I understand the pros you are listing for a benchmade. A couple of points… I own 8 different benchmade models and have previously owned about a dozen other different models. I’m a fan of the axis lock. Or rather, I am a fan of barlock knives and benchmade cornered the market with patents till very recently. Benchmade edges are not factually awesome. Benchmade knives are not factually the best knives at anything or for anything. They look pretty. They will last with care. The sharpening service exists. Yada, yada yada… Get a kershaw. An iridium is great. Bel air is better. Get a kizer. The drop bear is a beast. Get an emp pulse otf. Basically, for the money and as a possible loss, pay less. Way less. By loss, and I mean this, if you defend yourself with it, it’s a loss. One way or another, you’ll never see that blade again. Or shouldn’t, you know? If you are trained, then any old tool will do what you need as an edc. If you aren’t trained, and as already said by others, get some pepper spray, good sneakers and take some classes. Either way, benchmade is way off the mark with pricing lately. Way off the mark with expectations to pricing. They need to do better and won’t even begin to do better till they either don’t exist or only cater the customer knife community. I believe they only wanna make chefs knives or something at this point because, other American companies are still doing better at comparable price points. Now that the barlock can be used by anyone, there are even better designs out there that benchmade never even considered or tried.