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Blade up Or blade down ?
- Thread starter Kennieyk
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2003
- Messages
- 255
I think it matters where you carry your knife. I have one on my waistband out front and I carry it tip down. Its seems to be the fastest to me because when you grab it, you are already holding the pivot point, the place where you open the knife from. All my knives are tip down anyway.
But yeah, I think its how you carry it.
But yeah, I think its how you carry it.
I've actually tested and tried both tip up, and tip down for quickness, because everything has to be quick.. afterall, everything is timed @ work. After trying both for numorous days it seemed like neither was actually quicker for me personally, it was only a matter of preference in the feel of taking it out and opening it and which was easier for me personally. Tip down, where your finger is right by the pivot point... just doesn't feel right when I do it for some reason. But for me, when it's tip up, when I pull it out I'm already holding the knife the way I'll be holding it when I use it.
My opinion is that neither tip up nor tip down is quicker. But that's just me and from my personal experiance, will most likely differ from others opinions.
My opinion is that neither tip up nor tip down is quicker. But that's just me and from my personal experiance, will most likely differ from others opinions.
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2003
- Messages
- 414
I can draw both at the same speed, but the problem is when I switch from up to down or down to up, I'm used to opening it the opposite way so I confuse myself until I get used to it. :grumpy:
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2003
- Messages
- 2,110
Tip-down is generally more concealable, I like it more. But theres only about about millisecond difference in draw time with pratice (unless you have an Emerson Wave).
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2002
- Messages
- 1,419
Its all personal preference. I like tip down carry because when drawn my fingers are around the pivot point, but thats about all, you still have to get the thing open etc. Speed kills, too. Doesn't matter what you do, practise will overcome most drawbacks / limitations, and when you've fixed those, there will still be drawbacks and limitations to folders that can't be fixed unless you go to a Bagwell 10inch bowie for quickness. 
Jason.
Jason.
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2003
- Messages
- 1,913
With the "Brownie Pop" opening method I prefer tip down on most knives. It is faster for me and the blade exits the pocket in the open position and moving immediately toward a target out in front of me.
Tip down is not as fast for that technique and as well, I have quit carrying tip down after several semi-customs and a few production folders have bit me in the thumb reaching in for the knife after I wasn't aware the tip was barely opened in the pocket from physical exertion.
No more tip up carry for me, I'll save my thumb a further stabbings thankyou.
Brownie
Tip down is not as fast for that technique and as well, I have quit carrying tip down after several semi-customs and a few production folders have bit me in the thumb reaching in for the knife after I wasn't aware the tip was barely opened in the pocket from physical exertion.
No more tip up carry for me, I'll save my thumb a further stabbings thankyou.
Brownie
Gollnick
Musical Director
- Joined
- Mar 22, 1999
- Messages
- 29,258
Tip-up can be a small fraction of a second faster.
If you do a little searching here on the forums, you will also find that tip-up can inflict nasty injuries on you. There have been at least a couple of cases reported where tip-up knives have sliced the palm of their owner's hand right open.
I have a friend who is a mechanical engineer. One of his basic rules is, "Don't fight gravity, you can't win." Tip-up carry fights gravity. Gravity never sleeps. It never tires. It simply pulls down gently on that blade, tugging at it tirelessly. Given any opportunity, it will pull that blade down and partially or even completely open the knife in your pocket.
Tip-down carry uses gravity to pull the knife shut as you carry it.
Tip-up relies on the knife being perfectly-designed, perfectly-adjusted, and carried exactly in the perfect position in the pocket. As a result, tip-up is intrinsically dangerous.
It's a tradeoff, a small fraction of a second in draw time vs. your own safety every minute of every day.
We've got some 18,000 members here at bf.c. In all the years, in all those members, I've yet to see one post saying, "I was in terrible danger and I had to draw my knife. Thank goodness I was carrying tip-up. That 1/64th of a second made all the difference. If I had been a 64th of a second slower, it'd have been curtains for me." But I have seen several posts from people who got stabbed or cut by their own tip-up knives.
You're paying a big price in your own safety for a tiny fraction of a second gain that, in practice, probably isn't gonna matter anyway.
If you do a little searching here on the forums, you will also find that tip-up can inflict nasty injuries on you. There have been at least a couple of cases reported where tip-up knives have sliced the palm of their owner's hand right open.
I have a friend who is a mechanical engineer. One of his basic rules is, "Don't fight gravity, you can't win." Tip-up carry fights gravity. Gravity never sleeps. It never tires. It simply pulls down gently on that blade, tugging at it tirelessly. Given any opportunity, it will pull that blade down and partially or even completely open the knife in your pocket.
Tip-down carry uses gravity to pull the knife shut as you carry it.
Tip-up relies on the knife being perfectly-designed, perfectly-adjusted, and carried exactly in the perfect position in the pocket. As a result, tip-up is intrinsically dangerous.
It's a tradeoff, a small fraction of a second in draw time vs. your own safety every minute of every day.
We've got some 18,000 members here at bf.c. In all the years, in all those members, I've yet to see one post saying, "I was in terrible danger and I had to draw my knife. Thank goodness I was carrying tip-up. That 1/64th of a second made all the difference. If I had been a 64th of a second slower, it'd have been curtains for me." But I have seen several posts from people who got stabbed or cut by their own tip-up knives.
You're paying a big price in your own safety for a tiny fraction of a second gain that, in practice, probably isn't gonna matter anyway.
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2002
- Messages
- 9,948
I find that tip-up can be okay if the lock has some sort of spring in its lock to keep it opened or closed. A lockback or an axis lock or arc lock can be carried relatively safely tip-up. When that's no longer safe to do, the lock will have already needed fixing for a long time. For liner locks and framelocks, tip-up carry isn't my bag. Plus, with some tip-down liner locks, you can do an inertia-assisted opening by merely quickly removing it from where it's clipped.