Clamp-on thumb stud?

[CAK]

I am trying to convert a Buck-type folder to enable it be opened one-handed. I remember seeing a clamp-on type of thumb shelf a few years ago but can't remember the name or source. Thanks in advance.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

It's called the Bandit, and you can get it from Smoky Mountain Knife Works.

Edit: well, that's the URL, all right, but the site won't come up. Try it later, I bet it does.

 

[CAK]

Thanks.

 

[Razoredj]

Smoky's web site is notoriously unreliable. I buy from them all the time because their prices are good, but the staff responsible for keeping that site up must hate their lives.

 

[Tony Perez]

CAK :
I have an older attachment that slides over the blade and then is held in place by a small allen screw.
I would be willing to mail it you if you want it. But you would have to wait till after 01-07-02 as it is at my desk at work and I am off till then. If you are interested let me know.
I can mail it in a regular envelope as it is not very heavy. My god...I remember getting it over 20 years ago and I still have it !!
It was called a FLICKET..anyone remember those ?

 

[Paul Work]

I remember the Flick-it.

Paul

 

[CAK]

Thanks Tony!!

 

[Razoredj]

The Flick-It is mentioned in Thomas Harris' book Red Dragon, which came before Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. In it, a street thug with a bare arm -- referred to as "knife fighter's mange" by a character in the novel -- is described as carrying a Buck 110 (or similar) folder equipped with the Flick-It.

 

[bob bowie]

The Flick-it was cool, I remember them from the back of the "American Rifleman" magazize. Lots of cool ads in the backs of those old magazines.

 

[Mrdi]

Wouldn't it be possible to drill a small hole and tap in a machine screw ?

 

[ArchAngel]

Those Flickets were really a great idea, in their day. Some of my friends and I used them way back when. We would also try to polish the action up with anything from a paste made of Comet cleaner and water to just toothpaste. We all had varing degrees of sucess. The trouble with all those abrasives was that what we really managed to do was wear out the action quicker than necessary. Oh well, live and learn.
On the idea of drilling and tapping a blade for a stud. Even a softish blade (55RC) or so is really hard to drill, and even harder to tap. I work in a machine shop and have tried upon occasion to drill and tap hardened parts. It is possible, but in the small size that would be needed for a thumb stud, most likely there would be no success. There are other methods, ie. wire EDM and that sort of thing. Machine time is costly, and when all is said and done, it would have been cheaper to get a knife with the stud. Thus the inventor of the Flicket must have known in that time line.