Benchmade Mini Bugout Review
Endura—Griptillian
As two of the leaders in the production knife world Spyderco and Benchmade have been in competition with each other for decades. Each pushes the other and, per the logic of Adam Smith’s invisible appendage, we the consumers benefit. But since its introduction nearly 20 years ago, Benchmade has yet to have a good challenger to the Dragonfly.
In my mind, that is a shame because the Dragonfly is the best Spyderco of all time and one of the best five production knives ever made (how is that for hyperbole?). Its like having no Whopper for the Big Mac or Coke for Pepsi. In this most interesting, design constraining, and carryable size Benchmade has nothing that has stuck around. The Aphid is a criminally underrated knife but its price and the 440C didn’t sit well in the market. It also didn’t help that it was an assisted knife and it was lost in the massive Blue, Black, Red, Gold line up shake up. Competitor to the Dragonfly it was not. The Levitator was an interesting knife, but for some reason dropped out of production. And then there is the Valet. Its a great Dragonfly competitor, but costs $100 more.
Alas, some twenty years after the introduction of Good Ole C28, Benchmade has a response and it is a chorus of angels singing. If you liked the Bugout, like most people did, and thought it was a bit big or if you hoped for a genuine competitor for the Dragonfly, the Mini Bugout should be on your radar. It is outstanding, really truly outstanding.
Here is the product page. For ease of writing, I will refer to this knife as the MBO. MSRP on the MBO is $140, street is around $119. The knife was announced at SHOT Show 2020 and was released three weeks later. There are currently only two variants, the orange handle uncoated version (533) and the white handle coated version (533 BK-1). If prior history with the Bugout is any indication there will be many, many variants. Here is a written review. Here is video review from Slicey Dicey. Here is my video overview. My review sample was purchased with my own money (out of the space bucks account). Here is my review sample:
Twitter Review Summary: Yankees:Red Sox::MBO:DFII
Design: 2
As much as I love the original, the MBO just feels like it was the original design from the beginning. The simple handle, excellent, classic drop point, and dialed in feel make this knife my favorite design since the 555-1. In fact, the 555-1 is really the only competitor in the Benchmade lineup for me. I love the Smoke Valet a lot, but is a rare, expensive knife. The MBO and the 555-1 are readily available and truly great.
The performance ratios attest to this greatness. The B:H is .76, right up there with some of the staples of the production knife world. The B:W is 1.88 which is among the best ever seen on this site (though still sort of the Al Mar Hawk record holder).
The one dign I had on the original—the large rear tang gap—is smaller here because the entire knife is smaller. And while it is not perfect, rendering the knife less than perfect, it is not obnoxious or offensive here.
Fit and Finish: 2
Like its big brother the MBO embraces the new “high tolerances” Axis lock and the result is a dream knife for Axis lock and Benchmade fans. Even after a full disassembly, my review sample crushes it. That is the sign of a truly great knife—it still lines up after a disassemble. That means that the parts were well made and that the knife is not, instead, held in line with glue, gum, and a bit of hope.
Grip: 2
You’d think shrinking the grip down would impact how well the knife handles, but it doesn’t. In part this is because the design is so inherently solid, but it also has to do with careful design—no scallops, no cramped choil, a clip that is small and out of the way, and finally a lanyard that doesn’t bother you at all. If you have VERY large hands this is not your knife, but I wear a medium glove and had no issues.
Carry: 2
Oh, man. This sucker just disappears in your pocket. Unlike the original, the MBO is small enough to drop in a “utility” pocket aka coin pocket. It is thin as well, vanishing on the hip. Finally, the lack of metal handles means that the knife plays quite well with others.
Steel: 2
The S30V here has proven to be fine. The late stages of S30V’s life have actually been very good (truly late stages as Spyderco announced S45VN knives at SHOT Show this year and S45VN is a sequel to S30V’s sequel). They have worked out any brittleness or chipping and the steel is not quite the bear it used to be to sharpen. It doesn’t have insane edge retention, but it is still a nice balance of traits, especially now that it is not as adverse to stones as it used to be.
Blade Shape: 2
A beautiful drop point is about as good as it gets for good utility performance and you won’t find a better drop point out there than the one on the MBO, perfect size, perfect ratio of belly to straight edge, and perfect amount of drop (there is, if you haven’t noticed, something of an epidemic of droopy drop points these days). All of this results in a beautiful and highly functional blade.
Grind: 2
Thin stock, ground in a flat grind, from a very high point on the blade. That is it. That is all you need to do for a stellar slicer. The MBO is in that top tier, the “Perceval” tier, if you will.
Deployment: 2
With a fantastic pivot and very solid action, this is the best Axis lock action ever, which, given the spotty history of the Axis lock, which is like being the smartest of the Three Stoges—an ignominious distinction. Its not Brian Nadeau detent smooth, and no Axis lock ever will be, but it is pretty darn good given the limitations of the form. Compared to the drum-tight lock on my Mini Grip, the MBO is down right snappy.
Retention: 2
I whine a lot about clips. I hate sculpted titanium clips. I don’t like long clips. I don’t like weak clips. I hate the pocket hooks that have zero spring tension. But I have no complaints here. In fact, the MBO’s shrunk down deep-carry, over the top clip is my favorite clip on the market. And it is not all that close. Even the Spyderco wire clip causes more hotspots. So everyone, if you are stuck on a clip design, take a look at all the things Benchmade did right here.
Lock/Blade Safety: 2
This is the best rendition of the Axis lock I have seen and the Axis lock, aside from its sluggish deployment, is one of my favorites ever. The interesting thing is that my three favorite locks are varying degrees of simplicity. I love a lockback for its ease of use and ease of maintenance. I love the liner lock for the same reasons and the fact that unlike in a framelock it does not need some overtravel mechanism. But then there is the Axis lock, which, while a breeze to use, is a patience-testing device when assembling and disassembling the knife. In the end, you don’t really ever need to take a knife apart and so this complexity is never a problem. Still, a simpler version would be nice for those of us that do disassemble stuff (Nick’s fault). Benchmade, how about a video showing how fast one of your experienced assemblers can put together an Axis lock knife?
Other Considerations
Fidget Factor: Very High
With a pleasant action and snappy feel, this is a fidgeter’s dream—a first for an Axis lock.
Fett Effect: Very Low
Satin S30V and some variant of FRN mean that you will have basically the same knife now as you will five years from now. If that is a good thing, then this is your knife.
Value: Moderate
S30V is not a premium steel. Its just not. Its a good steel, just not a premium one. And a price over $100 is pretty crazy. If this knife came in at around $80 it would be a world beater. As it is this price range is competitive and crammed full of knives with the openly comparable and superior S35VN. cough::Drop Gent::cough
Overall Score: 20 out of 20
This is a great knife. Not perfect, but damn fine. It is a pleasure to use and carry. It locks and unlocks with ease. And it is a very aesthetically appealing knife, a knife that looks like a knife should. If this is a sign of the new direction at Benchmade, then the future is bright. I loved the Bugout but the MBO is just a better version of the original—slicier, easier to carry, and a good size.
Competition
The DFII in ZDP-189 retails for $94 on Amazon as of March 2020. The MBO costs $114 at the same time. Its a $20 difference. That is not an insignificant difference. But the steel on the DFII, ZDP-189, is substantially better than the very good rendition of S30V on the MBO. That, it seems to me, makes the decision easy. Or so I thought.
First, the MBO is more expensive probably because it is a more complex knife. The inner workings of the Axis lock are not simple. The end user experience is, but the manufacturing of the lock is complicated and always has been. In fact it is so complex that for decades it was just an accepted fact that Axis locks have slop. Benchmade has fixed that, but it is still a sign of how complex the lock is on this knife. In contrast, the DFII has about as simple a design as possible. That said, I think this is clearly an advantage for the DFII.
Those are rational reasons why to prefer one knife over the other. But man is only partially a rational animal, regardless of what Aristotle says. So here are some irrational reasons why this is not an open-and-shut case.
Over the month that I have had the MBO, I have carried it a lot. It kicked the Void out of my pocket and while I do tend to favor review samples for carry, I was surprised at how often the MBO was the winner of the morning lottery. I am not sure why that is. The MBO is flickably fun. The click and clack of the Axis lock as always been appealing to me, but it is hard to find a better Axis lock than the MBO’s. Its stellar.
Additionally, while I love the DFII, it lacks the classic beauty of the MBO. The MBO looks like a knife is supoosed to look. Its the Anne Hathaway of knives, striking almost to the point of being the Platonic idea of the form. The DFII, in contrast, is unconventionally beautiful, like Winona Ryder, I suppose.
In the end, despite the higher price and inferior steel I don’t feel like the MBO is a significantly worse knife. In fact, in a side by side comparison with the DFII I can’t tell you why, but I like the MBO probably just as much. And that is saying something.
Amazon Purchase Link
Some of the gear mentioned in this article is available on Amazon. If you want to support the blog and are interested in the gear mentioned here, follow the links below and purchase items—the proceeds help buy new review samples to keep the blog running and 100% independent: