it's only 0.389" thick. It's very light, too, just 51.1 grams or 1.8 ounces. Hence, the "easy to carry" bullet point all the sales-brochure-memorizers are always so keen to bring up.
The Bugout's got the now popular, bordering on mandatory deep carry pocket clip. It's reversible and for tip up carry only. The handle halves are spaced out by a pair of machined aluminum diabolo style spacers, brightly anodized in whatever color you choose.
Mine is desert tan, with gold spacers and thumb studs. The available colorways on offer seem to change constantly with the moon and tides; Benchmade's sole contribution to proceedings lately seems to be fidgeting around with those offerings incessantly. I'm surprised they don't list "Bold New Graphics!" as a bullet point on the spec sheet, like Kawasaki does.
It is, of course, an Axis lock knife. That part of it is very nice. Of course it is; Benchmade invented the Axis lock as I'm keen on harping on about all the time, and I'd be surprised if they of all people didn't get it right. The pivot rides on brass washers, it opens nicely, closes nicely, and you can flick it either way with the lock held back with no problem.
The handles are made of Grivory, a fiber reinforced injection molded Nylon. That is to say, not the handle scales. The handles themselves.
The Bugout exhibits Benchmade's current fascination with making pretty much the entire damn knife out of plastic. It does not have steel liners like most knives. Instead, there are just a pair of short steel plates to support the lock crossbar and endstop pin.
Here's what that looks like.
Benchmade bill this as, "Designed for the modern outdoor adventurer, incorporating the lightest, best performing materials in an extremely slim yet ergonomic package." And, yes, ditching the liners does indeed make the knife very light.
But it also compromises the rigidity significantly. The Bugout is a wet noodle in the hand. Fiber reinforced though the material may be, stiffening waffle pattern it may have, but it still doesn't take much of a pinch at all to bow the handles in like this. The flex is also highly noticeable when the knife's in use as well. And regardless of what the math might say about the mechanical properties of the plastic, the feeling still doesn't inspire confidence.
You can ask any backpacker and they'll tell you that to achieve lightness some sacrifices have to be made. That's fine as far as it goes. And it would be if the Bugout were a $40, $60, or even $80 knife.
But it isn't. It presently costs $180.
That makes the Bugout a fantastically awful value for the money. And we're supposed to be suggesting this thing to first time knife buyers, non-knife people, like it's some kind of gold standard? That's really starting off on the wrong foot.
The other slap in the face is Benchmade's recent price hikes on this and indeed all of their knives. The ones left that aren't currently inexplicably discontinued with no replacement, I might add. I touched on this before, but in 2019 the Bugout was $105 which was already not a great deal. But even adjusting for our recent hyperinflation, that should only be about $130 in today's money. So don't ask me where they pulled $180 from.
Yes, it's made of S30V which appears to be the current supersteel darling of the knife world. Fine, but does a plastic handled mini-EDC designed for light duty occasional use actually need to be? The majority of people will probably use this for nothing more than opening their mail, Amazon boxes, and slicing the tops off of their backpacker's meals. Would they endure any detriment if it were made of D2 or 14CN or 440C, but for half the price?
By way of usual comparison, here's the CQC-6K. A little larger, easier to deploy, with full steel liners and a quarter of the price. You won't be afraid to use the CQC lest you scuff your resale value, and no one will get mad at you for throwing away the box.
Compared in terms of thickness, though, you can see just how thin the Bugout is. If that's what you want, the Bugout's got it. Expensive, thin, and light: The iPhone of knives.
I'll also point out at this juncture that I don't like the Bugout's clip. I like it in theory: It's nicely proportioned and a deep carry design. But it's too tightly sprung, and it plus the combination of the diamond texture on the handles which isn't interrupted underneath the clip's contact area makes the thing cling to your pocket like grim death. It's entirely too difficult to draw, and to make matters worse the exposed square corner at the heel of the blade tends to snag on the fabric as well. This knife is a seam-ripper, and while Benchmade will sharpen it for free if you mail it back to them I don't think that offer extends to also mending your pants.
The Inevitable Conclusion
The Bugout is an expensive but middling knife. Its humongous price tag isn't backed up by much if you ask me. We ought to stop suggesting it to everyone left, right, and center all the time. We can do better for less.
The Bugout was in fact pretty controversial when it was new, many preppers thought it to be too flimsy. Knife persons were (and still are it seems) offended by the seemingly cheap material plastic scales. So there were tons of people complaining about it.
Well, for the woods a more sturdier knife would be probably better. But for the urban hipster like me, that cuts open amazon boxes, plastic packaging and stuff like this, it‘s just perfect. It’s so thin and lightweight, together with the deep carry clip its almost not noticeable in your pocket. And it’s razor sharp and looks good.
Only real disadvantage is really the price, which is outrageous.
So I’m joining the chorus. Consider a bugout as an edc knife. Maybe it’s the right knife for you.
I am also an urban hipster, I carry everyday so weight is the single most important attribute so all my pant pockets don't get wrecked. I bought mine in 2020 for $120 and was squeamish with the price. $180 four years later is insane.
I find that a keychain knife is more economical in terms of carry capacity myself. Benchmade knives are definitely a master class in knife building so that has a lot of value. Like a nice watch.
Used a bug out mini fora long time and it feels flimsy but has held up a lot better that some other knives that felt sturdier. I really like mine.
Oh hell yeah, I miss my knife subs from Reddit. Thanks for popping up!
Alright, you got me. Just picked up a CQC-6K D2. I'll get slapped for this here, but my usual everyday carry is a leatherman. This knife will likely get chucked in my ecology restoration backpack.
Nothing wrong with that. I know plenty of people who rock a Leatherman all the time. They definitely have their uses.
Unscrewing things with your CQC is really difficult, for instance...
😝 yeah have to do that, and torque bolts on the reg in the field.
My 2 cents.. if you want a medium or full size edc look elsewhere.
Where the bugout shines is the Mini version.
Almost perfect size edc for me, pretty stout build, and after a few years of wear looks great (3+ years on flytanium original scales).
I have both a Bugout and a mini Bugout and I love them both. But I don't treat them like I would a knife with full liners. The concerns about flexing scales are overblown IMHO as I would rather have something flex than snap when undergoing stress. I don't use mine for breaking down firewood or removing heavy-duty staples from lumber. This is not a knife I want to spend hours at a time using. It's worked well for food prep (not just dehydrated) and general/easy camp tasks. Both are great in shorts or swim trunks if down by the lake/river/swamp/bog (or whatever floats your boat in summer).
Benchmade has stuck with S30V when others have moved up the ladder a bit in performance. If the Bugout was rocking Magnacut then $180 would be justified but at this point S30V is rather middle-of-the-road from a competition standpoint. They must have purchased a warehouse full of the stuff years ago, I don't know.
I purchased both of mine on deep discount from stores clearing out stock and even then I've felt like I paid too much. Used gets you a better price but availability is hit-or-miss unless you go back to r/Knife_Swap where they, at times, seem to rain from the heavens.
