assisted vs unassisted?

C

clockworkfish

Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
161
legaly i understand that assisted opening knives are fine to have, and many knives that i have seen that i think look great tend to be assisted opening, however i have never bought one because i feel like at some point the knife will get jammed or not work properly. A few friends of mine have assisted openers and they tend to get sticky from what i have seen. is it possible to remove this feature on knives like the volt 2 or leek? As far as i know unassisted openers wont jam as easily because there are less parts that can get mucked up.

Are these thoughts completly wrong and have my friends just been getting shitty knives? or does this happen quite a lot with assisted openers?

Is there a way to modify them so they either will not jam at all or so that they become unassited?
 
I don't know about jamming, but assisted springs eventually break. I haven't had any problems with my assisted Kershaws so far. You could take the spring out, but unfortunately there is no detent hold in the blade on the Kershaws I've seen, so the blade won't stay closed without the spring like most manual framelocks.
 
you can take the torsion bar out of the assisted knives and yes there is a detent in teh kershaws with AO but its really weak
 
My Kershaw Leek broke. Will I get it fixed? No. It's a cheap knife and it has thumb studs. Grown out of the AO option as well.
 
If you are a little worried about the regular ones you might want to try the Kershaw OD-1 if the size is what you are looking for. It's very fast and slick - the blade rockets out faster than the Leek and Scallion I had back in the day - for around $40 or $50 - G-10 on one side that is pretty nice and stainless framelock w/stabilizer on the other side. Would love to get another one if they make it 3.5"-4" blade and 4 1/2"-5" handle
 
brets-ftw said:
you can take the torsion bar out of the assisted knives and yes there is a detent in teh kershaws with AO but its really weak
Click to expand...

There is a detent ball to reduce friction with the frame, but no detent hole. Therefore, no detent without the torsion bar. The torsion bar is designed so that when closed it provides the detent against opening (up to a certain angle) rather than use the conventional ball and hole method.

That's based on my Kershaws; the SS-handled KO series plus the Ti Blur and obviously the Spec Bump. I don't know if the other knives are different, but I doubt it.

You could always try to drill a little detent hole in the blade to convert to manual.
 
clockworkfish said:
legaly i understand that assisted opening knives are fine to have, and many knives that i have seen that i think look great tend to be assisted opening, however i have never bought one because i feel like at some point the knife will get jammed or not work properly. A few friends of mine have assisted openers and they tend to get sticky from what i have seen. is it possible to remove this feature on knives like the volt 2 or leek? As far as i know unassisted openers wont jam as easily because there are less parts that can get mucked up.

Are these thoughts completly wrong and have my friends just been getting shitty knives? or does this happen quite a lot with assisted openers?

Is there a way to modify them so they either will not jam at all or so that they become unassited?
Click to expand...

That has been precisely my experience. I don't tend to buy them anymore because I don't want any excess moving parts that can break or jam up. Most of Kershaw's assisted knives can be turned into great unassisted knives - just take the torsion bar out. This will not work with some of their models, like the Leek. My understanding of CRKT's Outburst system is that it works in much the same way, but I really don't have experience with those knives.
 
The Blur has a strong detent please don't spread misinformation. Mine has the torsion bar removed and stays closed like any other manual knife.
 
I don't know what knives your friends are buying but I have never seen an assisted open stick like you're describing. It may not be the knife itself, but maybe lack of maintenance. You still have to clean the knife every few months. My brothe has been carrying a mini barrage from benchmade for about a year now and it opens just as good as the day he bought it. If you still want to give A/Os a shot, jsut try to clean it a little more and you should have no problems.
 
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