I’m not big on auto’s but have a few. Some cheap some not so cheap.

One of the things I noticed about the 580 & 585 was the safety. It seems more sturdy and better made then all my autos. I was surprised. Some autos are super expensive for no other reason than legality. I would think that the safety on those would exceed the Barrage. But no.

1- Do you use it when you carry your Barrage?
I do not.

2- Am I wrong about auto safety’s?
I am an auto novice compared to most of you.

the safety is there in case your're cutting something, keeps the blade from closing when you push the button.

I'm a lock user, I'm not a prosthetic user.

Similar response...when I used my auto's and these AO's for cutting I locked the safety. But for carrying in my pocket, no.

I don’t have a 580 but do have a 615-2 and they are similar in design.

On a auto axis like the 6150 the axis keeps the blade closed so there is no need to use the safety but on a AO there is nothing keeping the blade closed. Not a big deal until you draw the knife from the pocket and the big rabbit ears dual thumb studs catch the edge of the pocket unexpectedly firing the knife and either cutting you or a hole in the pocket.

This happened to me with a 912, 913, and 615-2. So I went from 6) 912/913's to 0 and I use the safety now on the 615-2. It only seems to happen maybe 1 out of 50 times but still it’s a pain in the a$$ to have holes cut in pockets. The solution would be to add a single thumb stud.

On the 912 & 913 I replaced all the long thumb studs with mid size studs. The difference is outstanding. Before I could not remove those 2 from my pocket without the studs catching something. Now, after swapping studs from my 2 522 Ultra Presidio's it’s a win win. The Ultra works much better with the longer studs and the 912/913 work great with the mid size studs. I have 2, 912's & 1, 913 and the problem is gone! I got the idea months ago from Joe Karp.

for my 585 - lock is not in while in my pocket - takes a good thumb stud move to open it.

while open - sometimes yes, and sometimes no - depends on the situation.

Until this thread got me to check last night I didn't know my 580 had a safety.

I guess that means I'm in the 'No' catagory then.

I mean, it's nice that it's there but unlike an auto the thing is not going to open by itself and being an Axis I'm not really worried about it closing unexpectedly either - especially with the Assist spring - very unlikely it's going to fold into my fingers with that thing in the way.

Still, nice of them to include it.

But in a follow up I was talking to Warren Osborne today (you see the nicest folks at BLADE) and he pointed out that, depending on the pocket you have it in it could catch and start to deploy when you pull it out.

With a 580 that could be bad, so now I see the point of having the safety.

Loke a lot of other things Benchmade does, most people will probably never need it, but just in case they go to the extra expense and trouble to do it for the few who do.

Thanks for passing that along Steve. If that's what Warren said it's good info, esp. on the 580's...

I'm all about safety... I know exactly what a razor sharp or sharper knife WILL do to flesh.

steel wins every time.

It's a great habit that consumes little time AND should you find yourself in a situation where you handle the knife differently you may find that the lock is much more useful than you previously thought.