Knife Review: Benchmade 300 Axis Flipper

Flippers are huge in the knife industry right now. It’s no coincidence that most of my recent test knives have been these speedy, finger-operated manuals: you can hardly drop your wallet in a knife store these days without it landing on a flipper. Their speed and ambidexterity make them extremely versatile. Every major knife maker except Benchmade (even Spyderco!) has had at least one of them in their catalog for a while. And now Benchmade has joined the flipper-fest . . .

I’ll admit it right here: I was predisposed to like this knife, since it happens to be a much-loved souvenir from the 2013 NRA convention that I never went to. Gift or no gift, however, I put it through the same TTAK wringer as all our other knife tests and I wrote this review 100% determined to tell it like it is.