Be careful what you put in your pocket - Knife opened and cut me

If your knife has a decent detent (unlike the knife in the video) with a tight pocket clip and you carry it properly with the blade against the seem of your pocket, there is virtually no chance of this happening.
 
Nice Encounter. I have their Dozier in D2 and it's nice.

One of the worst knife accidents I had was an old Benchmade Panther linerlock. It opened in my right front pocket and I found out at a gas station when in line trying to pay for gas I purchased. I tried to pay with my left hand while my right hand was in my pocket spurting blood. It literally almost filled the pocket up.

I was used to Lock Backs and traditionals with spring bias keeping the blade closed. It's also when I found out about the pivot needing occasional tightening. It got my attention and was one of the 3 or 4 times I've had knife blades actually sticking into bone like a dartboard or piece of wood. Even having been stabbed a couple times in Law enforcement those went between bones or bounced /glanced off.
 
craytab said:
If your knife has a decent detent (unlike the knife in the video) with a tight pocket clip and you carry it properly with the blade against the seem of your pocket, there is virtually no chance of this happening.
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If a knife has a good and reliable detent, then it doesn't matter how you carry it, does it?
 
singularity35 said:
If a knife has a good and reliable detent, then it doesn't matter how you carry it, does it?
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My Benchmade Aphid has a really strong detent, but it's an assisted opening knife. Since it's tip down, it still somehow got bumped and partially deployed. If it was tip down, the seam of my pocket would have prevented that.
 
singularity35 said:
If a knife has a good and reliable detent, then it doesn't matter how you carry it, does it?
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That is what I think but other people have had different experiences. My EDC rotation has tip up and tip down knives, 3 of which are assisted. Of the assisted knives, 2 are tip down and 1 is tip up. I carry them all and don't worry about opening in my pocket, and none of them ever have. My modern unassisted knives seem to have adequate detents. The 3 assisted knives have pretty good detents but if you accidentally fiddle with the thumb studs they will open.

One of my first truly one-hand knives was a mini-AFCK and it had no detent or maybe just very little. It would open easily if you were tossing the knife around, and one time opened slightly as I was putting it into my pocket. I got a little slit through the outside of my jeans for that one. One time I was playing around tossing the (closed) knife up in the air and catching it. On one toss I noticed that the blade opened partly so I pulled my hand back and let it fall onto the carpet.
 
The only knife to ever open in my pocket was a Kershaw original Bump. I have never understood why some argue the safety of a tip down knife that swings open in the direction of your genitalia, unless you carry it in the right back pocket or leftie. Then the knife would be up against the seam of the pocket like tip up is carried right hand.
 
samhain73 said:
The only knife to ever open in my pocket was a Kershaw original Bump. I have never understood why some argue the safety of a tip down knife that swings open in the direction of your genitalia, unless you carry it in the right back pocket or leftie. Then the knife would be up against the seam of the pocket like tip up is carried right hand.
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Love your handle.

Anyway,

I've had one knife open up on me while in pocket (been like ten years ago at least) and ever since then I will only carry tip up. As long as its clipped to press the spine tight against the seam, you won't have a problem. I did have a Kershaw/Emerson not open correctly while waving (didn't realize it wasn't flush to the seam of my shorts) and had the blade snap closed on my middle finger, nearly taking it off at the third knuckle.
 
In this case the knife was tip down being carried in the left pocket blade towards seam. I tend to agree with posters noting that the benefit of the seam is not optimized tip down.
 
tokerblue said:
My Benchmade Aphid has a really strong detent, but it's an assisted opening knife. Since it's tip down, it still somehow got bumped and partially deployed. If it was tip down, the seam of my pocket would have prevented that.
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So for this intent and purpose, your knife would seem to not have an effective detent since a detent is supposed to keep a knife closed until opened purposely eh?
 
singularity35 said:
So for this intent and purpose, your knife would seem to not have an effective detent since a detent is supposed to keep a knife closed until opened purposely eh?
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I could shake the knife all day and it wouldn't open. The detent is fine. The problem is that the thumb stud got caught on something in my pocket and started to deploy. The assisted opening took care of the rest.
 
tokerblue said:
I could shake the knife all day and it wouldn't open. The detent is fine. The problem is that the thumb stud got caught on something in my pocket and started to deploy. The assisted opening took care of the rest.
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Then that really isn't a very safe knife when you have to rely on a specific method of carry for it to not accidentally open. What if it moves from your tight against seam carry?
 
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singularity35 said:
Then that really isn't a very safe knife when you have to rely on a specific method of carry for it to not accidentally open. What if it moves from your tight against seam carry?
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Which is why I don't carry tip down or assisted opening knives any longer. No sense in taking a chance.
 
tokerblue said:
Which is why I don't carry tip down or assisted opening knives any longer. No sense in taking a chance.
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Agreed, but the reverse .Because I Right rear pocket carry, its tip down only for me. While I'm sure if materials unbreakable, and everything was "perfect world", there would be no need to take additional precautions, its not, so putting it against the seam seems prudent. If you think about it, its the same way with using Jackstands with a jack while you're working on a car. You just don't want to take a chance, even though the jack "should" hold the weight.
 
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singularity35 said:
If a knife has a good and reliable detent, then it doesn't matter how you carry it, does it?
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I would still say unless you can lock it shut you had better take the precaution of putting it up against your pocket if you are worried about this issue. I am not that worried about this issue so with my knives that have a very strong detent (salt H-1 lock back mostly) I don't worry about it. Frankly, I get rid of knives with very weak detents but not because of this reason, I just like a strong detent. I have a few Benchmades that I have kept because the are awesome but when I carry them I also follow the instructions from Benchmade that say to put the blade against the seem of your pocket. Further, I wouldn't take one skiing or some other activity where they might get dislodged. It comes down to: know your knife and know your situation.
 
Very informative thread. I commonly carry larger lock backs pouched, jack knife styled, or sheathed knives. Just recently I have purchased a Kershaw Splinter (tip up clip) and a Tip down clip Bob Lum Seki cut SC 100S . Hadn't really considered the ramifications of tip up or down and which pocket.
Thanks for raising my awareness!!
 
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