Best drop shut action?

ScooterG said:
Out of curiosity,why is this important?
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Can't speak for the OP, but it's a sign to me that the manufacturer cares about little details.

You can have a working lock with minimal QC/tweaking if you aim for sticky or smooth-yet-stiff action, but to get drop-shut you really need to balance lockbar pressure and detent. That's even more impressive when you can get the detent set just right for flipping at the same time.

You've got, I would argue, a more functional lock if the closure action is a little slower. If anyone should be able to pull off a consistent action, it's Chris Reeve Knives; they went for "hydraulic" instead, and have resisted the bearing-race-supported pivot trend. This should tell us all something about the utility of this kind of refinement. ;)

Now that Chinese "factories" have figured out what we want, it's getting to be far less special than it used to be. Hoback and Holt, Sharp By Design, the more innovative guys are focusing on iterating the detent concept to something a little more tweakable, but (just as with titanium frames and fancy toolpath texturing) it probably won't be long until we see that in $100 knives, too.

IIRC the origin of BB-smooth pivots is in bali-song designs from Korth, and that's where it still makes the most sense.
 
Why do I like a nice smooth (consistent) action, because I consider myself a geek. There is something pleasing about the smoothness, it might be in part due to work, I deal with pneumatic and hydraulic cylinders and linear bearings of various kinds, most of them at work run pretty crappy due to lack of maintenance (IE we wait forever for parts, don't have the right ones when we need, don't get the time to disassemble a machine due to continuous production) so whenever something does run smoothly as intended it's just a nice thing to see. Generally I enjoy my job, but bureaucracy/saving/order times/lack of tools makes it annoying as heck, I have everything for my knives to run smoothly and enjoy cleaning/maintaining them, seeing a somewhat sloppy/gritty action go back to smooth is a nice thing.
 
Spartan Blades Pallas by far! There are some great suggestions above but the Pallas takes the cake by a long shot.

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I personally don't like fall shut. I would prefer having to give the lightest jiggle for it to fall closed.
That said, my Real Steel Sea Eagle falls shut without any help, as well as one of my PM2's. Button lock flippers also, usually fall shut very smoothly.
 
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ATJ999 said:
I personally don't like fall shut. I would prefer having to give the lightest giggle for it to fall closed.
That said, my Real Steel Sea Eagle falls shut without any help, as well as one of my PM2's. Button lock flippers also, usually fall shut very smoothly.
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Was that a typo? Or do you giggle at your knives for them to shut? o_O:D
 
The ZT0452 and Graham Razel midtech are very nice in terms of drop-close actions. The Tashi/McGinnis Rowdy Hi Tech that Shadymethods mentioned earlier has got to be the best though; it feels like there's 0 resistance, even smoother than my smoothest customs, the Grimsmo Norseman and Nick Chuprin MK1-s.
 
Benchmade 928 proxy has the best open and closing action that I have experienced to this date. Especially like that it’s pretty ambidextrous as well cuz I’m a lefty
 
anthonycastorena2014 said:
Spartan Blades Pallas by far! There are some great suggestions above but the Pallas takes the cake by a long shot.

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All button locks, compression locks, the different hawk locks, and etc without framelocks or liner locks will likely fall shut. Cause nothing in the way to create any friction.

I find these locks to not be in the same category as I don't get the same appeal with them that I do a frame/liner lock. It's not something you have to tune it just happens cause of the inherent design. No detent on the blade. So while I have a few of these knives they are not highly regarded as free droppers imho. Even though they indeed do drop shut. They are still great knives. They just don't have the same appeal..

I'm not sure if the op has that opinion or not but the wide majority of "action" seekers don't count them.
 
Nautique said:
My ZT 600 is hydraulic.
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Hi Nautique -

Likely just the pivot is not adjusted to allow for that 4oz slab of B75P to free-fall - it's on bearings, so it has to be pretty tight to not allow it to free fall. Great knife and as close as I'll ever get to a RJ custom.

best

mqqn
 
One of the reasons I sold my Stedemon SHY is that the combination of free-fall closing and no flipper tab/choil to stop against a finger safely made disgenaging the lock dangerous unless you were mindful of what orientation the knife was at.

Another Stedemon, the D-01, had the best pivot smoothness I have ever experienced in any price range. Looking at reviews and user experiences, though, that seems to have been an outlier example of the knife.

Also, pro tip: Get nano-oil and apply it to the detent ball of your knife. That will make a significant reduction in friction from the lockbar, making it a notably smoother knife.
 
Mo2 said:
All button locks, compression locks, the different hawk locks, and etc without framelocks or liner locks will likely fall shut. Cause nothing in the way to create any friction.

I find these locks to not be in the same category as I don't get the same appeal with them that I do a frame/liner lock. It's not something you have to tune it just happens cause of the inherent design. No detent on the blade. So while I have a few of these knives they are not highly regarded as free droppers imho. Even though they indeed do drop shut. They are still great knives. They just don't have the same appeal..

I'm not sure if the op has that opinion or not but the wide majority of "action" seekers don't count them.
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If you click the lock with it even being verticals it will drop. The action is unlike anything I have ever had. Frame,liner,compression, axis, are all excellent but the OP asked about drop shut flippers. The Pallas is exactly that. With more than “functional”, equally as adequate thumbstuds.
 
anthonycastorena2014 said:
If you click the lock with it even being verticals it will drop. The action is unlike anything I have ever had. Frame,liner,compression, axis, are all excellent but the OP asked about drop shut flippers. The Pallas is exactly that. With more than “functional”, equally as adequate thumbstuds.
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Right, it's up to the op to decide, I'm just pointing out the fact of the mater that, your choice is one of many with the exact same type of drop shut action as other knives (houge button locks, many of the hawk locks, compression locks and so on) and that they are very different to liner/frame locks that us action freaks are searching for.

Your knife isn't so different than quite a few knives out on the market past and present with button locks.

I merly just want to point out the difference. Nothing wrong with it and as I understand it the op didn't specify and may not even know or care. I'm not saying your wrong in any way or that your recommendation is any less a knife. Honestly I want that model as well as others from that brand. I'm just sayin because I'm a drop shut action junky.
 
this is an issue that is quite puzzling to me. I'd rather have a slower closing action. I have cut my fingers too many times, latest with a Tops mini scandi folder that gave me a nice bite that took 2 weeks to heal. So I'm not really into the "fastest closing knife", I'd rather have a fast opening action. The fastest (and scariest) closing action I have is with a Buck Marksman.
 
My ZT 0808 falls shuts way to easy. To the point it's almost dangerous. Just never been a fan of free falling blades. I like a little resistance.

I have cut the top of my thumb knuckled far to many time with the 0808.
 
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