Think for a second: if you had to forfeit all other knife locks save one, and use that for the rest of your life, what would it be? (You can’t say fixed blade.)
If you said anything other than the AXIS Lock that has made Benchmade knives famous, reconsider. You’re entitled to your opinion, but there aren’t really any other locks that can hold a candle to it.
And this post will prove just that.
Safety
Most other knife locks, at least those in league with the AXIS Lock that defines Benchmade, can accidentally disengage depending on how you are using or holding the knife.
If you have a knife with a frame lock or a liner lock in a tight grip, and you are twisting it, or putting pressure on the spine of the knife, the lock can disengage unintentionally and close on your fingers.
Even button locks can be accidentally depressed, allowing the blade to close on your hand.
However, there really is no way for an AXIS Lock, or really, any bar lock, to accidentally disengage. It is nearly impossible except through a conscious and intentional effort.
Strength
The AXIS Lock also has the market cornered on strength. It consists of a solid piece of steel wedged within the knife’s frame that secures within a recess in the base of the knife’s blade.
In order to get the lock to fail, you would need to either deform the bar lock itself, deform the base of the blade, or cause the entire knife, frame, scales and all, to deform or break outright.
If that happens, you have bigger problems than the lock failing. But all the same, short of catastrophic failure of the whole thing, the lock’s not going to budge on you.
Naturally Ambidextrous-Friendly
Not all locks are equally usable before both right-handed users and southpaws. Take liner locks and frame locks, for instance. By their design, they necessarily favor one over the other, and most of the time, it’s a right-handed user. Button locks are actually the same, since the button must be on one side of the knife.
The AXIS Lock, which is accessible through both sides of the knife’s scales, can be used with equal facility by either a right or left-handed user.
Fidget-Friendly
For what it’s worth, there are some people that love to fidget with their knife’s lock, and the AXIS Lock is a good one for that. Perhaps not quite as good as a button lock, but it’s still pretty solid.
Intuitiveness
Some locks are a little hard to figure out. The bar lock is not that way since it is so visible and so clearly only does two things: it slides forward and backward in its channel.
Other locks are a little harder to find and figure out. Some users even have trouble with liner and frame locks.
But the AXIS Lock that graces so many Benchmade knives? With that one you’re not likely to have a problem. It’s highly visible and highly intuitive.
Expand Your Collection with Benchmade Knives
Whether you’re a collector or you’re actually looking for a knife to replace or upgrade your current choice for EDC, Benchmade knives will fit the bill. You just need to find the model that’s best for you, and there are plenty of good picks. The Bugout, Osborne, and Griptilian come to mind, though there are many others.
Visit BudK to get a solid introduction to the brand. They represent Benchmade along with many of the knife industry’s other top options.
