Assisted Knives

[blackjackdan08]

Quick question to the knife gods in this forum..If a assisted knife, for example the Kershaw Scallion, should have the assist mech fail, would the knife still function as a reg folder or would the knife be useless until fixed? Please advise!

 

[nokia]

if it was designed too, then yeah, it's still gonna act like a regular knife.

 

[Dekz]

You would have to assess this on a per-model basis. In a lot of assisted knives, the torsion bar is what holds the knife closed, so if that were to break, the blade could swing open freely at any time.

The knife would still be completely usable (open and lock-up solid) if you needed it, but I wouldn't put it in my pocket and go jogging.

If you wanted to prepare a knife in advance for this possibility, you could set it up with a ball detent (which is what keeps almost all knives closed).

If you were really concerned about this, you could get one of the rare models that allows the assist to be turned on and off. As these are obviously designed for non-AO operation. Off the top of my head, the Kershaw Cyclone and I believe some models of SpeedBump have this feature.

 

[hwpaintballer]

Depends, if the the torsion bar breaks on a scallion and it has a strong enough blade detent then it will act like a regular un-assisted folder.

 

[BryFry]

I have the scallion also, and yes it should still function, i.e. lock open, and mine has a seperate lock on the end of the handle that would hold the blade closed weather or not the spring still functioned.

 

[_habit_]

But with folders that have the Benchmade Nitrous system like the Stryker, the assisted opening is caused by the frame of the knife, so I don't think the system can logically fail. Anyone able to confirm that?

 

[pinkfloyd101]

I had a kershaw whirlwind that the spring went to hell on it. It still worked just fine as a EDC, just no AO which didn't bother me at all.