Patrik Orcutt 05.15.24
The origin of Benchmade can be traced back to California in 1979, when Les de Asis, the founder, was inspired to create a better quality knife than those he had used during his childhood. Dissatisfied with the poorly made butterfly knives available at the time, Les aimed to leverage the latest materials and manufacturing techniques to revolutionize this market. The initial focus was on crafting high-quality butterfly knives, known as Bali-Songs, as reflected in the company’s logo and name at the time. Using his skills from high school shop classes, Les developed a prototype of his improved knife design. Encouraged by the positive response he received from a local gun store owner who saw the prototype, Les embarked on the journey of creating more knives. This marked the humble beginnings of the company, which initially operated under the name Bali-Song. So, today we are going to take a look at the Benchmade Shootout 5370FE.
Benchmade Coverage on AllOutdoor
This is the first ever OTF knife I have ever owned so I was super excited when Benchmade offered me a review copy of the shootout as I have had my eyes on this knife for a number of years now. But with that being said The Shootout 5370FE was provided by Benchmade and while I am allowed to keep these knives indefinitely, it will not change my current or future opinion on any Benchmade Products. Benchmade has not been allowed to preview this review prior to publishing. I have been using this knife every day for the past 2 months. It has been fulfilling EDC roles very well and it is currently my go-to knife for helicopter flights because of its lightweight design and easy one-handed opening.
Specs – Benchmade Shootout 5370FE
- Open Length – 8.22” | 20.88cm
- Blade Length – 3.51” | 8.92cm
- Blade Thickness – 0.1” | 2.54mm
- Closed Length – 4.71” | 11.96cm
- Handle Thickness – 0.51” | 12.95mm
- Mechanism – Double-Action Out-The-Front Automatic. Spine Fire Release Button
- Handle – Cf-Elite®
- Pocket Clip – Deep Carry
- Blade Finish – PVD
- Blade Color – Flat Earth
- Clip Position – Tip-Down
- Weight – 2.9 oz
- Country of Origin – USA
- MSRP – $325
Design & Aesthetics: Benchmade Shootout 5370FE
Lets get this out of the way right now, this is a superbly good-looking knife, and I’ll go toe-to-toe with anyone who says otherwise. Sure the 5370FE might be a bit too tactical for some but there are other color options for this knife on Benchmade’s website. Id like to see Benchmade maybe offer this knife in their Custom shop in the future so the end user could customize it to their heart’s desire. This is certainly one of those knives that is an attention-getter when you bust it out as OTF’s offer something many knives don’t, but more on that later. The design of the knife seems to be perfect in my opinion aside from the glass breaker on the back. The size and shape of the handle is perfect for my hand and I love the placement of the deployment switch and pocket clip. I did find that when I would reach for this blade in my pocket, my fingers liked to bump into the glass breaker more often then not and I found that to be kind of annoying but nothing sometimes with the knife didn’t alleviate.
Quality and Construction – Benchmade Shootout 5370FE
With this being a Benchmade knife you can expect all the components to be top-notch. The handle is composed of an injection-molded CF-Elite® handle making the Shootout the lightest and toughest OTF Benchmade has produced yet. My scale reads the weight of the Shootout at 2.9 oz and that’s a weight that is noticeably light! The blade steel is a newcomer to me as I have never used CPM-CruWear before this blade but it did not disappoint. Speaking of the blade it comes with a Flat Earth PVD coating that helps protect from rust and typical wear. There is not really much more to say here in Quality and Construction section as the bulk of this review will be in the performance section.
Performance: Benchmade Shootout 5370FE
The overall performance of this knife has been nothing shot of exceptional in my opinion. The blade steel being CPM-CruWear intrigued me at first as I have never used this steel before and it’s considered tool steel. After much use, I can conclude this steel is pretty awesome. But what is CPM-CruWear? CPM CRU-WEAR is an air-hardening tool steel, heat treatable to HRC 60-65. Designed as a CPM upgrade to conventional Cru-Wear and D2, it offers better wear resistance, much greater toughness, and higher attainable hardness. Both D2 and CPM CRU-WEAR contain carbides for wear resistance, but CPM CRU-WEAR has more vanadium carbides than D2. If that was confusing I can sum it up by saying CPM CRU-WEAR is basically a highly upgraded D2 steel with great edge retention and its incredible toughness. I was very impressed with how sharp this knife came out of the box and how long it kept a wicked edge after repeated use. With that being said it was certainly not the easiest knife to sharpen but there is no free lunch.
The CF-Elite® handle wrapped around the blade helps keep the knife very light while giving great traction. 80 percent of the knife handle is covered in checkering and while not the best, it offers what I would say is the appropriate amount of traction. The top 20 percent of the handle closest to the blade has a much more grippy and aggressive micro texturing that really locks your thumb and fingers in. I think this ratio of 20-80 traction is also a good call as if the entire knife was covered in the micro texturing, it would be too aggressive and the knife would be tearing up your hands and pockets faster than a rat up a drainpipe.
Finally, we get to the star of the show, the OTF action on the Shootout. While this is the first OTF I have owned, it’s not the first one I have played around with. The Shootout is pretty well known for having great action at this point and that is certainly the case with the 5370FE varient. This knife is so damn fun to just play around with, you sure to annoy your wife or girlfriend immediately after unboxing. The action is fast and requires just the right amount of pressure to actuate so you don’t need to worry about it going off in your pocket. The action will disengage itself if you open the knife in front of anything moderately hard. This is a safety feature and probably a good idea on Benchmade’s part.
Wrap-Up: Benchmade Shootout 5370FE
So is the Benchmade Shootout 5370FE a good knife? No, not really, it’s an amazing knife and while I live in a state where I can legally own this knife, I think it’s going to be my new go-to carry knife. It is lightweight, super fast and has a great blade to boot. I would say the only drawbacks with this knife are that there is really no way to quietly open this knife so you may want to think twice before opening it in any public settings. Even though it is considerably cheaper than Benchmades there OTF, the Infidel, Its also pretty expensive coming in at $325. As of the time of writing this review, this is probably my favorite knife in my collection.
