Knife Talk: Opening Mechanisms

Today I’d like to talk about my favorite knife opening mechanisms. When I need to use my knife, I like to have the option to open it quickly without having it fiddle around. I like to keep it simple, so I can easily open blades one handed. Two handed opening is alright but not preferred.

My favorite would have to be thumb holes. Obviously, Spyderco does the best ones. Thumb holes are easy to use and very straight forward. They do add a considerable amount of width to a blade, but are totally worth it in my mind.

My next favorite would have to be thumb nicks. I don’t like how you can only open them two handed, but they’re just so classic and traditional. I wasn’t originally a fan of them until I got more into Victorinoxs. They work as they should and are relatively easy to use.

Thumb dics/plates are also right near the top of my favorites. They look really cool and are better than thumb studs in my opinion. I really want to try an Emerson just to test out the thumb disc. I tried the one on the Kershaw-Emerson CQC-2K and liked it a lot.

Flippers are super fun to use. Sometimes they aren’t the greatest on lower quality blades, but on the few higher end flippers I’ve tried, they’ve been great. The Kershaw Groove was one of the best flippers I’ve ever tried.

And lastly, the ones I absolutely hate and try to avoid at all costs are thumb studs, the wave, and anything spring assisted. Thumb studs take too much concentration, because I’ve found that you have to hit it just right to get the blade to open properly. I don’t carry knives in my pockets, so the wave feature just isn’t an option for me, and I don’t think it’s that necessary. Spring assisted knives are just plain obnoxious. It’s a completely worthless feature. I can open a knife with a thumb hole just as fast as a spring assisted one. They bring too much attention to yourself and freak most people out. Anyways, those are my favorite and least favorite opening mechanisms. What are some of yours? Thanks for looking!