Accidental Opening?

Will Power

Will Power

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Jan 18, 2007
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I've been wondering, can liner lock knives open accidentally in your pocket:eek:

This can't happen with lockbacks as they have a spring but...

The Mcustas, Bucks, and others that I have if they don't have a clip then they do have a sheath.Does this imply that it is unsafe to carry these knives except in a sheath? Any experiences of accidental opening in the pocket?:D
 
If you're running and jumping around it's possible for a lot of knives to accidentally open. Some are more apt to do this than others. I know I've had a knife open on me a few times. It may have been my older Benchmae AFCK with the liner lock.
 
Used to carry a Cold Steel Ti-Lite. (liner lock) Stopped because sometimes the blade would open in my pocket. Poked the hell out of my hand a few times. However, I've had no problems with the CRKT M16-13Z I carry now, which is also a liner lock. Depends on the design.

TR Graham
Armory USA
 
I've carried plenty of knives clipped to my pocket, including really crappy liner locks from Cabelas, and I've never had one open in my pocket that I can remember.
 
That is why I prefer tip down carry on clipped knives. I have had liner locks (and a Spyderco compression lock) open in my pockets a few times, with resultant blood loss when I reached into the pocket for something. I hate it when that happens :eek:
 
Tip down is the only way I could see a knife opening in my pocket because the spine has room to move, whereas tip up the spine is against the seam of my pockets and can't travel.
 
I find tip down comes open less , when carried with a good clip and the knife carried to the rear of the pocket , the pocket stops the knife from opening and if carried to the rear of the pocket , the chances of reaching in and getting stuck are reduced ( but never eliminated with any carry ).

I just wish more makers drilled and tapped their knives for both up and down carry.

I solve it by carrying in a sheath ;)
 
Sure it is. Lots of manufacturers send out liner locks in tip down carry or make them only for that mode of carry because its considered safer. Not sure I agree but gravity can do strange things.

I had a liner lock custom in my shop the other day for work with a stripped screw that the maker either didn't fix right after two tries or just didn't want to do not sure. Anyway, the point is that someone, not the current owner because he didn't know about it, but someone took a dremmel and grinding wheel or sanding drum to the detent ball on the lock and sanded it flat so it didn't even work at all anymore to help prevent the knife from opening by gravity. Essentially they made it a better flicker I guess. Its not anymore though because I fixed that too after discussing it with the owner.

How a knife behaves in the pocket can be hard to predict. Moving, lifting your leg up or bending down in a stooping position can all do any number of things when you squeeze things tighter in your pant pockets. If the knife is in the pocket mixed up with some keys and you scruntch down it can even open the knife from one of the keys pushing up under a thumb disc (personal experience) and I've even had some flipper types for right hand tip up carry open on me when I did that while carrying a right handed knife in my left front pocket, but not all the way. It was just enough to know it happened.

Liner locks with weak or non working detents are subject to some opening problems probably more so than other types but I'm sure none are exempt. Detents that are not set right where they catch the blade but allow it to lift up enough to expose the point out the end can catch clothes and other things and cause the blade to open also.

Get to know your knife. If it seems too easy to open some adjustment to the pivot can fix it real quick in many cases.

STR
 
Never happened to me ,I carry many different foldes and climb ladders and shstuff all day with never a mis fire.
 
I've had three knives open in my pocket: a liner-lock folder, a Compression-lock folder, and a Roll-Lock folder...

A CRKT Lightfoot Urban Shark, a Spyderco Vesuvius, and a CRKT Rollock.
 
All my tactical liner locks are tip down carry. It would be virtually impossible to accidently open that knife while clipped to my pocket. I can't concieve the same happening with a tip-up, but I don't own any of those.
 
Actually, a tip-down liner-lock is easier to open in your pocket than tip-up...
with tip-up the blade spine rest against the seam of the pocket.
But with tip down, only the ball-detent and pivot tension keeps the blade closed.
 
the only knives I ever had open in ym pocket was back in the day when Forst cutlery was what I owned, lol...Im talkign about when I was 9 years old...Anyway, the cheapos dont have the ball bearing detend on the blade by the pivot in which the liner connect with...In other words when the blade is closed in a decent knife it takes a bit of preasure to get it open, rather than just rotatign out on its own like the cheapos...So once I started paying more than $8 a knife I stopped having this problem...
 
allenC said:
Actually, a tip-down liner-lock is easier to open in your pocket than tip-up...
with tip-up the blade spine rest against the seam of the pocket.
But with tip down, only the ball-detent and pivot tension keeps the blade closed.
Click to expand...

Actually, I find gravity helps a little with tip down.;)
Two other minor points to consider:

1) I also carry a knife in the front corner of my back pocket. No help from the pocket seam there on tip up. That is one of the places a tip up linerlock opened on me.

2) I sometimes carry in waistband. Obviously no pocket seams to help there. I also learned from a Spyderco ATR that tip up, a Cobra Hood and IWB carry is a bad combination. Luckily, that lesson only cost me a tee shirt and not a kidney.
 
The only knife that I ever had open in my pocket was a Gunting and that was a result of catching my hand on the "Horn" as I was pulling my hand out of that pocket. I had it happen 2-3 times, even after tightening the pivot screw, and that was too many times for me. Fortunately, the only damage was to the pockets on a couple a pairs of pants. If you carry a Gunting, I very strongly suggest that you do so in a holster.
 
Happened to me one, fortunately it was not serious:

It was a cheap chinese folding knife. It was clipped without a sheath on my belt. Guess I clipped it the wrong way. Thumbstud was pointing out. I took my schoolbag, and the bag pushed the thumbstud. The knife was straight open on my back.

I'm glad I realized it before I had to sit down. Since that day. I keep my folder in my pocket, and they are much better than that chinese crap.
 
I just had a lockback tip up open in my pocket a couple of days ago, got a minor cut and sliced my pocket when I pulled it out. Still not sure how it happened, I was sitting down. In 10 or so years of tip up carry, that was a first for me.
 
allenC said:
Actually, a tip-down liner-lock is easier to open in your pocket than tip-up...
with tip-up the blade spine rest against the seam of the pocket.
But with tip down, only the ball-detent and pivot tension keeps the blade closed.
Click to expand...

I decided to force an "accidental opening" with my Gerber AR-3.00 that's clipped to my pocket, right now. As it sits, I needed a very deliberate motion in order to get it out, with was compounded by the fact that there was little leverage/ movement room for my hand. If I put my hand in my pocket to withdraw keys ora something else, I don't think I could have gotten it open.
 
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