Describe Your Favorite Pull (Nick), Mechanically Speaking.

[Hengelo_77]

is there enough purchase to make it pinchable?

The swedge makes it to thin to grab there.
I'm EDC-ing it to learn from the improvement points I come across. It will probably end up as a shop knife after a while. It is still a good and usable knife, but with what I have learned now it could have been better

 

[BJE]

If you have a clippoint with flats I like the nail pull there, but it has to be long enough for you to place your nail far enough from the pivot if the spring is stronger.

This is my latest slipjoint. It could have worked if the spring was a bit softer.
It has a strong spring and is just a bit uncomfortable to open with this nail nick.
(I'm still learning)

That’s beautiful

 

[Ernie1980]

Looks wise I much prefer a long pull, but they are frequently not as user friendly as other nicks. In use, a deep regular nail nick on the middle of the blade is best for me on a knife I can’t pinch open (which is my top preference).
Like mentioned above- the nick on a swedge is not a good idea! I also don’t care for the nick to be too close to the pivot because of the lost leverage.

 

[TheJon]

I've been thinking about this since Friday, and when it comes down to it. I prefer a nice crisp nail nick rather than a long pull. Long pulls are really hard to get right in my opinion. Having them both look good AND have a good position/angle to function well is hard. GEC clip points with long pulls usually turn out well.

So while a perfect done long pull is fantastic...a nice crisp nail nick is usually just better for me.

 

[TheJon]

A follow up question is how does halfstop vs cam tang effect your preference of pull type and location?

 

[mrknife]

A follow up question is how does halfstop vs cam tang effect your preference of pull type and location?

i have precious few that fit that description. I think off hand maybe just the pony jack. Sometime ago, I used to associate nail nick and cam tangs with a certain price level. Its quite possible this is not necessarily true as I have had customs with nail nicks and half stops. I had imagined a long pull being slightly more labor intensive to cut.

 

[GaiusJulius]

I echo others here. The swedge needs to be short enough that the nick or long pull doesn’t extend into it. At the same time the nick or long pull needs to be forward enough that the user can get some decent leverage on the blade.

In use I think a nick is a little better, but I like the look of a long pull, and matchstrike long pulls even more.

I detest the complete holes on the new fancy steel Case knives. So ugly.

 

[dsutton24]

I like long pulls or match strikers. It's simply an aesthetic choice. If the pull has to be right behind the tip to open the knife the fault is in the knife, not the type or placement of the pull. If you're springing a pocketknife with a farm truck leaf spring you're designing the knife wrong from the start. Trying to correct your folly by getting creative with the pull is a losing proposition.

 

[GaiusJulius]

I’ll also add that I don’t really have any strong preference of nail nicks or pulls being on one side or the other. I think all things considered I prefer them on opposite sides, but really as long as they’re not hard to access (and will not become so with wear) that’s what matters. I’ve had a few old knives where the blades sat so low in the frame that it was very difficult to actually get a nail into the nick or pull to open the knife.

 

[Campbellclanman]

I like your post in opening this discussion Jeff my friend, and I almost mirror your thoughts, I think that in each case of yes or no- there will be the odd Blade Grind that may change your mind, for example the Nick inside the Swage work, I get that 100%, but because this big Old Vintage Robeson Stabber has such a nice Blade Grind- and a larger Knife, the Nail Nick works nicely ( imo) within the Swage work....

I also agree that Long Pulls look great- but I do like them on the secondary Blade as well, but there is a "but"... The Long Pull must be thin - at times when a Long Pull is quite wide- it starts to look cheap - like a cheaply stamped out Blade - hard to explain, but I am sure the Traditionalists will have a good idea what I am trying to say, have a look at any neat old Knife and the long Pulls are awesome- they are thin - not only aesthetically pleasing but work well.
Match-strike Pull in the Long Pull version is a winner here as well, at times I struggle with a Nail Nick that also has a Match-strike- like on a lot of German Bulldog Knives - there almost too much going on there ( for me - please dont take offence as some of the Bulldog Knives are awesome)..

This older Joseph Rodgers kind of shocked me, I was extremely pleased to obtain this Joseph Rodgers in beautiful condition, but I can see why it's in such amazing condition because you can't open the darned thing!!!
No it doesn't need oil in the joints - I always have my knives well taken care of and every 3 months or so- the lot get maintain check waxed and oiled.

I have a friend who has Nails of Steel - hasn't broken a nail much in his life time - he cant open this, and he is a lean machine.

The Knife is border lining on a Bunny Knife style so the Main has a almost Turkish Clip point to it - but check out where that Nail Nick is, like R8shell said- the Nick too far back makes no sense to me, the positioning of the Nick isn't engineered well from the start unless you had a soft Sprung Knife- This Knife is a 10 out of 10 pull - so this the reasoning as to why the Knife is in nice condition as it has hardly been used- if at all.

On top of all that I have said - just look how fine that Nail Nick is- it's literally all against you, in saying all this the styling of the Knife didn't leave a lot of options either for placement of a Nail Nick.

When you see the knife closed I am hoping it becomes more apparent just how far back and how hard this Knife is to open with a Killer Spring.

The Nail Nick because of shadowing may look deep- its not.

 

[Alex.Y.]

I've always felt that a double-pull knife is ridiculous, because one or the other of the two nicks will invariably be preferred.

I use both on my GEC 97, if I can say so. I mostly pinch the long pull, but sometimes I use the nick, just because 5/10 or so strong spring on 97s allows it.

I dislike the feeling of opening a knife where the pull is too far toward the tip

It gives more leverage, so it is very practical. It's pain when pull is hard and nick (or long pull) is around the middle or closer to the pivot.

Generally, I try to pinch-open traditional knives whenever it is possible, and I find a long pull being most comfortable cutout for doing so.

 

[black mamba]

Duncan, that is a crazy small nick! I've never seen a master with the pull on the pile side, but that one would be a good candidate for it.

 

[waynorth]

This old Remington had a 9 pull, and a generous-sized nicks! Closing the blades was harder than opening them, making them perfectly regulated, very secure, and a lock was unnecessary!
I loved that knife, and miss it to this day!! Flush and square joints were the icing on the cake!!

 

[Will Power]

We all know what William Scagel made of this ... I too don't like the 'new' cut out nicks on CASE multi blades- just about OK on a single blade.

My observations are aimed at single-blades as multis have restrictions in arrangement/functionality. Having said this Duncan's post Campbellclanman shows an unbelievably badly designed knife- must have been parts bin really As David Bowie said " It's a God awful small affair " and that tiny nick so shallow so far back near a fearsome spring, then compounded by having the nick obscured by a secondary blade. What inept execution even if the knife looks OK it evidently can't function. A vestigial nick like that might be alright on a lockback where there's no real spring strength but otherwise...

I agree with Duncan on the Longpull thing, they do look better slimmer and more understated, John Lloyd manages this very well on some of his knives. Longpulls look very attractive on a Spear but they don't function so well as a well positioned crescent in my experience.

Generally, prefer cam construction no half stop as it makes for a smoother opening & closing. However, if I like the knife , a half-stop is no real obstacle, just better without . One of the many reasons I revere the French Laguiole is its opening/closing characteristics: generally smooth to open, plenty of blade to grip & the handle moulds to the palm, it's quite difficult to shut- as it should be for safety and to walk it home, not slam shut as they have no kick. Laguiole mostly have a small but deep crescent placed far forward, aesthetic & functional but many Lags have no nick. Also some straight bladed patterns as there's plenty of blade to grab hold of. I feel that Pruners are best without a nick too, not only redundant but they can look slightly absurd.

For the most part GEC has done a very good job with its nicks on single-blades both in terms of ornamentation and functionality. Thinking of Spear and Drop-Point here , blades I prefer over Clips for the most part, also their Longpulls on Sheepfoot look and act the part. Here a nice compact but deep struck crescent that both enhances the blade and functions very well.

This Drop-Point has it in the swedge but it carries it off

Dislikes? Matchstriker might be Old School but it looks off, it could be the RR factor, them putting it on every nick...but no thanks. Double nicks, can't take them seriously use one and you always think the other is better, clumsy looking in fact. Jack knives or Stockman that have blades obscuring the nicks in others. Don't really understand the worship of same side nicks on same end Jack either ? It looks OK usually, but turning it over goes OK too. Oddly enough, despite their universality & popularity Clip blades can be quite a challenge for nail nick placement- too big or badly positioned can wreck the look of this blade so a Longpull is probably a better bet in terms of appearance.

 

[nmcbride]

I tend to like a long pull better as I use the pinch method whenever possible I struggle to get my nails in nail nicks.

 

[hank_rearden]

The long pull on my GEC is too shallow for the size of the knife and the strength of the spring. Sometimes I feel my thumb nail is going to fly off. Can't they follow this formula: the stiffer the spring, the farther the nick should be from the pivot, and the deeper it should be.

 

[Will Power]

The long pull on my GEC is too shallow for the size of the knife and the strength of the spring. Sometimes I feel my thumb nail is going to fly off. Can't they follow this formula: the stiffer the spring, the farther the nick should be from the pivot, and the deeper it should be.

Which pattern is that, a 73?

 

[hank_rearden]

2-bladed 23 Unxld. Silly me, I chose the unxld precisely because I wanted a long pull instead of the standard nick.

 

[scattershot]

I’ll, have to admit I never gave it much thought. IF I can open the blade easily, that’s good enough.

 

[pearl2291]

Lots of good information/opinions in this thread. For me the main thing I prefer are easily accessible pulls that I can utilize without thinking about it or having to look at the knife. I do like a long pull because I rotate thru many different blades and find that just inserting the nail into the long pull at any position and sliding it forward until is stops makes it pretty mindless no matter which knife I am carrying. On secondary blades I do agree with others that the long pull is very unappealing. I think that the Bunny knife really brings this together and is about perfect in regards to appealing, useful, and well thought blade nicks/pulls: