Assisted openers?

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How many assisted openers are out there? Too many. I am not a big fan of them or of auto's. They have there place, but not for me. There is a cool factor to them. I enjoy looking at the different designs to see how they work. While I am not an engineer, I do see distinct differences between some of them.

Sal, even though you have stated you are not looking to produce an assisted opener, I add my voice to those who say you shouldn't. I think Spyderco would loose that which makes it unique if you joined in on the assisted opener craze.
 
I agree with Yam! Spyderco (Sal) makes the best knives with the smoothest actions. With the Spyderhole, it can't be beat. Why sell something with a mechanism that will eventually gum up, stick, or break, which as a result, can only tarnish your fine name. I gave away all my Scallions.

Mike

P.S. Sal why did you discontinue the Navigator? It's my favorite. (I have three more just "in case.")
 
Hardman said:
I agree with Yam! Spyderco (Sal) makes the best knives with the smoothest actions. With the Spyderhole, it can't be beat. Why sell something with a mechanism that will eventually gum up, stick, or break, which as a result, can only tarnish your fine name. I gave away all my Scallions.



There is a percentage of the market tht would like to see at least one run of a Spyderco assisted opener. It is also our job to service our customers desires.



P.S. Sal why did you discontinue the Navigator? It's my favorite. (I have three more just "in case.")
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We have a Navigator 2 coming out soon. Upgrade in ergos.

sal
 
well, for me assisted-openers are more "fun" than functional, but i still like them. to my dad, they're more.

he has trouble opening some knives, since he has large hands, and they get sore or tired easily. after a few hours at work, it can be a cumbersome chore to open a knife. he elected not to carry one partly for this reason.

i bought him a Scallion, and he loves it. he has carried it everyday for over a year, and the number one thing he likes about it is it's ease-of-opening. no fumbling, no painful or difficult extension of his fingers or thumb. just a decent amount of pressure at the flipper, and his blade is open and ready to use.

when i asked him what he might like for Christmas a few months back, he said, "a new knife might be cool. something bigger, but that i can open as easily as this one (referring to his Scallion)." so i bought him a Camillus Heat. he was only too happy to have the assisted-open feature again.

this is reason enough for me. i'd be more than willing to purchase an AO from Spyderco.

abe m.
 
Sal Glesser said:
We have a Navigator 2 coming out soon. Upgrade in ergos.

sal
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That is great news. I have been waiting for the replacement.


I bought a Kershaw Chive for the Wife. She likes it but it doesn't appeal to me.
 
Sal,

Thanks for the reply. If Spyderco were to make an assisted opener, it would be neat if the lock mechanism would be a lockback/midlock, like most other Spyderco's (which is another reason I like Spydies). It would also give the buyer something different to chose from as most every assisted opener on the mass market I've seen has a liner lock mechanism.

Mike
 
all assisted openers that i've seen/handled/used thus far all use some sort of tension bar/spring wire/what-have-you that swings the blade out and into the locked position. after disengaging the lock, and as you close the blade, you're usually having to exert quite a bit of pressure in order to defeat that same tension at which time the blade defaults (or is "sucked") back into the handle.

what i propose may not be feasible, but i'd like to see an AO that does not exhibit that nasty force on closure. if i had to wager a guess, i'd say that more people injure themselves on a knife trying to push the blade closed than having one open in the pocket (which seems to be a common woe or fear). i've never actually injued myself in this way, but twice i have gone to close one of my AOs, and with a less-than-perfect grip the blade has "flipped" back open and scraped my thumb or fingers in the process.

i know, i know: if you close the knife without that pressure, how can you expect the spring or tension bar to tighten or charge again? to this i say, i have no idea. i'm just tossing out some ideas for ya, Sal. :p

abe m.
 
Lost Jaguar said:
I've had a Camillus Dominator Tanto for about 24 hours. It's well designed and constructed, with the very best of materials. It's sharper than a serpent's tooth. I'm very glad I bought it.

And there's no doubt in my mind that in the unlikely event of a policeman finding me with it, he would confiscate it as an illegal switchblade at the very least. I can imagine the judge's expression if a lawyer in my defense tried to make the case that the knife is an "assisted opener" as opposed to a switchblade.

Although I am opposed to switchblade laws, I feel that this genre of knife does indeed violate the spirit of these laws, if not the actual wording.
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I don't have a problem with knives that violate the spirit of the switchblade laws, since the spirit of these laws is a malicious suppression of private rights. I think that it is better to punish those who actually harm their communities and fellows, rather than punish everyone for things that they may do in the future
As it happens, I am 35% disabled in my dominant hand and have arthritis in both hands. I have a rainbow leek and it is a cool toy but it is slow to use because it is too small and slippery for me. My EDC's are a Pro-tech Duke, and a Spyderco Calypso Jr. LWT PE., because they are easy to get open and closed
Carrying a :switchblade because it is a useful tool doesn't make me a criminal, and it is not within the province of the government to assume that I am, absent the proof of actions harmful to other humans, and property.
Ed. to add that I think Keith Mayton hit the nail on the head with the following:
Keith Mayton said:
Ethics. Patent law is not about ethics. It's about encouraging new inventions by protecting them for a limited time. Patent protection is limited for good reasons -- the basic idea of an assisted opening knife is absolutely positively not patentable. What is patented is the particular design of the mechanism that opens the knife. If you want to find a way to build a better mouse trap with your own assisted opening knife, it's not a form of stealing. It's an entirely ethical way of competition that encourages the evolution of the general concept and IMPROVEMENTS, and thereby benefits all of us. So have at it and make some money. Your integrity will be intact.
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Over in the Knife Laws Forum, I saw that Reno, Nevada, was the latest city to start cracking down on assisted openers. While I agree that the laws against switchblades are stupid and an invasion of our rights, as are many other laws, I am NOT going to pick a fight with the law enforcement people over them any more than I would pick a fight with law enforcement people over owning fully-automatic firearms or other supposedly dangerous weapons, I know damned good and well that I would lose and lose big-time. I try to pick fights that I have the proverbial snowball's chance of winning.
 
While an assisted-opening or flippable knife (inertia opening) may get classified as illegal in some areas, California has seen the light - as long as there is "some" kind of detent in the closed position, even a slight one, it is not a switchblade. Refer to Jim March's site, http://www.equalccw.com/knifelaw.html.

My Military opens quickly and easily, but I am always interested in new technology, if it is a real improvement, not a gimmick.
 
Sal, I sure hope you're not considering Spyderco's with assisted opening.......

don't do it. Spydies don't need that.

oh boy, I can see the headlines now already......: "12-yr old kid stabs father-in-law with vicious Spyderco gravity-switchblade".

don't do it Sal, please? :rolleyes:

dennis
 
dennis75 said:
Sal, I sure hope you're not considering Spyderco's with assisted opening.......

don't do it. Spydies don't need that.

oh boy, I can see the headlines now already......: "12-yr old kid stabs father-in-law with vicious Spyderco gravity-switchblade".

don't do it Sal, please? :rolleyes:

dennis
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kershaw/SOG and others already make them and i have seen no headlines yet, lol, i think if ya wanna make them, do it, i bet half the folks saying dont make it will buy one.
 
Oh come on guys. If Sal does go ahead with the "AO", I'm a customer. I've got a fair number of Ken's "AO" Kershaws and they are really neat knives.
 
I have purchaed two assisted openers. One was a Kersahw Bump, the other was a Camillus Heat. I bought both because I like the design. Bothe are now manuals. Bump has had spring rmoved and a ball detent added to keep the blade closed. The Heat can be rendered manual by replacing one of the side screws with one of the longer screws that comes with it.

I have spoken to some local LEO's who looked the assisted openers. These guys collect knives and are knife friendly officers. Their opinion was that the average officers they know would classify them as switchblades.
 
I'd like to stir the embers of a long-cold topic. I was looking at the daily special at covecutlery which is a plain edge Manix. It is a wonderfully designed and built knife, but it is just too bulky for me to ever carry it. Part of the reason for its bulk is the extra blade width needed for the hole. I was thinking of how it could be more compact with thumb studs, but then studs are an obstruction to the flat lines of the blade. A solution could be an assisted opener without studs or a hole. This would be a radical departure, but might pay dividends. I was thinking that this could broaden the Spyderco market base. Some people are just never going to go for the hole.
 
Let me just add my commendation to the list for Sal's *admirable* insistence on doing the ethical, and *right* thing, it's rare in today's business environment to see a company that actually performs in an ethical, upstanding manner, most companies nowadays wouldn't even know what the word "ethics" *means*

this is one of the many reasons that i keep buying Spyderco knives and reccomending them to everyone i meet, in addition to being some of the best performers out there, and incredible bang-for-the-buck, it constantly amazes me that Sal, Eric and the rest of the Spyderco crew not only hang out with the rest of us lowly "consumers", but listen to us, and ask for advice, a company that actually *listens* and cares about it's customer base is a rare thing indeed and must be supported

Mr. Onion, i also love the fact that the originator of the finest AO technology hangs out with the rest of us "normies", your Speed-Safe technology is amazingly good, durable and IMHO, the standard by which all other AO knives should be judged, i did purchase a Scallion a few months ago, but sold it as i got bored with it, i'm regretting that now, and i will soon be purchasing a Chive to remedy that error in judgement, the Chive will live on my keyring right next to my Spyderco Jester

my personal philosophy is that the true innovators in industry (in this case, the knife industry) need to be supported, and as consumers, the most effective way to do that is by purchasing said company's products, i don't purchase ripoffs, and treat companies that participate in this behavior with scorn and derision, they don't get my money, a company that markets ripoff knives does not get my hard earned money, that's reserved for the true *innovators* in this industry

i have a very short list of companies i regularly purchase knives from, that list is very short and simple, and comprises the following brands;
Spyderco
Kershaw
Benchmade


in addition, i've infected...err...passed on my enthusiasm for Spyderco products to one of my co-workers, i sold him my Native, as i didn't use it and i wanted *someone* to enjoy it, and no less than 3 days later, he purchased a Scorpius and Sharpmaker and has been ravenously devouring all the information he can on Spyderco, he's even more badly addicted than me, i've created a monster....

Sal, Eric and the rest of the Spyderco crew, keep crankin' out those great designs and keep your morals and ethics high, there's no way you can lose

Ken Onion, i can't wait to see your next designs, you always make great, eye-catching designs that are implemented extremely well, and your (and Kershaw's) knives are the only ones that i've found are even *close* to Spyderco's level of sharpness out of the box....
 
It's possible to eliminate thumbstuds/spyderholes etc without AO through the use of the flipper, ala M16 (and many AOs anyway). I really think the flipper is a nice way to go, but if you use it purely, you'll probably be restricted to two handed opening or pure wrist flicking. Flippers protect from lock failure and open faster. I personally like how the spyderhole looks and feels, but I most certainly wouldn't mind seeing spydercos with flippers. A lot of them appear to be set up for them--take the para for instance. If you stuck the top tang of the finger choil 3/2 CM out more, you'd have a flipper with no other mods.
 
Could you guys start a new thread on this topic rather than bringing up a 2 year old thread, already several pages long?
 
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