Assisted Opening - Do we really hate it, or is it a stigma?

Would you buy an assisted opening knife?

  • Never! Those “gas station” knives are for little boys.

  • Only if it were of good quality.

  • Why not? If I like it I’d buy it.

Results are only viewable after voting.
Dimashkieh

Dimashkieh

Joined
Mar 1, 2013
Messages
215
Hello knife lovers,

As many/most knife enthusiasts, I am not a fan of assisted opening, although I appreciate how smart the mechanism(s) is/are. Also, the story of Ken Onion inventing it and challenging the authorities is fascinating.

A bit less than a year ago I found a ZT 0357BW for a price that is hard to pass, so I got it, and I put it on my daily rotation. I am a fan of ZT’s, but I didn’t think that I would use or enjoy it as much as I do. Yesterday, I disassembled it for cleaning and lubrication. I have to say, I am very impressed, especially about the simplicity.

Of course, nothing beets the satisfaction of a well made manual flipper, but why do we (myself included) stay away from a good assisted opening knife?

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Personally, I would rather have a manual or an automatic. To me, assisted were just a way for manufacturers to make more money skirting the automatic law rather than fighting an unjust law. Just me. Plus, most assisted blades are geared more towards the budget end of things. Not always, but a large percentage of the time.

I sold my last assisted back in 2015. I have never looked back.
 
I've seen so many gas station knives that have assist opening, and by observation and experience, seeing it as a feature included on very lower tier knives, that I'm just not sure I'd want it on any of my higher end knives. Plus, for me, I'm just not a fan of assist open actuation anyway.
 
I think it is a stigma from low end gas station knives. People here will pay hundreds of dollars for a fancy Microtech auto but they snub assisted knives (which are just autos with a slightly different opening movement you make). They just arent "cool" like autos (I think because they are legal almost everywhere so they dont have that same mystique that scary automatics do). I like assisted knives just fine, and sometimes more. Sometimes it is hard to open a manual knife, for example when it is cold and you have gloves on or if you have arthritis or something.
 
Ive only ever handled one. I just bought my daughter a kershaw Maximus knock off as a place holder. She loves the thing but to me it just screams ” Ill shit on you when you need me”. Of course this sample size of one is by no means a real judgement on the genre.
 
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There's a stigma, but also legitimate reasons to dislike them. I personally dislike it when a knife has an assisted opening that doesn't make it any easier/quicker to open, but in being assisted eliminates easy one-handed closing (talking to YOU, Benchmade Barrage :rolleyes: )
 
Doesn't matter me.

I own knives that make use of virtually every type of opening device ever devised and there are many "spring assisted" AUTOMATICS that are among my favorites. LOL! ;)

I also own many vintage AO knives made by Kershaw and ZT that I prize, like my set of Kershaw Shallots, a couple of ZT0400s and a ZT0750 Talon.

What does it matter if you have to use 2 hands to close it? Again, it doesn't matter to me.

Manual knives w/thumbstuds actually are my LEAST FAVORITE type of opening device because the thumbstud never seems to be where it "should be" for me to easily open the knife. However, I do have some, like the set of vintage Kershaw Talons that only come w/them.

Flippers and Spydie (or other) holes are my preferred manual opening device but I do like the "trick" nature of the lever openers like those on the ZT055 and Kershaw OD-1.
 
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I appreciate what AO did for the hobby. While I think the better more "just" thing would have been to attack the laws themselves, the AO seems to have been able to help the laws get tangled in their own red tape. I remember seeing a Snap On branded Kershaw that my dad's friend gave him almost 20 years ago, and it was pretty slick back then. This was when pretty much all the Kershaw knives were made stateside and werent really budget in any sense.

However, for me, they are a pass. i think I might have a ZT or two that sports the AO, but I even took the spring out of my 303 just because that big ol' blade was hell on the bar. I can either flip it open or give it a good kick to the flipper or do a pinch and drop. I don't miss the AO at all.

Now, I have come to appreciate automatics much more. Of those automatics, I almost exclusively carry an OTF which is nothing like an AO in terms of action. For me, manual flippers pretty made the NEED for side openers obsolete even though i do have a couple of really nice autos. I'm just lazy. If the knife is easy to open, I want it to be easy to close as well:p
 
Dimashkieh said:
As many/most knife enthusiasts, I am not a fan of assisted opening, although I appreciate how smart the mechanism(s) is/are. Also, the story of Ken Onion inventing it and challenging the authorities is
fascinating.
Click to expand...

Uhm, you need to do better job on research ...

Walter Wells "Blackie" Collins made assisted knives before Ken Onion, the Strut-and-Cut (based on a Ducati design motorcycle strut). Blackie has long ago been credited with the first assisted opening knife (circa 1995), along with many other firsts designs.

I have de-assited every assisted knife I chose to carry, and believe each was a better knife after (one example: ZT0350).
 
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It absolutely isn't the "stigma" that keeps me from it. What keeps me from it is the fact that manual opening is really just as fast, so I do not need a spring to complicate matters. I think it's kind of cool, sure. I was looking at a RAT 1-A when I was buying that knife for the first time, and just got the regular. It usually flies open when I push on the thumbstud. It is simpler this way - less to maintain.

To me, there is nothing wrong with flippers or assisted opening. Yes, I only had those on cheap knives, and now that I am a fan of knives, I prefer manual opening systems, but there are plenty of fine assisted knives, that RAT being my top example, who doesn't like a RAT? When I say "I prefer manual to assisted/auto", that is partially because of the laws. I would buy and carry more automatic if they were legal. As it stands, I own one automatic, a Boker XXL. I would eventually like a Microtech or something, but am not going crazy over it. The Microtech I might carry some select places, but I wouldn't risk just walking about with it on the streets, as I don't risk it with the 4.75" Boker auto.

The other thing is, other knives are just as "fast" in practice. I understand maybe wanting a MT as an emergency backup type tool, open with a push of a button... but not so much for daily use. I can open all my manuals very fast when I do not have adrenaline coursing through me. As for not being able to have an emergency Microtech on my person? I think it is absolutely morally WRONG that I cannot carry one. But, how do I deal with it? The wave.

I remember buying cheap assisted knives as a kid, we thought they were "Illegal switchblades" because of the spring assist, haha. We would also buy our pipes from that store that we affectionately called the "knife-and-pipe-store". Still have a wooden-scaled stiletto-style knife from that time. It actually looks good, a sensible darkwood and a symmetrical dagger blade, especially compared to the skull-zombie crap that was in the shop, I had decent taste even at the mall knife shop as a kid, haha 😁 I once used it to cut down a noose while tripping on LSD. That was one of the things that made me realize I should start carrying a pocketknife.
 
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When assisted opening knives first came out they had a sort of “high tech” appeal or something. A lot of knives (at least the ones I had) weren’t truly one handed openers and the assisted knives were, so they were fun to have. Some worked well and others didn’t or didn’t for long.
Nowadays I’d take a pass on an assisted knife.
The only assisted still in my possession is a Leek I got for a gift. As far as it goes it works well so no reason to dislike it but I’d prefer if it wasn’t assisted.
 
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I like assisted opening. On knives like the Kershaw Leek, it works well to compliment an already great knife. I don’t understand why people would associate a spring action with “gas station knives”.

Either way, the worst thing you can do is “de-assist” a knife. If I had a dollar for everytime someone de-assisted a knife and sold it… I’d be rich.
 
I'm not against assisted opening but it's illegal where I live so I couldn't carry one even if I found one I like. I'm definitely guilty of falling into the cheap gas station knife stigma though.
 
Update: Just finally de-assisted my Barrage. I feel much better now. Sorry if I came off as a bit triggered in my first post ;)


EDIT: Uh-oh, according to experts above, it seems I just did the "worst thing I can do" 🤣 . I grew up a half-hour from Daytona though, so I'm pretty sure my worst decisions were made during Spring Breaks a couple of decades ago.
 
The Leek was my gateway into more upscale knives (my first posts here were searching for a replacement for my Leek). I still love the Leek, and I find the combination of the flipper tab and its position, and the assist a convenient combination for opening. I have a Blur as well, and really don't see the point or usefulness of assisted opening with thumb studs. And putting an assist on an AXIS lock knife eliminates its best feature.
 
A good assisted knife is just fine, IMO. Less chance of fumbling the flip, for one. And autos aren't legal everywhere. (Pity).

However, the ones I've liked are few and far between. The ZT0357 is excellent, IMHO, as is the 0770CF. The BM890 Torrent was also good, as was the HK Nitrous Blitz. Can't stand the little Kershaw Chives and even Leeks, just too small and fiddly for me.

I'm undecided at this point on my BM Mini Valation. It's a bit slow, but the blade is pretty stout, and I don't need it to fire like a rocket, it just has to open every time. I had a Large Emissary, and while it was a beautiful knife, it did fire like a rocket, but I felt it would eventually beat up the frame / scales. Probably, it would not have, but that "THUNK!" when it locked open was disconcerting. Like it had too much spring for its weight. It may be that Axis Lock assists to me are kind of an answer to a question that was never asked. Makes more sense on a flipper.
 
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